@Nikolaj Dalsgård Hei (from Norway) Nikolaj! Great songs! and consistent soundscape! Have you tried to pitch your "album" to a label? I think they could be interested, as the "work" is done! ;)

@Ryan Klos Hello Ryan, cool to have the opportunity to get to know you, and your engineering team (amazing studio they have!). Let's connect, and see if we may get to collab in the future :) From Norway (although I'm half spanish too) ;)

I'm working on re-designing and re-organizing my loft, to accomodate for a more "professional" studio, than what I have had the last 10 years. I felt it's time to retire my 2nd gen Scarlett 2i4, and say Hello to an SSL 18. Let my AT2020 become secondary mic, and put a Slate Digital ML-1A in the main spot. etc... (acoustic treatment, new monitors (Neumann KH 120 II), and a couple of outboard gear stuff. I'll be "starting again" from scratch, as it has been some years since I did something (because of health), so... I'm 47, and from the day I'm 50, I intend to live from my music. Enough is enough!... it's time to make it happen!

I don't think there's a specific thing that stays on a listener's mind but a catchy melody, that catchy hook with a catchy lyric, and such. That said, Feeling is what moves the listener when actually listening to it; if there's realness and the listener captures it (not all do), it might spark "passion"... but this all are on the listening process. Once they are minding their own business throughout their days, it's the catchiness that stays in their mind. And when they sing it in their head or out loud, they might bring back the feeling, realness, and passion, or not... that really depends on the specific person, as some people don't get moved by the obvious, or the song might be a cool one, but the meaning isn't for them, so they detach from it, but the catchiness is fighting for their attention. It's like this song from Eurovision, by Conchita Wurst... Rise like a phoenix, which I found an astonishing song, and honestly an astonishing vocal performance... although I haven't dived deep into the lyrics (as I have this issue with lyrics.. I don't hear them; I just focus on the melody and interpretation more than what the lyrics actually say... but it is supposed to be how the singer felt when transitioning to a woman (as he's a man), and it might be beautiful to some, while plain stupid to others if they are against men transitioning to women or what have you), but still, the song is made so well, in the "James Bond 007" orchestral style, and the melody is so well done that I love that song. I'm sure that even people who don't like the message can love the song, and vice versa; some might love the message, but that song isn't their forte!. Personally, I love that song, and also Netta's Toy, and oh boy, are they different! (And the lyrics of Toy, I'm not sure I may like it if I read it, cause I believe it is that men are "toys" or that women aren't men's toys, which I'd agree more with), but the composition, interpretation, overall, is just perfect.

Hi there Tommy, I'm into K-Pop as well, although not produced a single track just yet, but will indeed!.. hopefully soon. Regarding your issue of not getting finished with one song, before others and end up going for the one with tighter deadline.. that's understandable. You know you can get lost in the flow, and something inside you, don't want to allow you that, cause you have a deadline on other tracks, so you endup prioritizing those. In a way, I would always work on the one with the closest deadline, but leaving room for the others too. Sometimes you can give yourself a day on one song, and another day on another, and repeat. Also, what Spike says... give yourself sharper deadlines (fictitious even, if the real one isn't soon). Establish a workflow, have your templates "ready-made" so that you don't spend time on mixing or setting up a project every single time. And try those 3 hours challenges, or 1 hour, or whatever... put a timer, and that's your deadline for that track. (Obviously, the end result after that hour or 3 hour timeframe, doesn't have to be the end result, but try it out, and imagine it is!) ;) I'd gladly collaborate in the future. Need to get my producing chops up first. ;)

@Andria Bankhead haha, have done that a couple of times... a sound sparks an idea, but not to the one you're working on, but to another one. So I start that one to not forget the sound and idea :P Sound selection is really important, but sometimes, as you have found out, can impair your workflow. I'd make a template with some sounds that are okay-ish, and use them for the composition part of the song. Then when you have this, you can go for the sounds, or make them yourself. This way, you know better what sound fits your "already written" idea. Still, as nothing is written in stone, you can still stray from the main project, but at least you have more already done, to anchor yourself to. Even start with just a piano sound... for the composing part. write your chords, your melodies, and put a basic rhythm to have something at least. When that's done, it's easier to go for the instruments with the idea in mind.

Writing lyrics is an art in itself, like playing an instrument.. you can be good enough (which will make you struggle lots of times), and then you can be amazingly good, and still you might struggle sometimes too. Both struggles are similar but at the same time, different. When perfectionism kicks in, you will never get to a point where you're happy with the result, unless you subdue your perfectionism and say... this is good (or at least good enough), while it probably has been great for long time already. It is strange, that as musicians, we have this perception that everything matters so much more than it really is, and in a way that's a virtue of a great musician, but also a cross to carry! I remember being in a band, rehearsing our cover songs for months, and the day before a gig, we decided to bring a new song that was popular at the moment... well, we learned it like in real time while playing it, did a couple of play-throughs, and laughed about it, that it was such an easy song. At the gig, we forgot the second part, so we repeated the first part like 4 times, and called it a day!.. guess what! The popularity of the song, made the concert-goers love that song more than any of the others we did, and at the end, they wanted us to play it again... which we did to please the crowd. But inside each of us, we were dying of embarrassment, cause it was our less practiced song, the easiest too in terms of chords and what have you... and still the public's favorite. That day, we learned a hard lesson!.. "normal" people, don't think like us, and that's fine, but remember that, the next time you're writing a song, the lyrics, or whatever. In the studio, we overanalyze, we want that perfect snare, or perfect guitar intro, or this or that... and while this are all great things, the end listener, couldn't care less, as they don't know what is a snare, and the ones that does, they know probably that it's part of a drum set.. and there it stops they knowledge. And no, they are not dumb, it is us that are way too nitpicking every single detail. ;)