Twitter Told Me To

A couple nights ago, I was sitting at my computer, staring at the blank canvas of my audio recording software, when I realized that I had no idea what song to write.  FAWM is in full effect, and there just isn't enough time in February for me to waste a night on my own with no committments - I had to start something.  A few songs I'd been tinkering with were eluding me, refusing to give themselves up no matter how I coaxed.  In short, I was boned.

And then a wonderful thing happened:  I checked Twitter, and noticed that the FAWM Twitter account had posted a prompt.  I had used one of their prompts previously when I wrote a (semi-)classical song, but that time it had just been for a lark, not because I had writer's block.  This time it was a life-saver.

I haven't worked much with writing prompts, though I know some writer find them an incredibly valuable tool.  My wife Amanda wrote some great blog posts during December based on the Reverb 10 series of daily writing prompts.  I had never really thought of prompts as something I could use, until this particular prompt sent me on a 2-and-a-half day songwriting journey.

The prompt directed anyone reading to write an "electronica/dance song."  While I love using robot noises and other electronica effects in some of my songs, I've never tried to write a straight-up electronica piece before.  Turns out they're much harder work than I thought (mostly on the production side).  Speaking of production, I'm still doing my mixing on either headphones or computer speakers, which is a mortal sin to people who take these things seriously.  So if any of my readers wants to buy me a nice set of monitors, I would be forever grateful.

And now, please get ready to dance to the trance as I present "Dark Room."