Head vs heart – your heart always wins

How it starts 

 

You have spent a week writing and composing one of the most emotional songs that you have ever done. You have recorded a demo of the song consisting of only a lead vocal, a piano and an acoustic guitar. You then schedule some studio time with your favourite producer / engineer and proceed to track the piano part… At this point, both you and the producer love the sound and feel of the song. You then hire a session guitarist to come and record the acoustic guitars for the song… Wow! This song is sounding crazy at this point! The producer is going totally bonkers! Next, you track the lead vocal - a single lead vocal, as you had intended when you first wrote the song.

 

Once everything is tracked, you then listen back to the entire track. Both you and the producer are in total awe. The track sounds amazing! Then the obvious happens: “Let’s add a string section over the chorus. Let's add live bass over the entire track! Then we can add a synth line over the bridge. Let's add a drum arrangement after all of that..,” you decide.

 

While all of these decisions and further production and arrangements are happening, in your heart, you know that you are destroying your song. In your head, you think it will sound better with all of the additional instruments. At the end of the day, all you do is just frustrate yourself. 

 

The workaround

 

After an eventful studio session the previous day, you walk into the studio the next day, again, thinking that you have the answer! You then decide that it is the bass line that is way too busy, or you need more stringed, orchestral parts to return the song to its original glory. 

 

I can guarantee that one hour into this session you will feel more frustrated than you did on day one. Sadly, this workaround and supposed solution thinking will haunt you for a few more days and a few more wasted studio sessions.

 

 

The last resort that should have been your only resort

 

After six failed attempts at overproducing the song, you then start trying to rationalise everything like:

 

You then start questioning yourself and asking all of the wrong questions like:

 

Eventually you will decide to start from scratch and say, “Let’s cut all of the production that we added after we recorded the lead vocal, piano and acoustic guitar.”

 

After you do this, your song is back! Both you and the producer jump around going nuts in studio: “We did it!” Right? 

 

The truth

 

The truth is that you did do it. However, it took you seven days to realise that your first choice was your best choice. When you create music, your instinct/first choice/whatever your heart tells you, should always determine the outcome of your song.

 

It will save you time, money and most importantly it will leave you creatively and emotionally and acoustically satisfied. 

 

At the end of the day, you need to decide what is more important: the way the song should sound (your heart), or how you think the song should sound based on the type of music that is released at that moment in time (your head).

 

I choose my heart… every single time.