Hi. It's me, Dan. The lead vocalist. The lyricist. The person whose guts are spilled all over many crumpled up papers, beat-up leather-bound notebooks, white-turned-yellow-turned-brown-stained Macbook keys, and, eventually, into the core of every song written by The Little Black Dress.
They lyrics of these songs are so important to me. Lyrics, as a general rule, are of the utmost important to me (in my songs and in others'). I spend so much time preserving a moment, fleshing out a thought, trying to describe an emotion or an event or a nondescript color or place or person... I fumble with feelings and sarcasm and awkwardness and wit, and do my best to pull it together just enough to write it, say it, sing it.
Sometimes, especially during the days leading up to a vocal session, I sit and obsess over the words that I've written. Wondering if each of them are perfect for the moment - the moment in the song, and the moment I am trying to convey. I wonder if the picture I'm painting might be served better by a more direct or more abstract adjective or a more dramatic or more gentle verb. I battle with description, writhing throughout every sentence, always thinking about how much to leave to the imagination.
I will sit and sift through the words on paper, read them over and over, and change punctuation, altering meaning in the slightest of ways. I will change pronouns and realize that a song was never about its intended protagonist - rather a story about someone I've long-since forgotten, or, on a rare occasion, about someone I've never met.
Sometimes I will finish a song in a matter of minutes. Sometimes it will take days, weeks, months or even years to realize who a song is actually about. Sometimes it's so obvious.
Some songs are taken so directly from my personal experiences that I am transported back to a time and a place each time the words leave my lips. So often while I sing, merely a word and a blink can take me away to a situation that I only remember when I utter a line in a song. In a song like "This Town", I cover years of my life in a single and simple verse. And yet, as soon as the chorus shows up ("This town, this city is out to get you") and I am speaking on behalf of all of us, who, no matter how connected or removed we are from the place we grew up (or from the place where we currently reside) are conflicted, amused, and sheltered by that particular place and time.
That is just a small example of where these words come from. A very small example.
Everyone and everything has the potential to be a muse. Some, though, shine through stronger than others.
More often than not, I will be in the vocal booth, headphones on, eyes closed tracking vocals, and, stumbling over a last-minute change, I realize that I had gotten it right the first time. That I had just spent hours and days dissecting a word or a rhythm or a phrase or a guttural sound, and I'd had the perfect vocal all along. The reason I had always sang a certain word in a certain way with a certain inflection was because that way is the best way to convey the identity of that word, of that moment of that song.
Johnny, our magician engineer, master producer, and homeboy for life can attest to that. During a take, I will forget a line and say "Y'know what? I just changed this line and it's not feeling natural anymore." or "Y'know what? I switched up these lines because I thought it made more sense this way." or "Y'know what? This looked better on paper, but it's not rolling off my tongue." I end up singing what feels right. It makes sense. It's perfect.
Lead vocals for our debut full-length album are tracked! We are one step closer to having this album in our hands. And one step closer to putting it in yours.
x
Dan
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