We are working on music for our next album. We've been fleshing out some new ideas. Inspiration is the easy part. Turning that riff or idea into something worthwhile is where it gets more difficult. Usually the initial inspiration comes as a gift, a bit of jamming or improv turns up an interesting musical nugget. Taking it from there usually goes one of two ways for me. Either the piece flows out in a flurry of inspiration. Like the faucet has been turned on and you have trouble trying to catch it all in your musical bucket. Or the second way, a bit of inspiration without much follow up. This is more akin to trying to tune in a fuzzy radio looking for that station that briefly came in crystal clear just a few moments ago. Sometimes you rely on music theory or patterns to poke around in the bushes. Sometimes that turns up more inspiration, sometimes not. When I can tune back in, it's obvious. Once the afterglow wears off, maybe the hardest part is deciding what's really good. Coming back to things after time, is usually the best judge. Being self critical is the hardest. It is easy to loathe everything, or even worse, love everything. Balance is somewhere between and is the voice that has to be continually sought. Despite the effort, the best things still feel like a gift.

OK, back to the drawing board...

-Jonathan