Victor Palacios

Hi, dear Songstuff members!

I'm Victor, singer and bassist of post-punk & western band Model Slaves from Palma de Mallorca in Spain. I'm also a teacher of English as a foreign language.

Songwriting in English is a passion that derives from and complements my other passion and source of income, i.e. teaching English as a foreign language to teenagers and young adults.

Until some time ago, I used to fit words into a melody. I didn't care much about the effectiveness of the lyrics and how powerful they are as the engine of a song.

A year ago I started digging into Pat Pattison's Writing Better Lyrics and I started reviewing my own work under a new light. There were so many resources that were already familiar from my college literature subjects that I wasn't considering at all!

Songwriting for me now is something that still always starts with a melody fluttering about in my mind. But something has changed. Now I devote a lot of time to providing an anchor to the music and intertwining both music and lyrics together.

First of all, I need a title for the song. Then I write a short story that fits the title. Finally, I rewrite the story in terms of senses (hearing, smell, taste, touch, visual, organic, kinesthetic, psychological). Only when all this work is done do I move on to writing the actual lyrics.

However, I don't think this is enough. There comes a point when the endless writing and editing needs to stop. When you are stuck with a song, maybe it is just because it is ripe for some external critique!

Also, when learning the in and outs of songwriting with Pattison's manual I have been confronted with many examples of wonderful songwriting craft. As a result, I have started to pay attention to lyrics when I listen to a song, when previously I would focus mainly on the melody. Songstuff has so much to offer in this respect, because you can learn from the ways of other writers and at the same time offer them your constructive critique.

Cheers,

Victor Palacios