Hello to Dev, or anyone else who many happen to know the answer to my question

I am just curious to know, when lyric writing, where do your find inspiration? Do you stick with the first words that come mind, or does it take hours/days/weeks etc, to form the lyrics to a song?

I hope you don't mind me asking. I just find lyrics interesting

For me I've found that lyrics are most profound when they are emotional honest. I'm not a very good lyricists at all but when I do write lyrics I write it after the music because that to me is the stage on which you build a dialogue with the listener. Also I define certain parameters that I want the words and most importantly the message to follow... rhythm, melody, etc.. But of course this is going to be different with everybody. Hope that answers a few of your questions.

I remember Dev said something about how he only tries to use words that he uses in reality when writing lyrics, if that helps at all. I also heard somewhere that with Strapping, he improvises some of the lyrics, which makes sense if you listen to something like "Shitstorm."

Music can come from lyrics just as well, cmbs. The way I see it, vocals are just another instrument and a good song can start anywhere. I like lyrics that follow loose rhyming patterns- maybe using alliteration or generally just playing around with the words can make something interesting.

I'm not saying that music can't come from lyrics, and I don't disagree that the vocals are an instrument. All I'm saying is that I prefer setting up the emotion for the lyrics by writing most of the music first. The reason is that I like to work with sound in many layers, and I find it's rather difficult to write out lyrics before I have any idea of where I'm going to take it with the other instruments. If I write out at least a guitar part I have a rough idea of a melody that would complement the whole piece. But as I said before this is obviously just my personal preference, there is no objective way of going about it.

That's what I'm saying though. You can start out with a melodic rhythmic string of words and build there too. I've always found if fun starting songs different ways. The last song I wrote began with a bass line-before that a jazz beat, before that some vocal, guitar etc...

Being a musician i tend to write down certain thoughts that come to me at random points throughout the day and these often become lyrics in songs i write however i find it very difficult to put lyrics and music together for instance if ive just written some music and i cant think of any lyrics at that time i usually go through my folder of old lyrics to see if anything works and for me at least it very rarely does! I usually find creating a whole song music-lyrics-atmosphere etc all at the same time works the best. And i have occasionally improvised vocals on the spot and it has had fantastic (and sometimes hilarious) results.

Depends on the subject!

Also depends on whether you truly feel it or not. I hear songs all the time over the radio about 'relationships' and 'it's not working' or 'she left me' - they just confuse me, because the vocal melodies, or the music for that matter, doesn't make it sound like they've had a realistic experience of it. I don't have the right to judge a band for what they write about or how they write it, I just listen to this commercial stuff and think "that's not how I felt when I came out of a relationship".

I just reeeaally prefer it when artists sound genuine (Steven Wilson is a great example). Extreme concepts need extreme lyrics and extreme music, and sombre concepts need more laid-back lyrics and music.

Lol I usually find lyrics while listening to either instrumental stuff or listening to someone elses music and singing my own words. From that I then create my own riffs and blam, a new song inspired directly from another song.


Thats one way it works, at least with me.

The other is just letting everything go and just writing. Lots of random thoughts come out, the hard part being sorting them and seeing what I can really relate to or what I want to create that day. I find that making great music is spur of the moment, and how many moments you take advantage of is how great your stuff will be.

A fellow who used to be in my band (Read: used to) tried to convince us that if we couldn't come up with lyrics for a written instrumental piece within 20 minutes, we should scrap the whole thing. He had heard somewhere that Metallica used this method. That is absurd. Songs can come together in all different ways. Generally, with our song writing, we get together our music first and then write lyrics that have the same mood and color that the music does. In this way, I suppose that our own music is our inspiration. Sometimes we get a song together in half an hour or less, and sometimes we come back to the music weeks later with new lyrical ideas. I really like the earlier post that said Devin tries to use words he would actually use. That makes sense with his style, and I really like the idea behind it.

I know that you wanted Devin himself to answer your question, and you have just had 10 other people giving their 2 cents, but I hope some of it has helped a little. Good day.

No no, this is really awesome.

I really enjoy knowing how people come up with creative ideas, if that makes sense? So I should of opened it up to everyone anyway.

I just find it really interesting how people come up with ideas, and how differently people do as well. I do some vague lyric writing myself, but I can only really do it properly when the mood strikes. As a result, lyrically I am not very good, and they are very sporadic.
I guess I have to stick with photography and other visual based methods D:

I've not heard of the 'Metallica' method though. I can see how it works, but it seems like a waste of riffage almost.

I agree with what you said TDA (Hope you don't mind the abbrivation.) I can only really get into songs that I feel attatched to lyrically, unless the instrumental-ness in a song is damn good.

Im actually curious as to the whole song writing process too. Im an aspiring vocalist, and i write some "lyrics" to songs i havent created yet. i personally feel ive been blessed with musical talent, but unfortunately was never able to exploit it. i never fully learned to play any instruments. i know a little guitar, piano, and drums (all self taught) but im not that great at any of them. id love to be able to create music, but i dont quite know the method. So i just decided to start singing, and ive gotten pretty good over the past 10+ years. Another reason i love Devin's music... Singing along really exercises my vocal chords

FFlinchpin, I know how you feel, I'm in exactly the same boat.

Although, it's never too late to get lessons I'm sure I would myself, but I have a certain lackage of money which teachers seem to like.

Yeah ive been thinking about dusting off my guitar and taking lessons, but anymore its hard to find time or motivation to do so. Plus its $15 for 30 minutes. Thats why id love to join a band and have them write the music, and ill just write the lyrics. Although even mixing lyrics with music to fit both structurally and emotionally is quite the art. Also, id like to have the ability to convey my feelings through music, and in order to do so, you cant have someone write the music for you.

Yeah ive been thinking about dusting off my guitar and taking lessons, but anymore its hard to find time or motivation to do so. Plus its $15 for 30 minutes. Thats why id love to join a band and have them write the music, and ill just write the lyrics. Although even mixing lyrics with music to fit both structurally and emotionally is quite the art. Also, id like to have the ability to convey my feelings through music, and in order to do so, you cant have someone write the music for you.

I disagree. You just have to make sure the song sounds right to you. For instance, my old band wrote a song (the name of which escapes me) and iI wrote the lyrics for them. The lyrics were insanely angry for what ever reason - But the song ended up being almost soft. YOu could feel the tension and the confusion in the vocals and all the instruments, but for something that I thought would sound like, I dunno, Shitstorm, ended up sounding more like Tiny Tears. xD

So yeah, anyone can write teh music, you've just got to make sure it feels right when you're singing it.