I'm going to be the first one to admit that I'm still a supremely novice songwriter. I've been writing (and recording) them since I was about 14, and there are a lot of them at this point, but it doesn't mean that they're any good. They would be rush jobs, with rudimentary melodies, hasty arrangements, and first-draft lyrics. As a result, I'd write 20-25 songs a year, but they really wouldn't be that good.
Working on this album- finding twelve songs that I felt were good enough to be put on tape and shown to everyone, really spending time with every note, word, and part, and essentially thinking about them non-stop- has been such an eye-opening experience. I put a demo of Time Machine up on garageband.com (a site where listeners review songs based on production, songwriting, lyrics, and any other aspect you could imagine), and the comments have been so helpful- for the most part. I got, on the same day, two reviews talking about the 'abysmal lyrics' of the song and one 'best lyrics' reviewers' award. It can be confusing at times, but on the whole, I've gotten a lot of excellent feedback and food for thought.
At this point, I'm just frustrated that I can't spend all of my waking time working on this album. Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way, and rehearsals (for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, have eaten up my schedule to the point that the best I can do until I'm back home in a week is ruminate on what I want this album to be. I've still got some lyrics to hash out, some vocal techniques to try, so I'll be quietly keeping myself busy until I can throw myself into recording and mixing with all that I have.
Until then, here's a little video of me (and John Lagomarsino, the album's producer/engineer, among others) singing On The Willows from Stephen Schwartz's Godspell.