By Mike Ritchie(GuestWriter)
Using music as
inspiration for your writing can be beneficial in many ways but is most
important when it’s music you’re writing about. As a music journalist I travel
to different venues in the area reviewing concerts by local, regional and
national talent. I go to each show with a blank notebook and walk out with
several pages of bare bones notes in my own special unreadable to anyone else
style of scribble hieroglyphics. Writing rapidly in a crowd tight with people
or mosh pit can be very difficult so I often use 1-3 word clues for something
longer that I might forget about later. Sometimes I have to write at the speed
of the music depending on how many ideas flood my head at once and how fast I
can get them on paper.
I prefer heavier music
but you can listen and review any style or genre you prefer. I love the energy,
excitement and sense of danger at metal shows and I’ve had the ringing ears to
prove it. I’ve always tried my best to capture the live concert experience on
paper whether at a small bar, club or arena. When a band plays I watch how they
perform and how the music moves them, what emotions it brings and what body
language is used. I also watch how the crowd responds. Does a band play like
they’re at Madison Square Garden even if they’re in a back roads bar with 20
people?
The mosh pit or ‘pit’ is
a sign of respect that the crowd likes your music and thinks your mosh worthy.
The heavier and faster you play often the crazier/nastier the pit depending on
the type of metal you play. Sometimes singers call for a ‘circle pit’ or a
‘wall of death’ where a division line is formed then everyone runs into each
other.
I often describe the
sound of songs metaphorically like ‘the guitars squeezed and wrenched like
barbed wire around the throat.’ Using colorful sometimes graphic adjectives can
help the reader know the kind of metal the bands playing whether it’s speed,
death, grind-core, black, thrash etc. It will also tell some readers they
probably want nothing to do with it.
I’ve often tried to
paint pictures and landscapes with words to put the reader in the audience
whether they were there or not. If they were, they can say, yeah I remember
that part or damn, that was a hell of a great show. It also doesn’t hurt to say
nice things about a band when they play well and/or win the crowd over.
Sometimes covering music can be tricky especially if you’re not familiar what
the band or genre. When that happens I write down what I see and hear, what
images does the music, words or singing conjure up in my mind? I’ve yet to meet
a band that didn’t like good publicity no matter how basic or detailed you are.
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