Weekend Shenanigans

This weekend, Faulkner Alley went to Sam's Lounge in Jackson, MS to play a gig with metal band Flagship, and alt rock band FALLEN, both from Jackson. How did my band get this gig? 'Cause we're bad-ass! Ok, so Flagship is made up of the Hindman twins and Tony Clark and Josh Cavanaugh (three of which I played in The Mourning Republic with.) They were doing me a favor with this show, and I and my bandmates appreciate it. It was this band's (Faulkner Alley) very first road trip! We packed all instruments and guitar PAs into Ray's truck, and he and I drove all of us down. We did have a few fans come down from Oxford, which was nice as we always like to see friendly faces in the crowd. We opened the night up with 11 songs, 8 of which were original material. Lesson learned: don't play ballads at a new place without a strong fan base. Also, learn more on-stage showmanship. Apparently the crowd loves someone acting crazy up on stage, so that's what I gotta be. Flagship went on after us, and they killed! Different sound than ours, scream-o metal style, but they did a great job. FALLEN was last and didn't get to finish a full set, but I wasn't listening much as they were playing from 1:00 to 2:00 in the morning. Did I mention I had awakened at 6:30 a.m. that morning to sub at Oxford High? No? Oh. I was super tired. But, since I was driving Daniel, my drummer, around Jackson and he didn't know anyone who lived there, I felt it was up to me to make sure he had a good time on this trip. So, we stayed to break down the stage, went to an after party till about 5:00 and fell asleep on Brian and Kevin's parents' couches. Did I mention the rest of the band pussed out and went to T.J.'s place to crash and didn't even help break the stage down? And also when I asked if we could crash there, I was told it was too small of a place for two more guys willing to sleep on the floor? No? Oh. I'll get over that, but I gotta tell Kyle that it was a dick move soon instead of bottling that stuff. Overall, it was a good time had by all.

This week, I'll be recording the three songs on our demo: Danger, Homesick, and Belief. Yeah, all our songs could be one-word titles. We pretty much finished Danger last Thursday, and Homesick is just me singing, so that should be done tomorrow, provided I'm not called in to sub again. That leaves Belief. This song is the brain-child of Kyle, and it's in 3/4 time which is cool, but I can't seem to put the right melody on it. I've written something, and it sounds okay, but it doesn't sound right like the other two. It's all major-key, and the verse has a funky number of bars in it. I don't know. I'll record the melody I have now, and if anything else comes to mind, I'll keep trying to replace it.

Songwriting has been really difficult for me. For the most part it goes like this: someone writes a guitar riff, Ray lays the bass line on it (he is incredibly talented and can do that with just about any song), Dan puts a beat to it (or Kyle sometimes if it's his song), then I write a melody and lyrics on all that. The hard part for me is the melody. I try to imagine what the melody would sound like if I heard the song on the radio, then as soon as I hear it, I try to sing it again and again until I remember it. Once I remember it, I'll try to write words for it. The lyrics aspect of songwriting is also difficult, but usually all I need is an idea, and then the story just builds from that. For instance, on Homesick, I heard the chorus melody pretty early on, and it sounded to me like a wistful, nostalgic song, so I decided I would write about someone being homesick. The chorus is

The sun is moving around

But there's no warmth to be found

There are smiles all around

And it's pleasant

But it's not home

I feel left out in the cold

It's lonely here on the road (2nd chorus: Knowing I can't return to our home)

The verses couldn't be just about being homesick because that's too simple. I needed some depth, so Meg helped me out. The first verse was explaining how this person being in a strange town is reminded of his own home town, the similarities and memories. Goes like this:

Driving through this town

It makes me think of the sound

Waves crash on the shore

Seagulls calling for more

There's kids playing with sand

Plastic buckets in their hand

Clouds go passing by

Like white memories that can fly

The second verse was describing how this same person being back in his home town is still homesick, because the thing that made him homesick, an old flame, doesn't live there anymore, and you realize that this person had a serious relationship that ended and he or she can never go home again. 

Walking through our home town

I notice you're not around

Traces of your face

In an old familiar place

Lights float on the rain

Nothing new and nothing changed

All these empty days

Our home has faded away

That's it! Now, it took a while to get all the lyrics down, then once I had them written down, I had to memorize them (which I didn't for the first show we played this song.) The very first two songs I wrote with Faulkner Alley were about a couple as well, but in different ways; one was an angrier song so the lyrics told the tale of a guy whose girl cheated on him with another girl, the other song was about a person who works up the nerve to ask someone out, then works up the nerve to ask that same someone on the first date to have sex. Not the most deep or original songs, but Belief and Danger were better subject matter and better lyrics, I think. Only time and effort will tell, but if you wanna check out our demo songs, I should have them up on MySpace, Facebook, and ReverbNation soon (hopefully this week!)