I’ve got a handful of songs which I’ve written over the last two years, most of which you’ve probably already heard by now, in one form or the other. But even though the songs have been written, I still have a problem with knowing how to move forward with them… I don’t know when to release them, how to release them, which ones to create a music video for, etc. This is what I’m figuring out right now.
In the interests of complete transparency, and because you might find this very interesting, and maybe this is also me holding myself accountable, I have the following songs to release. Some of which already exist in forms on the internet…
Nothing Feels Like Home (demo)
Happy New Year (adapting a tiny song)
Control
Nothing Feels Like Home (demo) is actually ready for release, the rest are all waiting to be recorded.
Part of my problem in moving forward is that the songs, for me, lack a visual element. For months, when I thought of ‘Hardly,’ the picture that came to mind was just an acoustic guitar, because that’s… what the song sounds like.
When I think back to my EP Hurricane I remember this document I have on my laptop, where I listed things that. I wanted to influence the creative direction of the project. I wrote down colours, images, music videos, artists, album artwork, a whole host of things.
And there was also this moodboard I also made.
Some of this stuff I used, some of it I didn’t, but I took what I heard in the song lyrics and the atmosphere which existed around them, and built a world. When I faced a slump during the recording/mixing process, I still had a solid image of a world in which these songs lived and what I was bringing to life. It was a land of perpetual dusk, with smoky blue skies and the distant rumble of an ocean.
Even though my next few songs feel kind of disparate, like a gang of estranged cousins, I feel the thing which is going to bring them together and help me move forward in the recording process is creating a visual world for them.
So where do I start?
Looking Back & Forward
I like the idea of having a thread to follow, ideas and images I referenced in Hurricane that might continue through to this ‘era.’ Also I know that in the future I will be producing an album based on geology, and I’ve started a moodboard for that project. So I want something which can carry us through from Hurricane to Geology Album. A transition!
Things That I Can Carry Over
What elements of Hurricane do I want to keep, and carry through the next few songs to Geology Album world? How can the songs I release next be a vessel for this?
I love the handwritten elements from the Hurricane release, also the collages. I want to keep the nature elements but take the focus away from the sea to the mountains. And turn the handwritten aspects into something more playful.
What Lives in The Songs
Combing through the lyrics of each song, you can readily find images there. In ‘Nothing Feels Like Home’ we have thunder in the garden, a home, ghosts, swimming. ‘Hardly’ has archaeology, tides, fading, a framed picture. Control has morning, a door, angels, grocery store aisles. These images, and even the colours and ideas they conjure up, are useful.
What’s Inspired Me Lately
One of the most important things is what I’ve been naturally drawn to in the past few months:
the scattered glyphs and colours of 16th - 18th century needlework samplers
collages
colourful silly drawings with little characters
hand-drawn maps of imaginary places
fantasy landscapes which have a childlike or simple feel to them
Alpine mountains in the spring/summer
So that’s the beginnings of a new world. Maybe you can already get a feel for it. This will influence the artwork, potential music videos, and even the kind of social media / marketing I can do for these next few songs. I already feel more excited just looking at what I’ve got here!
I hope this was interesting and useful to you. I absolutely love seeing other people’s influences and how they connect everything together when coming up with a creative direction for a project.
things i liked
✶ My robot army of adorable plants has begun:
✶ Joe Pug is coming to the UK for tour (YES) and in celebration of that here is one of my favourite songs by him below. Also he has a great podcast called The Working Songwriter which is one of my favourite music podcasts so far.
✶ You bet your sweet bottom I am going to partake in my new favourite holiday tradition (the holiday being… autumn), which is watching a terrible, seasonal Hallmark film. Can’t tell you HOW MUCH I need to know about the mystical properties of this gigantic pumpkin:
✶ A couple of shout-outs to a couple of pals and their new music… a great demo of a great song from Fergus McNeil, and Christina Hart is about to release what can only be described as an absolute Swiftie banger. Enjoy!
Thanks for reading! And as always, click the ‘heart’ button at the top of this email to claim your prize. If you like this newsletter, it’s always appreciated if you share your fav bits on social media, or even forward it to a friend who might like it too.
Goodbye, and good luck (for whatever reason you might need it),
Olivia 🌈
Love this, visualisation is everything