My purpose in writing is to provide a musician's perspective, and I take that seriously. Feel free to chuckle, I understand.

I've just finished removing snow from the driveway and throwing wood into the wood stove. Making music is year-round work, but performing it in public need not be. Keeping my mate and gear comfortable is also year-round work, and right now that means heat the house and clear the driveway.

In cold months many musicians compose new music for the better weather ahead. So, I have done for several years. We love to play, but traveling in snow is dangerous and best kept to a minimum. I don't perform much when it's cold outside.

Besides, who wants to load the gear by the dumpster at three in the morning when it's freezing outside? Not me.

So I write songs, weed out the worst and then record them. The best of them are available at my website, or you can hear us play live in a few months. Right now, we're in "woodshed" mode.

That reminds me. Hoist another log into the fire!

Time to reflect on our material. Write another love song? Hmm, no shortage of those. And I seldom write them, as love is private. Most are really disguised sex songs, so unless they are funny I'm usually turned off.

Musicians aren't the best source of relationship advice anyway.

Forget that. Watch the sun set.

I like simple songs that tell stories or create pictures. They should have a groove too, maybe a tricky lick. Not too many tricks mind you, (sure, I can do them) but it's fun to demonstrate some manual dexterity. They should have interesting lyrics.

Words are harder to compose than music, for me anyway. Words are personal, and must come from the heart. There are formulas for music, once you have a melody. But lyrics are often free form.

Of course, sometimes they're just kindling.

Did you know many composers target specific activities? You're supposed to write albums as if for a purpose, like driving to work or doing exercises—maybe "soundtrack' a dinner date.

I've never done that myself. Probably should, but instead I write a song and move on. Eventually, there's a collection of unrelated ditties and we pick the best from among them. I've written many tunes, but can't imagine what they might be the soundtrack for.

Yes, right. They're the soundtrack to a frozen musician by the dumpster at three in the morning. Ha, ha, very funny.

This year I'm being deliberate, focusing on the grander picture. More 'Sgt. Pepper' and less 'Yellow Submarine'. That reference is lost on the young, I realize. Look up "The Beatles."

We're writing a soundtrack for 2012. Not an apocalypse album, but quite a few folks will party like it's 1999 this year. Why not provide that soundtrack?

Surely there will be calamities, like last year. There will be good times, too, as in every year. In the throes of winter, we must remember that things are about to get a whole lot better.   
Really cold outside now. The studio is quiet, for once. I have an old familiar guitar to write with by the fire, the wind is blowing and I'm itching to play in the sun.

I think I'll write a song about that...
 
Mike Stanley