Today I’m sifting through piles of old songwriting notebooks, piecing together best bits of lyrics, looking for new songs and ways to complete nearly-done songs. The main job is juggling all these incomplete bits til they become ‘finished’ (whatever that means). For me it’s the toughest part of songwriting: in my opinion it’s not (mostly) ‘art’ because the art already happened when we had the ideas in the first place, so it’s more ‘craft’ – the bit that takes effort and experience. And it’s boring. And you come out with far less than you go in with.

Not moaning though, it’s not like an actual job or anything.

Anyway, I just uncovered the original first verse of ‘Elephant In The Room’ from Love Is Not Rescue and I like it as an example of how far a lyric might need to travel. So, shared with a red face, I swear my first written version was this:

I forgot how to ride a bike
I forgot how to swim
Put me in the Guinness Book of Records for being the most forgetful
Oh, I forgot, y’already put me in.

fml. 🙂