The first sharable draft of the fifth song has me thinking about next steps in the album creation process.
This is the longest and most complex song I’ve created yet. There are already 35 tracks, and the song is currently about 4:15 in length. Both stats reflect my getting more comfortable with the tools, and finding the layering of sounds to be a more interesting listen.
To describe this song in traditional structures, the verse and chorus are heard three times — twice at the beginning and once again at the end after a long breakdown. At the moment I like both the intro + verse + chorus, the breakdown, and the outro. As I post this I’m not convinced the verse + chorus needs to repeat twice at the beginning — regardless of there being some build between the cycles.
I took a fresh listen to the previous four songs and like each progressively more than the preceding song, to the point where I don’t like the first one very much at all. I now think it’s far too simple. I’m tempted to take a pass through the first couple of songs to create second drafts though I think there’s still more creative benefit to forging ahead with new songs.
I looked up the rules for an album, and there are slight differences between how Apple and Spotify classify singles, EPs, and albums. The bottom line seems to be that to release an album I’ll need have at least seven songs that are cumulatively more than 30 minutes long.
Then I did some more reading about all the other things to cover off when releasing music and I felt a slight panic. There’s a lot! For now I’m going to focus on creating a set of music I love.
Album creation podcast, Episode 6