In my last newsletter (which you can recieve by entering your email into the ‘join the mailing list’ box on the right of the screen) I asked if anyone else on my mailing list was taking part in the 50/90 songwriting challenge.
One of the people who emailed in reply was Jeff Charreaux of the band Ultraviolet Eye. I took the opportunity to interview Jeff about his songwriting:
Tom: How did your songwriting career begin?
Jeff: As a teenager, when the main songwriter of my first punk band didn’t show up to a recording session for a compilation that was going to have the Dead Kennedys on it, we learned and recorded one of my songs.
Download Ultraviolet Eye – Before Sunrise
Tom: Your latest project is an album of Coming of Age tunes inspired by Ethan Hawk movies. How did you come up with that idea?
Jeff: In an art class, we explored brand identities of the things people use to decorate their personal environments—books, paintings, lighting, scents, background music and t.v. We studied the work of New York artist Jennifer Dalton and the Pitchfork semantics project: www.pitchformula.com We had to compile inventories of all our friends’ environmental ‘’ branding ‘’ products. The hard part of the assignment was finding some metonymy–what was a common thread? Ethan Hawke movies seemed to be on in the background more than any other thing that I cataloged. The theme in all of them seemed to be: don’t give in; don’t sell out; don’t compromise.
Tom: Personally, I think Coming of Age is one of the best concepts for an album I’ve heard in a long time. How has your songwriting reflected this concept, both lyrically and musically?
Jeff: I had to go back and watch the movies that had been in the background and take notes on how they expressed the concept of coming of age and holding onto your ideals. Sometimes the titles worked to inspire lyrics for the chorus (Gattaca, Before Sunrise). Sometimes they didn’t (Hamlet, Great Expectations). To get contrast between the verses and choruses, I took the most basic approach. On the choruses, I used less words, longer notes at a higher pitch than on the verses. Also, to have a sincere–instead of ironic or kitschy resonance–I started with the I IV and V chords in the chorus for nearly all of them. I tend to shy away from that because it’s hard to not sound vanilla or generic with such obvious chords. I used the pentatonic scale in the choruses to add some color.
Download Ultraviolet Eye – To Be or Not To Be
Tom: Every songwriter needs some music theory. How do you use your knowledge of rhythm and harmony in your songwriting? Is it in the back of your mind, or are you conscious of the theory behind your songwriting?
Jeff: Music theory is often in the front of my mind and can be a problem. Also, my favorite music is somewhat droning or repetitive like, electronic, Interpol, Eno, etc. Once my classical guitar teacher showed me how to play ‘’ How Soon Is Now ‘’, he said it sounded like a low-energy David Bowie. Anyway, after writing many angry punk rock songs, I had to work on finding out how to put contrast and interest into my chord progressions and melodies. I would get inspired mentally by an idea and lyrical possibilities, then try to communicate using word logic rather than emotions. Maybe that comes from being sent to Catholic school.
Tom: I’m currently writing a series of articles on the question ‘what makes a good riff?’ How would you answer that question?
Jeff: A good riff gets stuck in your head and makes people want to play it–even if you don’t play guitar at all! Like ‘ Smoke on the Water ‘, ‘ Iron Man ‘ or ‘ Enter Sandman ’. As simple as a nursery rhyme, but not in a major scale. Anyone with young nephews can attest to this!
You can find out more about Ultrviolet Eye at: www.lowartmusic.com
You can find them on CDbaby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/UltravioletEye1
