Tom Waits defines the difficult process of songwriting: “Songs don’t like being recorded”
One section of the music industry that has been largely impacted by the digital revolution is the recording studio. Fewer people are paying money to go to studios and instead recording in their own homes to save money. It works in theory, but as Tom Waits discusses, there are elements of songwriting that are lost without the studio.
“It’s a very mechanical process, putting a record together. You could say it starts with, like, music lessons, learning to play an instrument, and working your ass off til you can get a sound out of it,” he said, “Then taking your chances and trying to create just the whole act of recording, hoping you’re going to capture a bird in there, y’know?”
Albums can be volatile, and while many songs that people write are the product of days, weeks and months of pondering, other ideas that help songs grow and develop into something else come together in the moment. The “capture a bird” metaphor references this moment, a place that doesn’t have any specific time or location and merely pops up when you throw creatives into a creative space.
Arguably, one of the best albums that argue in favour of the studio is Nirvana’s In Utero, which was made up of a sporadic spade of moments that all the band contributed towards. Steve Albini, the producer of the album, was adamant that this had to be the approach the band took if they were going to make an effective record.
“I think the very best thing you could do at this point is exactly what you are talking about doing: bang a record out in a couple of days, with high quality but minimal ‘production’ and no interference from the front office bulletheads,” he wrote in a letter to the band, “If that is indeed what you want to do, I would love to be involved.”
Collaboration and creative environments are responsible for some of the most exciting-sounding music ever created. Songwriting can be a tricky process, and it’s only when ideas are said out loud and crooks of a track form around the band playing music that ideas can properly develop and form.
Waits has spoken at length previously about the difficulty involved in songwriting, admitting that many songs don’t like being recorded and that it’s only in very specific moments that something can work. When he was asked about his creative approach to writing, he was poetic in his answer, but the importance of spontaneity is evident.
“You go where it is, y’know, you hope to catch some of it – set a trap for it, y’know? My theory is that songs don’t really enjoy being recorded. If you’re not careful, you can mangle the whole thing in the recording process,” he said, “I always thought songs lived in the air. Figure if you open up a window, they might float in, go in your ear, come out the other ear, and wind up on the radio. I remember when I worked in a restaurant, sweeping up by a jukebox, and thinking, ‘OK, how do you get in the jukebox and come out of it? That’s the real trick’.”
