COLUMNS
Escaping to a World of Retro-Futurism Through Songwriting
By Pete Gardiner
Songwriting can be a very personal affair or a group collaborative endeavor . It will usually depend on the dynamics and the relationship between each individual of the group .
For us , it ’ s a little bit of both . Normally one of us will roll into the studio , and say ,“ Hey , I wrote a new song last night ,” he ’ ll show it to the rest of us . If we all think that there is something there , then we will start working on it . Other times , one of us will have just a snippet of an idea , it could be a catchy melody for a chorus idea , or it ’ s just a stand-alone riff . We ’ ll start playing the idea over and over , again and again in a loop until inspiration checks in and forms the missing pieces to finish the song . Sometimes this will take half an hour , and other times it can take months until we ’ re satisfied . Then we can finally say ,“ Okay , this song is now finished !”
Where does it all start for me ? Where is that little electric spark from ? I really wish I knew , because then I ’ d bottle it and sell it . It must be different for everybody . Personally , I draw creativity from the things that simply captivate my imagination and interest me . That being art , the aesthetics in the movies by David Lynch , science fiction novels by Arthur C . Clarke , fashion , and sometimes even video games . As long as it strikes some kind of emotion , then I ’ ll just roll with it and go with the flow . Everyone has their own thing . Recently I ’ ve been going down the rabbit hole of retro-futurism , especially the artwork of old science fiction novels by the likes of Richard M . Powers .
I can take one of those pictures and create my own narrative around it , create characters with a story , and then a whole world and universe around them . I find that creating stories and narratives in this way gives you a lot more freedom and space , this lets you take your story to literally anywhere you want .
The album that we are currently working on was written in this fashion . All the songs are chapters that form one continuous story , where each song describes a certain scene or situation . I try to put across the setting with the way that it looks and feels , even tastes .
Lyrically , the songs will often revolve around what the characters are thinking , feeling , and seeing . For me this is simply a lot more interesting , as I don ’ t want to give people who listen to our music a preaching message about politics or this month ’ s hot topic . I find that overwhelmingly dull and bland . To me it ’ s just so boring ; that ’ s the job for a news channel .
I guess it ’ s safe to say that I approach the topic or subject of a song in a visual way . It seems to me that it ’ s much more liberating to describe a picture , or a short movie scene that I have made up in my head . It makes the content more rich , vivid , and alive . It ’ s a lot more fun for me to get lost in fantasy and science fiction than the mundane topics of everyday life .
I ’ d much rather write about “ driving a Tron motorcycle on the moons of Jupiter after escaping a bar fight in a strip club ,” or describing astral projection to the other side of the galaxy . That ’ s way more interesting and fantastic . I can be as crazy as I let my imagination be .
Sometimes , I ’ ll find myself stepping into the shoes of one of the characters in the song , whilst we ’ re performing it , a little bit like an actor . I ’ ll let the scenes that the song describes run through my imagination , and I ’ ll try to pretend that I ’ m actually right there in the middle of it all . This is when the fantasy becomes pure escapism , where you can let yourself get lost and be immersed in it all . At the same time , however , it gives me a sense that it ’ s more genuine . After all , it ’ s a story that I ’ ve written .
For the time being , I ’ ll carry on writing songs in this manner . I ’ ll most likely just keep adding onto the story , or I might create a parallel one that intersects with the main storyline . I think there might be a short novel in all of this somewhere .
Diamond 6 was formed in 2017 with the aim to play “ one gig only .” Since then , t he band have never stayed true to that aim and have continued to play shows . Remaining true to their concealment of the truth ; matters were made worse when they recorded a single and compounded their broken promise of “ one gig only ” by releasing the single as a music video . At present they are blazing their own road , leaving behind a trail of broken bridges and broken promises . www . diamond6 . band .
30 CANADIAN MUSICIAN