The Song Fight Bulletin Board

How can it help/destroy the songwriting process? I can never tell if what I make when I'm depressed is dog shit because I think everything is dog shit or if I just can't write/perform anything worthwhile when I'm depressed. Any tips on how to harness depression so that it can actually help writing? Because otherwise I'm not up to maximum potential pretty much all the time. I mean, this Eagles cover I just did is like ungodly. You have no idea.

It depends. I've found there's kind of a middle ground of depression where I do my best depressed-songwriting; not only just pretty down about how my life has gone recently, but not so depressed that I can't motivate myself to do anything at all. In between the two there's kind of a self-loathing, self-questioning depression where you can still do things (and you almost actively try to do anything to take your mind away), and I think anything written while you're outwardly paranoid ends up being good.

It's a completely different discussion than whether you write better songs while drunk or high (or both), though. It isn't something you can (or should try to) actively seek out. If you're in the right depression mindset for songwriting, the song will just come to you. If you feel you need to pick up a guitar or sit at the piano when you're depressed, you might write something good. If you're depressed and you think "well, my life might be horrible, but at least I can write a song now," what you write will probably be terrible.

<font size="1">(Sad that I can express it so clearly.)</font>

My depression yielded some of my worst poetry(and infact only poetry) and art I have ever done. My focus on dark subject matter, often childishly dark seems really lame now. Do your best to be objective of your work. Compare it to others you admire, and get input from others if you can't trust yourself. And of course, make sure your dealing with your depression some how. It doesn't need to be zoloft or paxil or whatever, anything that will help you relax and feel calm, whether it be religion, your music, art, reading, friends, family or other hobbies.

yo luke,
i will suggest maybe taking some time and doing an
AAD (album a day) one of this days.

use those 24 hours to record, vent, and let it all out..
see it as a personal audio diary. Quality, and critics don’t really matter on an AAD, (that’s the great thing), but yet is your own stamp in time, that you can listen to one, five, ten years from now, as depression doesn’t last forever, or at least true depression.

Also the right recording environment helps to capture the mood you’re looking for. Recording in the living room with sunlight from the windows, may yield different results that say, recording in a small dark room with an ashtray within arms length. Also, practice makes perfect The Cure might be a good example of that. Could Robert smith really live up to his persona his been putting up for the last 25+ years?

Not sure if this would help you out any, or even if its related to the topic, it now sounds like my own rant, and that whole Robert smith & the cure thing ... WTF was that all about? i don't know, guess i just wanted to hear an AAD from you .

I actually inadvertently recorded an AIFH once (that's an album in 5 hours). I didn't know it was like something people actually did. Anyway, it's pretty interesting I guess, some good momes. But yeah, I guess my dorm room isn't like the best recording place. It's pretty shit-tay.

Robert Pinsky was talking about poetry, but I think what he said applies to any craft. He said that a good artist has to be confident enough to move forward but self-loathing enough to always want to revise his work. That way, you've always got something inside you pushing to create and make something wonderful. And you've also got a dark, brooding part of you that says "this sucks," and that makes you refine what you've created.

That's not directly related to depression, but I think depression brings out that second side and it might be the time to go back and work things out and revise and find all your mistakes and realize how you could've done it better. And then you actually do go back and do it the right way.. maybe.

wait, depression is real? I thought Tom Cruise said it wasn't....or something.

NeilThrun wrote:My depression yielded some of my worst poetry(and infact only poetry) and art I have ever done. My focus on dark subject matter, often childishly dark seems really lame now.

this was my experience as well.

i've noticed that the depths of depression tend to be counter-productive for me (hence the absence of the idiot kings and the divorce around these parts). it's easier for me when i'm not standing in the fire, so to speak. otherwise it tends to be sophomoric and lame.

not to say writing in those times is a bad idea...it's great. just use trusted friends as a filter so you're not putting out things that you may later regret.

honestly, i found friends, therapy, and (if needed, it was for me) medication to be more helpful. i live for making music, but perhaps my closeness was an obstruction, for me personally. i hope this helps, and i hope you get through ok. depression sucks, and it is very tough, but realize that there's no shame in talking to someone (anyone) about it. posting about it was a big move, and an admirable one.

I suppose, indirectly, depression helps my songwriting process.

I don't suffer from depression - though I live with someone who does. My most fertile periods of songfighting usually coincide with the times when the need for hospitalisation mean that I spend a lot of time at home by myself. Songwriting (and songfighting) makes me happy. It's become my refuge

The most insidious thing that I notice about depression is the anhedonia it induces (ie. the ability to gain hapiness from normally pleasurable experiences). As a non-sufferer I really can't imagine how that feels - but I would guess that it would make songwriting very difficult if you were in that frame of mind.

I can't write when I'm depressed, because I don't feel like doing something like that. I've tried but I get too hypercrutical and just....blah..
I do however, write down ideas and feelings. Then when I feel better and can go back and "recapture" the feeling and write a sad song.

Speaking for myself, I don't think it's depression per se that helps songwriting. It's having a focus. A "muse" you might call it.

Being really in love, or having your heart broken. Both are focii for songwriting. Deaths, breakups, breakdowns, etc. There's a point when you're really deep into these experiences when they take all your energy and you can't write about them. But when you're heading in or heading out or just wallowing, there's when the songwriting gene kicks in. Some people use the same muse their entire "career".

Others can intellectualize the songwriting process more, and divorce it from emotional energies somewhat. I have to force myself to do that, and thought I'm usually happy with the result it's never what I would consider to be my best work.

I just recently was diagnosed with clinical depression and had myself a huge f'n breakdown. Has it helped the songwriting process? Not a shred. In fact, it's been a hinderance. That's one of the things about depression, you lose the ability to find happiness in things you used to enjoy. Only recently I've begun watching pro-wrestling again, reading sci-fi again, writing fiction again....music is the one thing I'm still struggling with. I can't seem to pull together songwriting yet.

Niveous wrote:I just recently was diagnosed with clinical depression and had myself a huge f'n breakdown. Has it helped the songwriting process? Not a shred. In fact, it's been a hinderance. That's one of the things about depression, you lose the ability to find happiness in things you used to enjoy. Only recently I've begun watching pro-wrestling again, reading sci-fi again, writing fiction again....music is the one thing I'm still struggling with. I can't seem to pull together songwriting yet.

i hear you, bro. it does get better, and music does return.

Pretty much everything I wrote as MISS was fueled by depression. Whether it makes it good or not, I'm not sure. Do I still like my pieces, now that I've come through to the other side*? Yes, actually. A lot. But I can't speak for anybody else.

Of course, now that I'm on the other side, I haven't written a single thing since the Cheer Up Shelley fight, from 12/03/04 - 12/13/04. Not a single drop of song has sprung from my brain. Apparently, I can only write while suicidally depressed for a couple of years.

Who knew?

-Yook

* "Other side" doesn't necessarily connote happiness. In this case, it's more about getting so emotionally exhausted from being depressed that one can no longer be actively depressed. ... So, it is most likely this exhaustion that has stopped me from writing anything new. I'll let you knew when I start actively feeling again. *chuckle*

Hoblit wrote:wait, depression is real? I thought Tom Cruise said it wasn't....or something.

Look, just being caused by aliens doesn't make it fake.

i think i write better when i'm a little peeved... or depressed as some would call it...
some examples of those would be like

'sincerity machine'
'wasted'
'b.i.s.o.a.u.l.'
'here comes my dragon' (which was made into sort of a joke after a couple hours of recording)

sad songs make me happy though... so that's pretty much, why most of my songs sound depressing... just incase anyone wondered such
i usually get into a happy medium where i find chords to fit my mood and shoot from the mouth... usually not really so much in any form of way... just ways i that i understand and want to hear it...

sorry bout the accidental double post

Hoblit wrote:wait, depression is real? I thought Tom Cruise said it wasn't....or something.

See that's because you don't know the history, and Tom Cruise does. He won't back that claim up with anything tangible, but he does know the history, and clearly you and Matt Lauer don't.