Summertime Gladness
Our album release show, my new collaboration with Bill Leeb, plus Shannon's Secrets of Songwriting
Hello friends, it’s been a minute! Let’s have a popsicle by the pool. Tell me, how’s your summer? After a rainy start to the season, we’re suddenly in the middle of a proper heatwave. We don’t have A/C, so I bought my puppy Mary a kiddie pool from Canadian Tire to cool off, and I have to admit, it was the best $15 spent in a while. It hit 32 degrees here yesterday (94 degrees for the Americans in the house). Pretty warm for us. Seeing her splash around with pure joy while listening to The Breeders “Cannonball” was the hit of summertime dopamine I didn’t know I needed this week. Highly recommend.
Btw, you’re invited! We are throwing an Ultraviolet Album Release Show + Party in Vancouver at Fox Cabaret on Thursday August 15th. Presented by RANGE Magazine, we’ll be performing every song we know, with support from Vancouver’s dreamiest shoegazers la lune, and DJ sets by Evilyn13. Freshly pressed vinyl, CDs, shirts, and my Lyrics + Photobook will be available. Come!
A Match Made In Dystopia
Yesterday my guest vocal collaboration with Bill Leeb (Front Line Assembly, Delerium, former Skinny Puppy) hit the airwaves! The video was created by longtime Skinny Puppy live visuals designer, Tim Hill. Tim photographed Bill and I to create 3D wire meshes and then wrapped them in dystopian AI chaos. The result is a creepy-good visual assault. Bill and I first crossed paths when ACTORS and Front Line Assembly played the Cold Waves Festival 2019 in Chicago and Los Angeles. We have some close Vancouver friends in common, so I introduced myself backstage, and we’ve kept in touch ever since. He called our collaboration; “Industrial’s version of The Carpenters”, which I thought was quite funny and sweet. Listening to FLA and Delerium as a teen, I would have never predicted that we would work on music together one day, but here we are. Life is neat like that. Listen and watch below:
Bill Leeb’s forthcoming debut solo LP Model Kollapse is out September 13th on Metropolis Records.
Shannon’s Secrets of Songwriting
With the Leathers album complete, it’s time to get started on more songs. It’s got me thinking (and panicking a little, let’s be honest); How did I even write those songs?! How on earth will I write more? I can barely remember writing them, not because it was a while ago for some (ha-ha) but because songwriting is one of the great unsolved mysteries. Was it all a dream? The process is always evolving, and I’m searching for clues each time I write. I’ve started to collect some thoughts on my journey to see if I can identify the ways I moved from idea to album. I don’t claim authority on this subject but I wanted to share some of my findings with you. I’m calling this list Shannon’s Secrets of Songwriting, but it would be more accurately named: Super obvious things I should have known all along, but only realized by getting to work. Here’s a non-definitive, ever-evolving list:
Dream Logic
I write most of my lyrics in the dark, half sleep; when my brain is effectively off. I think it was George Orwell, who always wrote lying in bed? Well, me too. I find nighttime productive because my inner critic is subdued and all kinds of ideas are welcome to hang out. The quality of idea doesn’t really concern me at this point, I’m just encouraging my thoughts to drift in and see.Finish Them
My recent single Crash took years to write. I’ve accepted that my process is often slow AF, actually let’s say it’s gradual, and the ideas need time to bloom. A quick Spotlight search of my Notes tells me I finalized the first verse for Crash in 2021 but I know the “bloodshot dawn” line was something I wrote long before that. I found it hiding in a text document dated 2011. 13 years ago!
A Gift, A Curse
Music is no longer in the background for me. For better and occasionally worse, songwriting has completely changed my relationship to music. I am figuring out the magic trick. The spell of a great song can still hypnotize me but before it’s over I’m already listening for clues; the chord progressions, arrangements, and hooks that make the hair on my arm stand up. Analysis can sometimes make music enjoyment complicated, but I still hold on to a sense of wonder and remember why music feels magical to me.Song Buzz
I love catching a song buzz. I have my audio interface set up, ready to go on my desk. All I need to do is turn on Logic, and plug in my mic and midi controller to start writing. For lyrics, I battled between paper and digital for a long time because I had some romantic notion about writing by hand, but finally, I decided I wanted to have the ability to search, which is a feature analog notebooks do not have (yet). I use Apple Notes for all my idea fragments, and a lot of them end up in my songs one way or another.Quit the Shit
Unfortunately time is a limited resource. I’m terrified of running out of it, which puts me in a dread spiral, and yep, you guessed it, wastes time. A prison of my own making! So, I give myself a little pep talk to quit the shit and get started. I like aimless, no stress strumming on the guitar. Ideas come by taking small steps forward. I try to be brave. I find choruses challenging to write, so I usually play around with the verses first. I style the song like a movie set with characters, atmosphere, props, and then I carry on from there.A Sweet Treat
When Jay and I have a good day at the studio, we like to go to the shopping mall and goof around like 90s mallrats, trying on crazy clothes, and eating Yogen Früz. We always return laughing, refreshed, and ready for more.
More soon. Thanks for being here. Stay cool everyone! 💙
The dog days of summer, perfect days for floating a river and taking a dip in a spring. That's a killer track! I can totally see Karen C behind the drums on that. Appreciate the insight into your songwriting process, that's really fracking cool to see how it comes together, truly decades in the making.
Thanks for the songwriting secrets. I relate to them. I have an album stuck in the 70% phase and it’s been difficult to push through and finish. I will remember your tips and keep grinding.