Out Of My Head

Tuesday night I sat in on a songwriter’s group in Brunswick, organized by Jud Caswell. We did quite a bit of “object writing,” ie. taking an object, person, or situation, and describing it in as much sensory detail as possible, without worrying about rhyme, meter, or even basic prose. The idea is just to get what you see, smell, hear, touch, and taste on the page.

As a songwriter, I’ve been pretty stuck in my own head for as long as I can remember. I tend to favor impressionistic lyrics, snatches of ideas mushed together into a whole that I hope is greater than the sum of its parts. More often than not, the phrases tend to reveal something bigger than themselves, but don’t really tell a story in the traditional sense.

I usually associate that kind of “story” writing with cheesy country ballads and CCM artists singing about the love of their daughter, but realized that some of my favorite songwriters (particularly Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie) also use it to great effect.

I guess I’m starting to learn there’s a benefit to getting out of my own head.