Songwriting is a 4-step process: compose, revise, arrange, record. But writing for Songfight is markedly different than, say, writing with a band for an album. While I follow the same general steps either way, I’ll start and finish a Songfight song within a day or two, where a full band song might evolve over a couple of months. As such, the process for Songfight is usually a compressed version of the ideal process, with steps jammed together to save time. The compressed process for this song spanned 12 hours and three days:

Compose [2 hours - Friday]

I used the first story the title suggested to me: a woman feels she has fallen out of the sky because her partner said something to bring her back down to Earth. There’s not much more to the song than that, so composing was a matter of telling that story succinctly, and trying to work a hook into the melody somewhere.

I started by writing out the story, in simple terms from the woman’s point of view, so I’d have something to look at while putting the melody together. I saved what I wrote:

The song took shape over roughly two hours. Writing it wasn’t particularly difficult, with the story laid out already. I just strummed some chords, hummed a melody, and jotted down rhymes as they came to me.

Having long ago realized the evanescence of fresh melodies, I try to capture a rough version of a song when it’s mostly finished. Here’s what this song sounded like after an hour or so: listen[MP3]. (Note: extremely poor quality. It was captured with the voice-recorder in my MuVo.) The lyrics were only 50% complete at this point, but the basic melody and structure are essentially the same as in the final version. Even so, it’s clear the song underwent some revisions.

Revise [3 hours - Friday]

I waited a couple of hours after composing so I’d have a (somewhat) fresh perspective. When I came back to the song, it was obvious that two elements needed massaging:

• Length: Like every song I’ve written, this one was too long. There were unnecessary repetitions, and transitions that took 4 bars instead of 1. You can hear some of this in the rough version above, where I bang on the E chord far too long before starting the chorus (at about 1:00.)

• Melody: I planned to add a low harmony under Sarah’s voice, so I pruned notes that were hard to harmonize with. This is most noticeable in the chorus, where the final melody has clearly changed from the rough version above.

I recorded a demo of the song once I was happy with the revisions, primarily so Sarah could learn the tune. listen[MP3]. The demo, though, is also an important part of revising. I can listen to it for several days (or one day in this case,) and with fresh ears any awkward phrasings or melody problems are more apparent.

Aside from the obvious singer swap, there are several things we changed from this demo to the final version:

• Sarah sings “sky that night” once fewer at the end of each chorus.

• The transition to the chorus is shortened even further, taking only a single bar in the final version.
• We got rid of the laboured high harmony in the bridge section.

Arrange & Record [4 hours - Saturday, 3 hours - Sunday]

I arranged this as I recorded it, which isn’t my preferred approach, but necessary when working by myself towards a deadline. Once I settled on the final structural changes described above, I recorded the drums and bass. Since Sarah’s voice was going to be front-and-center, I kept the backing tracks simple: brushes on the kit, and a country 2-step for the bass line.

We spent about 3 hours recording Sarah’s vocals. Our biggest challenge was Sarah’s lack of experience in front of a microphone, but once we had her plosives and sibilants tamed, the recording was a straightforward master-take-with-punches. I also doubled-tracked her vocals for most of the chorus. (Some of the Songfight feedback for this song mentioned an auto-tuner on Sarah’s voice, which we didn’t use. I think the pitch and timing of the doubled vocal were off in places, and that produced an auto-tuner-like chorus effect. The best example I can find is when Sarah sings “sky” at 1:24.)

I recorded the rest of the tracks (guitars, piano, and strings) in about 3 hours the following day. Again, I tried to keep the arrangement simple so it would stay clear of Sarah’s vocal. Of course, I still managed to over-arrange, adding, among other things, a lead guitar on the extro. Here’s what that sounded like: listen[MP3]. It was obvious when I started mixing that the extra guitar was gratuitous, so I killed it (along with some percussion that was simply distracting.)

In the end, I think I accomplished what I set out to do. The finished product is a straightforward country song that suits Sarah’s voice, and showcases her singing talent.

A made-up story about a guy who kills his woman’s happy by noting that they’ve reached that point in their relationship. (It’s O.K., she still loves him.)