Blog: Song Flooding Continues Unabated

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I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was undergoing a song flood, with a total of FOUR new songs having been written. At the time that seemed like a big deal but I can now report that it was as NOTHING compared to the DELUGE that has continued since then, leading to the New Songs Total now standing at a mighty TEN SONGS! And counting!

THREE of these (or 30% if you prefer) are Doctor Doom songs, which are being lined up for next year's Doctor Doom SHOW. It's not going to be an Actual Musical or anything, as that would be complicated in terms of a) writing b) performing c) COPYRIGHT LAW. The plan though is to follow The Rule Of When Songs Happen In Musicals i.e. do them at moments when the emotions are so strong that it's impossible NOT to burst into song. As anyone who's READ my Doctor Doom book will know, there are moments when the emotions are SO STRONG that it's almost too much delight to cope with, so hopefully this will make it easier for everyone!

The rest of the songs so far (70%, fact fans) are a bit of a mixture. The PROJECT which has excited me into doing all this writing was originally meant to be concentrating on some of my old songs, and specifically the more "grown-up" ones, and so I HAVE written several like that, but I've also ended up doing a few that are ROCK BANGERS that will probably go into the BANK OF BANGERS for future Validators releases. I'm also wondering whether it might be a good idea to record a solo version of AI Guy for release early next year so that it's out in the world BEFORE The Terminators come and get us!

It's all VERY exciting for me, as it's been a reminder of how much FUN it is writing songs, especially when you've got one NEARLY finished and then have to spend three days trying to work out the last knotty rhymes. It's then possibly even MORE brilliant when you get one finished and can then spend the next week or so SINGING it to yourself all the time and giggling at your own COLOSSAL GENIUS!

Perhaps the BEST bit of all this is that it's reminded me of WHERE song ideas come from. Several decades ago when I first started writing songs I seemed to have ideas ALL the time - not necessarily GOOD ideas, but ideas nonetheless, and I had notebooks FULL of THORTS for things to write about. In the past decade or so that dried up a bit, as a) my BRANE was full of things like PhDs and so forth but also because b) I had lost track of where those ideas come from. For LO! it turns out that The Rule Of When Songs Happen In Musicals ALSO applies to when songs happen in real life i.e. when the emotions are so strong that it's impossible NOT to ... er... get a guitar out and spend hours and hours trying to think of a rhyme for "perceptible". Or to put it another way, when a THORT occurs to me and starts rattling around my BRANE I would previously just go and TELL someone about it, either in-house, in-pub, in-work or on THE SOCIALS. Now, however, I have remembered that if you let the idea MARINATE in your MIND for a little while it can start to RHYME and grow CHORUSES and so on and become an ACTUAL SONG. That's how I always USED to write songs, and now after many years it is how I am writing them again, and it's all rather lovely.

So yes, the total of new songs currently stands at TEN, but I am hopeful that it will grow significantly higher over the next few weeks. Stand by for further updates!

posted 19/12/2024 by MJ Hibbett

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