Too Dark To See – Song and a Chat

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:06 — 22.7MB)

Episode#126: Too Dark To See (Song starts at 3:33)

Hi, for this episode I recorded a conversation with Paul Dredge, the co-composer of ‘Too Dark Too See’. Although the audio quality isn’t quite up to scratch, I think this was a well worth while exercise. The resulting candid conversation offers an insight into our songwriting style/relationship (and friendship) in an engaging and entertaining manner.

‘Too Dark To See’ is track number 3 off our new folk-rock album, The Untrodden Track. It’s one of my favourites on the album.

Where did this song spring from?

I remember I worked backwards from the title – which may or may not have come from this (not sure if I’m making it up – perhaps the similarity struck me later): I’m a big fan of Bob Dylan. His (brilliant) song Not Dark Yet from the album Time Out Of Mind may just have inspired me… what if it was ‘too dark’ ? How would that work as a song idea? …

Us songwriters are magpies for sure. We are what we listen to, that’s for sure. Music inspires more music, art inspires more art, life inspires art..and ..art inspires life. I think it’s a cyclical evolving scenario.

You’ll get to hear (including some actual audio) about how Paul provided the chords and feel as I improvised the melody over the top. This is the way we do it when we write in the same room together. We stumbled across this process and discovered it works really well for us when we were on the road together.

I write the lyrics before hand and we take it from there together, in the moment. We work quickly together. It’s great fun to write songs like this with Paul.

You have to be very supportive of each other. It comes down to mutual respect. A healthy dose of humour appears to be a key when mistakes are made. It’s a great way to diffuse any potential tension and keep the ball rolling.. I also think any hints of frustration or manipulation during the process shuts the muse down.

I’m particularly happy with the arrangement of this song. You’ll get to hear it on this episode, of course. The interplay between the guitar and piano underpinning the vocal harmony, etc (If you like it, please do check out the album).

Here’s the link to all 12 songs – 30 sec samples – and links to streaming for the full album on your favourite platform.

I ran out of time to talk about the lyrics of Too Dark To See (You can read the finished lyrics on my blog post), as usual www.petepascoe.wordpress.com

I found the original draft today and discovered a few of the edits that were made. This is part of the usual practice of writing a song…

One step at a time. Never lose sight of the goal I keep reminding myself as I follow the winding path,

became

One step at a time. Never lose sight of the goal I keep reminding myself as I fall

I think this is much stronger. The word fall is so unexpected. The black humour here allows for a more digestible semi- tragic image of …hopelessness in the moment. Straight away this opening statement establishes the tone and sets the scene in terms of the narrator not making any headway at all on the path for the moment. I think we can all relate to that.

It’s a bit like the stand up comedian making a personal confession – it’s a way of drawing the audience in, gaining their trust by divulging something quite personal about themselves.

You don’t get much time in a 3 minute song. Every word has to count & perhaps match the syllable count of the line in the previous verse so:

I see

Too dark to see, And There’s nothing to hear Just a high ringing in my ear

became

Too dark to see, And There’s nothing to fear Just a ring in my ear

Again, I think this is much stronger: acknowledging it’ll probably all work out on the end one way or another , while the ring in the ear alludes to the strange thing that can happen at times of a total awareness of an acute emotional response. At the time, everything else seems to diminish except the extreme moment at hand. There’s no escape. eg, the discovery of some sort of trauma, extreme embarrassment, etc.

I think this perhaps is a big part of the art of lyric writing: the subtext is inferred – the listener can fill in the gaps with memories of personal experience.

I think its worth noting these edits happened in an instant, creatively, as the melody and chords were being composed. Often the most magic steps forward happen in the moment like this.

I love lyric writing. Out of all the arts I am fully engaged in, this is perhaps one of the most rewarding.

OK, thanks for having a read . I hope you enjoy the episode.

Pete.