My Creative Process
Techniques
I found that the best way for me to write songs was to start with a riff, then add chords, make up a melody, and finally add lyrics.
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I also regularly write in a journal, which I use to organize thoughts, document ideas, write down tablature and chords, and keep anything else I find relevant or interesting to my capstone. You can find annotated pictures of my physical process journal (or in the "journal" tab) here.
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Additionally, you can read excerpts from my online process journal (including sketches, audio clips, and my creative thought process) here.
Inspiration
Much of my creative process also involved simply listening to songs I enjoyed. A few examples include "Nothin'" by Townes Van Zandt, "Take Care" by SASAMI, and all of Big Thief's album Two Hands, but especially "Rock and Sing" and "Not." Also, this playlist.
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Here you can find the full Spotify playlist of songs I used as inspiration for my capstone.
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I also take a lot of inspiration from other writing. "Hedera" was inspired by illustrator Kelsey Wroten's Evergreen.
Album Artwork
Before I even started my capstone, I knew that I would want to do the artwork for the EP myself. One drawing I've done that I've kept with me throughout the years (pictured above on my dorm room wall) is a graphite drawing of three hallways, enveloped in a family-crest-like frame decorated with flowers. I always really liked the imagery of the dark, empty halls, and associated them with feelings of loneliness, disorientation, and being lost - a general feeling of trying to navigate the unfamiliar. Which is something I feel like I'm doing constantly, both in a spatial sense and an emotional one.
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Writing this album was primarily me trying to make sense of past and present relationships I've had with myself and other people. What's simultaneously heartening and haunting about the hallways is that they appear like they could lead anywhere; at the end could be a light, or, a dead end.
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The album artwork for the EP is the aforementioned graphite drawing envisioned in painted tapestry form. The painting was vastly inspired by 17th century Delft tiles, famous for their blue-inked images that depict stories. I thought it was fitting to draw a connection between this artwork and the tiles because my EP is primarily influenced by folk music and storytelling. Additionally, I chose to make the art into a tapestry because, like music, tapestries are more easily mobile and shareable than a rigid stretched canvas painting.