(INTERVIEW) In Which the Author....Interviewed

YEAH, IN CASE YOU COULDN'T TELL, I conducted my interview. I mean, it's kind of three weeks overdue, but, uh, actually I don't have a good excuse why it's late except

or rather just BEHIND now HAH

I interviewed Mr. Hood, our very own band teacher, and I think I kept putting it off partially because he's literally right there, so I was like "Hey it's okay I could interview him anytime." I'm really good with plans. But hey, I got two of his CDs through that encounter!

The experience was probably around 20 minutes. I didn't take a video, mostly because I hate myself and also because I had anticipated a lot of movement (from the piano to the laptop and such). Since Mr. Hood wasn't a complete stranger to me and because he's really chill, the interview ended up pretty informal and more like a conversation, so I'll refrain from posting a Q&A format because it got a bit confusing when I tried. So I'll organize the conversation by topic:

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On Inspiration
- From your head. Your brain (triggered) can surprise you sometimes. Just a small tune or bassline can start an entire song. Or you might revisit a "little kernel" you once started but then abandoned.
- From other pieces. He talked about this groove/bassline from another song that he incorporated into his own song. This is not illegal. The police do not need to be called. The song he ended up writing was completely different from his inspiration. (It's really cool!)
- From noodling around. He came up with an entire song that ended up on his CD that started out with playing around on the piano. Sometimes songs write themselves. This also happens on the guitar, finding a cool chord progression and strumming pattern. Except that's irrelevant to me, because I've never played a stringed instrument in my life other than a bit of ukulele while Armageddon was happening at Ellie's house (long story).
- From emotion. One time he was very much wrath, and he came home and immediately started writing a song. It's called "Crash!" and crash(!) it is. I listened to an excerpt, and the chords and rhythm and everything are so aggressive I love it. It's definitely inspiration to me as I write Max's angry song!

On Theory
- When I asked him how much he considers music theory and how much he just goes by ear, he gave a rightfully vague answer because music is confusing. Again, sometimes songs write themselves. However, there are times when you need to think a lot, especially when writing for multiple instruments. It also does help to know chords, because chords are gr8. If you want to hear a song that's written with nothing but theory in mind, check this out:

I KNOW IT'S A MEME BUT IT'S ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD. (Sound warning at the end.)

- About chord progressions, he wrote a song that only used three chords. Other times, his songs are pretty complex. It doesn't make either better than the other. One of them just takes three hours to write and the other takes more than three hours to write. Definitely do consider the style, though.

On Writing
- He does use some online writing platforms, but that may mostly be to hear the other instruments he can't hear right then and there. It's good to get an idea. But most of the composing is just done right at the instrument.
- Since he primarily writes the instrumental, the lyrical examples he showed me were all writing lyrics after the instrumental. Interesting.

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It probably would have been more helpful for me to have conducted this interview before writing my first song, but too bad I have social anxiety. I did learn a lot and had some of my previous notions confirmed, so that's good! I have to take into consideration the fact that I'm only writing on piano and lyrics are probably a bigger part (considering this is for a book), and this makes my job both easier and harder.

Hopefully I haven't peaked in my first song! Knowing myself, I probably have. Oh dear.

See you on the other side of the war~