Writing XONE Lyrics to Tape

Writing lyrics for a new song is a daunting task. For XONE, our lyrics are the most important part of each song. Because we are a Prog Metal band, we push ourselves to have intelligent, intelligible lyrics that tell a story for every song we write. Each new XONE song requires a clear musical vision that has to be imparted to the listener 100%.


Admittedly, in XONE, we tend to write the music first and the lyrics second. I have done the opposite a few times just to test myself, but music first, lyrics second is the standard. We work hard to put each new song in as realistic a structure to allow for lyrics to be added quickly. The last thing you can afford to do, is have a bunch of finished music waiting around for the lyrics to "come".

Luckily, we record every single thing we play at rehearsal into a portable Fostex VF-160. This allows us to hear the development of our songs step by step. It also allows us to write lyrics much faster. The key is, getting a version of the song recorded that has all the parts set into stone essentially. We might add a few counts here or there as the lyrics dictate, but for the most part, we've established where the verses, bridges, and chorus' are in the song and how many counts we'll need to tell our story. Since Ted bogged about the XONE lyric writing method earlier, I've posted an example of the song structure for "Face This World".

Once we have the structure for a new song recorded, it is easy for either Ted or I to listen to this version in the car (or even in front of the computer) and fashion lyrical style and content. Last Monday, I was driving to school, listening to the music of our new song "Regret". All of a sudden the lyrical style of the song just jumped out of me, and knew how it essentially would be sung. Then Thursday, while I should have been writing our next blog, I had the song playing and the lyrics just came!! I dropped everything I was doing (which is what I have to do when I'm creative) and wrote the lyrics for "Regret". It took about 2 hours. Then I quickly laid down a Bass and Vocals version into Cakewalk Sonar using my Line 6 Toneport KB37 to make sure that I could remember later the intricate vocal inflection I had polished.

Viola!! We had finished the song. Now we just need to rehearse it, and copyright it from one of those rehearsal recordings. This how every song from our 21+ original song catalogue
has come to fruition. It’s a fun and interesting process.

"Face This World" is featured on our debut XONE CD available now.
"Regret" will be featured on our upcoming third XONE CD "Elements", currently in pre-production, and due in late 2007/early 2008.