When is the song... done?

I have run into some artists that struggle with this. I’m not going to lie; this is sometimes me as well. “The song is never finished”, I’ve heard some artists say. I’m more of the school that you need to decide and finish.

Whatever is holding you back from finishing, do that thing. Make the decision and live with it.

I would like to distinguish between the song as it was written, and how you might decide to perform it live. Those can be different things. Sometimes who you are playing with may dictate how you interpret a song for a performance. In that way the artist can have their cake and eat it too. Yes, you wrote it “this” way, but now the “its never finished, finished” can be left to live performance.

Now for some, the art of crafting the song and putting it on paper is the thing. I’ve put the last period and dotted the last “I”. There – it’s finished.

For me (depending on the song) the journey to “done” is just beginning.

I say “depending on the song” because as I went through my year-long “Songwriter Sunday” quest to write a song every week, over the course of the year I ended up with 60-ish songs. (Hey – the math ain’t mathing!”) That’s because I didn’t like some songs, so I wrote a few extras until I had one that was good enough to put out on the socials.

Each of those songs were “done” as I’ve defined it above but not done in the sense of completing the songwriting journey. That’s because for some songs, the journey continues in the studio.

In the studio is where the magic happens. I once recorded an album where I played every instrument save drums. Just because I wanted to say that I had done that once. But what I’ve found is that it is much better to collaborate with other musicians. Although I get the final say on what I’m looking for, and I set the framework for what I’m trying to achieve with any track, I want the musicians that I work with to bring their creativity and bring their ideas.

How long does that take?

On a three-to-four-minute song it takes 20 – 60 minutes to record any given track. For those not familiar with the process, we record what we call a “scratch track” first. This is just vocals and guitar to a click track. This track will guide the rest of the instrumentation. The first thing we do after that is put down the actual rhythm guitar track. Now drums have something to play against. Those go next, followed by bass.

Once you have scratch vocals, rhythm guitar, and bass, now it’s time for what I call “the color” tracks. For my recent sound incarnation that we see on the “Rode Hard” and “Unsupervised” albums, this is piano/organ, violin, and lead guitar.

Now it’s starting to come together as a song. We wrap up by adding the lead and backing vocals. Mix and mastering and then the song is “done”. Sort of.

Then I play the track through different sound systems and tweak as needed.

But here’s the thing about the studio process – and one of my favorite things about the production process. As I said, collaborating with other musicians and having them bring their ideas.

This is the reason adding a track can take 20 to 60 minutes per song. Because we play with ideas. “I like that.” Or “I hate that, don’t every play that again.” On any given night with a different musician, comes a different idea and a different decision. Some are just serendipity. For example, on the song “Dirty Little Secret”, as we were talking through the song and what I wanted, Ryan Dunaway, the violin player started plucking the notes of the intro chord. I said, “Oh my gosh, that’s perfect for how this song begins”.

Different night. Different decisions. For each, a song that is “done” but done in a different way.

Sometimes the songs match what I have in my head. Sometimes they are worse. There are songs that I loved going into the studio and hated when they came out. But sometimes, magic happens, lightning in a bottle like what happened with Dirty Little Secret that exceeds expectations.

Is the song done then? Sure. But then starts a whole different journey of getting it out on the socials and doing other marketing and playing it live. But that’s another story.