by Mike Errico | Feb 3, 2023 | Books, Lessons, Music Lyrics and Life, Text Journalism
Excerpted from Music, Lyrics, and Life. The popular expression, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” has a less-celebrated corollary: You don’t get a second chance to make a last impression, either. A major songwriting challenge is how to construct those first and last impressions in order to bookend the musical universe writers have created. Unlike artists who work in other forms (novels, paintings, etc.), songwriters have a tool that takes advantage of the audio medium: the fade out. Part technological, and part metaphorical, the fade out can imply continuity—the song goes on forever—as easily as loss—the song goes on forever without you. One reason a fade is so expressive is because it reintroduces us to the universal language of silence—fade outs remind us that, as in life, silence always gets the last word. There’s just one problem: At the moment of this writing, fades are very out of fashion. I teach songwriting at several universities, and when a student of mine uses one, they get applause from classmates for the audacity. Fades are retro. They’re vintage. They’re even cinematic, which is actually true: the term “fade” is borrowed from film, which originated around the same time as recorded music. The gradual deprivation of sound in a fade out parallels the deprivation of sight when a scene “fades to black.” In order to better understand why writers and producers choose to fade, I spoke with Jim Anderson, producer and sound engineer; former president of the Audio Engineering Society; multi-Grammy Award–winner; and nominee (along with partner Ulrike Schwartz) for this year’s Grammy for Immersive Audio Album, Jane Ira Bloom’s Picturing the Invisible: Focus 1....
by Mike Errico | Jan 5, 2023 | Music Lyrics and Life
January FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY Three winners will be chosen every week in January. http://errico.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/MLL-ad-higher-res.mp4 Here are the rules: 1) Share this page to your socials 2) Add your favorite song quote from any artist 3) Tag me (@mikeerrico) so I can find you I’ll contact you for a mailing address, personalize your copy, add a handsome and functional bookmark, and pop it in the...
by Mike Errico | Oct 4, 2022 | Music Lyrics and Life, Photo
I’ve been kind of confused lately as to what I actually do. This picture kind of encapsulates it....
by Mike Errico | Sep 9, 2022 | Music Lyrics and Life, Text Journalism
American Songwriter is running an excerpt from Music, Lyrics, and Life. This time, it’s my interview with Nashville super-producer Jay Joyce about how to embrace, and even create, beautiful mistakes. I was proud of this one: Jay Joyce and the Power of Mistakes By Mike Errico If there’s anything that’s gotten more powerful in the songwriter’s toolbox, it’s the ability to erase blemishes. Writers and singers—especially singers—hide flaws with ever-improving software, thinking the song will benefit from perfection because that’s what the listener wants. Jay Joyce has been fighting this songwriting tendency and pumping out perfectly imperfect songs for years. His studio, a converted church in East Nashville, was constructed specifically to catch what makes a song’s performance real, and in this way, he’s crafted hits for Miranda Lambert, Eric Church, Orville Peck, Brandy Clark, Declan McKenna, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, and a host of others. His philosophy—keep the mistakes—sounds retro, maybe even careless; and yet, Jay’s approach bypasses the sterility of modern songwriting, and creates music that is urgent, dangerous, and alive. It’s as if mistakes are the future of authentic art. Mike Errico: How do you get the best work out of writers and artists? Jay Joyce: I don’t have a vocal booth. People come in, and they’re like, “Where do I sing?” And I’m like, “Wherever you want.” I don’t have a control room—I never did like that. We don’t have to be, like, “Put your guitar down, come into the control room.” I can go on about the way studios are designed. It’s just stupid…. READ THE REST AT AMERICAN...
by Mike Errico | Aug 9, 2022 | Music Lyrics and Life, Video
Jul 27, 2022 Popular Music Books in Process presents composer, songwriter, and teacher Mike Errico in conversation with The New Yorker’s Burkhard Bilger about Errico’s book, Music, Lyrics, and Life: A Field Guide for the Advancing Songwriter (Backbeat Books,...
by Mike Errico | Jun 18, 2022 | Music Lyrics and Life, Teaching
Saturday, June 18, 2022 12:00 PM EDT Reserve a spot here: https://totb.mykajabi.com/mikeerrico Preproduction is a big part of recording music, but on Saturday, June 18th we’re going to talk about preproduction for your ideas—setting up the regimen that yields so much nonsense, but all of the great stuff, too. In this class, we’ll talk about the power of daily journaling, how to get started, the forms it can take, and more. We’ll have time for a Q&A at the end, so come ready with all your songwriting questions! We’ll randomly pick one person to win a signed copy of Music, Lyrics, and Life (You must attend the live class to be eligible.) See you...
