The City Veins

We got our first review of the new CD a few weeks ago. It was from my mother and it was basically, “this isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.” My mom then asked me why we can’t write songs with melodies that she, and presumably others, can sing along to.

I think this is a fair complaint, and one that we are aware of. In fact, Aaron and I have tried to write a simple pop song. We felt that it is easier to get away with songs in 9/8 if we can play something major and catchy as well. The problem is that we just are not very good at it, and struggled for a few hours before abandoning what we were working on.

I think that sometimes we give off the impression that we consider ourselves above writing pop songs. Writing songs in shifting time signatures, and with altered chords, certainly contributes to that impression. Personnally, that isn’t the case. I love pop music. Anyone can feel good about having Justin Timberlake’s album on their iPod, but what about *NSync or the Backstreet Boys? Anyone who has problems with “I Want It That Way” has problems with me.

The problem is that we don’t have the confidence to write and perform a pop song. From my perspective, a pop song is either really good, or really bad. If it doesn’t hit all the right buttons, and hold up to repeated listens, it is a failure. I just am not good enough to write like that. A pop song has to be perfect, and the process of trying to write one only reveals your own faults. It is a lot easier to write a song in 9/8. If people don’t like it, it is because it is too difficult and smart, and besides we are only writing for ourselves anyway (these are the lies you have to tell yourselves when you are in a band with very few fans). If you someone doesn’t like a pop song, a song meant to appeal to people, well then the problem is with the writer and not the audience.

The other reason we can’t write a pop song is because we are not good lyricists.

Also, Aaron’s melodies tend to be high because that is where he has to sing to hear himself in our practice space.

When Aaron and I abandoned our last attempt to write a pop song, we ended up writing Boy Makes Good. The verse is stolen from the first chords of Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child.” You can take a listen to it over at our MySpace, or at our Facebook pages.

Photo by Flickr user kb35.