- In December/January time, my Dad approached me about the possibility of writing a song for Mum as a gift for their 25th Wedding Anniversary. Initially, I had presumed he wanted me to write one from scratch but it later became evident that he wanted me to write one from a set of lyrics that he himself had written. Not only did I think this would be a lovely gesture for the two of them, but I felt that this would be a great challenge to push me out my comfort-zone a little.
- My Dad would probably be the first to admit that he isn't the most poetic person and his set of lyrics certainly reflected this. The character and sentiment behind them was lovely (and the fact that he had established some form of structure was definitely a plus), but it was also evident that he had used a lot of clichés, had used certain words and phrases for the sake of rhyming and had explicitly referenced their silver anniversary.
- I started the process by picking out the lyrics that stood out to me and deciding on the ones that I definitely wasn't a fan of - I didn't change anything much at this point but I veto'd most of the 'chorus' section in favour of the one line "Every moment so far has been precious and hopefully a taste of yet to come" and a couple of the odd rhyming schemes (although I didn't have anything to replace them with yet).
- With their anniversary being at the end of February I had quite a tight time schedule in which to write the song, so I sat down with my guitar and forced myself to stay with it until I got something I could use. I spent a few days experimenting with phrasings, progressions, fingerings and melodies until I found a few ideas I could begin to develop further. I was kind of going for a Reminder by Mumford and Sons vibe.
- I chose to stick with a simple AB structure as the lyrics had been formatted in this way. After forming a melodic/chordal template I began to finesse the lyrics to fit in this new format. I chose to keep a little of the cheesy stuff (Dad is a very cheesy person) and tried my best to keep the sentiment the same although I had changed the lyrics. I took some creative liberty with the line "Even my darkest day can't do shit when you're around" - I know Dad wasn't a fan but I really liked the line and wasn't keen to replace it with something I liked less.
- I was trying to go for song that wasn't a big grand gesture of love but more one that celebrated the little things in life and I think I've managed to do that. It isn't my usual style but my parents love it and I think it captures what is great about the two of them together.