The Verlaines Quotes

I was an avid radio listener when I was a pre-schooler. Loved the one by the guy with the rough voice that they played quite often but not as much as the one by him they played only occasionally. I later discovered these to be Tambourine Man and Positively 4th St. Probably prior to this was my dad playing and singing songs (he was rudimentary guitarist but good enough for toddlers to be impressed) at bed time, Harry Belafonte, Kingston Town that sort of stuff. I remember the chorus of that song, in particular the ante antepenultimate chord being profoundly sad. 
Graeme Downes

I usually pick up the guitar and noodle away until something strikes me as being significant or interesting. At that point I start to hear where it could lead. I try harder these days to get an idea of the lyric and the melody as early as I can (contrary to previous working methods) because messing around with chords and working up elaborate structures can be a waste of time as mentioned before. The lyrics will still take me a long time to refine but as long as I'm clear what I am attempting to write about I can get this done relatively quickly now. Recently I've started actually scoring the songs up on Sibelius so I can experiment with arrangements for horns and strings etc. 
Graeme Downes