People always ask my about the evolution of a song. They are all different but most of my songs start with either a lyrical idea, melody line or some kind of groove.
Here is an example of my writing process with a song I wrote called “I Love You More”.
From inception to creation and then to production.
Melody Demo of I Love You More
(Colin Arthur Wiebe)
I was watching the Michael Jackson memorial and during his brother Marlon’s speech, I heard him say that whenever someone said “I love You” to Michael Jackson he always replied “I Love You More”.
I took the little piano melody and added lyrics to it inspired by Michael Jackson’s comeback. After I told my mom this story, she told me that her and my dad had been saying that to each other for years. Here is my first version of the song sung early in the morning.
Vocal Demo of I Love You More
(Colin Arthur Wiebe)
After writing the lyrics and melody, I wasn’t 100% sold on the structure. I called up my friend David Pickell who is a Juno Award winning composer and arranger and booked a writing session with him. After a few cups of strong coffee and juggling lyrics and changing keys, we recorded a quick demo in his home studio in about an hour. The vocal was in one take reading the new lyrics. Since this recording we have changed quite a few lyrics around, “star in the sky” just couldn’t stay LOL
Sketch Demo of I Love You More
(Colin Arthur Wiebe, David Pickell)
I did the bed tracks with producer Jeff Dawson at Bryan Adam’s studio (The Warehouse).
Here are the basic tracks.
Darren Parish on bass
Neko Friesen on drums
Dave Pickell on grand piano
Instrumental Demo of I Love You More
(Colin Arthur Wiebe, David Pickell)