Hello TTL,

Hmmmmmm. To be honest, the songs I am happiest with do not take that long, and they sort of come together the way Paul Simon did Graceland--complete music bed first. It usually starts when I find a style and progression I like and then I lay out the entire music bed, and make an MP3 and just let it sit there on my desktop. (By this point, the music mix is sounding pretty much exactly the way I want it.) Then I will listen to it a lot and sing along. If something doesn't click, I just leave it alone. But when the lyrics come it is usually in a flash and I keep a digital recorder at my desk to capture what is coming out of my mouth as I am singing along. Then I play it back, type it up, and tweak a few things. Then I do vocals and mix it.

Using this method, this whole song took maybe three complete hours from inception to final mix.

I have used other methods for songs where I would carefully analyze and plot and work forever on creating a "song strategy" and then in the end, I couldn't stand listening to them. They sounded "fake." Just being honest--the ones I like usually come in a flash out of nowhere and take ten minutes to scribble down.