IndieSongwriter.net

Time Wille is, by his own admission, insane. That’s certainly the only plausible explanation for the challenge he set himself for the 50/0 challenge:

‘I plan to write, and record, 10 EPs, each consisting of 5 songs. Each EP will be published by a fictional musician or band, and I will attempt to immerse myself into the styles, methods and processes of these bands as I write their EP for them. I will be consciously avoiding any of my own default creativity. It’s all about re-invention.’

Thankfully his insanity turned to genius, and created songs like this:
Download JeNome – Matter Printers

1. 63 songs? That’s impressive. You wrote and recorded several EPs (my favourite is the Nigel Byron stuff… or possibly the JeNome songs), rather than just isolated songs. How did that help you meet the 50/90 challenge?

It didn’t The way I chose to do things complicated my songwriting a lot. Instead of just writing “a song” 50 times, I wanted to reinvent myself 10 times over, 10 EPs with 5 songs each. I used a different musical style every time, but also a different method of songwriting and performance, varying skill sets, instrumentations and vocal styles etc. This was utterly daunting at the beginning of the challenge, and I was afraid I’d bitten off more than I could chew. I found myself missing the band I had just left behind, and it was difficult to unlearn everything I had just spent the week immersing myself in. But in the end, as I had hoped, I got to the point where I wasn’t really writing songs anymore, I was “writing bands” with relative ease. Towards the end, writing an EP felt more or less like just writing a song.

2. Which of your 50/90 songs are you most proud of? What works well about it?

I like the sounds I created with the bands Smoke (pseudo-classical keys played on electric pianos combined with trance beats) and Mod (the last EP, containing a blend of all the previous nine EPs along with a full symphonic orchestra.) Some of the strongest actual songwriting of the challenge are probably on the Amsterdam EP. From a technical standpoint, I am most proud with Le Novo Ghost and DeviLoop. So it depends what I define as a good achievement if I have to single out a specific EP. On the whole, though, I’m simply proud of making it all the way to ten EPs with so different styles and methods.  

3. You clearly love using fictional characters in your songwriting. Where did that influence come from, and how does it help you come up musical ideas?

I have never used fictional characters before this challenge, but it was a truly interesting experience to try it. I think the influence came during FAWM 2008, where Charlie Cheney and I in the dying moments of the challenge did some last-minute speed albums. I did “pigfeast”, 14 songs in 4 hours, and Charlie did a two-day musical. I discovered that pigfeast sounded like an entirely different version of me, because the method was so different to what I was used to. The lyrical and musical content simply was nothing like the rest of FAWM for me. So that got me thinking – can I write different songs if I consciously take on different methods? That idea evolved, and in March I mentioned to Paul “Hoopshank” Turrell over an indian meal in Brick Lane in London that I may consider angling the 50/90 challenge that way. “In fact”, I continued, making it up on the spot, “I may go for ten EPs of five songs each, with different fake bands.” – “That’s a good idea”, Hoop said, and from that moment on I was committed to doing the challenge this way.
 
And so, now the name-dropping has ceased, I shall settle on just talking about the process. Burr Settles. Oh dear, I can’t seem to Rost! Stop! Sorry. Larry.W. Jones. Oh geez. This is a disaster. DISTAD! Wallbank.
 
Coming up with musical ideas this way is a pretty new process to me. I spend a LOT of time noodling around with each new band, getting into their style and method and trying to force it to become second nature. This became quite easy towards the end. And once the band was inside my head, I found that writing the songs was actually rather easy. It was like being this whole new band and being able to draw on this band’s new and fresh inspiration.

4. How much is your songwriting an emotional instinctive experience? How much is it intellectual?

Usually, I am 95% instinctive in my songwriting. I never write anything down except lyrics, which I often write as I’m going along with the recording. I usually have no idea what notes I’m playing, keeping first takes in the recordings and intuitively guessing what sounds good (and drawing on experience) even when doing complex orchestrations. But in this challenge, some of the bands (in particular, Le Novo Ghost) were very constructivistic, and the ground rules were utterly intellectualized. Even something as emotive as the drugo EP has very strict rules of form. If I should arrange my EPs in order of intuitiveness, starting with the least intuitive and most intellectual, it would go:
 
Le Novo Ghost
DeviLoop
Smoke
drugo
JeNome
Nigel Byron
ViKToR
Hannibal&Snablen
Amsterdam
Mod

I guess I have spanned a rather wide spectrum of songwriting method and expression in this challenge. I certainly feel like I learned something profound by doing it. I can never truly go back to “the old way of doing things” now. It has colored my way of expressing myself musically, for better or for worse, for ever. Personally, I think it’s for better. We’ll see in FAWM ’09…

_______

Thanks Tim! Go and listen to his songs, and be impressed!

And you do have your copy of my free ebook, right?