"I LIKE TO PLAY" - Garth

So we’re smack-dab in the middle of the song-writing process. It’s been quite an entertaining process but also seems to maintain a surprisingly high level of productivity. As the Tempo & Crescendo Controller (TCC for short), I feel like I’m in the driver’s seat when we’re exploring which direction the song should go.

Here’s an example of how we do things at the DNT Songwriting Factory:

6:15 PM - I kick off with a Phish-influenced beat and get all loose and jam-bandy. Then Zeke goes into Angus Young shred mode, Dan keeps the funk-infused-punk-rock bass lines, and John plays Stevie Young to balance Zeke’s Angus.

6:18 PM - After several minutes Dan starts looking at me like “WTF”, I smirk and we both instinctually direct our attention to Zeke’s 'John Mayer face'.

6:21 PM - By this time John has been telling me to “End it!" for a good 5 minutes. Dan drops out while laughing because the shot clock is nearing double digits and he has been playing the same progression the entire time.

6:24 PM - It’s down to me and Zeke. I try to give it a few more measures before an uneventful crash landing finish.
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6:26 PM - Zeke opens his eyes and realizes everyone else has left the room.

So after that 10-15 minute progressive jam, John or Dan will say, “Zeke, you did something cool in there like 7 minutes ago. Try that for the bridge.”
A real clear vision.

But after getting loose a little bit we find we’re able to develop and segment the writing process into different stages of the song.

A personal side note: since I usually have little--if nothing, to do with the lyrics--I seem to pay minimal attention to them while we map out the song structure. This can backfire when Dan queues me in to a certain section when he refers only to the lyrics. I don’t think he could ever tell I was guessing, until now.
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Not sure if anything I wrote makes any sense or maybe it makes too much sense, but that’s a quick insight to how we operate as a team and get our music into your hands and ears.

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- Kyle