Explain Your Eyes

  I wanted the songs on MB-LP to be as diverse as the people they were for. I had some idea of which songs would have more rock vocals and which would have spoken vocals, based on the groove, but I didn't have an angle for any of the songs initially. Instead, I went back to research, trying to find something that I could imagine working on.

To me, a good idea involved lining up several tumblers. It had to fit the world created by the backing track, it had to be something I'd found in my research, it had to be applicable to the people I actually knew who were that type, and it had to be something I had also experienced or that I felt somewhat qualified to write about. Some types that several close friends shared, like ISTJ or ENFP, came easier since I had a fair amount of experience seeing them function, so I leant heavier on things people of that type had experienced or described to me. When I didn't have good friends for a type, like ESTP or ESFJ, I relied more on the forums and literature. Others, like INTJ and ENTP, felt familiar enough that something I'd read about them would leap out at me as something I'd experienced before, or a mode which I'd slipped into on occasion.

Avoiding repetition was a big theme for me in writing the MB-LP songs. The types, by definition, approached things differently, so in my mind the songs should as well. The grooves were designed to work differently as well; some were short loops, others were longer, others were short loops with a active bassline, or static bass with an active rhythm guitar. Still others were designed to be pitch-shifted or reversed at specific moments to create different sections. The one thing I didn't do was the standard looping thing of layering one instrument on top of itself many times. That was just because I know that works and I've seen it done well already, and part of what I wanted to do with this project was continue to explore different ways to build songs using a looper. And I get bored if I play one instrument too long.

Looking back, one of the things I did repeat more than once in the lyrics was references to mental arithmetic. As it happens, according to Meyers-Briggs, the lead function (the first strategy employed) for my type of INTP is introverted thinking, so that makes some sense. It's difficult, and never competely possible, to leave your own way of seeing the world behind when you write a song. As much as possible, though, while writing I did try to think my way into other types' heads. I'd search the forums for threads about greatest fears, happiest moments, family, relationships, friends; whatever could help me understand their values and outlook. Depending on how successful I thought I could be, I'd try to write some of the songs from their perspective. Other times I'd write to them from my perspective, or try and describe them in the third person.

I found the ones written from their perspective most satisfying to sing, because I get to take on a sort of persona in order to sing them. Something I visualize in non-concrete terms, add inflections, try to project a specific type of energy. It's a bit like what I imagine acting is like. I guess as a performer I'm more comfortable trying to portray a character I create than trying to make myself into one.

I also used some outside sources and artists as inspirations for the songs. As part of my research, I looked into the (pretty dubious) celebrity typings that people do. I think some could be reasonably accurate, especially when the person typing has access to an autobiography, interivews, and contemporary accounts. Not to say that many ones posted online are based on those resources. A lot of them seem to be trying to type artists through their work, which I think is almost always problematic. Mainly because an artist's work isn't usually what comes easily for them; more often it's probably things they're working out that they find difficult, or confusing. Better to look at how they approach their work, or their personal relationships.

All that said, I sometimes threw a bit of an artist that's often typed a certain way into the song for that type, if it felt like it could work. Or, for instance, INTP is often called the Architect type, and so I threw a little of Charlatans UK's song “The Architect” into the track. Sometimes I'd try a vocal style that had more to do with the sound of the track than anything else; I thought of ESFP as Elvis Costello meets the Russian Futurists, for example. Sometimes I have to justify the way I'm choosing to sing something to myself like this; other times it doesn't bother me that I'm not drawing from something in particular.

Once I got a topic for an MB-LP song, I'd free write or take notes until I figured out what I wanted the song to say or accomplish. Some were speculative, like ISFJ: it puts the personality into the scenario of a devastating earthquake hitting during their wedding, a way for me to get at the fears that type has about support networks breaking down. Others are straightforward description, like ENFP, which takes its form and subject from “Richard Cory”, a poem I found posted on the ENFP reddit. Both of these songs also relate semi-directly to specific people in my life that are those types; they're pretty typical examples of how the MB-LP songs draw from all over the place while keeping enough personal meaning for me to feel like something authentic is underlying the whole collage.