nobody likes mondays

current project: the make-you-smile song

Hope you guys enjoy the song! Have a great weekend!

It's not yet finished, but here are the lyrics so far.

I thought that I would write you a song
In case your day's gone a little bit long
And the rain is pouring, making your heart feel blue

I wish that I could be there beside you
Jump up from behind and surprise you
But for now, I guess a song is gonna have to do

Oh and if your hand should feel
The chill of the winter morning
Baby, breathe
Close your eyes and think of me, saying

I love you, now and forever
I love you, always remember
I wrote it into a song so you can sing it along, sing it along
I love you, no pretending
I love you, never ending
If everything should go wrong, my love just
Sing it along
Sing it along

For more videos, go to www.youtube.com/reneegeronimo

the elusive second verse

It's a familiar experience for me. Inspiration comes like a flash of lighting and I'm catapulted through wonderful metaphors and alliteration, playful figures of speech and storytelling. The story is unfolding beautifully, rhyming perfectly, humming, beating...

...and then, a verse and a hook later, a brick wall.

What is it about the second verse? You're off to a great start and then there's nothing. I've been simmering in the same first verse and chorus of the song I'm working on right now, and for nearly a week I'd pick up the guitar, noodle around with the chords, journal, close my eyes, light candles, eat cookies...nothing works!! 

Maybe it's performance anxiety. You write this beautiful entry into the song, and you're under the gun to meet (and if you do your job right, surpass) your own expectations in the follow-up verse. Or maybe it's over-analyzation. In the beginning, you're not bound to any rhyming structures or rhythm patterns, chord structures or verse length. Whereas in the second verse, you've started working within parameters. You've turned from an artist to an engineer. And I like math, but I much prefer to doodle, if you get my meaning.

I don't have any solutions. I just stick to it. Tonight I'm going to pick up my same scratched guitar, noodle around with the same chords, journal, close my eyes, light candles, eat cookies celery sticks and pray that my inner writer shows up. And my inner engineer, too. I could use all the help I can get. :)

writing on a message

When I first started writing songs, I wrote purely from instinct. There was no hard technique. All I had was a message and a melody. Literally, I took a main point that I wanted to talk about and then expanded the idea into a song.

For me, writing about a message was a great way to get started with songwriting because I already had an idea of what I wanted to say (as opposed to making up crazy story lines and drawing from memories, etc.). It's just a matter of organizing your thoughts and then using words to communicate the ideas in your head. Below are some key points that helped me get started. Again, I'm just speaking from experience here, so feel free to comment/contribute/ask questions... :)

Writing on a Message

1. Start with your message. Ask yourself "What exactly is my point?" Writing a song is almost like writing an essay or a short story. Most of the time, you need to have a point or a central message. Without this, you risk writing an incoherent, and therefore ineffective song.
2. Keep your language simple. Granted, some people have a wider vocabulary than others. However, while using big impressive words might score you points with your English professors, it might make your song a bit hard to understand or even listen to. If your goal is to get a point across to the biggest audience possible, keep the language simple and conversational. BUT...
3. Stay away from cliches. This should be a rule for all kinds of songwriting. There's a difference between making a song sound effortless versus lazy. Your listeners are allowed to be lazy. You are not.
4. Have a conversation. Sometimes, the idea of "writing a song" is a bit daunting. You can get so caught up in "trying to write a song" and then hit a wall because you're thinking of too many things at once. I like to have a little conversation with myself, where I just explain - in natural, conversational language - what I'm trying to say. You have this conversation out loud (keeps things interesting) or write in a journal. It helps take the focus off of "songwriting" and helps put it back on communicating, which is after all, what you are trying to do.
5. End on the same "spectrum". Always refer back to the message or central theme you started with. This is important. It doesn't mean your song can't undergo a transformation - you could very well start it off by saying "the world is at war" and then end it by saying "let's fight for peace", but make sure you at least start and end within the same "spectrum". For example: war vs. peace, hate vs. love, doubt vs. faith. Those are extreme ends that all share the same spectrum, therefore to start with one and end with the other may be easier for the listener to follow and believe. 

Obviously, there are a lot of other techniques you can use to communicate a message through song. The more control you have over things like rhyme, instrumentation, stress patterns and even melody/harmony, the better able you are to communicate your message. But if your message is strong and your writing is honest, you're already on your way.

Here's one of the finest, most legendary examples of writing on a message:

"Won't you help me sing

These songs of freedom

'Cause all I ever have:

Redemption songs.

Redemption songs."

- Redemption Song, by Bob Marley

There is so much power in the way he ends this. Two simple words. No fancy vocabulary. The key was that he tapped into a message that was the heartbeat of a whole generation. The honesty of it, stripped down into two words, became its power.

imaginative songwriting

One of the things I love the most about songwriting is how I can explore emotions and situations that are well outside of my own current circumstances. I can only write so much about my own life, and I think that listeners can only take so much self-indulgent hemming and hawing. And really, it's exhausting to keep digging into your own life for inspiration. Sometimes I just make it up. I've developed a little method. It's not scientific or anything, and I'm sure I'm not the first to employ them, but I thought I'd share...

Renee's "Choose Your Own Ending" Songwriting Process

1. Imagine - create a scenario. Be specific. My recent scenarios have included anywhere from a woman grieving the death of her husband who was at war, to a daughter finding healing from a broken relationship with her father, to being married to someone who lived really far away without any means of visiting them (wait. that last one isn't made up. dangit.)

2. Embellish - don't stop at the scenario. Make it as detailed as your imagination will allow you. I go so far as making up background to the stories, character names and personalities, histories. If anything, this just gets my brain to think in terms of senses and experiences, as opposed to lines and melodies.

3. Storytell - do this however you want. Write a short story. Say it out loud to yourself. Make up dialogue. The more coherent and vivid the story is in your mind, the more effective your songwriting will be. 

4. Write it out - there is a dizzying pile of tools you can use to tell your story through song involving everything from instrumentation to tempo, but lyrically speaking make sure to explore different rhyming patterns, rhythm, verse length, figures of speech...even the type of language you use (slang? big 5-syllable words? "hateratin', holleratin'"?)...

I'm no expert, but everything I've read and learned about songwriting has taught me that great songs have to be more than cute words and catchy melodies. The songs people remember the most are the ones that provoke emotion, capture experiences and bring back memories. Compare this:

"Last night, my husband left me"

versus

"Late last night, I heard the screen door slam

And a big yellow taxi took away my old man"

("Big Yellow Taxi", Joni Mitchell)

Do I even have to ask which one will break your heart more? Whether the experience was real or not, Joni Mitchell captured a moment and told us the story complete with a time frame (late last night), a sound (slam), size and color (big yellow) and movement (took away). It wakes up the senses and the imagination. It's hard to imagine being left by a loved one, but when your mind is prepared to imagine other things - cold night air, metal screen doors, big yellow taxis - somehow it's easier for the story to come to life. 

The first few times, it might feel silly to be making up stories in your head, but suck it up. It's worth it. I'm no Joni Mitchell, and I've still got a lifetime of learning ahead of me, but at the very least it's a lot of fun. It's like being a kid again. But with (hopefully) more grown-up results.

total genius/semi-current project: this long road

I used to get offended (mostly in secret) when people criticized my songs. It always happened to the most well-intentioned people. I wrote this song a few years ago that I was totally proud of. I thought it was a lyrical masterpiece. The final product finally came out of the studio, produced and glossy, and I played it for my dad along with the other tracks in the album that I liked. I asked him what he thought and he says after a long pause, "It's nice but...I don't really get it. I like that other guy's song better." Ouch. But duly noted. In retrospect, my song was a little cryptic. It was good at putting babies to sleep, though. Or so I heard.

Bless my dad. It takes real love to be honest with a songwriter. You never know how they're going to take it. My husband never fails to share his real opinions on my songs, solicited or not, and has witnessed/suffered a buffet of reactions. Sometimes I agree (rare). Sometimes I argue explain myself and defend the arrangement. Sometimes I give him the silent treatment, wherein I quietly resent him for picking up on my imperfections and knocking me off the awesome train, but also for being kind of right.  

What I'm trying to learn right now is this: Gold is refined by fire. Iron is sharpened by iron. Anyone who wants to be a master at anything needs to be prepared for opposition, criticism (friendly or not), and even backlash. I'm learning that if I want to succeed at being a songwriter, with success being measured by the number of people wanting to listen to my music, I need to be open to criticism. Thick skinned, but open. Too many times in the past, I took criticism as other people's proof that I am mediocre. That doesn't have to be the case. I can take criticism as an opportunity to prove to people that I am good at what I do, because I can rise to the challenge. 

So if you come in contact with a songwriter who asks for your opinion on a song they just wrote, please be honest. Their hopeful faces will want you to be nice and say things like "Oooh, I really like that part!" and "It's so unique!" because you think it's what they want to hear. Please. If you really love them, be honest. No songwriter ever got better by listening to people kiss their butt.

Speaking of which. Here's a semi-current song I'm working on. I wrote it last year and recorded a rough draft (which is what you will hear), and am considering resurrecting it. Any thoughts?

Click here to listen!

(for some reason I can't get it to be louder so turn it up...sorry...my mixing skills are zero.)

This Long Road

Copyright 2009 Music and Lyrics by Renee Geronimo

[Renee Geronimo - vocals, guitar; Mike Potusek - magical guitar]

Seven months still to go
I am counting down the moments and they’re passing so slow
Now the sun’s come and gone
And the small hours of morning, they linger on

And I need to sleep now
Bid today goodbye
Make tomorrow come

Refrain:
So that I can see you at the end of the road
This long road
This long road
Tell me I can see you at the end of the road
This long road
This long road
Ooooh...


Let the world pass me by
All the stop signs and borders and the clouds in the sky
Let it all fade to gray
For my eyes are trained forward, and they won’t look away

From you now
Bid today goodbye
Make tomorrow come

(refrain)

Bridge:
I know I am waiting not in vain, not in vain (x4)

(refrain)

New Song: On Repeat

Considering this is a songwriting blog, I figure I should put up some stuff I'm working on currently. Here's one of the latest songs I'm working on. It's going to be in my demo which I'm aiming to complete by my birthday in the fall. This is a home recording from my band's first rehearsal after a two-month hiatus, recorded at home with a portable recorder, none of us are amplified, I'm pitchy in some parts...in other words, it's nowhere near studio quality, so turn it up!!! Enjoy! Leave comments! Get caught listening to it at work! :)

Kudos to the band:

Lead guitar - Potatosak; Rhythm guitar/vocals - me (yikes); Magic harmonic guitar - K-Anne (she's not in this recording); Acoustic Bass - Jom; Djembe - Pinto; Inspiration - Julius the Cactus and my husband

Click here to hear it!

On Repeat (copyright 2009 words and music by Renee Geronimo)

Two p.m. on a Friday afternoon and my heart is unable to sit still
I am not here
The boss walks by and she sees me at my desk and she smiles, so I nod my head and wave
But I am not here

My feet are on the ground
But my heart is where you are
Why do you have to feel so far?

Chorus:
I wanna be the song playing on repeat in your head
Be the face in the picture frame beside your bed
I wanna be everything
I wanna be the hand you’re holding when you walk in the rain
Be the name you call to hold you when your heart’s in pain
I wanna be everything
I wanna be everything

I’ve been told one too many fairy tales that don’t end up the way the writers write
With castles in the sun
Everyone is eager to talk about, think about love when their own heart isn’t on the line
But I am undone

All my friends keep saying
I should admit I’m in love with you
I try to deny it, but it might be true

(chorus)

Bridge:
I wanna know that I am not alone
Feeling the way I do
Because I might never get over falling in love with you
I think I’m in love with you

(chorus)

Thanks for listening... <3

this is heavy.

This is a song I'm working on right now. It's my take on the current (and ongoing) violence in many parts of the world where people have to fight for the most basic freedoms that we take for granted here. It was originally inspired by the video of that girl (Neda) from Iran who was killed during a protest, and then later on by the bombings that have been taking place in Catholic churches in the Middle East.

On that note - it's quite a phenomenon that we as a society can know so much about what's going on around the world, and yet do so little. I'm not one to point the finger, I know I've been guilty of ignorance and complacency, but really. Sometimes when I sit back and think about the tragedies that happen to other people across the world, or even across my own town where people are enslaved to their addictions and poverty, I wonder how I can possibly put a dent in the situation. I don't have a wide circle of influence, and most of the time I can barely get my own life together, let alone rally around a cause. But I felt like I had to use what I have to at least let it be known that their stories aren't going unheard.

Maybe all the violence and oppression will always be a part of human history. Maybe we can't ever make it go away. I don't know if that's really the point. Sometimes the most important thing is to be a witness. Let it be known that their turmoil doesn't go unnoticed. We can't all be soldiers and crusaders, but we can have a heart for those who are suffering...and I guess this is my small way of sharing that I see them and at least in my own mind, they are not forgotten.

Crying Out

words and music by Renee Geronimo

It could've been me, standing on the hot street where she was

It could've been here, where the guns and bombs are pointed toward, toward us

It could've been you, bleeding on the other side of the gun

It could've been anyone

What could be Truth if we couldn't speak the words in our mouths?

What could be Change if we didn't have the right to be right, to be wrong, to speak out?

What kind of life would we live if we were lied to and betrayed?

You know it happens everyday

You know it happens everyday

And I say, time to wake, time to wake

From our slumbering existence

Hear the voices in the distance, crying out, crying out

And I say, time to wake, time to wake

From our slumbering existence

Hear the voices in the distance, crying out, crying out