**Guest post written by Bug Hunter, a "thoughtful, self-reflective pop" singer-songwriter out of Seattle.

 

 

"As a full-time song-writer, I have done my best to keep putting out new content often enough to keep my audience interested in my music while making sure everything about each song meets a SUPER high bar I’ve set for myself in terms of content and lyricism. I’ve averaged a new album every 1.5 years. But 40+ songs later, I found myself coming to the ends of my own experiences and imagination. I’ve covered fresh love, heart-break, sibling rivalry, and screen-peaking emails on airplanes. I’ve even ventured into ghostly neighbors, time-traveling toasters, and metaphorical bank robberies that may or may not be a stand-in for taking too many samples at Costco.
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I’ve covered all the usual bases.

The Inspiration

So when I found myself at the tail end of a 30-show tour with my good friend Matt from The Narcissist Cookbook, we began chatting about how the further we get into the “business” of touring and making music, the less time we actually set aside to do the thing that got us here — write songs. I’d estimate that I maybe sat down and wrote a song about 20 times in 2022 and 2023 combined. That’s 20 songwriting sessions in over 600 days. And I’m supposed to be a songwriter?

So we did the thing that two buddies in the 30’s do best: we started a podcast.

The Idea

The idea sprang from Matt’s confession that some of their biggest songs came from an old song-writing-challenge group that they hosted in Stirling, Scotland. That group eventually disbanded after a few sessions, but the idea was compelling: take one part external inspiration and one part accountability and maybe, just maybe, I could find a reason to put pen to paper on a more consistent schedule.

So we hopped on Zoom in September of last year, just 2 weeks after releasing our 4th album. Anyone who has ever worked on recording an album knows that release day is usually AGES removed from “writing” said music — I was ready to create something from scratch rather than nitpicking EQs and logic automation. I challenged Matt to write a song about “Fire, Water, Earth and Air” (with the caveat that they could not actually say ANY of those words). Matt sent me a link to Wikiroulette and made me write about the first article that popped up.
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And the big catch, after years of sitting on songs for months (or years) in order to perfect every little detail / lyric / production element before releasing them on Spotify? We only had three hours from the moment the challenge was issued to when we hit “record” again to show each other the demos we made for the second half of the episode.

And so we began an experiment called Jam Mechanics, kicked off with a song about the two-sentence Wikipedia entry for the mayor of a tiny commune in southern Italy named Francesco. Over the next 4 months we met regularly to challenge each other to push ourselves to write something — anything — and document the entire process. And of course, to put the newly-created song ideas in front of real people to be judged on our most primitive attempts at songwriting. Oof.

How it Went

I wrote a Diss Track aimed squarely at all of my fans. Matt wrote a Katy-Perry-esque pop track abut battling Cthulu. I penned a national anthem for a fictional country where I was the grand leader, and a theme song for a fictional sitcom about little foosball men. Matt’s children’s song about an Alpaca trying to escape his pen ends with the Alpaca committing arson and burning down the farm (why do you think he was locked in there in the first place??)

All of these demos were quick, dirty, unpolished and lacking the attention to detail I’ve always demanded of myself.
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But as improv comedy is judged by a different standard than a well-rehearsed stand-up routine, our 3-hour demos struck an immediate chord with our listeners, and we watched each episode grow in listeners for each of the 10 Season 1 episodes. These episodes aren’t hitting anywhere CLOSE to the Spotify numbers that we get on our fully produced tracks, but they are seeping into the soil of our hardcore fans in a big way. The people in our discords, attending my live streams, and those coming to shows — these core fans are now consistently requesting my demo about an Angel Park Ranger teaming up with the Devil after he finds him fishing for souls without the proper license.

And outside the success within the fanbase, I have written 15 songs in the past 6 months. Editing and releasing a new episode is motivating me in the same way that writing songs did when I first started writing 10 years ago. I was able to put out 10 demos for season 1 and actually hear what people attached to and got excited about — and I’ve put the two fan-favorites through the “full production” cycle to release as full tracks on Spotify this summer. Even one of my “clunker” songs that was desperately sub-par got its best lines cannibalized by another track as the bridge.

TAKEAWAYS

I hear the obvious question from the pros: “so... what do you MAKE from it”?

And that’s a really great question. We don’t do ad-reads or monetize the podcast beyond putting the demos on our band camp for free (or pay-what-you-want). We probably make 40-50 bucks in donations per episode from our fanbase. But here’s what I get that ISN’T measured in dollars and cents:

Finding an outlet for new ideas without a 18-month production cycle. A consistent schedule to set-aside time to write. A partner who will hold me accountable. A new way to connect with fans and show them more of my personality that isn’t relegated to a finished album every 2 years. All of these things are the big “wins” I’m taking away from Jam Mechanics.
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And you never know, one of these ideas could end up being my next BIG song that gets people coming back on streaming services, buying merch and coming to shows. I do, after all, have to support myself from my music if I want the free time to keep pursuing new ideas!

At the very least, I’ll always have one achievement no one can take away: having my song cited on an Italian Mayor’s Wikipedia page (and doubling its length from 2 sentences to 4!)

Season 2 of Jam Mechanics, hosted by Bug from Bug Hunter and Matt from The Narcissist Cookbook kicks off on May 20. Season 1 is available anywhere you listen to podcasts. You can find out more about Bug Hunter at HERE, where you can also view their full US tour dates co-headlining with The Narcissist Cookbook."

 

 

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