The Songwriting Process

Joey Vera, bassist of progressive metal outfit Fates Warning, comments on stepping outside his usual songwriting formula for his solo project:

… I wanted to challenge myself to stray away from the habits I have with song arrangements and instrumentation. So, I purposely stayed away from the ABC way of writing and let the music dictate what it wanted rather than being overly concerned with song length for instance. I am especially bored with much of popular music these days, so I want to hear things that are interesting even if it’s not something I’ll ever remember. I made this record as a sort of exercise in reworking the way I work, and an attempt to make something I’d actually listen to. …

… For the most part, I like to write songs pretty quickly and sometimes the skeleton is written in an hour. But because I really tried to challenge my writing techniques, I made myself go back with an editing mind and throw monkey wrenches into to the arrangements just to see what would happen. Sometimes, it sucked but sometimes it was really cool. …

During the struggles, I often will reference other things. Sometimes, it’s other works of art such as paintings or installations with multi media.  I’ll go out to a museum, or go see a band in a club, watch a movie. Anything. I have to admit that when I was in the writing chair in my studio, staring at my guitar as it glows from the computer screen, I’ll whip out a record and analyze a songs arrangement, chord progression etc. For this recording I went to Pink Floyd’s The Wall a lot. Also Animals and Wish You Were Here. … I like to analyze chord progressions, song arrangements and production tricks and you can get great ideas from just about everything.

Source: Joey Vera’s MySpace blog