Location inspiration

This post looks at how a location can inspire us to write with a focus on my birth city London.  Scroll to the end for writing prompts about locations.

 

Whilst wondering about how travel affects song writing I got to thinking about songs with place names and descriptions. Some might say that putting in a place name can limit the songs ability to appeal to a wider audience but I'm not so convinced.

Perhaps the image for someone who has visited that place may be more vivid, for me place names and specifics give a sense of stepping into someone's very personal world and exploring. I recently listened to a podcast on Soda Jerker on Song Writing  with the lead singer and songwriter of counting crows Adam Duritz. He was told early in his career that place names may alienate his audience, luckily he didn't listen as although I have never been to Baltimore him mentioning it made me feel like I caught a glimpse of the place he was born.

I was born in London and I feel like my city and I definitely have a relationship so I understand the personification that Anthony Kiedis uses in Red Hot Chilli Peppers 'Under The Bridge' where he talks about L.A. 

 

"I walk through her hills cause she knows who I am,

At least I have her love,

The city she loves me

Lonely as I am together we cry"

 This lonely city feeling is very familiar to me. Although I have many friends and happy memories which I wrote about in my Song 'London Planes" it is also tinged with an emptiness and sadness as my life has changed and I have less contact with friends I once spent all my time with. 

I actually wrote this song whilst in the city of Bath where they also have London Plane trees. These trees were introduced to cities to help with polution. I like the idea of trees watching you grow and protecting you even if you are unaware. I also grew up in the flight path so even if some interpret this song as aeroplanes they could be forgiven.

In Bath they have repurposed the old red telephone boxes as flower boxes which made me think of how we are the same shell just adorned differently. Also the purples made me think of mine and my best friends obsession with wearing purple when we were young.

This inspired me to write about my old city life and how things move on and change. I wanted there to be a contrast musically and I achieved this by moving between more sombre melodies with upbeat dancing melodies and rhythms emulating younger days of going out and dancing. 

 "Dancing solo my shadow reminds me of you

Now I'm laughing

 I hear the echoes of youth"

Whilst researching this piece it struck me that I had written a line that echoes Gerry Raffety in the sax heavy classic 'Baker Street' I wrote 

 "We stayed up all night, trying to forget the days."

 Raffety writes 

 "Another crazy day, you'll drink the night away and forget about everything"

This sums up a big part of my life when I worked in central London for around 5 years or more. I'd actually sometimes drink to avoid rush hour then fall asleep on the tube home. 

Gerry Raffety's 'Baker Street'  really struck me as I got older and had a long distance relationship. I would go into the countryside for the weekend and when I got back to the city I saw that I was paying a lot of money to live in a bubble of polluted air. I had said for almost 10 years that I should leave, however I always stayed as Rafety says

 " it's taken you so long, to find out you were wrong when you thought it held everything"

 I couldn't understand how people could live outside of a city until I did. 

According to Smooth radio Raffety's daughter Martha commented that Raffety had been reading a book that dealt with the themes of alienation and creativity whilst travelling between Scotland and staying with a friend in Baker Street London. 

So Raffety and I had been inspired by being in a new place.

This Song became my anthem of not quite being able to get out of City life as appealing as it might be sometimes. I was addicted to the hum of City life and culture.

 A song from my childhood 'West End Girls' by Pet Shop Boys always made me think of the class divide between East and West London. In fact this divide amongst Londoners goes for each region of london. But this song focusses on the limitations of City life. Living in a bubble of consumerism and living for the weekend. Rougher East end boys coming into the city to be with posher west end girls. The main inspirations for the lyrics according to Song facts came from literature and film.

"In a West end town a dead end world

The East end boys and West end girls...

Too many shadows, whispering voices 

Faces on posters too many choices

If, when, who? what?

How much have you got?"

It took me travelling around Australia for a year and living in remote communities to get the guts to move to Somerset and try country living.

Talking of Australia (as I often do) how could I write this without touching upon the Song "Down Under" by Men at work.

 In an interview with frontman and songwriter  Colin Hay with Soda jerker on songwriting Hay  says often people do not quite grasp that he is trying to highlight some of the social and environmental problems in Australia. 

In a Songfacts interview Hay reflects

"The chorus is really about the selling of Australia in many ways, the overdevelopment of the country. It was a song about the loss of spirit in that country. It's really about the plundering of the country by greedy people. It is ultimately about celebrating the country, but not in a nationalistic way and not in a flag-waving sense. It's really more than that."

He said he feels the indigenous people of Australia seem to grasp his message more. A great example of having a completely different experience of the same place.Sometimes we are so consumed with the message or experience we want to have that we don't see what is actually there which reminds me of 'LDN' by Lily Allen.

Although it sounds upbeat the lyrics talk of the darker side of London. She contrasts how it can appear great but when you look closer there are a lot of shady things going on. 

"Everything seems to look as it should

But I wonder what goes on behind doors

A fella looking dapper, and he's sitting' with a slapper

Then I see it's a pimp with his crack whore" 

A nice touch in this song is that you can hear London town names in the backing vocals.

 I must touch on a classic and one of my favourite songs 'Waterloo Sunset' by The Kinks. I love the contrast between the dirty busy city and the wonder and beauty of a city sunset.

"Dirty old river, must you keep rolling
Flowing into the night?
People so busy, make me feel dizzy
Taxi light shines so bright

And I don't need no friends
As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise"

My writing whilst living in London seemed mainly dark, introspective and about relationships. My songs still have these themes but I notice my more recent songs are coloured by the natural world and the relationship I have with it. 

Adele's 'Hometown Glory' literally glorifies city life, even the things that for some would put them off.

"I like it in the city when the air is so thick and opaque...

I like it in the city when two worlds collide, 

You get the people and the government everyone taking different sides

Shows that we won't take shit, shows that we are united"

I like how Adele focusses on the people of her area in  Tottenham, London and their sense of community. During an interview with Observer Music Monthly October 2007  Adele had explained that her mother was encouraging her to study outside of London and she wrote the song to explain why she was staying. I resonate with this as I was going to study creative writing at Norwich school of Art but decided to stay in London and later studied Popular music performance.

I grew up on a West London council estate. I experienced community from a young age( the good and the bad). Although London can be lonely and tough it also has great pockets of unitedness whether cultural or social. London has a lot of great things to do and see however it is my friends and family there that as Adele would say "are the wonders of my world"  and London Planes at its' heart is inspired by my friendship of over 20 years with my first Band mate and school friend Jodie who still lives in London and is still inspiring my music all these years on. 

At the end of London Planes I reflect on this day under a London Plane tree in Barnes, London with Jodie's sons.

"Under London Planes,

We watch your children play

Swap old stories 

Of when we were like them

And we start to laugh

At some unspoken truth

We're the same girls

Giggling through

Under London Planes"

Here is a Spotify playlist for some Location Inspiration

Here are some writing prompts for your own song about a place.

If this inspires you feel free to #nomadsoulsongwriting on Instagram or leave a comment below to show me your own song about a place.

Where?

Where you grew up

Where you have travelled to

Where you dream of visiting

A journey between places

A place you pass by and are curious about

A fantasy land

Consider

Sounds/sights/smells

What are the people like?

The architecture or lack of

The natural world

How do you feel about the place?

Does it contrast with somewhere else?

Has the place changed alot? Developed? Become run down?

Are you focussed on a small part or an overview of a whole city/country etc?

How you can musically convey this place by asking yourself;

Is it busy and frantic? Calm and relaxing?

Hot or cold?

Which instruments are common there?

Samples you could record there?

Natural sounds or buildings and vehicles

Is it spooky/haunting/joyful/party filled?

Which cultures live there? Could they be hinted at musically?how?

Media prompts

Watch documentaries or films set in a place you think might inspire you and notice how they are portrayed

Search photographs taken around the world 

Look at your own photograph collection of places you have visited

Look at lost places or abandoned cities