I said I’d talk a little bit more about songwriting with the Digital Les Paul, as both Brian and I have noticed that it really changes the process.
First of all, the way I’ve set up the Digital Les Paul, it has a real “EV2 signature sound.” Strumming it feels like putting the key in the ignition and starting the engine, it’s such a big sound. As Brian was checking out his drums, he said “These just sounded like drums until the guitar came in…now they sound like EV2.” And he’s right: The interaction between the guitar and drums is, well, just plain different.
Part of this is because both instruments cover pretty much the full frequency response spectrum. Obviously, drums go from the thud of the kick all the way up to cymbals, but the guitar has the bass bottom as well as distortion generating harmonics that go into some pretty high frequencies. As a result, we need to have each part of the spectrum interlock; for example, with Brian doing a percussive kick sound, the bass parts I play off the guitar tend to be more sustained. On the other hand, I do choppier high parts on the guitar when Brian is hitting hard on the cymbals.
The way that affects songwriting is simple: Because the Digital Les Paul has such a full sound, we get to write with the full band. There’s no “I wonder what this will sound like when it’s arranged,” because it gets conceived, written, edited, and arranged at pretty much the same time.
With our setup, here’s how a typical song develops. We start jamming, and Brian has his R09 recorder ready to go at any time. At some point something inspired happens—often within seconds of kicking into gear—and we both feel it. We’ll “capture” the part we like (maybe a chord progression, maybe a melody line), then I’ll start to build the rest of the chord structure around that piece. Here, it’s very helpful that Brian can play bass equally well as drums (and pretty good guitar, too) because he always has input about the structure…“Try repeating that figure twice, do a slide there, I liked that chord you were playing before”... that kind of thing. So it’s a team that seems bigger than only two people: The guitar itself makes such interesting noises it gets our juices going, Brian’s drums and my Digital Les Paul provide the rhythm section, then we both work on the chord progression and melodic aspects.
Once we have the song more or less solidified, we’ll do a recording on the R09, then take a break and get out the pad and paper for lyrics. Usually we’ll sit out on the porch and stare at Santa Fe below us (our rehearsal space is up in the hills), which is inspiring in and of itself!
Fortunately, Brian is totally non-competitive when it comes to internal band workings…I know he must have an ego in there somewhere, but it doesn’t come out during the songwriting process. I feel totally free to throw out ideas—good, bad, stupid, smart, whatever—knowing that we’ll be able to weed out the good stuff. Like one time, I felt one of the songs we were doing was at too fast a tempo. So Brian and I took it slower, and frankly, it was the wrong direction. After the fact, I realized that Brian felt it wouldn’t work before we even started playing it, but he didn’t say a word and gave it a shot because hey, you never know.
This blog is about the Digital Les Paul, yes, but it’s also about the dynamics of a band. Brian’s a comfortable songwriter partner because all he cares about is coming up with the best possible sound for EV2, and it really doesn’t matter how we get there. It’s cool to be able to throw out anything—a lyric idea, a chord progression, whatever—and whether it’s brilliant or stupid, Brian always has the same reaction of “let’s give it a try.” This is why we decided to credit songs jointly; there’s too much interaction to even identify who did what and when. And while we could each go off and write songs on our own, that’s not really what this is about. Doing songs together produces a different, unique result that hopefully helps differentiate us from other groups.
So bottom line: If you’re in a band, you should never compete with other members of the band, but instead compete with your own ability to come up with the best possible music. The band isn’t so much the two entities of “Brian and Craig” but the one entity of “EV2,” and having that outlook pretty much nukes band politics. (Of course, having only two people helps nuke band politics as well! It’s easy to get a consensus.)
Okay, that’s enough ruminating for now. Brian’s coming over in about an hour and I want to see if I can figure out a way to change the Digital Les Paul sounds in Sonar without freaking out my computer. I’m beginning to realize I really need a new laptop…and with Apple’s new onstage software, maybe a Mac would be the right choice... ditch the concept of a sequencer host altogether, and just have a “virtual guitar rack.” Stay tuned.