How to Write a Song
How to Write a Song
I put out a new song today. I want to walk you through how it came to be.
Most people like music. But most people don’t make music. Even among those that do make music, even fewer make their own music. Because of this divide, the general public seems to be fascinated by how songs get made, how someone like Paul McCartney can sit at the piano and walk away with “Let It Be” or “Hey Jude”.
I can’t provide specific insight into McCartney’s process, but I wanted to show you how that process worked for me when making my new song, “Move On Up”. I recommend reading this newsletter in your web browser, so you can hear the various audio snippets documenting the evolution of the song.
The Making of "Move On Up"
Over the last years, I’ve been making music with Max Rauch and Ken De Poto. Max runs Domestic Bliss Studios in West Orange, New Jersey. He is an effortless producer and arranger, enough riffs flowing from his head to supply a village of rock bands with songs for 100 years. Ken - a great songwriter in his own right - is a musical chameleon, able to compose on any instrument in any genre on the fly.
I won’t pretend like I am worthless in the music making process. I write strong melodies and effective lyrics. Plus, I’m very organized, a valuable skills when making music. Nevertheless, Max and Ken have elevated my skills. “Move On Up” - the lead single from my forthcoming album - is a great example of how.
“Move On Up” began to take shape on March 10, 2023. We had been working on a different song for most of the day, but I wanted to take a break to make something “dancy.” Max - a consummate professional - pulled out a drum machine and started making a beat. Once he had that beat looped, Ken picked up a guitar and started playing a slinky riff, which we quickly recorded.
Things were moving fast. Max knew I was worried, but he kept assuring me with what became the catch-phrase of the day: “Just let me cook.” Soon Ken grabbed the apron and dropped a funky bassline on the track. Now, it was my turn. I went into the vocal booth and improvised some melodies. I knew we weren’t going to finish the song that day, but I wanted to get some ideas down. You can hear what we came up with in the first minute of the audio clip below.
With that, the session was over. Max emailed me the file - jokingly named “Kenergy,” an ode to our collaborator - and then I was on my way. I was jazzed. I sent the audio to a few friends accompanied by a text like the one below.
To be clear, what we had was not a song. It was an idea. But it was an idea that got me excited. Nevertheless, I didn’t think about the song much until a melody struck me while I was running errands on March 27. This happens to me sometimes because I often hum when I’m walking by myself.
Armed with this new melodic idea - which I was thinking of as a bridge - along with the melodies that I improvised in the studio, I decided to try to fit them all together. This usually entails me sitting with my guitar, solidifying the melody, and then finding chords that work with said melody. If improvising is a mystical process, this process - albeit still inspired - is much more mundane.
Listening to this, you can hear my earlier melodic ideas, but something is different. There is now structure. It’s now a song. Well, most of a song. The lyrics are nonsense. I’m very picky about my lyrics. If I try to write lyrics while I am working out a melody, I’ll usually get stuck. To avoid that, I’ll sing anything that fits the melody. I know I can go back and change the words. Here’s the first set of words I put down on paper, along with some chords and doodles.
A lot of these lyrics are garbage (e.g., “Maybe we will go 1, 2, 3”). But there are also seeds of words that ended up in the song. “Maybe I should just call it a day / Catch a train to somewhere near L.A.” eventually became “Maybe I should just walk out the door / Catch a train to somewhere by the shore,” a lyric that makes much more sense given my New Jersey roots.
Furthermore, I was approaching a lyrical theme, namely the idea that we can’t let chasing the next big thing prevent us from enjoying what we currently have. “Maybe now is the best I will be,” I scrawled in my notebook a few days later. “What if that’s good enough for me?”
I sent what I had over to MAUCH (i.e., Max), Ken, and my cousin John - another frequent collaborator - on March 29. At the time, I was still using the name “Kenergy” for the composition. The message got three likes. We were off to the races.
I got another session on the books for May 25. That gave me almost two months to overthink and overanalyze the composition. This is my biggest flaw as a songwriter. I will lose sleep over details that most people will never notice. Here, for example, is another draft of lyrics where you can see this happening.
On the top and the right, I’ve written seven different versions of the bridge. I used the line “Slow it down / You’re a crazy child” - an allusion to Billy Joel’s “Vienna” - in every version, but I could not settle on the other lyrics. Here are three different versions from those drafts.
“Slow it down / You’re a crazy child / Take the lead / And you’ll forget to smile”
“Slow it down / You’re a crazy child / Move too fast / And you’ll forget to smile”
“Slow it down / You’re a crazy child / What’s the point / Of another mile?”
Though I ended up going with the third one, would it have mattered if I went with the first? Would it have impacted anybody’s enjoyment of the song? Probably not. But sweating the details is part of who I am.
Another detail that I couldn’t stop thinking about was on which beat the verse melody should start. In the demos that I’ve included here, it started on the and of one. That’s musical parlance for just after the first beat. But now I was thinking about starting it directly on the one. I decided to consult Ken on the matter.
Ultimately, Ken was correct. If I started it on the one or just after the one, it wouldn’t have mattered to your average listener. I was stressing over this because the refrain and the bridge both also started on the one. I thought it was boring to do that in each section. What I settled on was to start the first line of each verse couplet on the one and the second on the and of one, a happy medium of sorts.
With all of my thinking and overthinking complete, it was time for my May 25 session at Domestic Bliss. When I got there, I played the song for Max and Ken. “So, I was thinking,” I began, “I can record the new vocal over the beat from last time.” “What beat?” Max asked. I had to remind him of the beat from two months ago. He pulled it up. “Oh, we can’t use this,” he said. “That sounds like a bad Madonna beat.”
I was shocked. I had been working on this song expecting it to go with our original beat. But I also trusted these guys. Max said he had a better idea. While he went to work on getting some percussion down, Ken and I talked through the chords and lyrics. We made a few small tweaks, but the song was effectively set in stone.
Once Max had the percussion done, I recorded an acoustic guitar and scratch vocal. Then Ken banged out bass, electric guitar, and keyboards. By the end of that day, we had most of the recording done.
At another session a few months later, we added some back-up vocals and synths. Then we sent it to Skylar Ross to mix and master. While Skylar was working on that, my cousin John Cozz and I made some artwork for the project.
I love this song. I love the bounciness of Max’s rhythms. I love the honesty of the lyrics. I love Ken’s lead guitar. I love how much fun the last chorus is. I also love the process that it emerged from. It’s an illustration of the need to collaborate and the need to trust your collaborators, something I have struggled with for a long time. It’s also a reminder to myself not to overthink things.
This song was largely written across the three days. The first was when I improvised some melodies in the studio over a beat we later scrapped. The second was when I improvised the bridge melody while running errands. The third was when I put it all together in my bedroom with my guitar. Any improvements from all my tinkering over the next two months were marginal at best. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the song as much as I do. Click the button below to hear it on your streaming service of choice.
A New One
"Move On Up" by Chris Dalla Riva
2024 - Pop Rock
If you’ve made it this far and still haven’t listened to the song, you probably never will. But my cousin John Franklin and I made this super cool, low-budget video for the song last week. Check it out.
An Old One
"Move On Up a Little Higher, Pt. 1" by Mahalia Jackson
1947 - Gospel
Upon hearing that my latest single was called “Move On Up”, more than one person asked me if I was releasing a Curtis Mayfield cover. Of course, it is not a Curtis Mayfield cover. Maybe if I had a bit more funk in my soul it would be. If I had a bit more religious fervor in soul, then maybe my “Move On Up” would just be a cover of Mahalia Jackson’s “Move On Up a Little Higher”. If you can’t feel the spirit after listening to this song, you should seek help.
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That was fun more of this please!
Love the new song, Chris - as well as the post on your process for the track!