How does your band write songs?

[bbottom]

My Doomy/Stoner band finally got a guitar player and I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about approaching the writing process for this band.
We could jam for days and sometimes that yields results, but for the most part it's not going to.

In most of the bands that I've been in the way that we come up with songs has varied. Sometimes (most of the times) I'll come in with the bulk of the thing finished. Other times a guitar player has come in with a riff or two and we build from that.

Lyrics have always come secondary to riffs in every band that I've ever been in.

So like I was saying, with this new band I have a feeling that I'm going to end up writing and arranging the bulk of the stuff. Because I'm the singer as well as bass player and I'm by far the most driven (as usual).

So all of this being said, I'm curious about how your band does it. Because I'm interested in learning if their is a new  way that perhaps I could try.

[Hemisaurus]

The worst thing you can do might be to over think it. I was in a band where the singer/guitarist ran everything past us, it was nice to be included, but it sorta went beyond that, like we felt we had to rubberstamp all his thoughts, and likewise him do the same for our ideas. That would be a thing to avoid I think.

[RacerX]

I usually use a Sharpie. The other guitarist & the vocalist are pencil dudes.

[rayinreverse]

Blood ceremony and animal sacrifice.

[zachoff]

Sometimes one of us will come in with a riff or two that we wrote and we mess with it, but most times we just press record, jam, and if something comes up that sounds cool we build on it...  Figure out a few changes, get a general arrangement, write lyrics, and revisit the arrangement if we need to when the lyrics are done.  This process usually takes 3 or 4 practices & sometimes more, but we only practiced once a week.

[eugenicscum]

I'm a guitarist in the band, I put together the band, and I've so far written all the songs and have usually had structures in mind too. At times I'd even know what the others in the band could do. I'd send a rough recording to everyone before hand, and then go to the rehearsal room and fine-tune it, and arrange it together. The vocalist writes the lyrics.

[Dr. Skeeter]

Jam on riffs that guitar player has/impromptu riffs and if we get a good vibe we'll jam on specific things we liked/jam on it more. Build on it for a little bit and write lyrics in a very short period of time, sometimes right after we come up with the riff/get the vibe.

[liquidsmoke]

Riffs, more riffs, fit them together, get stuck, start a new song, come back to the other one, work on it some more... match it up with lyrics I have done or mostly done that are about a short story or movie or some idea I came up with, the other band members do their thing to it. We are going to try a collaborative songwriting approach in the future for new songs.

One song I wrote the music for as I was writing the lyrics, that was kind of neat. The riffs tell the story along with the lyrics.

[Andrew Blakk]

Great topic! 

Well me, the bassplayer and the drummer all contributes with riffs to the band. Some stays, a lot of them goes staight down the drain and some turns up where they're least expected.
We usually get some idea about where we are heading to riffwise or songwise.  Even though we're a quite songstructured band we try to find new ways of doing things but still sound like us.
There a lot of arranging back and forth. Sometimes to much arranging acctually. But that's the way we work... Everything is recorded on a Zoom R16 so that you can listen to it afterwards. Sometimes everydaylife fucks up the rehearsal possibilities and then it's great to be able to go back and listen.

Most of the time it starts with a riff. And then another one, and another one and another one. If I stumble over someting that I think is usefull there's usually all of a sudden 5 riffs more.  But we do jam out some stuff once in a while. And in the end it usually me and the drummer how puts it all together with the rest of the band contributing.

I've noticed during the last year that, even though we most of the times work quite fast, we've started to get a bit moody. If the mood isn't there then it gets more of a handcraftship(lol is that the right word at all?). But then all of a sudden it get's easier and some good stuff lurks it's way up. We've been playing for almost 7 years so I guess it's harder nowerdays to be pleased or something like that.

Oh yeah the lyrics and shit. That's kind of hilarous. The vocal lines and the lyrics are never completely done until we're in the studio. It's always been like that. Most of the times it turns out fine but you could do without the stress sometimes...


Too long as always. 

[Sam Hain]

Cool...

We do 99% of our songs off of a jam. Usually Ill start a riff and hang on that for a while until the drummer finds the flow. Then the bass will start and lock in with the drums. Shes has a jazz background so it will usually have that flavor to it. Then our singer will make up lyrics. Works well.

[MichaelZodiac]

I usually come up with stuff I have testing out at home, if I find something useful, I'll record it and bring to practice. I have several lyrics lying around so at practice we usually work it out with the drummer finding a groove and helping out with guitar parts. Then we try to give clear directions to our singer as she is still a bit too careful about her vocals.

[Ombrenuit]

I go to practice with riffs or songs that are mostly done. Sometimes we jam on the riffs and sometimes I play a demo and we go from there. I usually let the bassist and drummer do their thing with what I have. Jamming is a crapshoot - fun but not always productive for new material. Any bands I've gigged with had one or two primary song writers.

[VOLVO)))]

I think this time around, I'm gonna do something different. Since I play all the instruments, I can lend ideas and inspiration to my bandmates, or just flatout tell them what to play. It always starts with a riff. Sometimes it's such a good riff, it's hard to follow it up, so I never do. I need to fix that.

Lyrics and vocals... Never done it. This time around? I think, at the first practice, I'm setting up a mic and just saying what I think while I play. Some will stick, and I can build it. I end up getting really lame when writing lyrics because I like words. I overwrite, then I can't fit them properly. Also, I'm kind of a whiner, so the lyrics always end up sounding like screamo lyrics.

[clockwork green]

I've become very anti-jamming lately. It just makes a mess of the song writing process for me. My problem for the last few years has been too many ideas and no idea how to focus and edit them into a song. I have a couple of hundred riffs over the last two years that I've recorded and think they could be useful to a song. When jamming them tough I can easily come up with other parts I also like. That seems all good but the next time I go to jam I can take that initial "seed riff" and make an entirely new song. That's great if I'm starting Doom Phish but I have no interest in that. I get easily overwhelmed with too many ideas and too many options.

We tried something last week where we took a skeleton of a song and just went piece by piece, slowly dissecting the song and all of the minutia. It was a bit rough, bass player was noodling too much, singer was playing around with mic's but I felt like I got a lot out of it in a short time. From there we can jam some parts out when trying to finalize everything.

I'm still writing all of the parts but until the editorial part of my brain kicks in again I think I'll stick with this. I never wanted to be in a top-down band but nobody else writes anything till after I have the framework of the song which is frustrating but after 10+ years of the same singer and bass player I've given up hope that they'll change.

[mortlock]

we just improv everything..there are some lyrical consistancies, but the music is always improv..
its all power electronics and harsh noise.

ive been getting into 'harsh noise wall' lately..my moog responds to that style very well..

[mawso]

for me, throughout a few different bands, the best songs have always been born from somebody coming in with the guts of a song already written, and then everyone has a go at their own parts and throws in their ideas for arrangement details etc

but music is a creative enterprise and so diff ppl are gonna do things differently

[yesca]

usually we just get stoned and then jam and whatever key riffs that stick out we TRY to remember it and work off it

[The Riffer]

I do whatever the guitar players want me to. Makes more room for beer and sshmoke.

[themusketking]

I write skeletons for songs and bring them to practice. My guitar player takes my riffs and modifies them to fit a little better or adds to them, and then we jam each riff over and over and over, and then eventually I write vocals and bass lines and we have a song! lol.

[bbottom]

Well I've come to the conclusion that the best way to approach getting anywhere with my current band is to  write everything. I'll take what I have to practice, see how it works and then make any appropriate changes.

[moose23]

I write skeletons for songs and bring them to practice. My guitar player takes my riffs and modifies them to fit a little better or adds to them, and then we jam each riff over and over and over, and then eventually I write vocals and bass lines and we have a song! lol.

That sounds very like our way of working in Wild Rocket, guitarist brings riffs to start with too but the rest is identical.

I do whatever the guitar players want me to. Makes more room for beer and sshmoke.

You another bass player then?