NIKE the shit out of it

Sometimes I think I need to just NIKE the shit out of some songwriting (just do it).

When this article was written, in November 2017, I hadn't published a song to songs.travisbriggs.com since July of that year.

It's gotten worse.

I apparently didn't publish a song at all in 2022, and I'm on track to not publish anything in 2024 either. I actually have written a few songs since then, but none that were finished enough (in either writing or arranging or recording) to warrant publishing. I haven't gone through the process to actually clean them all up, mix them, add missing instruments and all that. It just seems like a lot of work without a lot of payoff. Of course, the payoff might be that I don't end up writing remorseful garden nodes like this one.

I feel like I've lost a sense of wonder in my songwriting process. Sometimes, I'm going at it with feverish diligence and follow through because I feel like I have to, I have to do it to make myself complete. Either that or I'm just "messing around", indulging in "letting myself play" but ending up with listless, half-complete junk because I'm not forcing myself to write coherently.

I could resolve now to challenge myself, to push my comfort zone and write something that moves my songwriting forward. I want to issue myself such a challenge. And I'm not reluctant to do so because I feel I will fail, necessarily. I think I could definitely do it.

The real reluctance comes from the fact that I think I'm stagnating for another reason. I've developed the basic facets of songwriting to a certain degree. I can write songs. I can write songs where I write all of the instrumental parts, the arrangement, the mix, etc. But it's exhausting, friend. It really is.

I want to collaborate. I want to come up with a strong, driving chorus with no consideration for how it will fit into a song, and have another real breathing person help me figure out an intro and verse that will work with it into a finished song. I want to play with a band, where the drum feel and groove drive the composition of the guitar and bass parts, rather than playing guitar parts, adding bass later, and always just having a drum machine on repeat for the whole song.

When I first wrote this garden node I thought: Sigh. It's not going to happen. I felt like I was some kind of musical incel, where I'll never find anyone to collaborate with. I didn't know where to look, where to start. Basically, it's just as awkward as dating, except even more niche.

Since then, in 2024, I've started playing music with my friend Anosh. He's been learning to play drums and has said that playing together has helped him get better, quicker. I totally see those results. We play a bunch of covers, like Green Day songs which are easy on both guitar and drums. Last week, though, I introduced a little riff and asked him to play a certain drum beat, so I guess you could say it's our first original.

We don't have a bassist. We're not a band. We're not Danger Third Rail.

But it's satisfying playing music with another musician in the room. It's not only good practice for my guitar and vocals, but it's inspiring. We'll see if it translates into any new material on songs.travisbriggs.com.