Iron Fist is a true collaborative effort. From the very beginning, Rebel and I have worked closely together to ensure that our band "presence" (so to speak) exists as a single unified force. This didn't always figure into our look, or our public persona; those things would come later, with age and experience. But we've always worked together on the music, so that the final version of each song is as tight as it can be. This kind of collaboration makes the total of what we do MUCH greater than the sum of its parts.
Collaboration is actually kind of tough; it takes a certain mindset, and a few basic ground rules that are inviolate. Rule #1: leave your ego at the door. Rule #2: the other guy's ideas are always better. Rule #3: if there must be clashes, choose them wisely; stand up for what you want, but be willing to compromise for the betterment of the overall vision. Regarding Rule #1: people who need to feed their own individual egos will always destroy the "product" (in this case, the band) from within. They are not only their own worst enemy, but the enemy of all their other partners. Regarding Rule #2: if you start from the standpoint that the other guy's idea is better, it helps keep your OWN ego in check, while simultaneously giving a pat-on-the-back to someone who deserves it. It's okay to stroke someone ELSE'S ego…just not your own. Regarding Rule #3: constant clashes make for an unstable relationship, but if you really REALLY are committed to your vision, be able to explain why, without tearing down the other guy. In the end, be willing to sacrifice your vision if the situation requires it. The Rules are therefore kind of a circle, each preceding the next, each proceeding FROM the previous.
On my own, I'm an excellent songwriter. I'll trust you to pardon my saying this with such braggadocio…so far, no one ELSE is saying it, so I guess it's up to me. (Whoops! Kinda stroking my own ego, there. *Ahem.*) On the other hand, I also freely take ownership of my songwriting deficiencies: I'm killer at the first verse, but often suck at the second. Too much of a compositional background has made me dependent on complicated harmonies when simpler ones would be more effective. And on & on. I've written dozens of songs as a member of Iron Fist, from 1983 - 1986 and again from 2010 forward. I've written hundreds of songs as an individual, mostly in the interregnum. I never stopped writing songs, but none of the ones for the band exist as "mine and mine alone." Rebel always has a hand, whether it's just a pinkie nail's worth or a full-on slap to my face. Take the song "Hey Kelly," which we perform live but is as-yet-unreleased. I wrote the chorus one day in the car, literally over the top of a chord progression from an old Axe song called Now Or Never. (For those looking to dig a little, it's from their 1982 LP Offering, at the 2:33 mark.) Because I used this song as a template, I heard it as an uptempo rocker. I played/sang the chorus into the computer, sent the .aif to Rebel, and waited. Without changing a single line of text, he got back to me with a nearly complete song…DONE AS A POWER BALLAD. I simply had never thought to imagine it that way. And, it's SO much better. This song could really be big…but only because he made that one important change. Viceville, another live staple, is a more involved example: I explained the concept to him and sent him .aifs of what I envisioned. He added a second verse, a killer guitar solo, and somehow morphed the song from my AC/DC soundalike version into something that was pure Iron Fist.
Living in different towns, this is how we work: using the 'puter to send sound files and lyric ideas back and forth, inspecting, correcting, and proofing each other's work. There are some things we generally stay away from: it's rare that I suggest a different way to play a guitar riff, and I'm not sure I've ever heard him ask me to change a drum pattern or fill. We acknowledge the other's expertise on our respective instruments. But we're never afraid to call the other out, to say "Hey, you used that same peculiar word in the last song you sent me," or "I'm not sure this is the direction the song needs to go." Our working relationship and desire for success eclipses all other considerations.
Going forward, it won't always just be the two of us, either. At our acoustic set in Caseville this past summer, Rebel and I pressured Mike "Pappy" Passmore to play us the riff HE'D been working on. He was downplaying his idea, but within minutes Rebel had started to find a lead line to work over top of the riff, and I had a basic drum part going. Pappy's eyes shone: "Wow, you guys take this simple riff (it's not!) and literally turn it into a song!" Yup. That's what we do…ALL of us, because we're so much stronger working TOGETHER. Drew will be the same way: trying to demonstrate a riff via video file, he kept messing it up, each time saying "Disregard that!" By the fourth or fifth time it was really hilarious, and we later told him "That's the song title…write a lyric that fits it!"
From simple suggestions, greatness is achieved.
