Lately I haven't been able to write for the guitar - it'll usually start out with a melody on the bass, and I'll layer vocals. I just can't really physically hear the guitar anymore, so I'll just go into GarageBand and play around with the keys. I'll sit on a melody or some lyrics for a really long time and just play with it.
Sarah JaffeI was really kind of miserable with myself personally and all of the things that you can be creatively, until someone said - and I don't know what about it made it click at this specific time - but they said, "You're not 18 anymore, and you're not writing songs in your old bedroom. It's work. You should get up every day and set a perimeter of time and start compartmentalizing your life."
Sarah JaffeLately I haven't been able to write for the guitar - it'll usually start out with a melody on the bass, and I'll layer vocals. I just can't really physically hear the guitar anymore, so I'll just go into GarageBand and play around with the keys. I'll sit on a melody or some lyrics for a really long time and just play with it.
Sarah JaffeThere's a part of me, and I'm sure every single musician that writes for themselves has this: there's a layer of precious that you have to shed. I'm constantly trying to let go of, "Well, what about this, this would be cool." Some of that is needed, but a lot of it is total BS.
Sarah JaffeUsually when I'm in the van or if there's downtime, I'll just mess around in Garage Band and work out melodies or ideas I've had in my head. There was a period where I creatively plateaued and wasn't writing at all. But I have been creatively a bit more inspired lately - it has everything to do with moving and being in motion.
Sarah JaffeWhen I was younger - in elementary school - my parents are both teachers, so we moved around a lot. For the most part we always lived, before we settled south of Dallas, we always lived in the outskirts of city suburbs, kind of in these weird, desolate neighborhoods. Very brown and flat settings. I love Texas, I love the openness.
Sarah JaffeWe operate from this position of, "Let's build the skeleton and then insert the filling." We have this ping-pong dynamic with each other where we're able to try different things and bounce different ideas, and it ends up being us building our music together. I've never had a moment where I've been like, "I don't like it." Actually, that's total bullshit. I've had many moments where I'm like, "I don't like it," but it's always evolving.
Sarah Jaffe