Pre-save 𝔅𝔞𝔯𝔟𝔢𝔡 𝔚𝔦𝔯𝔢 </3

And blessing the sometimes strenuous task of songwriting with a new name

Click ———> ⛓️⛓️⛓️

I played song after song for Max on the guitar, searching for something in my armoire of unfinished music that went nicely with Matty. One, a lovesick ballad I wrote about an unrequited crush eons ago, came up. We started demoing it, but something was missing somewhere and I’d known this song for too long to change anything about it unless the conditions were just right.

But we tried! We added sections, wrote more lyrics, strummed some new chords, and attempted to Frankenstein the new bits to the old. But the graft wouldn’t take. I felt unbelievably frustrated; we were very far away from my initial idea, to the point where it was unrecognizable, and I was no happier with the result.

Another aggravating factor was the recent abrupt ending of a friendship, irritating an old abandonment wound.

I stewed in my frustration and abandoned the song as punishment.

Then Max and I found ourselves sitting in his kitchen. He strummed on his classical and I started humming absentmindedly. He looked at me and motioned for me to start recording. I sang some improvised melodies into my phone, went into the other room to listen to and organize the bits. I came back 20 minutes later with some new lyrics inspired by the detonated friendship.

Barbed Wire lyrics process

Max recorded the new guitar parts, so I could lay down a new vocal, and we laughed at the mess we had made in the DAW to get to this point.

Thus, a new concept was born: the Mushroom Song!

A Mushroom Song is a song that sprouts from the decomposing offal of a different song you’d spent ages performing CPR on. A Mushroom Song breaks down the foundations of the original composition into base molecules, absorbs them, and fruits into something which, in its own way, defies death. More accurately, it transforms the remains (perfectly fitting for a song about a busted friendship).

Mushroom songs are a fun diversion, because they distract you from the failure to launch and get you back into the honeymoon phase with your creativity. But, the resulting music is not necessarily any less satisfying! In fact, it requires bravery to admit when things aren’t working, that you’ve outgrown something you were attached to a long time ago. It requires letting go. (Realizing this applies to visual arts and writing too: we can cut and glue and shred and paste until we have something new and exciting.)

𝔅𝔞𝔯𝔟𝔢𝔡 𝔚𝔦𝔯𝔢 (Barbed Wire) will be yours January 30th. Hope you delight in the decay <3

xx