The Inspiration List

With less than an hour to go until February Album Writing Month, I've been furiously scribbling away at my ideas list (though no actual song writing has taken place so this is within the rules). I'm going to stick them up here because (a) I've committed to sharing this whole thing for better or for worse and (b) I want to get some contributions from other people to keep me inspired. So please, take a look at this list and ask yourself: "what do I want to hear a song about?" Then stick it in the comments box. There are three categories here; I've got song ideas, styles and approaches. Why not pick one of each and I'll see about giving it a shot.

Song ideas

• Backward in time song
• Paranoia-induced dystopian future song
• If I didn't have thumbs...
• Who's in charge of purgatory?
• Surrealist song
• Google-translated song
• Recipe song
• Protest/rebel song
• Letter to my 16 year old self song
• Imagining I'm an animal song
• How it might have been song
• Response to another song song
• Shakespeare song
• Left-handed song
• Made-up language song
• "Havana Montana"
• Wedding song
• Insane in the Ukraine
• If I was a sperm...
• Debate speech (water-tight first prop) song
• Diary of a ...
• Song for a montage
• Theme for a Bond movie
• A humble tribute to our Glorious Leader
• Song about a painting
• Film Noir theme
• Glasgow's East End: The Opera

Styles/genres

• Power ballad
• Acoustic
• Funk and soul
• A Cappella
• Blues
• String quartet
• Ceilidh
• Hair metal
• Falsetto
• Punk
• Sleazy 80s synth pop
• Irreverent gospel
• K-pop
• Musical Theatre
• Bedouin tribal
• Grunge
• Finger-picking

Starting points

• Melody
• Lyrical structure
• Chord sequence/harmony
• Rhythm
• Time (length)
• Time signature
• Tempo
• Bass line
• Drum pattern
• Key
• Jazz chords
• Number of lines
• Lines start with certain letters

This list is by no means exhaustive and I might not even use any of them. But it shows that with just a bit of creativity and not being too precious about the results, 14 songs in a month might not be impossible after all.

Anyway, I'm off to bed; tomorrow is going to be busy.