Saturday, April 5, 2008

Measure for Measure

The NY Times has launched a new songwriting blog called Measure for Measure. I picked up on it through Beth Stevens' Facebook Feed (anyone else noticing that the article postings are getting more frequent and better on their Facebook feeds?). The blog is written by Suzanne Vega, Andrew Bird and Darrell Brown. I'm loving it only 3 posts in.

Last year, I was able to sit in on an Andrew Bird interview and performance at Kellogg (he's an alum) and it was fascinating. For example, he doesn't really pay attention to the meaning of the words he writes, he just looks for a sound. I expect a lot of the themes of that session to make it into his blog. This should be a lot of fun.

Some choice quotes...

"I never worry about the melodies drying up. Since I can remember, I’ve had melodies in my head. I chew my food to them." -- Andrew Bird

"But when an honest, four-dimensional, hook-filled piece of humanity is finally born, there is a clue to recognizing its timelessness. There is a peaceful, non-judgmental appreciation that falls over me when I hear it, a feeling — or even a knowledge — that we songwriters really had nothing to do with its creation in the first place. It’s as if we were archaeologists at a dig and all we had to do was chip away the stone and brush away the sand that hid it from view. We were just lucky enough to be in the room that day when it showed up to sing to us." -- Darrell Brown