NPR’s Bob “All Songs Considered” Boilen is hosting an interesting series called “Project Song“. The premise is to assign a musician/band to write a song, put them in a studio for two days, and video tape the whole thing to show the world how musicians write (in a somewhat artificial, tight deadline). So far, Stephen Merritt (yep, a natural fit) and a DC band called Georgie James (who did a wonderful job!) took up the challenge, and these short videos not only gives us the glimpse into the creative process of song writing and group dynamics in a working band (fascinating subject on its own), the resulted exclusive singles are surprisingly of great quality.
What I found really interesting, though, is the way this song-writing process is framed around an idea not so dissimilar to our own at DK: namely, they use the picture/word combination to kick start the creativity, a la our mood board! You see, every episode starts with Boilen showing the musicians a series of pictures (like the one shown above) and short word/phrases. The musician then picks a picture and a phrase and tries to write around that image/mood. I think it’s a great idea–the image “board” gives the songwriters something to hold onto at the start of the process, and also guide the whole process. While the finished song plays, try picturing this initial image; the match is uncanny.
You can watch these videos at NPR web site. Check it out!
How a mood board jump-started DK’s creative process that led to a local Chamber of Commerce logo
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