What Was I Thinking?: Inside the Composition of the Acoustic Pop Album Fall

by Greg Arnold

This book is intended to be both a conversation starter and a contribution to pre-existing academic work. I hope that in its own small way it will help to popularise the academic and academicise the popular." -- Greg Arnold Greg Arnold has been a songwriter since he was a teenager and a professional recordist since 1992. He has won an ARIA with Things of Stone and Wood and the prestigious APRA Songwriter of the Year. His back catalogue includes two top ten albums, the top ten hit "Happy Birthday Helen" and the top four radio played song "Wildflowers." He takes pop music seriously, while having a lot of fun doing it. In 2009 he set out to complete a PhD from the University of Tasmania by using as his case study the creation of the album Fall by his band The Swamp Dandies. The result, a unique book with a perspective that has one foot in the academy and one foot securely adhered to the sticky carpet of the beer barn Australian popular music tradition. Founded on a fundamental research question, 'What was I thinking?', Greg examines his own creative process as a recordist engaged in the composition, performance and production of a pop album. He explores his range of artistic methods from conscious applied systematic problem-solving techniques to ostensibly unconscious creative intuition such as Brian Wilson's 'grossly impulsive' method. Follow Greg's challenging, rewarding, and epic journey in an entertaining, engaging, and educational read. And would he do it all over again? "Yeah I tells ya, because it was fun, fun, fun.

Paperback

Published June 23, 2017