I'm telling the story of each song from my new album 606. I've been known to ‘embellish’ or blur details, so let it be known this is based on a true story.
People Making Plans
I was stuck in a rut. Writers block is what they call it. When I get stuck, I start taking steps. Sometimes it helps, and sometimes I just need to step back. In this case, I decided to try something new. I invited my friend Matt Hassenmueller over to write with me. I showed him this riff I had, as well as a few lyrics and we got to work. He started to hear some melodies (la da da da da) and showed me what was coming through his brain.
We got to work and we had melodies, lyrics, and a song. There was only one problem as I continued on. I could NOT for the life of me play the guitar part that I heard in my head. That's an interesting part about writing music. Sometimes an idea comes to you but you aren't good enough to realize it. There's a couple options when that happens….hire someone, have someone else do it, or get better yourself. I opted for getting better myself. I knew I could play this guitar part.
Not long after I was at a random bar with some friends outside playing cornhole. Turns out another musician from town named Sean Jordan was playing a private party that night. My friends and I snuck into the party to listen to him play. I saw him doing EXACTLY the technique I was struggling with. The next day, I reached out to him to see if he would consider giving me guitar lessons. I'm a proud man, but I have NO problem recognizing when someone is better than me at something, and Sean is definitely better than me at playing the ole' six string.
He obliged and I went and got a lesson from this pro. He gave me some exercises and tips and practice began. A few weeks later I was able to play exactly what I heard in my head. Now I just had to learn how to sing while I did it XD. I didn't want to change the song just because it was hard. I knew I could do this. Over the next three years I forced myself to play the song in front of crowd after crowd. I got better and better and eventually I noticed every time I played it I was getting tipped. People were loving it.
This song is all about People Making Plans. Ironically, I wrote it about how sometimes things don't go how you expect them to….like life. As I write this post I finally see the irony. Life maybe isn't going 100% how I planned, but to make this song work…I made myself a roadmap, took steps, and got to the destination.
Track 05
People Making Plans
Nick Rivers
My debut album ‘606’ comes out January 5th. It will be available everywhere you purchase and listen to music.
PRE-ORDER 606 BY NICK RIVERS RIGHT HERE
