I’m not the best at writing love songs and I’ve only written a few. I’ve always known that I enjoy writing story songs but I recently realized while writing a new song that I go through a ‘what if?’ process when writing my ballads and story songs.
One of the best examples I can think of right now is “Man in the Suit of Mirrors”.
I got the idea for this song from a mattress commercial. The spokesperson in the ad said, “It seems like everyone is putting money in their mattress these days,” or something corny like that. But it got me thinking and this was my process after that:
- What if a guy actually did put money in his mattress?
- And what if he was really rich?
- (What if it was really comfortable sleeping on a bunch of money?)
- And what if he was a conned out of it?
- And what if the dude that conned him out of all that money was exceptionally good at being a chameleon to get what he wants from people?
An hour later “Man in the Suit of Mirrors” was done.
I write a lot of these “what if?” tunes. Take a listen to some of my stuff again and see if you can pick any out.
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