Dilemma: Kid’s Album or Songs About Being A Kid?
Saturday, February 7th, 2009Ah…we uncovered a dilemma!
We always said we’re going to write a kid’s album. However, in working on songs last night, we realized the songs we’ve created fall into two distinct camps:
- An album for kids
- An album about being a kid
There is a difference!
If we went the “album for kids” route we’d develop many of our sing-a-longs and nonsensical story songs that kid’s may enjoy. For example, we can go with developing “Chicken Pad Thai”, a nonsensical sing-a-long about food (SUCKast #8), “Put It In The Stew”, a song about one person’s quest for “the answer” a la Uncle Schelby (SUCkast #7), and “Tap Your Feet” – an instrumental encouraging the listener – kid – to dance, etc. (SUCkast #14)
If we went the “album about being a kid” route then we’d develop many of our songs that reflect on our own memories and have more adult-oriented takes on what it’s like being a kid. For example, “Joe Bully” a song that in the 3rd verse tells how the bully grew up and is still bullying people as he sells cars (SUCKast #6), “Going To School” a song that tells the story of a kid with OCD as he travels to and from school (SUCKast #4), or “I Like The Way She Cleans Erasers”, a song about having a crush on a teacher (just wrote last night!). In other words, an album that explores the state of being a kid (or as John, our drummer, coined, “Kid-dom”!) — something less interactive and that kid’s actually may not “get” (but adults our age would).
We didn’t realize there were two ways to go about this when we said as a band “let’s do a kid’s album” and are now going through our list of songs to see which ones “fit” together and which ones don’t.
So far, we’re leaning on doing what we usually do – writing songs about our take on being a kid.
Should be interesting to see what happens. One of the best things about RPM is you need to make the decision, cut, and run. There’s no time to get stuck and stall. March 1st is fast approaching!
