I don't have any music education. I'm basically self taught on drums, guitar, vocals and writing songs. I did however have the luxury of taking the "Intro to Guitar" class in my senior year at my high school (when I was otherwise still 100% 'a drummer'), where I learned the basic chords (that are still commonly used in most folk metal, Agalloch, Woods etc...). Back then, I never thought of myself as a guitar plater. At the time I simply thought this into the guitar class was a good alternative to earning my one mandatory "arts" credit, instead of taking the grade 9 visual art class where I would have wanted to make "Sull Art" exclusively. It wasn't until University that I really did some serious "Wood Shedding" and seriously got into (neglecting my studies and) learning the guitar and developing the basics of the "WoY" sound.
I tend to write a lot of riffs / arrangements together in shorter periods of inspired time, and then maybe not anything for a while while I focus on something else (drums, lyrics, etc...). Basically, I have to commit myself to get into a creative riff writing mode within a 'theme' (what sound or emotion I'm trying to achieve). For instance, when Woods 3 is totally completed, I'll just be writing and collecting riffs to arrange for Woods 4 probably all spring and summer and then start to get serious on completing some of them in the fall. In that time I'll do other things to get inspired within that theme that might include listening to a specific genre of music, going camping / being outside, getting tanked, maybe reading a books of a related theme, etc... Getting inspired and writing new songs is so much more than just sitting down with the guitar for me. The songs are the inspired sound of everything else you do in your life at the time that you write it being channelled through the guitar.
For Woods 3, I came to Dan and Jessica with a total of 15 song skeletons (basic riff arrangements) and from there, Dan and I set the optimized pace for each song and built the click-tracks. The next step was recording drums over the click-tracks and scratch guitars. Next, Dan recorded me doing ALL the guitars. Next was keys, with Jessica playing a combination of mostly chords with string sounds and then leads with piano sounds. Vocals were next. Dan then tracks the bass dead last after the vocals are done so he can be carefull not to step on any of the vocal hooks and instead fit in his fills in the 'gaps' (where's there's room in the mix). Both Dan and Jessica have added some really N-ice parts!
Woods IV will be the first real collaborate effort for Woods of Ypres, where the 5 of us will be making contributions and writing together in 'real time' in the jamspace. In fact, we have already begun and even have a few songs / arrangements complete in this 'new' style that we've banged out at rehearsal.
I have chosen to spend so much of my time writing songs, there's so much more I could say about it really. We're always learning new ways to write, to be creative more efficiently, to deliver the messages clearer and more effectively, etc...
