What your next album or EP will sound like is largely influenced by the type of music you love and what has shaped you the most over the years. But that hodgepodge of musical styles and artists doesn’t always bring out a clear sound in your music. One simple way to ensure your next project has some cohesion and focus is to identify one anchor for your songs and then create from there.
Via David Blaikie Flickr
Sound, Lyric, or Instrument
I’m not suggesting you need to have an album of songs that sound like carbon copies of each other, and I’m not agains variety and eclectic artists. But to avoid having a schizophrenic EP that leaves your listeners confused about what kind of artist they are engaging with we need to have some stability. And the simplest three areas we can stabilize are sound (i.e. style or genre), lyrical content, and instrument choice.
Are you writing a bluegrass album? Great keep it bluegrass. Are you writing an EP of love songs? Perfect, stick with that lyrical theme. Are you writing songs with lots of synths? Then commit to the synth my friend. The concept is so simple, just pick one of those things to anchor your songs around and then everything else is up for grabs.
One Limitation That Helps Your Creativity
Here’s what’s so powerful about picking an anchor for your songs: it acts like a limitation of sorts that then opens up so much freedom to create around it. It actually helps you be more musically creative. All artists need a set of boundaries to act as our canvas. Once that canvas is determined we are free to create within its confines.
To help you write your songs, determine your canvas (sound, lyrics, or instrument) and then get to work within it’s boundaries. You will be protected from entertaining too many ideas: like having a hip hop/rock/orchestral/folk/jazz album, or trying to blow peoples’ minds with all kinds of different lyrical content and themes. Save some of your other ideas for other albums, but for this one, set an anchor and go.
A Practical Example From Me
If none of this is making any sense, here is how picking an anchor works out practically for me. Write now I’m writing my new EP and when I sat down I had no idea what style of music I wanted it to be or what I wanted to write about lyrically. Both of those were up in the air. I can’t get anywhere without any direction or vision.
So I committed to the acoustic guitar as my anchor. I anchored my songs around an instrument, one single instrument to be exact. No writing on piano or electric guitar, or even using loops. Each song on this EP has been written by sitting down with an acoustic guitar (that’s my canvas) and then seeing what comes out both musically and lyrically.
Other times I’ve anchored my songs in musical function: for example when I’ve written Christian worship albums. These songs were intended to be sung by a large group of people together in a church service. That one anchor was a canvas that gave me defined boundaries (i.e. simple melodies that are singable by most people), from which I could create anything that came to mind.
Pick Your Anchor And Go
The idea isn’t to over think this. Simply decide what is the one boundary you can put in place, the one limitation you can commit to for these songs. It’s only one. Then within that framework start getting to work and being creative. I promise you’ll find your writing sessions more fun and more fruitful.
Do Not Create Another Song Until You Read This Guide
(Price: $17 Free Today)
Discover the 6 Steps for Creating a Radio-Worthy Song From Scratch
My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
This totally makes sense Graham, my favourite post of the songwriting month. I am glad also because it is exactly what I did with my latest EP. I wanted a more guitar-driven and punk-ish album, so I commit to big guitars, less synth and more melodic vocals, and it worked. I’m going to do that from now on. Thanks for your encouragement dude, you’re a bless from Heaven! God bless you!!!
Hmmmm. I think in this day and age, and depending on your goals, if you don’t have a record company dictating what you do, and you’re putting out your own music, you probably don’t need to limit your creativity very much. What if your musical scope is truly wide? I think back to the golden days of vinyl when bands like Zeppelin, Elton John, Queen, or the Stones would put out an album and you WOULD get great track-to-track diversity on those albums. Rockers, blues, country, folk, gospel, etc. All on ONE album. An album was a journey. OTOH, if you buy an AC/DC album, every track is of one style (AC/DC style). Both approaches have merit. And in each of those cases, the anchor was the band’s SOUND, and the fact that the musical genre was simply “ROCK” — and in those days, that could mean anything from Black Sabbath to Joni Mitchell and everything in between. Now everything has been sub-genred to death.
Traditionally, the music industry wants to pigeon-hole artists into neat little genre boxes. If your goal is to please a label that wants you to pick a certain direction, fine. But if you’re NOT beholden to a label that’s forcing your path, and you actually have the musical scope and talent to convey a larger vision, I don’t know why one would impose too many self limits on creativity. You will hear the naysays that “people don’t have the attention span for that kind of musical diversity anymore,” but I don’t believe that, because those classic albums still sell today.
I wouldn’t suggest that an artist or act should be sonically all over the place so that the output sounds schizophrenic — you should have a unifying SOUND, but I also don’t want to see people curtail larger musical visions if — and this is key — they are capable of pulling them off.
Yeah…I hear you, to a degree, David. On the other hand, a lot diversity of direction on an album could present the album as a kind of sampler…or demo for a club act…”see we can do all kinds of stuff”. To me it’s like food; certain things go together well and others don’t belong on the same plate. Or clothing…put on clothes that represent 6 different styles and a few may appreciate the eclectic vision, but more people will likely think you’re a bit whacked. How ’bout a sombrero, a speedo and some logging boots…”My, how diverse and creative” 🙂 yet all are appropriate in their particular universe. (well…not sure about the speedo)
When I’m in the mood for something like James Taylor for instance, I know a record of his will stay within a certain boundary and “feed” my mood. I think Graham is on the right track in that an album should have a definite continuity stylistically and instrumentally. Even within the confines of a particular “canvas” there’s a lot of room to be creative with chord progressions, tempos, grooves, melodies, riffs and so on.
Well I did say the KEY is that the artist has to be good enough to pull it off (well). If they cannot, or if they don’t realize they cannot, you can have a mess on your hands.
Your James Taylor example is similar to my AC/DC examlple. I’m curious, though, to how you’d react to Zep IV, or the Stones’ Sticky Fingers, Queen’s A Night at the Opera, or Elton’s Good by Yellow Brick Road. All examples of hugely successful multi-platinum albums that do not stay rooted in any one stylistic spot.
I resist any mentality that would keep artists from making albums like these — or even attempting to.
And again, the continuity (anchor) is provided by the respective band’s sound and talent. And at one time in music history, being diverse was OK — even encouraged at some labels.
James Taylor gets the canvas concept. Since mastering the “James Taylor Sound,” he has put out a hundred different sounding albums.
Great article, I love variety, it stretches me, crafting for me is like taking a final exam, but will keep trying. Inspiration comes at the most inconvenient times and I have to grab it or lose it. Thank you for the good reads Graham.
while I can agree with the premise.. I tend to think if you use one instrument as your main instrument to write with.. how the arrangement ends up (whether or not your main instrument is prominently feature) isn’t that important. Your music will have one thing “grounding it”.. that source instrument that it was written on. That ties the songs together. At least for me it does… 🙂
Great post, Graham! So true! I use my acoustic like my canvas as well, and that gives me most of the inspiration 🙂
How i can make one question offtopic? I mean without disturbing some post here. 😛
Graham, can you talk about the perception of our own mix?. I mix something, then someone else hear the song and says: “sounds great!”
But, I listen and feel that something is missing. I mean, it’s hard to say, ok; it’s done. I feel like it’s a neverending mix; in terms of “technical issues”. Sounds fine or not. I’m stuck
A mix is never done. Everyone who mixes knows this. What you love one day sounds different the next and if you didn’t just set a firm deadline or tell yourself that it’s done you’d be tweaking it forever.
Remember too that there is no such thing as a perfect mix. Like if the kick was a little lower and the bass a little higher on U2s “One” would it be any worse as a song? In my opinion as long as it’s not a bad mix (unbalanced, harsh, vocal buried, distorted etc.) then you could always be adjusting.
Also, when asking people’s opinion, ask random casual listeners what they think and make sure you ask at least one person who will give it to you straight. Often people are polite but that does you no favours.
Lastly, maybe make yourself a check list. Listen to your song. What are the key hook elements? Is i the melody? A guitar line? A bass line? What is the ‘catchiest’ part of your song?
Have you emphasized that? Is it clear to the listener? Sometimes we get so involved in the song that we know every little detail and want to make sure everything is heard. Unfortunately not everything can be at the forefront so make sure (in my opinion) that you bring the catchiest, hookiest bits to the front and let everything else carry it in the background.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the advice!
I just want to sound fine. And it’s true, I wrote the arrengements so I know every movement of the song. It can be a little obsessive.
Saludos desde México!
So true!
Loved this post of yours, Graham. This, as well as the last few posts have triggered a lot of things in me and I hope to do something good out of the learning. Will always keep your advice in mind.
I wish this year brings more success and happiness to you and your family.
Thanks,
KS
Good point. Focus is key. If you are the one doing everything – writing the lyrics, the music, playing or programming each instrument, tracking, mixing, mastering – then you have to lay down some ground rules for yourself upfront; otherwise you’ll never be done.
David,
I definitely get what you’re saying but here’s the thing; albums like Led Zep IV or Sticky Fingers, or Sgt. Pepper or OK Computer were all made when their audience was already established. Led Zeppelin’s debut was pretty much blues rock and acoustic ballads. That was their anchor. Radiohead’s Pablo Honey was typical 90s alt rock (think “creep”). Sticky Fingers was well after “Satisfaction”, “Sgt Pepper” was a few years after “Please Please Me”.
I think Graham’s advice is very good for a band or artist trying to establish themselves. If you have a theme or anchor on your album or EP you can attract people who are looking for that type of music. Casual listeners of acoustic music for example will probably be more likely to buy your album or EP if all of the songs are in a similar style to one they liked; otherwise they’ll preview them and pick and choose which ones they like.
Once you have an audience I think you can take more risks. And there’s nothing saying you can’t record all of the tracks you write but maybe you release two EPs (one acoustic one punk or something) instead of an eclectic album.
At the end of the day though if you want to express yourself in an eclectic way then there’s nothing wrong with that. Graham’s suggestion of a strategy is a good suggestion to think about but hey, if you want to release a double album that’s as diverse as “The White Album” then maybe there’s an audience for that too.
I love this site. So many great ideas from all of you. Keep em coming!
Regarding: Once you have an audience I think you can take more risks.
That was certainly true in the old days when you were beholden to labels to pay for your recordings and release them. But today, pretty much anyone can now record and release their own music. And they likely won’t make a dime doing it, either! LOL.
If you’re making a hard push to land a label as your end goal, yeah, maybe one should streamline a bit to appeal to the pinheads who run labels.
But if you goal is just to make/record music you love (the creative outlet being the end unto itself), you needn’t bother. Another approach is to make the music you love and trust that (if you’re good) other people will eventually respond to it, too. Maybe even labels.
What I’m really getting at here is MINDSET. Think hard before you automatically buy into outdated marketing models. There may be a reason to do exactly what Graham suggest. But there also may not. Every situation will be different.
FWIW Zep 1 is pretty diverse for a debut album, and has some has some straight up rockers, too.
Hi!
can you please tell me where you and joe gilder have created your websites/blogs??
I´m thinking about making a website about songwriting and recording. 🙂
We both use WordPress for most of our sites.
Hi Graham,
actually that’s no new concept, although it is a great help. 😉 Didn’t I mention earlier that it’s these tiny little reminders that help most? I’m considering taking the FAWM challenge this year. It’s about writing and recording a whole album in one month. More specifically: 14 songs in 28 days (February Album Writing Month). A crazy challenge indeed, but it provides some pressure, which is often helpful, if you have no real need to complete any new work for anybody at any given date… Thinking of a concept or anchor could be really a good thing, because it will navigate you through the songs you’ll come up with.
In the past I haven’t appreciated so called “concept albums” and that bands devoted their next album a particular topic. My band’s demo albums were always just a collection of the last six songs – with no anchor whatsoever…
After reading this post I thought that it’s a great idea to use a concept/anchor for a number of songs and to package that as an EP or album. I’m not sure if I would want to “promote” the result as a concept album, but for my creative work it should be a useful tool.
Thanx for bringing up this topic just at the right time for me. 🙂
Take care!
My anchor is one of the limitations I set myself, and that’s what makes the project interesting and finite. If the world is my oyster, I’ll honestly never get anything done; so by giving myself a theme (computer/human interaction), some technical limitations and a solid, public deadlines, I feel there is a chance I might actually get four songs (actually, two songs with two different treatments) done, and this might be a prelude to something more extravagant.
So far, I’m having fun and enjoying the methods of production I’ve settled on. That said (and, inspired by a previous post), I’ve just junked the lyrics to one of the songs because they had become an albatross round my neck. V2.0 will be much better.
This constant theme of limitations has really resonated with me. I hope it carries over to recording and mastering.
For now, my limitation is simply to write on an acoustic guitar, which works well for the two albums I’m going after (worship & country). And it seems to work great!
When I do my rock album later this year, I’m sure I’ll switch and write on electric.
I absolutely love this advice! I’ve actually done this type of anchoring to create interesting live shows. I’m a pianist first, but I also write on and play the guitar. My guitar songs are different than my piano songs, due to my skill level, and also the way the guitar presents to me idiomaticly. It’s just different. So, for one show, I decided to play all my piano songs, riffs and all on the acoustic guitar. It’s was maddeningly difficult, but it made me bust my ass, and it was a lot of fun. At the end of one delicate song, in the silence after the last note, before the applause rose up, there was a very audible remark, “Damn, that was good!” That moment is one of my favorite live show memories, and it came from an artificial limitation that spurred creativity.
I love the idea of anchoring recordings like you say. It makes want to get recording now! 🙂
Zoo
Totally agree with the train of thought Graham.
While a lot of artists dont like be pigeonholed, have their creativity limited, be unique and have their ‘own’ (abd just aside 99% sound ‘like’ others even if just thru your instrumentation and arrangement choice), etc, …
as a producer looking at the commercial potential of the end product ….having an achor, a theme, a feel that flows through the total product makes it easier for retail outlets, radio stations etc to catelogue/place the CD in a context …which makes it easier for them to play or stock on shelves.
I also agree that, for the listener, if they are relating to an artist because if that anchor, they want more of something similar ….. So my view, if you are an artist who writes and records a range if music… Collect it together, then put it in to ‘lots’, it is better to put out a few EPs with different anchors than a body of work with a wide spread (usually what happens with mists artists first CDs by the way)….anyway hope helps
I’m still songwriting a bit, so I’ve come back here. My EP has evolved somewhat and now I have four tunes (one is a cover, so I didn’t write it on anything), one was written on guitar, one on piano and one on my Android tablet.
Hey Graham Im a fan of your work and positivism I been recording my EP as this year started and I am hoping to release it by May. I would like an advice from you.
Do you think I should Copyright my Ep?
regards!!
Hi Angel,
Absolutely. It’s very easy to do. Just look up the Library of Congress http://www.copyright.gov/ and fill out the paperwork once your EP is done.
….Your concept ”direction or vision….just Great,…kool inspiration.
God Bless your Ministry
Regards
Jean-René