COLUMNS Recalibrating Your Musical Instincts
By David Myles
The pandemic changed a lot of things . We ’ ve all heard that a ton by now . But looking back on the last few years , it ’ s amazing the impact it had on how I make records .
For my first 14 albums , I had a pretty tried and true approach : 1 . Write the songs ( lyrics , chords and melody ) alone with my guitar ; 2 . Sing them a ton at home until they feel right ; 3 . Then bring them to the band ( and often a producer ) and work them into the live show ; 4 . We ’ d then perform for a while and I ’ d be able to test drive how each part of the tune was feeling and make adjustments accordingly ; and 5 . By the time we came around to recording the songs in the studio , I generally had a very good sense of where the songs were heading .
This was pretty much how I did things for years and I kind of started thinking that was the only way to do it . I was wrong .
What do you want to make ? Flashback to March 2020 and all of a sudden , I ’ m home ( along with everyone else ) and everything is up in the air . Live gigs are out of the question , getting together with my band is out of the question , and even going to someone else ’ s studio is out of the question . So , I had to figure out how I was going to create in this new environment .
Thankfully , I did have the desire to create . In fact , it felt like a need . I needed to be making stuff . And that felt good . With everything else gone ( the shows , my old way of making records , etc .) it brought me right back to the core of what it means to make music . It forced me to ask myself : What ’ s inside of me that I want to share with the world ?
I stopped thinking about : What does the audience want to hear ? What will work best for the band ? What will move my career ahead in the quickest way possible ?
Instead , I was asking myself : What do I want to make ? When all the other influences are taken away , that ’ s what you ’ re left with .
Trust your instinct and don ’ t overthink it That ’ s where I was at when I started making my first instrumental record , That Tall Distance . I had never recorded myself before . I did have a microphone ( only one ) and an interface and was slowly figuring out GarageBand by watching YouTube videos . So , every night ( after taking care of the kids all day ) I would head to my music room and start recording whatever ideas came to mind . No filter . Just playing guitar , experimenting with sounds , playing trumpet , and building instrumental hooks and forms that I would play to a click track .
Next , ( and this was an essential part ) I would send the tracks to my best bud and close collaborator , Joshua Van Tassel . He ’ s an extraordinary drummer and producer . He would then play drums on them . The ruling ethos for both of us was trust your instinct , don ’ t overthink it , move quickly , and have fun .
The whole experience allowed me to recalibrate and really tap into my musical instincts rather than relying on the more calculating , rational mind-oriented way of making music , which I think can be pretty detrimental over time . It was just pure experimentation .
A song is like a vessel With the drums in place and the forms shaping up , I would then send the tracks out to different players to see how they would interact with them . Dean Drouillard played bass , Asa Brosius played pedal steel , Leith Fleming-Smith played keys , and Andrew Jackson played trombone . They would record at home ( in isolation ) and send their tracks back to me .
I realized that a song is like a vessel ; it can hold all sorts of things . Sometimes it ’ s lyrics , sometimes it ’ s instrumental solos , but either way , the vessel has to be strong if it ’ s going to hold anything . So that became my goal ; to write good strong melodies , with forms that were solid enough to hold the strengths of the musicians that were going to play on it .
When I started , there was no plan to even release the music , but by the end , we had made something that I couldn ’ t wait to share with the world . And I ’ m so glad I did . Not only did it recalibrate my instinct for making music , but it went on to win a 2022 Juno for Instrumental Album of the Year ! What a trip .
And now , here I am , recalibrated and stoked to share yet another new album ( It ’ s Only A Little Loneliness ), which was made with this same approach and — most importantly — this same spirit of fun and trust ( except this time with lyrics !).
David Myles is a singer-songwriter from Fredericton , NB . His 15th studio album , It ’ s Only A Little Loneliness , will be out on Sept . 23 , 2022 . Myles won the 2022 Juno for Instrumental Album of the Year for That Tall Distance and hosts his own podcast called Myles From Home . Myles ’ career includes numerous awards and accolades , a robust artist profile stateside , a 2018 children ’ s book called Santa Never Brings Me a Banjo , and being featured on the biggest-selling rap single in the history of Canadian music , “ Inner Ninja ,” a cross-genre musical collaboration with rapper Classified .
PHOTO : MATT HORSEMAN
58 CANADIAN MUSICIAN