Digging Deep #10: Stupid Funny Limbo
... on new music, writer's block, and sneaking Harry Potter quotes into my songs
The “stupid” promo is over (it’s not); the “funny” banter continues (it does); the unbearable “limbo” has relinquished me from its cold, clammy grasp (does it ever let go, though?): finally, some new music. “Stupid Funny Limbo” is out today, and I hold out my hand for you to join me on this journey. Take it! And we shall begin.
One of my friends texted me the other day and asked what I do when I have writer’s block. I hadn’t really thought about it before – usually, when I can’t finish a song, or find myself at a creative impasse, I bang my head against the wall and drink 4-7 beers. I’ll tell you right now, though, that doesn’t often work. In the last few weeks, however, I’ve been absolutely cranking on some new tunes, flowing from my cranium like wine at the Roman Bacchanalia of old. Why does it happen like this, in spurts? ‘Tis no muse from which songs course through me – I do not believe in such divine forms of inspiration (although maybe it would help me if I did). It is more pedestrian. I have come to realize that creativity begets creativity; that is, when I am making, I make more as a result.
I told my friend, perhaps retrospectively, that when I have writer’s block I try to start as many songs as I can. Each song acts as a kind of grease, a lubrication for the machinations of my mind. The wheels spin; the gears turn; the pulleys and levers do their pulleying and levering. And through this process, I am able to either complete the project I was working on, or create something better.
Such was the case for the writing process of “Stupid Funny Limbo.” It may surprise you that the song is over two and a half years old. It may delight you (if you truly are a fan of mine) that it was written in the same week as “Flight to JFK,” and in the same month as the rewritten version of “What if it all works out in the end?.” When it rains, it pours!
Writing Stupid Funny Limbo
“Stupid Funny Limbo” began, as many of my songs do, with a little fingerpicking and a pinch of mumbling:
nyc, 08.29.2022
I’m not going to get into the details of my romantic life, but suffice it to say that I was in love, unsure of how it would turn out (long distance), and bursting with situational details to add to my songs.
With a rough verse melody down, I moved on to the chorus. This 4 minute voice recording is all rambles, so skip it if you want, but listen if you’re interested to hear me say “no!” again and again.
nyc, 08.31.2022, part 1
A few minutes later, I locked in at least part of the chorus melody:
nyc, 08.31.2022, part 2
The end of the chorus was tricky, but maybe only tricky because of my inclination to make songs more complicated than they need to be. This next recording shows the structure of the verse moving into the prechorus (still lyricless, but the melody formed), and then the chorus, which still isn’t quite there:
connecticut, 09.05.2022
I really enjoy the melody of the prechorus. The minor 5 chord in there, if my memory serves, was taken from “Elegy,” where it is ubiquitous. Maybe too ubiquitous, maybe beating it over the head. This time, I had a little more tact.
Okay – onward! This next recording comes a week later, once I was back in Los Angeles. You’ll notice that the verse is all there, and the prechorus is almost done. “Love is a stupid thing in limbo,” I say. I hadn’t cracked the code yet!
The chorus is pretty much done, except for a really dumb “for me” at the end, which obviously changes to “for us.” The second half of the chorus benefits from my enormous Harry Potter fixation. If you, dear reader, recognized some similarities between the line “circumstance can wreck the best laid plans” in this song and Voldemort’s fire quote from Deathly Hallows “I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best laid plans,” then you deserve a prize. If you didn’t notice, then whatever.
los angeles, 09.13.2022
The rest of the lyrics of the song came together nicely, using my real life. Yeah.
Here’s the first full song recording I did, which is from the next day in Los Angeles. I use the second prechorus as a pseudo bridge. That changes in the final version.
stupid funny limbo rough 9.14.2022
Once the song was done, it sat waiting, expectant. It was on the shortlist of songs to make the album, but with time, I lost interest in it. I made a few demos that layered a bunch of acoustic instruments, and even got my friend Shaan to do a little string arrangement, but nothing was hitting. Argh! Nothing I did could really capture the essence of the song. So there it sat, collecting dust.
And then: eureka! I was brainstorming the songs for Somewhere Along the Trail, Vol. 2, and from the shadows of my private demo playlists, I caught a flash, a gleam of something bright. Renewed again was my love for the song, and revisiting it two years later made it seem all the more fresh.
Recording Stupid Funny Limbo
I will get much deeper into the recording process when I write my post on Somewhere Along the Trail, Vol. 2, which is slated for release on June 13th, but for now I’ll just say that like Volume 1, we aimed to capture the sound and feel of being in the room with me as I sing these songs. I headed into the studio with my buddy Michael, and with two mics, one camera (courtesy of Lou Palacios), and yer boy, we managed to do just that.
Reading Comprehension Questions
How does T. Kandel, in his words, break writer’s block?
What “unexpected” chord is featured in the prechoruses? Do you think it does anything interesting for the song, or is T. Kandel just flexing his musical theory knowledge?
What other songs do you think will be on Somewhere Along the Trail, Vol. 2?