Giving a song LUNGS; Going from a basic song worktape to getting a demo made.

I recently got my first professional demo made of a song I co-wrote called “Red Bandana”. If you look at the music section of this website you will find a lyric video for it. I wanted to write a blog talking about my workflow, results, the good, the bad and the ugly from this experience.

One of the main reasons for getting this demo done was for legitimate and professional content for my website, to showcase my songwriting skills to others/publishers/industry and to “pitch” this song to potential artists.

It is important to note that I have done some of my own basic production work in DAWS like Logic and Garageband and I feel I do have a very good ear for what is good production and what is not. I prefer the songwriting portion of the music creation process and I don’t want to push a bunch of buttons and worry about equalization and compression on the kick drum as I would rather agonize over the perfect rhyme or phrasing/rhythm of the 3rd line on the 2nd verse.

Although a good song can always usually be recognizable at any stage of a writing process and anyone with good ears should be able to hear the good qualities of that song I do believe poor production can wreck a good song and crush its momentum or potential to reach any commercial opportunity. I feel the production and demo of a song is another layer in the songs creativity and development and can REALLY add to the “catchiness” and “hooks” in the song. For example, on FGL’s song “Cruise” when played with an acoustic guitar and just playing the main chords and singing the melody/lyrics the song is good. After the production is added with the main guitar riff and beats the song explodes and really goes to another level. Would that song have been half as commercial without that very “hooky” guitar riff and groove beat??

1. Picking the top 3 songs to possibly demo: After reviewing my whole catalogue of ~ 70 songs, trying to keep the song choices simple songs, picking some of my stronger songs, editing the songs more for final changes, and looking at the professional feedback I received from Songtown on the songs I settled on 3 songs to choose from.

2. Picking a studio and producer: I did quite a bit of research on the intranet and listened to sample work of studios and producers and finally settled on “Pearl Snap Studios” based out of Nashville. I will be honest I was really excited and a bit biased about working with Nashville studios as I wanted to get that “Nashville” sound and hoped they would have that mindset.

3. Pricing: I was a bit concerned about pricing and working with studios in the U.S. due to the foreign exchange and basically paying an extra 30% due to the USD to CDN exchange rate. For this reason, I was extra robust on my research and did try and find some Canadian production companies to work with to reduce the costs but had no luck.

4. Scope of work and client inputs: A big part of me taking a very active role in this process was to learn as much as possible about production and hopefully in the end that would make me a better songwriter. I had the Creative Manager at Pearl Snap Studios listen to my top 3 song choices and she helped me narrow down the song that they thought they could do the best job at producing. Once that was complete I put quite a bit of time into filling out a document for Pearl Snap answering such questions as “What song(s) do you envision your demo sounding like?” and “ Song preferences” that asked about how much they can change of the song during production. At this time, I also provided about 10 production ideas I had for the song but emphasized they were just suggestions. The online song submission also required the client to attach a worktape and music chart with lyrics which I had done before this was required. One other major point that I emphasized to the studio was I was more concerned with the creativity, arrangement, feel, vibe, instrumentation, proper mix, sentiment of the song than getting the perfect sound for a kick drum for example.

5. Timing and receiving the demo: I emphasized to the studio that I was in no rush for this demo but in approximately 2 weeks I received a shiny new demo in my inbox. Most professional studios have this approximate turnaround time. I am not going to lie I was quite nervous to listen to the demo and when I received it on a Thursday at 3:05 p.m. I waited until early Friday evening when my headspace was clear to listen to it. My wife and I gathered in my home office studio and I pressed play. Immediately some cool banjo riffs came out of my speakers with a steady thump of a kick drum as a supporting act. My heart started beating along to the rhythm. Then the vocals came in and I started making awkward faces and my ear candy started tasting sour. Unfortunately, the singer’s vocals did not align with the song very well as she had a quite a bit of “twang” in her voice and at times it almost sounded out of tune. I thought okay that could be changed and waited for the chorus to launch. Hmmm…not bad, ohhh I was expecting some creativity and a change in that part I thought to myself. Again, unfortunately some of the ideas that I thought were quite good were not used and I was disappointed. It was okay, kind of vanilla, and basically what 80% of the other production would do – I was expecting “great” and wanted the extra 20% of creativity.

6. Being reflective: I always thought “Red Bandana” was a decent song and produced right had potential. Unfortunately, with this process I have actually lost quite a bit of confidence in the song and even some in my songwriting abilities. I found myself asking questions like “was this song no good right from the beginning and no amount of sparkle and shine can make it better?” and “were my expectations too high?” or “did I come across too controlling with my ideas?” Unfortunately, I was hoping to post the song on my website and send out to family and friends but sadly the song sits in my digital music library only heard by myself and my wife and I am not sure yet if it will get any farther than that?

7. What can I do different: Thankfully, there are more studios I can try that maybe would align better with my vision for songs and my tedious process. I can work harder and try and find a Canadian studio to save that 30% on the forex. Could I ask the studio to hear a rough mix of the song after the 1st verse/chorus to prevent disappointment and make changes early on? Could I ask to co-produce the song and somehow work with the producer virtually through zoom/skype? Could I up my game in producing songs myself or at least to the point where I execute all my ideas/vision/rough mix and handoff to a professional producer?

8. What did I learn: Well I see this as a $1,125 speedbump along my songwriting journey and I did learn a lot about the process, managing expectations, quality of songs, working with studios and as the old saying goes “sometimes if you want things done right you have to do it yourself”.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to lay down some more guitar tracks for my new song I am demo’ing myself in Garageband called “Rock in Your Boot”…..

Stay in tune and in touch.

Kent