Somewhere in our collective subconscious is the presumption that bands should write every single word and note for themselves. But punk history tells us that collaboration is just what communities do.
"They didn’t really need me. But the fact that they respected my work enough to want to use it, to find their voice in something I wrote, felt meaningful to me."
Well said. Any time that I have written music or lyrics used for/by other artists/bands, I look at it this way: I am helping create baby and trust them to raise the child. It's always nice to see what other folks do with your creation. Keeps us humble, perhaps? Keeps things interesting? AND, sometimes, I'm blown away with how things are made much better by the final rendition once outta' my hands.
Sometimes, other people raise your own child better, safer, stronger and smarter than I ever could have.
When I read about how collaboration happens especially regarding writing music am always reminded of this concept called the “ideomotor effect” - (it is how the planchette in a ouija board works) the brain affects unconscious small movements - but it is also a product of the fact that several people are touching the planchette, so that no individual seems in control. The planchette doesn’t work if only one person is touching it. I’m not a song writer this is just an outsider looking in, but Norman as a person who has been in several bands is this somewhat accurate or am I completely off the mark?
Every dynamic is different, honestly. But there is "control" and there is "effect." Any one person can technically be in "control," but as soon as someone else plays or sings or comes into contact with a song—whoever wrote it—that thing is going to change. So on some level, "control" is an illusion. Every unique contributor will leave their mark.
"They didn’t really need me. But the fact that they respected my work enough to want to use it, to find their voice in something I wrote, felt meaningful to me."
Well said. Any time that I have written music or lyrics used for/by other artists/bands, I look at it this way: I am helping create baby and trust them to raise the child. It's always nice to see what other folks do with your creation. Keeps us humble, perhaps? Keeps things interesting? AND, sometimes, I'm blown away with how things are made much better by the final rendition once outta' my hands.
Sometimes, other people raise your own child better, safer, stronger and smarter than I ever could have.
When I read about how collaboration happens especially regarding writing music am always reminded of this concept called the “ideomotor effect” - (it is how the planchette in a ouija board works) the brain affects unconscious small movements - but it is also a product of the fact that several people are touching the planchette, so that no individual seems in control. The planchette doesn’t work if only one person is touching it. I’m not a song writer this is just an outsider looking in, but Norman as a person who has been in several bands is this somewhat accurate or am I completely off the mark?
Every dynamic is different, honestly. But there is "control" and there is "effect." Any one person can technically be in "control," but as soon as someone else plays or sings or comes into contact with a song—whoever wrote it—that thing is going to change. So on some level, "control" is an illusion. Every unique contributor will leave their mark.