Which comes first?

[NatureBoy]

The lyrics or the music?

[Unremarkable]

The Chicken.

[Forrest]

The obvious setup or the tired punchline?

[John]

Now, now, don't make fun. The lyrics are the hard part. Or at least the part that I work on the hardest. It's not so much that they come in any particular order though. I'm always working on both and sometimes they come together and other times they end up fitting together and then other times one gets finished and I'm scrambling to make up the other. I was writing the lyrics to Scared Straight while I was standing in front of the microphone with a half an hour left to get a final vocal take,.

Well, actually, the more I think about it usually the music comes first. Hmm.

[miss michaela dee]

I was writing the lyrics to Scared Straight while I was standing in front of the microphone with a half an hour left to get a final vocal take.

Sounds like someone works well under pressure. (;

Well, actually, the more I think about it usually the music comes first. Hmm.

Is it horribly difficult to match up the rhythm of the song with that of the lyrics? Do you often find yourself having to compromise one or the other to make it all "fit" together?

[grant]

It's not the chorus, then the verses, then?

[Unremarkable]

I was writing the lyrics to Scared Straight while I was standing in front of the microphone with a half an hour left to get a final vocal take

Like in the liner notes, the line goes: "It's true little miss mean mini bar guard" but I'm sure you sing "It's true blue miss mean mini bar guard".

[grubi]

Music first -- nearly every time. Then you can get all into the haiku mindstate as you try to squeeze your thoughts into proper rhythms and syllables.

At least, that's how I do it on my rockin' new record, produced by the Immortal Canard.

[NatureBoy]

It wasn't a setup forest, it was a legit question...I'm not trying to waste anyone's time.

John: are any of the lyrics a collaborative effort upon finding a theme or idea to sing about? Do you accept input from anyone else in the band, or is writing the songs a purely solitary, cathartic act?

What about the music? Will one of you play a riff and just build off of each other? Or is there composition first and messing around second?

I'm just interested in hearing how this all gets made...

[John]

In the Long Winters the songwriting is pretty much a solo effort. Michael and Eric wrote their own parts for the most part and Sean's harmonies, of course, are from his mind only. One of the reasons that our live show sounds different from our records is that everyone's input is felt in the way the songs evolve. But we don't really write as a group.