Hey friends,
First and foremost thank you for reading this blog and watching my vlogs . The 1 minute behind the music thing I initially thought would flop out because I thought nobody would really care to hear about the woes of my teen years and early twenties. I didn't realize how many people shared the same experiences! Thank you for reaching out to me on Instagram, messenger, and at our shows and sharing with me all your stories, trials, tribulations, heart breaks, breakthroughs, etc... it's truly inspiring.
I am so glad that my music can touch so many of you and honestly when I write, my intentions are mostly for emotional release ,but also because I want those of you who are going through a tough time to not feel alone...like I did.
I have been receiving a ton of feedback about the new songs and questions regarding my songwriting process and how I go about creating my songs. I usually will respond with a joke,
"I was drunk like 99% of the Blissfulmess album...write drunk and edit sober is what I always say (insert my awkward laugh here)"
Although this sounds like I'm kidding this is basically the truth. You see... all my songs are parts of me....every song is me being transparent about different parts of my life...the parts that broke me in one way or another. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm walking around like a broken mess. I'm not...not one bit because everytime a situation broke me into pieces, God used that to change me and remold me into the fearless Lion I am today. I usually write about the situation when I'm either done mourning, ready to move on, or just ready to reflect on the hell I just went through. So when that time comes the reflection process usually feels like I'm ripping open the wound and inspecting every part of it . It f’ing hurts, it's agonizing, but that wound needs to be cleaned out...or it'll get infected...spread to my body and i'll get sick and die.
Hahaha okay okay that is a little dramatic, but it feels that way. So in order to do the cleaning I need an anesthetic something to numb it up in order for me to clean it properly, stitch it up, and heal fully.
So the cleaning up is me writing about it, the anesthetic is the alcohol, the stitching is recording the song, and when it's released into the world I can officially move on. The songs on the albums are my scars, my reminders of the pain I went through but the reminders of how faithful God was to get me through it and how strong it has made me. I wear every scar with pride because ...it didn't kill me. I lived through it.
I usually feel the itch to write in my seasons of sadness. I am diagnosed with depression so I tend to get into my grey seasons periodically and in these seasons I
Live at the gym to make my pores cry
Binge watch a tv show
Play guitar until my fingers hurt
I never go into a writing session with the idea of "I'm going to write a song and it's going to be about blah blah blah" . I usually have a few glasses of wine, or vodka, or a couple stouts and allow my brain to shut off for a bit while I allow my fingers to dance around on the fretboard. I record all my practice sessions just in case I come across something spectacular. I'm not some raging alcoholic (just want to make that clear) . If I come across something that just reveals what I am feeling I usually sing what's on my heart or just say a bunch of random words that fit and insert words that make sense as I go on later.
The next day I revisit my recording and track it correctly using logic, then I add an intro, verse, chorus, or whatever else it needs. I then bounce it to my phone and play it a million times on my 1 hour 20 min commute home from work, while I’m cooking, while I’m in the gym, showering, or sometimes I listen to it while I sleep. As I'm doing that I write verses, choruses, bridges, etc...
There are some songs that are made during practice and it comes from grooving with Jenna, Jeannette, and Oli. We seem to always be on the same page when someone brings a riff, drum beat, bass line, chord progression into the writing space.
For instance Coma was born out of a riff Oli came up with. Static Ground came from an intro Jenna created. These songs were born on the spot.
Each and every song has pieces of every member of Frequency Within in them and they wouldn't sound as amazing as they do if it wasn't for the bass lines, drum parts, or lead guitars. When I rip open my wounds to clean them out trust me my band family is there conducting the small surgery with me as well. If it wasn't for them I'd surely bleed out.
So as you see, there is a lot that goes into my writing process....
There is a lot more but I don't want to make chapters and chapters! Haha
Until next time my darling Freqs
Love,
Erica Torres