Misty Weaver

What’s your day job? How does it influence what you create and what you present to the public?

For me, I’ve been interested in user experience since 2002 when I started graduate school in library and information science. Throughout, I tried to make my education and music meet by studying genre classification, designing music recommendation systems and I even played in a band with one of my favorite instructors.

Now that I’m in a music focus phase, I want to integrate my previous work experience with my musical persona. But after years of reading, talking and thinking about user experience and social networking, and online community – I’m much more shy online than I am in person. Why?

Perfectionism? I’m not an expert I’m just someone who likes user centered design AND and I write songs about dragons or bus rides or zombies, etc. I haven’t followed all the best practices in building this blog and I’m terrified of applying user centered design to song writing.

I’m hoping there is a whole world of ways to mesh these practices. And that my next day job leaves room to enjoy both.

Twitter – http://twitter.com/mdawnweaver
Web Analytics = Band Metrics

Tweeted song #2 “Your Name” complete? Feb 10 2010.

Recorded draft version on Feb 9 experimenting with creating my own vocal backing loops as instruments – an hilariously fun process inspired most by the great Reggie Watts. It’s definitely something I’ll have to keep working on ;> The goal is to sound less like my college’s all-female a Capella group and more like “I get where this song is going.” Today’s research project is find others who use the technique in their writing process.

A nod to Valentine’s Day…

The sun shone briefly this morning
then she went away
By the time I was out of bed
there was nothing I could say

Make a fist, fake a smile
Heard the news said your name

With no one watching over me
No shadows on the street
drew a heart in the wet concrete
Inside, I wrote your name

I made a rule there’s no more singing in the shower
No excuse for getting drowned out by the crowd
My little secret, I’m going to say your name out loud

There should be a rule
when somebody loves you
There should be a rule

With no one watching over me
drew a line at the bottom of the sea
One side for you, same side for me

I’m not giving up There should be a rule
I’m tired of being quiet when somebody loves you

There should be a rule
They can say it whenever they want to
I can say it whenever I want to
I can say it

And for my next trick…I will attempt to add audio files to this tweetsong experiment. Check out verse 1.

I tried playing with grooves, kits, garageband whatnots, recording my own idea of drums with household objects – let’s just say I’ll stick to a capella tracks for the time being. The current song might be a little valentine themed and although I’ve only tweeted two verses, I’ve written (and rejected) over four pages. The need to tweet is good pressure.

Lyrics as of Feb 5, 2010 Listen to verse 1

The sun shone briefly this morning
then she went away
By the time I was out of bed
there was nothing I could say

Make a fist, fake a smile
Heard the news said your name

With no one watching over me
No shadows on the streets
drew a heart in the wet concrete
Inside, I wrote your name

I made a rule there’s no more singing in the shower
No excuse for getting drowned out by the crowd

I am still tweeting song lyrics as I explore DIY recording options. Ideally I would love to deliver a beautifully complete song when the twitter round is finished but for now it’s still good to explore the exercise.

Song #2 February 2 2010

The sun shone briefly this morning
then she went away
By the time I was out of bed
there was nothing I could say

Make a fist, fake a smile
Heard the news said your name

Now that the verses of my first social media song have been sent, the rewriting has been on my mind so I’ll start logging those changes today. Tweeting compelled me to try and build a narrative, writing verses consectutively while playing Beatles Rockband makes me want to emulate a little “Dig a pony.” The rewrite emphasizes the bird thread…

Crows are afraid of honeybees
We can be grateful for a little sting
Without them the crows are unruly thieves
A balance in everything

Something’s out of sync, the black turns white
A longer day, fly right through night
My love, my life intensified, intensified

All my plans were going so good
Lucky star I thought I’d follow it
Didn’t think for a moment to stand still

Wasn’t looking anywhere and I found you

Chorus:
Don’t Say it Don’t Say Don’t
Don’t Say it Don’t Say No
Don’t say No Don’t say No

Like a magpie in the morning sun
Want to sweep up and take you home
don’t want to share you with anyone

But the timing’s bittersweet
I can’t stay and you can’t leave
There’s only so long I can stay in flight

Only so many times I can say goodbye

Chorus

Don’t say No Don’t say Try
Don’t say Go Don’t say Why
Don’t say Goodbye

The “song” so far 1/27/10

Crows are afraid of honeybees
they know that even the sweetest thing
can still sting
love don’t come easy not even for the birds and bees

Something’s out of sync, the black turns white
You’re blind as day, I’m blind as night
If it’s not love, I’ve lost my mind.

All my plans were going so good
Lucky star I thought I’d follow it
Didn’t think for a moment to stand still

Wasn’t looking for anyone and I found you

Like a magpie in the morning sun
Want to sweep up and take you home
You’re bright as silver you shine like gold

But the timing’s bittersweet
I can’t stay and you can’t leave
There’s only so long I can stay in flight

Only so many times I can say goodbye

Tweeting a song is a kick in the pants. Just knowing you have to publish a new lyric everyday is motivating and sometimes embarrassing?

I’m still working on the challenge part of “twitter challenge” and whether/how to continue. As a writer it’s a cool experiment, a fresh way to open the day’s writing & composition session. You’re starting with the hardest part of writing – sharing your work with an audience.

It also makes me itchy; Publishing unfinished, unaccompanied words is scary. The cliches, the rhymes, the length of the lines – all the things you smooth out later in the writing process are bare and contextless.

So is it writing challenge or a social media challenge? Can it be both?

In 2010 I vow to embrace more social media so I’ve taken on a songwriting challenge. Everyday I need to tweet a new original song lyric in 144 characters. I’m eager to see how good Twitter is for the creative process and how many lyrics make it to a new song. Tell me if you see any keepers or feel free to join in!

Find the lyrics at http://twitter.com/mdawnweaver

January 18, 2009
Crows are afraid of honeybees/ they know that even the sweetest thing/ can still sting/ love don’t come easy not even for the birds and bees