Woke up this morning scrolling through old War on Drugs tracks again. Got real curious how Adam makes those hypnotic guitar parts stick in your head forever. Saw he shared some songwriting tricks recently. Grabbed my notebook and cheap recorder before coffee settled in.
The Setup Phase
Pulled up an ancient drum loop on GarageBand – just kick and snare, nothing fancy. Plugged in my beat-up Telecaster straight into that old tube amp Mom wanted me to throw out. Dialed the reverb knobs past sane levels. First move: Stole his “hold one chord forever” trick. Finger cramped holding E minor for three minutes straight while fiddling with delay pedals.
Messing With Tape
Remembered he loves tape loops. Dug out Dad’s cassette player from the basement – dusty as hell. Recorded a wobbly C major arpeggio onto a blank tape. Chaos move: Jammed a pencil through the spool to loop it manually. Horrible screeching noise followed by this eerie drone. Left that nonsense playing on loop behind my guitar doodles.
- Experiment 1: Played super simple two-note melody over the drone. Sounded like elevator music.
- Experiment 2: Layered three takes of same riff slightly out of tune. Sounded like bees in a tin can.
- Experiment 3: Added single piano notes spaced far apart. Finally… something halfway decent.
My cat ran out of the room during take two. Solid review system.
Embracing Happy Accidents
Got frustrated around noon. Knocked over my slide while tuning – heard this weird metallic ring as it hit the pickup. Hit record immediately. Slapped the guitar body, dropped the slide again near the strings. Became the main hook. Total accident. Would’ve deleted it normally – left it raw. That’s Adam’s magic.
Simplest Lyric Trick Ever
Stared at blank paper for lyrics. Used his “dumb dictionary grab” trick. Opened physical dictionary randomly. Got “submarine.” Wrote three lines:
- “Propeller hums in blue static”
- “Grey steel swallowing sunlight”
Sang them in monotone like Adam does. Felt ridiculous. Actually worked somehow.
Final verdict: Patience is painful. Left that tape loop going for four hours while dishes piled up. Found two usable seconds buried under noise. His methods force you to slow down – hurts so good. My take sounds nothing like him… but it’s mine. Recording’s still running in the garage. Hope the tape doesn’t snap.