Songs

I recently hired a car and headed out of Sydney for a few days. I stocked up on goodies for the car and bought a bunch of new CDs; Battles, Bjork and Low. The Low album is beautiful; I aspire to their perfection. Their approach is so low-key and sparse, yet through this it allows you to fill the spaces with your own emotions - it empowers and engulfs you.

This album has a haunting title - Songs For A Dead Pilot. I'm adding it to album or song cycle titles I wish I'd thought of first:

* Songs For A Dead Pilot
* Songs Of A Dead Dreamer
* Songs On The Death Of Children
* Dead Songs

Can you pick the pattern?

I think Dead Songs by Andrew Schultz has the coolest conceit. He went around to all these graveyards throughout the coastal areas south of Sydney and picked all these haunting phrases from headstones. For me it now imbues the south coast with sadness. I like how art can do that.

I'm thinking of writing my own song cycle but I don't know where to start. I've been browsing the poetry shelves of bookstores but everything looks so lame. I'm a strong believer in being self-sufficient as an artist - if a million singer-songwriters out there can make up their own stuff then the task can't be impossible - but I just can't seem to put two decent lines together.

I need a good theme. I'd like a dark theme, something gloomy and despondent. I want to use low instruments, like piano and double bass. And I want to model my work on Low. Let me know if you have any ideas and I'll update you as I go.