In The Studio: Gimme Momentum

Imagine being one of those super strong dudes on TV who try to pull an entire airplane with a rope.

It’s really difficult to get the thing moving to begin with (that’s starting), but it’s equally (if not more) difficult to maintain momentum and KEEP it moving. To start, stop, start, stop over and over again is exhausting. It takes a lot of courage to start a new venture.

You have to fight back the fear and lies and step into this project, saying (if only for a brief moment), “I can do this.”

Starting is massively important. But once you DO start, your focus must now turn to maintaining that momentum. Otherwise you’re setting out on a frustrating mission, a never-ending project.

I don’t do this very well at all, so I’m preaching to myself. A few years ago, after writing 50 songs in preparation for releasing a new album, I scheduled a big tracking day. I chose songs, recorded scratch tracks, wrote up charts, and scheduled Joel and Tim for a one-day tracking session at my studio.

The day came, and we knocked out nine songs in about six hours. In one day we had drums, bass, and either guitar or keyboards (whatever I was playing) recorded for most of the album. I felt like the king of the world.

In the past, it would’ve taken a few weeks to each record our parts individually. This time, we had knocked them all out in a day. We started around 8am, took a break for lunch, and finished around 3pm. It was such a good day.

That was July 15, 2014.

When did I release that album?

April 7, 2015. Almost nine months later.

Now, is that a bad thing? Finish an album under a year? Of course not. But here’s what happened:

After the initial tracking day, I felt amazing about my progress. I felt like the album was all but finished. I just needed to lay down some guitars, keyboards, and vocals and call it done. I felt so good about things that I didn’t touch the project for at least a month, probably longer.

I listened to the rough mixes from tracking day. I basked in the glory of that day for weeks and weeks without taking a single step towards finishing the project.

I lost the momentum.

I could have ridden that huge wave of momentum following tracking day and knocked that album out in just a couple months. But I didn’t. Instead, I let the momentum die. Then I played that game of “let’s get this thing moving again,” over and over.

That was a very sporadic album for me. Because the momentum was gone, I would work in bursts. I would get myself into an excited frenzy and do a bunch of work, then I would take a few weeks off.

Each time I took a break, the momentum took a break with me. It was like pulling teeth to get me back in the studio to work on the project. When I worked on it, I felt great. I loved it. But there was something about the size of the project (a full band, 13-song album) and the lack of momentum that made it very hard to stay on track with it.

I can predict at least one or two people responding with, “Joe, don’t be so hard on yourself.” That’s not what I’m doing. I don’t have any regrets about that album. In fact, Better This Way is one of my proudest musical moments. (If you haven’t checked out the album yet, you can listen to and even buy it here.)

What I care about is helping you and me both make this process easier next time. Letting projects drag on like that can suck the life right out of them. I got to a point where I was sick of these songs, before the album was even released!! Thankfully I caught my second wind and got really excited again by the time release day rolled around. But boy, would it have been more enjoyable to knock it out in a couple months instead of almost a year.

The details aren’t the point here. I’m not saying you need to release an album in 8 weeks. I’m saying you need to find a way to start and maintain a massive wave of momentum to carry you to the finish line. So many people get bogged down like I did and never actually finish the project. That’s a shame.

Momentum is the key.