Hired lyrics writer in metal, is there such thing?

[Akkush]

Greetings!

I just want to ask, is there such thing as "ghost lyrics writer" in metal?I have a solo project, but not only I need to learn vocals, but also write the lyrics. It would be helpfull if I had at least a couple ideas or short poem that I can work with after the instrumental part is done! Of course I would credit the person in the songs.

Thank you for your help!

 

[budda]

Pretty sure theres ghost writing for everything.

Not really a ghost writer if they get credit either

Change thread title to “looking to hire lyricist” it’ll probably do better. Best of luck!

 

[Akkush]

Pretty sure theres ghost writing for everything.

Not really a ghost writer if they get credit either

Change thread title to “looking to hire lyricist” it’ll probably do better. Best of luck!

Thanks!

Well, it depends. Is it a honor to contribute to my shity music or not!

 

[PuckishGuitar]

All art can be created for hire in some way. But there is a difference between “here’s a concept or idea I have, I need just professional skill to realize it,” versus “contribute whatever you want.” More artistic and business control will reside with you if you have the themes of the lyrics and just need help wordsmithing.

You can give credit if you want, but regardless have a contract in place that states it is a one time payment for services and assign copyright, to avoid being exposed to issues later. Treat it like a business transaction and you can avoid the hangups of sharing creativity. My wife is a ghost writer so I got a crash course in the industry by proxy.

 

[Pingu]

You can get someone cheap on some sites like Fiverr.

If you're looking for it to be done free, I dunno if this is still a thing in the 2000s, but you can scout out at local college/university campuses.

 

[crushingpetal]

There's a musicians classified here on sso.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

I dunno if this is still a thing in the 2000s, but you can scout out at local college/university campuses.

This is how I found my last band's drummer. Can recommend.

 

[TheBlackBard]

Can't imagine there would be much of a market for it. If the world is allowing FFDP to tour and sing the words from a fifteen year olds angry diary, I'd say they'll let anyone with a mic turn it on. Most metal lyrics are cringe as fuck anyways.

 

[Screamingdaisy]

Will AI write lyrics yet?

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

Lol AI lyrics is the most un-metal thing possible

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

Just write some bullshit. Don't you have anything to be angry about? And be really intense in the delivery. Easy peasy

 

[SalsaWood]

Backroads DUIs
In my Honda Ridgeline
Tonneau cover kinda guy

Say that ain't metal, I dare ya.

 

[crushingpetal]

Backroads DUIs
In my Honda Ridgeline
Tonneau cover kinda guy

Say that ain't metal, I dare ya.

I mean, the only metal peeps on backroads are black metal folks, and they ain't Ridgelining. Country. Country is what you've described.

OP: just grab some dusty poetry books from the library as scratch lyrics.

 

[SalsaWood]

Country. Country is what you've described.

There's a good idea, just play a better style of music. Problem solved.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

 

[Christopher Har V]

Greetings!

I just want to ask, is there such thing as "ghost lyrics writer" in metal?I have a solo project, but not only I need to learn vocals, but also write the lyrics. It would be helpfull if I had at least a couple ideas or short poem that I can work with after the instrumental part is done! Of course I would credit the person in the songs.

Thank you for your help!

Write your own!

A few tips:

Have a clear definition of what the song is about. And always bring yourself back to that, even set a timer, so you don't wind up off-topic and all over the place.

Write the chorus first. That's just a suggestion but it really helps me. Those are the lyrics that repeat the most so they need to be the best, and usually thats where the meaning of the song should be the clearest.

Decide just how blunt or metaphorical you want to be. Are the lyrics just blunt and in-your-face with their meaning (works well over heavy parts) or are they more euphemistic and metaphorical (works well over chill/slow/spacey parts).

It's fine to use an instrument like a guitar to come up with the melody that'll later become the vocal melody. This is what I do, as a guitarist. Just be prepared to do slight rewriting, especially of the rhythm, in order to fit the melody to the lyrics without it sounding awkward. Quick 16th notes, even just two, can cause problems. Which ties into my next point

Don't get caught writing a syllable for every note of the melody. Don't forget about stretching out one syllable over two or more notes.

"ss" and "t" sounds and a lot of other conjunctions of consonants can just sound awkward and actually make it more difficult for the vocalist to sing the line. So always be thinking of synonyms that might flow better.

Don't feel like it's "cheating" to have a thesaurus or rhyming dictionary pulled up. These tools are there for a reason. Use them!

Idioms are powerful. Idioms give the lyrics a sense of familiarity to the listener by harkening back to well-known phrases. There are idiom dictionaries online, where you type in a keyword like "fortitude" and there will be a bunch of idioms that relate to fortitude.

Similes are powerful. "I'm feeling LIKE A _____" or "They descend LIKE A _____" LIKE A something. Make that something broaden the scope of the lyrics and tickle the imagination of the listener.

Don't hesitate to listen to the instrumentals and think "what does this make me think of?" If the music sounds like an epic space war to you, or if it sounds like a dystopian cityscape, or watching a sunset on a mountain with your love, USE THAT. Pair the sonic aesthetic of the song with the lyrical content - does the instrumental music itself have a sonic aesthetic that fits the lyrics? What lyrics would fit that sonic aesthetic the best? This is something to be balanced between approaching the song section-by-section, and approaching the song as a whole. If one part of the song sounds very different from another part, you obviously don't want to let the lyrics drift too far into an unrelated direction. This way lyrics can actually serve as a way to keep uniformity across a diverse soundscape.

Consider what the instruments are doing right where the lyric lands. See if there's a synonym for the word that sounds cooler over what the instruments are doing where that word lands. If there's some big chug right when a lyric lands, a lyric with an "oo" sound in it like "you" sounds good with the "oo" sound of a deep chug. Likewise, ending a lyric on an "ss" sound like in "stress" sounds cool if it lines up right where a cymbal hits. This kind of thing. It's a cool extra, not like it always has to match perfectly lol but it's just another tool to help fit the lyrics to the music.

Don't forget NEAR rhymes. Not many words rhyme with "truth", for example, but truth is a near rhyme with any "oo" sound, such as in "soon". You can obviously rhyme a word that ends with "an" with a word that ends in "am". You can forget plurals, so you could rhyme "plurals" with "rural" lol. Many more different examples than these. Plus don't forget you can pronounce words that end in a hard "e" such as the word "me" like "MAAAYYYYY" like all the epic prog metal vocalists, and now that word can rhyme with any word that actually ends in an "ay" sound.

Rhyming is great because it is a theme of similarity within a stanza. But it is not the only means to achieve similarity in a stanza. So if you don't want to rhyme in a passage, you could do alliteration instead. Or start each line with the same few words... some of my favorite lyrics don''t rhyme but they do have other means of achieving a THEME within the stanza.

.
These are just a few tips that come to mind, probably because I've been trying to remind myself of them. And some of these obviously presume writing the instrumentals first, which is just my own preference. I'm just some novice lyric writer so I don't say any of this with any expertise whatsoever. These are just things I've started incorporating into my amateur lyric writing and I believe I'm getting better results because of it.