The man is a mystery, and an open book at the same time.... It's hard to explain, so hear it from Rob himself in this exclusive behind the scenes interview below.
"I think that one of the biggest challenges all bands and artists face is getting people to hear your music. The destination seems obvious, but the avenues in getting there can be over-whelming. A lot of people spend more time criticizing the evolving industry rather than engaging in it. At the end of the day you need to put your work in, and focus on the end goal, whatever that ultimately is. If I were to offer any advice, it would be to perform in front of an audience no matter how big or small, as often as possible. Nobody is “too cool” for a gig when they’re starting out. We’ve done tons of shows for an audience of one, mainly just the bartender. You tend to learn more from the not so great moments, and it makes you appreciate the high moments."
"There
really isn’t a defined “process” that I strictly adhere to, because you never
know how or when you’ll become inspired and it’s always different. I don’t just sit down and go “ok, today
I’m going to write a blues song”.
A lot of times I’ll write a piece of music, or a chord progression and
sit on it for weeks before it gets finished. Other times I’ll have some lyrics or pairing of words, but
won’t have the music until later.
I keep a notebook filled with random ideas and I have tons of song demos
that I record when I first come up with them. Sometimes I’ll re-discover something that I had totally
forgotten about, and it will become a song later. I think a lot of writers have an “idea junkyard” where you
keep bits and pieces of things.
Some you may use, others maybe not. I write on both piano and guitar, and I think that they both
warrant a different approach.
There are certain things you can do on piano that you just can’t do the
same on a guitar, and vice versa.
On the new record “Together”, “There May Come A Time” and “Like You
Could Always Do” were written on piano, even though they’re not particularly
piano-heavy songs. I usually like
to let ideas “marinade” for a bit.
If the melody or lyrics are still in my head the next day, then I know
it’s something worth finishing. To
eloquently paraphrase Willie Nelson “A song is like a fart. The more you ignore it, the more it
will annoy you. Sometimes you just
need to let it out”. There’s no
telling how long a song will take to complete. I’ve had times where I’ve written songs in under an hour,
“Staying Alive Ain’t Easy” was like that.
I started with the basic melody and everything else just flowed. The song “Read Your Mind” was
co-written with our drummer, so that was a different process too. He showed me the music he had in the
studio, and I went back to the hotel room after the session to condense the
structure a bit and write the lyrics.
One of my favorite aspects of writing is seeing where the song goes. I’ll bring in an idea or a
fully-written song to the guys in the band, and to see it evolve in a full-band
aspect is really exciting. It’s
cool to see what kind of stamp someone will put on your song. Having your band members convince you to
keep a song that you were intending to scrap is an added bonus too."
http://www.coldrosesband.com/
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