My Songwriting Process

MY SONGWRITING PROCESS

  BY MIKE DIEHM

  Copyright Mike Diehm 2012

  No portion of this document may be used except by written permission of the author.

  Edited by DW Gregory

  First appeared online at www.dwgregory.com on her Blog "Looking Backwards Through A Microscope"

  Forward by DW Gregory:

  Mike Diehm, a songwriter and poet, accomplishes what I can only dream of---he writes music. As someone who has no musical talent, I stand amazed by anyone who can pull some chords together. So I asked him how he does and this is his answer.

  The following is from my favorite poet, H.W. Longfellow:

  “Before a blazing fire of wood

  Erect a rapt musician stood;

  And ever and anon he bent

  His head upon his instrument,

  And seemed to listen till he caught

  Confessions of its secret thought”

  Excerpt from “The Musicians Tale; Prelude; The Wayside Inn”

  By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  The songwriting process for me is very cathartic. I know I’m not the only songwriter to say that I write songs because there is some inner turmoil going on. I guess that’s why I’ve written so MANY songs, lyrics and poems. I am currently compiling a complete collection of my poetry, short prose and lyric poems. (See "On The Road In My Travels I Came Across This", also by Mike Diehm) This process has been very therapeutic, something that I need right now. As I go through and do some edits I am realizing that I have been searching for a long, long time for a certain something. That certain something, I now believe, after almost 35 years of writing, has been a search for my SELF. I know my self much better these days. I like it.

  For me (as I’m sure a lot of songwriters will tell you) a song does not always begin in the same way. Sometimes I first come up with lyrics, sometimes a particular chord progression or even just one chord or, in some cases, just one NOTE. Other times a song will start with a melody stuck in my head. But no matter how a song comes to me if it feels “labored”, if I have to think too much about it, it will invariably be tossed, ripped up or otherwise discarded. The sixty or seventy songs that remain to this day are all songs that came to me quite naturally.

  A lot of my songs and poetry do not even tell a “story”; instead they are more like moments in time, sometimes down to feelings which occur in seconds or minutes. As a music lover and intense “listener” I know I’m not alone in this. It’s like a piece of visual art. Everyone who views (or listens to) a piece of art will get a different feeling. That’s because the song CAME FROM a feeling that might have been very fleeting.

  My best songs and poetry just “happen”. My best lyrics usually come out, literally, in minutes. The musical part of it can come quickly too, but in a song some arranging is necessary. It’s sort of a mathematical process. Finding a progression that is pleasing to the ear or at least makes sense mathematically.

  Here are some examples. I’ll start with collaborations: Two of my best friends, Walt Saunders and Tom Leavitt, have written some incredible songs. I met Tom in 1975. We had a common interest in music of all genres. I taught him how to play guitar and he has become a great musician. Tom and I have spent time together for the sole purpose of collaborating in the songwriting process. We had a very inspiring and informative few years in the early eighties before he married a Canadian woman and moved to Hamilton Ontario.

  In my house in East Petersburg we explored improvisation together. One of us would start playing anything that came off the top of our heads and the other would then join in. We became as one during these sessions and luckily, recorded ourselves making this music. I have traveled to Ontario twice and to his parent’s house on a beach in Maine to write and record music. These recordings are dear to me. The following is one of Tom's songs:

  Savior

  By Tom Leavitt

  Copyright Tom Leavitt 2012

  Sun come up in the mornin shine some light on this mess

  I promised to deliver more than I ever guessed

  Runnin with their daughter like a demon possessed

  And it's all my own fault I guess

  And if congress wants to burn me well they're welcome to

  Throw us in the open like a turkey shoot

  But I'm just starin out my window anyway

  Cause the people got to stop and see what's goin on

  Just like the Lord he's got to

  Just like the Lord he's got to

  Just like the Lord he's got to save

  All these busy highways lead down into the streets

  Down in the shadows where the people meet

  Down in the shadows where the faces of the missing aren't so clear

  I could be missin lots of good news but the bad I sure as hell can't hear

  And if congress wants to burn me well they're welcome to

  Throw us in the open like a turkey shoot

  But I'm just starin out my window anyway

  Cause the people got to stop and see what's goin on

  And he ain't my savior cause he

  He ain't my savior cause he

  He ain't my savior cause he don't sing the blues

  Thanks Tom. Awesome tune!

  I met Walt Saunders in the early 80s. Walt is a great lyricist and songwriter. Over one long weekend I had the pleasure of writing and recording with both Tom and Walt in my family’s cabin in Northern PA.

  My favorite story about collaboration concerns a song Walt and I wrote. I had an entire song worked out on the guitar, verse, chorus and bridge. I even had a melody. One day Walt called me and said he had written some lyrics that he thought were really good. (They are). I asked him to put them between the front doors of his house so I could pick them up the next morning. I stopped and got the lyrics and began to drive away while glancing down at the piece of paper beside me on the seat. I was totally amazed! I had to pull over. I read through the entire song and got chills in my spine. The lyrics fit perfectly with the music and melody I’d written! When I got home I sang it from start to finish without a single change of the words. And that was the birth of “It’s In The Cards”.

  It's In The Cards

  By Walt Saunders

  Copyright Walt Saunders 2012

  Thumbin south on 81

  Tryin to catch the summer sun

  The leaves already turnin brown

  The birds already Florida bound.

  Met her outside Thompsonville

  The rides were slow I had time to kill

  She had gypsy hair and gypsy eyes

  And a gypsy smile that could hypnotize

  Asked me if I'd like to know

  What lies ahead what's down the road

  She laid her cards out one by one

  And spoke these words when she was done

  She said

  I see that you're a ramblin man

  And you make your home right where you stand

  You're a troubled heart and your mind's at war

  And you're runnin from what your searchin for

  Your hands are shakin and your eyes' on fire

  And I know that I'm tonight's desire

  But a gypsy's bred to roam the land

  And her heart ain't bound to any man

  You'll find a love on down the road

  She'll help you bear your heavy load

  She'll take your heart and she'll take your hand

  And lead you to that promised land

  Left her in the mornin sun

  She was standin still I was on the run

  I often wonder just how she knew

  All she told me has now come true

  Thank you Walt. What a fine song!

  No
w I will address my personal songwriting. I’m going to attempt to explain the process that became two songs. First, “I Saw You”, and second, “Cold Rain Recall”. I pick these two because they came about in two completely different ways.

  “I Saw You” came from a dream. I used to keep a journal of my dreams. I wanted to get to the point of being able to see my hands in dreams. I had heard that if you can accomplish this you can better interpret, and even to some extent, control your dreams.

  My first experience with real love for another came in my senior year in high school. The girl I loved became my fiancée. Things didn’t work out simply because we were too young to understand what a true loving relationship should be. Still, I was heart-broken over our breakup. And I never forgot her. I don’t think anyone ever forgets their first real experience with love. (I’ll leave the definition of love to the individual). I recently had a conversation with her and finally, after so many years, I was able to get some closure.

  It was quite a few years after we broke up that I had a dream about her. It was very vivid and very complete, like a story. In this case the lyrics came from an interpretation of this dream. The melody came to me as I was writing the lyrics. The music followed quickly. The feeling I wanted to get across in this song was a dream-like quality that touches on reality. Therefore the music I wrote for it is, for lack of a better term, spacey. That is why there are lots of open chords and a fairly strange way the music progresses. And I end the song with exactly what happened after the dream. Very simply put… “I woke in bed at five this morning and the sunrise brought another day”.

  I Saw You

  By Mike Diehm

  One night I walked out off the beaten trail

  The air was misty as were my eyes

  And I didn't even know where I was headed

  And I didn't even know how far I'd gone

  The air was growing colder night was coming down

  It seemed my will could bring you from the past

  And I don't even know what came between us

  And I don't think I can just forget

  But the night came on my heart

  And I felt no pain for years

  Then I though that I saw you

  Or was it just a dream

  I saw you

  I began to see through the trees where my heart ached

  This strange and chilly night could bring you back to me

  And I heard the lock turn in the door

  And I walked inside and closed my eyes

  I saw inside and it looked out on my life

  I'd searched my dreams now I'd come out the other side

  And I woke in bed at five this morning

  And the sunrise brought another day

  “Cold Rain Recall” came from a letter I received from Tom at the end of April in 1982. Or rather, it came from reading between the lines of the letter. As with all of my songs I can remember exactly where I was and what was going on around me when I wrote them. In this case Tom was hitchhiking across the country just because he wanted to experience meeting other people and see the country in a unique way. The letter he wrote to me, of which there were many, was depressing because he was experiencing a few days of confusion concerning all of the lives that had touched him. Trying to find his place in this world I guess.

  I was standing in the kitchen of our first house and the back door was open. It was raining outside. A dreary day that fit with the tone of his letter. The letter was lying on the kitchen counter as I read it.

  I became filled with a deep feeling of depression as I read through the letter two or three times. Immediately I turned the last page over and wrote “Cold Rain Recall” at the top of the page! I wrote the rest of the song in the time it took to write it down as I was standing at the counter. The lyrics, and the feeling they stirred in me, brought the melody and music to my ear. The music came right after I wrote down the words.

  Cold Rain Recall

  By Mike Diehm

  The rain keeps comin down

  As the day runs into night

  Lost in a wilderness of thought

  I find myself in the midst

  Of another lonely day

  The calendar on the wall

  Speaks the day

  Tomorrow ends

  And the month turns into May

  And I try to account for this day

  Lookin out the windows of my life

  I won't give up without a fight

  I can't remember when

  I ever felt this way

  The highway ended but I

  Didn't care to stay now I

  Can't see through this rain

  I miss my family

  I miss all my friends

  I think about them all

  Time we used to spend

  And life goes on anyway

  Lookin out the windows of my life

  I won't give up without a fight

  I get this cold rain

  Recall when I'm alone

  And thinking of you

  And all I left at home

  And I stop to assess this life

  Lookin out the windows of my life

  I won't give up without a fight

  This is how every song begins: Something will trigger my brain and then I have a real need to express whatever I’m feeling just to get it out of my head. I have found that if I sit down with the sole purpose of wanting to write a song it never comes out right. It seems I have to wait for the triggers.

  As far as the interpretation of my songs (and poetry) I believe that is up to the listener. Even I don’t know what most of my songs are about! They are fleeting moments in time. To paraphrase my hero, Bob Dylan, when asked to explain the meaning of his songs he said “I don’t know, what do YOU think it means”.

  No matter what triggers a particular song, be it a feeling or external stimuli, the need to release it forms the basis of my songwriting process.

  The song captures a moment and somewhere, whoever is listening feels something stirring inside and they share that moment. And that is what forever amazes me about songs.

  ~

  I would like to thank DW Gregory who asked me to write this piece. It was something I was not sure I could do, but one morning it came out. I have gained some confidence from this. Thanks DW!

  I would also like to thank Tom Leavitt and Walt Saunders for allowing me to use their lyrics. These are very personal things and I appreciate it. Thanks guys!

  Other books by Mike Diehm

  "On The Road In My Travels I Came Across This"

  (Poetry, Prose, Lyrics)

  If you enjoyed "I Saw You" and "Cold Rain Recall" in this essay please consider purchasing "On The Road In My Travels I Came Across This". 55 pages of poems, lyrics and a few short prose/short stories!

  and coming in December

  "Dreamers and Art"

  This will be another free essay.

  Many thanks.