Advantages Of A Later In Life Debut Album
Cris Cohen: A number of the songs on this album are full stories. Every song takes people on a journey, but with some there are characters and a plot.
Is it a different process for you to write a song like that? And also, does it just pop into your mind as a story or do you decide, “Maybe this should be more story and less autobiographical”?
Slaw: I rarely write a song that starts with the lyrics or the meaning. It really starts with the hooks and the music. And then I typically find something (to) latch onto it.
If it's something personal that I feel fits and starts that story, then I'll go down that road. Some of them are very personal. Some of them have nothing to do with me whatsoever. They just, to me, sound cool.
They are what I think would be cool with that particular music. For example, “Don't Go Down That Road,” that's a story about addiction, this gambling addiction, but really trying for it to be an overall metaphor for, “Don't go down the wrong path.”
Cris Cohen: It's a fascinating skill set. Because with that song, you can picture the bar. You can kind of see it playing as a film in your head. And yet, when you go back and you listen to it again, you realize there are not a huge amount of lyrics. I'm wondering how long it took you to develop that skill… “In just two lines I can set this scene and you will see it in your mind.”
Slaw: First of all, I really appreciate the compliment. I'm releasing my first album not exactly when normal artists release their first album. But I think I have a lot of advantages in that side because I have had so much experience. I've listened to so much music, so many different genres, and had a long time to play with things, play music, and write music. So I think it's the culmination of what you hear on the lyric side and the musical side.
It's a culmination of a lifetime of all that stuff. And when you produce your first album later in life, like I do, you get the benefit of drawing from a lot of different stuff, as opposed to somebody who's, whatever, a 21-year-old jumping out there. It's a different mindset. And hopefully that comes across in the music.
Slaw website: https://slawmusic.com/