MAKING MUSIC, ISSUE 39, JUNE 1989

LYRICS

Songwriting by MIKE STOCK

No. But pop songs, with a few off-the wall exceptions, fall into one of four or five chord structures, all of them, every single one I can think of. There is the obvious (in C) C/Am/F/G, there are millions of examples. Sometimes people do that as C/Am/Dm7/G or Dm7/G7/C/Am. If you're a bit more skilful with your chords you could change the G7 to a G11 or a G augmented, colour the chords to make it sound different. Another structure that we've used for choruses is (in C) C to D7, keeping the C on the bass, then Bm7 to an Em. You can cycle those four chords around and pick out melodies.

How do you get going?

I start with a title. That defines where you're going, then you just design a route to get there. I'm not saying it's a road-map, there's no real formula involved, but it helps for you to know what you're aiming at. Having decided the title, I would want an introduction, and normally I'd use the chorus or the main theme of the song.

Fundamentally I'm the main writer, but Matt Aitken and I collaborate on the writing side. When we've got a backing track done and I'm pretty certain of a tune, Matt and I will sit down and put pen to paper for lyrics, quite painstakingly going through it.

I'm working on a new song for Hazel Dean at the moment. I have the title 'Can't Help The Way I Feel' but haven't written the lyric yet. But I'll describe in the verses what it is she feels, some of the problems associated with the fact that she feels that way. So when she finally says in the chorus I can't help the way I feel, this is me, this is the way I am, you're just going to have to accept me ... it'll all be a nice little route-map to get you there. Hopefully. Half the time, it's a matter of keeping it more simple than you imagine it should be.

I don't think anyone would use the word 'complex' to describe SAW songs.

I would rather say that they use studied simplicity. Every time I sit at the keyboard and try to write a song, I always, always, over-complicate at first. Then I strip it back down: I say this is bollocks, this is me masturbating at the keyboard, I've got to keep this simple. I'm trying to tell a story to people and my own intellect is getting in the way, the point is being confused either musically or lyrically. When you're actually doing something and you're successful at it, to those who can't do it, it always looks so simple.

Don't you ever want to write songs with more substance?

Well I do, but I don't inflict it on the public. I've probably got 200 or 300 songs that I've done in my bedroom in years when I was totally unsuccessful at it. I don't think our songs are insubstantial, for a start. But even if they were, that's not a value judgement on them because obviously people buy them because they like them. It's a studied simple approach rather than being insubstantial. There are lots of writers I admire because they maybe write a pop song with bitter twists in it, with a sardonic disengagement from life - but fundamentally I'm just a happy, uplifted person, and I like to make people feel the same.