Composing : Do You Finish Songs Fast… or Let Them Breathe? by Kat Spencer

Kat Spencer

Do You Finish Songs Fast… or Let Them Breathe?

Some pieces come through in one sitting.

Others take weeks… or years.

There’s something interesting about both.

Fast feels raw and honest.

Slow feels intentional and refined.

Which one is more true for your process?

Michael Teisan

I guess when it comes to songs that are geared towards a personal album, it can take me years. My best ideas have come from an hour or two of basic composition, but those songs also end up taking me a long time to finish and getting to a point where the perfectionist in me feels like it's worthy of being published. When it comes to films, I have a slower process where I watch the film once, then bring it into a DAW and watch it again while I record myself singing my instinctual sound ideas over it, then start to compose each scene from the beginning.

Haley Mary

It depends on the kind of song I'm writing. If it's a song about my cat, a love song or a song about something I've heard while walking around the city, it doesn't take me longer than a few days to write it. There have been other songs I've spent many months on rewriting, sometimes it takes me up to seven drafts before I feel satisfied that the lyrics are complete.

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