I had intentionally put my acoustic guitar away in September, determined to expand my chord vocabulary and try to find new ways into songwriting. I had the song title The Big Dark for several months now. I knew what it would be about and I decided it would be the song I’d write when I picked up my acoustic guitar again. That happened on Thursday and it was glorious. Just letting an acoustic ring out when you’ve put it away for so long. I worked on this song over the next two days and finished it up super late on Friday night.

I wanted it to be a rock song, but turned to a song I had finished beforehand first, which was “Breaking News.” For that song I uploaded my completed guitar and vocal demo to Suno, which I had never used, and was amazed at the results I was getting. It was absolutely fascinating hearing software turn out different arrangements of my song based on my feedback. It was like directing a band of studio musicians. Once I liked something, I exported the individual tracks to Logic Pro and played around with mixing, adding, cutting things, recording vocals, etc.. Pretty damn cool. I consider myself a songwriter way more than a musician, so if I can use my taste to shape a song using software to get to what I envision, I think maybe that’s fine with me. It’s gotta pass my filter and the song wouldn’t have existed if I hadn’t put the work into writing it. To me it’s a continuation of what started with drum machines and samples and virtual players like you see in Logic. I’ve been playing with those tools since the late 90s and have had some FAWMs where at least half the songs were made of loops and samples. Anyway, I used the same approach with this song. I do think there’s a huge difference between using this kind of software to help build out an arrangement of something you wrote vs have it actually write the song…ugh. Anyway, I’m quite happy with the band on this.

#indierock #guitar #indie

We’re digging up your past to play The onset has come today They’ve never been through with me We’re past the summer of make believe How low, how low are you gonna go Don’t know, how low is low?

It’s the winter of discontent The search for self and where it went Long shadows turn to blackened night Back to moles without our sight I’ve walked, I’ve walked this path before But I thought, I thought I closed the door

Comes on without a sound Daylight sinks into ground Winter smarts and leaves a mark Welcome to the big dark

Haunting streets like ghosts at play Figures in black cross my way Wipers thrash, can’t clear the scene Hit the brakes, forget to breathe I thought, I thought I’d seen my end I fear, I fear it’ll come again

Comes on without a sound Daylight sinks into ground Winter smarts and leaves a mark Welcome to the big dark

Welcome to the big dark

Welcome to the big dark