# Song 3: "Dry as a Bone" By [Andy Barr](https://paragraph.com/@andybarr) ยท 2022-03-14 --- If you write while you have writer's block do you have writer's block? _(This entry uses audio links. For the version with inline audio,_ [_please visit my website._](https://www.andybarrandy.com/post/doin-it-wrong)_)_ ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/ec906683130d40e17a8122d9333d2cbf7086cc68fb9af0f0b389c244ccc7959b.jpg) Liner Notes ----------- Last week I was commiserating with my friend Dave Wright about how songwriting is exhilarating but also torturous, and that sometimes we question why we still do it. Truly, I am never more liberated than when creating a piece of music that mirrors the way I feel inside. And never more devastated than when I fall out of love with that same piece of music a month later, usually after deciding it's my finest work yet. I get stuck in the details, digging too hard at a groove or endlessly mangling lyrics to achieve some new clarity of thought, and then suddenly I'm on the side of the road staring at a pile of garbage with no discernible shape or intent. It's defeating and disorienting -- what was all that time and searching for? I started "Dry as a Bone" in early 2021, in the midst of one of these deep ruts. I had just spent weeks chasing my tail around a demo called "Blake\_Mills\_12-18," named after a producer and artist who is in my opinion the best guitar player of our generation. Blake's playing is virtuosic and wonderfully musical and I'm super inspired by him, but I put him way up on a pedestal and often fall into discouraging comparisons. Where I get stuck is in thinking that no matter how well I play a part, it could always be better, groove harder or funkier, so I'll end up looping a section of verse or chorus over and over and over again as I attempt to prove it. Sometimes this goes on for an hour, sometimes it goes on for days. It definitely looks crazy from the outside but I don't always notice when I'm in the middle of it, hot on the trail of perfection. Objectively I realize that the perfect groove doesn't exist, that this good feeling actually comes from lots of tiny imperfections held together in sync, but ever since I heard Blake Mills + Pino Palladino sit in a pocket it's been hard to accept the gravel I find rolling around in mine. I can always do better because my standards, however impossible, are somehow achievable by others. After an unreasonable number of days in a row beating myself up over this song, I finally gave up. I'm not sure if I was intending to give up or just take a break, but I haven't returned to that demo since. R.I.P "Blake-Mills\_12-18." Here's where I left it: **"Blake-Mills\_12-18" Demo, January, 2022** [https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/blake-mills\_12-18-demo/s-6r6CLI8YEa7?utm\_source=clipboard&utm\_medium=text&utm\_campaign=social\_sharing](https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/blake-mills_12-18-demo/s-6r6CLI8YEa7?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing) Buzzing and defeated, I skimmed a list of sketches in my projects folder and clicked on one called "90sdance again." Sounded promising. The sketch itself was almost nothing, just a 2-bar drum and keyboard loop, but the feeling of it was refreshing. There was an immediate spark of recognition and I decided to find out what it wanted to show me. The shift to working on "Dry as a Bone" was a total emotional and physical one-eighty. Where "Blake Mills" was asking for a deep, laid back, swaying groove, "Dry as a Bone" was just straight 4-on-the-floor dance beat, easy to play along with without needing to micromanage the subtle push and pull of the arrangement. The groove was plain and solid and I just needed to hang on as far as it wanted to go. Here's the 2-bar loop that turned me on: **Demo #1, January, 2021** [https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/dry-as-a-bone-demo-1/s-uvQx9W6RYZH?utm\_source=clipboard&utm\_medium=text&utm\_campaign=social\_sharing](https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/dry-as-a-bone-demo-1/s-uvQx9W6RYZH?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing) I started expanding the song by improvising on bass, a favorite way to learn about any piece of music. Through the improv I found the harmonic movement for the chorus and then started singing over the top to find a melody and some words. You can hear me beatboxing the intro to create some atmosphere, and then spitting a mix of nonsense and lyric couplets. Here's an early demo of this process: **Demo #2, January, 2021** [https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/dry-as-a-bone-demo-2/s-3Jvk0R66KRJ?utm\_source=clipboard&utm\_medium=text&utm\_campaign=social\_sharing](https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/dry-as-a-bone-demo-2/s-3Jvk0R66KRJ?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing) This version already has a lot of the character of song (Beegees? Thriller? Gorillaz?) but lacked focus and dynamics. Fortunately I was feeling way more inspired than I had been working on "Blake Mills" so I continued moving forward in an effort to finish the song before the energy dissipated. New ideas were coming quick and went right into Logic so I didn't even pause to make voice memos. The first full demo came together in a couple hours and is a great example of how an effective song sketch works for me. At this stage the composition feels like a seed that already knows how to be a tree, so I just need to attend to it with a little water. You can already hear so much of the finished piece: 1. The drum, bass, + keyboard groove 2. The vocal pad + brass synth in the chorus 3. The mirror-based lyric structure 4. Some "desert" imagery in the lyrics 5. Dissonant harmonic content from the piano 6. The call/response background vocal ostinato **Demo #3, January, 2021** [https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/dry-as-a-bone-demo-3/s-7VpR43q9347?utm\_source=clipboard&utm\_medium=text&utm\_campaign=social\_sharing](https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/dry-as-a-bone-demo-3/s-7VpR43q9347?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing) It was a solid vibe and I remember taking a few breaks to just dance around the studio to the music. This was a great sign. Joy! Songwriting! Fun! This is why we do it, Dave! Still, as inspired as my body was, I hadn't found any additional lyrics and I was dreading the feeling of being blocked. I tried to move through the dread by scouring lists of words on Rhymezone.com for inspiration, but I didn't make any progress. I tried Thesaurus.com. No headway, advancement, breakthrough or development there either. I flipped through my journal. I sang and babbled unintelligibly. Nothing was working and my studio day was dwindling away. I felt the fear creep into my stomach. Writer's block is a specific feeling for me, a dry, dusty, clenching sensation, as if my spirit is parched and refuses to drink. Frustrated by the feeling I noticed my vision narrow, then started singing about the frustration itself, pulling in whatever "dryness" descriptors I could find and committing them to paper. The metaphors were mixed and stacked but they were at least a start, and it was literally the best that I could manage in that moment: writing poorly about writing poorly. For the verses I decided to lean on the mirror device I'd already improvised, which is taken from The Wallflower's "One Headlight" ("I turn the engine but the engine wouldn't turn"). This allowed me to make two lines out of one, cutting my work in half and making the task more manageable. I filled in the rest of the gaps and tried singing my new lyrics over the music. When I closed my eyes I found myself in a wide and cinematic space, speeding in a mad-max car through a desert landscape. The car was almost out of gas but the driver continued shifting gears and pushing forward anyway, exhausted but determined. By focusing on the visuals in the music I was able to channel lyrics for the vocal ostinato ("I'm built to consume, but not to control, etc") that felt honest even as strange as they were. To me they sounded like the voice of the car itself, Knight-Riders' "Kit" driven to the brink by a sadistic Hasselhoff. Through the lyrics I was able to process what I put myself through on "Blake Mills," the extended dry-heave of working for weeks and weeks with no success. I saw myself chasing perfection, ultimately ending up drained and dehydrated in a barren landscape. I saw myself giving up. My subconscious created "Dry as a Bone" to show me what the fuck I was doing to myself. Far out. Songwriting is just a mirror. This blog is a mirror too. (This is why we do it? Dave?) As I got to the bridge I took a moment to slow down before deciding to merge back onto the great highway. In this liminal space I ask questions about my intentions, I point out some destructive patterns, I activate my turn signal, and let the music swell before a final moment of clarity: "I'm ready to change." When this moment hit I felt it deep. I was hearing what my spirit needed, loud and clear. I watched the car became a Transformer and slowly reconfigure while doing an awesome robot dance. This still totally makes sense to me and if I ever make a music video (or musical?) this will be what happens at the end. From beginning to end this song took about 3 days to finish, if you don't include the year-plus I've waited to release it. It's crazy because it has just as much complexity as any other song I write, but without all the torturous labor. This helps me believe that bursts of creativity are possible for me, and not every song wants to be dragged over shards of glass for months and months. Some are ready to pop right out. **Final Version, March, 2022** [https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/dry-as-a-bone/s-LwEPL9FATiQ?utm\_source=clipboard&utm\_medium=text&utm\_campaign=social\_sharing](https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/dry-as-a-bone/s-LwEPL9FATiQ?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing) **Process Playlist** [https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/sets/dry-as-a-bone-extras/s-1VLkvAInhQo?utm\_source=clipboard&utm\_medium=text&utm\_campaign=social\_sharing](https://soundcloud.com/user-809474682/sets/dry-as-a-bone-extras/s-1VLkvAInhQo?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing) --- *Originally published on [Andy Barr](https://paragraph.com/@andybarr/song-3-dry-as-a-bone)*