Essential 8: Doug Schmude

Courtesy of the Artist

 Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Doug Schmude (Pronounced as to rhyme with moody) spent most of his formative years in Oklahoma and Texas. He honed his songwriting in the late 1990's while performing in and around Boulder, Colorado. In 2000, he relocated to Nashville to further develop his craft. While in Tennessee, he was nominated for several awards through his work with the acoustic blues duo Hot Foot Delta. Currently based out of Southern California, Doug recently released his fourth album, Burn These Pages, which features 10 original tracks as well as a Chris Knight cover. The songs all start with a foundation of Roots Americana and mix in equal parts rock, blues, indie rock, and grunge in tales of vividly drawn characters from all walks of life.

​Doug kindly took the time to answer his Essential 8 where he spoke in depth about his songwriting process, shared the stories behind selected songs, and much more.

With any particular song, was there an “a-ha” moment when you knew the song was completed and perfect?
It’s different in every song, but, there is a point during the writing process where you can tell you are on the downhill stretch.  The song has pretty much been written (or in some cases written itself) and all that is left is some cleanup and final touches.  However, songs don’t ever really feel perfect to me.  I don’t mean that in a negative or self-deprecating way.  When I first start with an idea for a song there is a feeling of limitless possibility of being able to express it all perfectly.   When I’m finished I can tell it’s done and I’ve expressed what I intended to in the best way possible in that moment, but they never really reach that idealized potential.  The continued pursuit of that potential is a real motivator to keep writing. 

Is there a story behind your album’s title?
The album title is taken from the title track, Burn These Pages.  I like to introduce that song when I play live by saying it’s a song about not being able to write a song.  It’s about those nights when you sit down to write and nothing comes out.   Probably like most songwriters, I have pages and pages full of half finished songs, ill formed ideas and concepts.   Songwriting is a messy process with lots of wrong turns, detours and accidents.  The chorus of Burn These Pages really speaks to the desire to continue to chase these songs while at the same time some level of desire to hide the reality of the process.  I chose it for the album title as I felt it captured my feelings about the writing process currently.

Where do you draw inspiration from when writing?
I generally get inspired by moments where I can see the world from someone else’s perspective.  Or at least as much as one can not being in their shoes.  It sounds kind of corny, but for me songwriting is more like a lifestyle than a profession.  What I mean by that is I have found that my songwriting radar is always up and you never know when you are going to be inspired.   You might be having the most benign conversation about something and just the way someone says something strikes me, or the way the light comes off of someone or something gives me an idea.  So I always have to be ready to make a note of it, even if I don’t have time to do anything with it for a while.  Of course, you don’t always know which ideas will grow into something more, but I’ve had the idea for many a song I’ve come up with at the most random time. 
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I have also written a few songs in the storytelling vein that were inspired by newspaper articles or news stories.  I’ve gotten to the point now where people will send me stories they heard and say this sounds like a song you would write.  Which is really cool.  The Song My Daddy’s Musket came about that way.  A friend of mine turned me on to the story about this woman in North Carolina who is that last person receiving pension benefits for the Civil War.  Her father fought for both the Confederacy and the Union and in spite of her being into her 80's and the war having been over for 150 years, she still gets letters from Southerners calling her a traitor.  That’s an amazing story that in my opinion had to be told.  The challenge is doing this woman, her family and the story the justice it deserves.  I sure hope I did so.

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When/where do you do your best writing?
The writing process is several steps for me.  The first is the idea generation stage.  This initial spark can come from a lyrical content idea, a vocal melody, a guitar riff, chord progression or any number of places.  Typically, I have way more of this piece than any other.  As I get more and more towards the other end of the process and completed song, it becomes less and less inspiration and more and more perspiration as the expression goes.  I usually will get to the point where I have a verse or two and a chorus and then I often will pause and try figure out where I want the song to go from there.   This is where I typically write away from an instrument.  Sometimes I’ll write out what I have, grab a pen and go for a long walk.  That seems to help me shake out the rest of a song for some reason and is often where I do some of my best writing.   For sure one thing I’ve learned is to trust the process and not force it.  It may all come out in a day or it may be years before I figure out where a song is going, but patience is the key.  Hence, I always have several songs in various stages of completion rattling around in my head.  The final stage is simply editing, wordsmithing and cleanup.  Usually I’ll do a rough recording at this point so I can sit back and listen to it and make any final changes needed.   

Do you write about personal experience, the experience of others, observations, made-up stories, something else or a combination?
It’s really a combination of personal experiences, shared experiences and observations and complete fiction.  For example, the Song El Tren de la Muerte was written after I read the book The Beast by El Salvadorian journalist Oscar Martinez.  The book is about the migrant route from Central America through Mexico that includes a series of freight trains.   The route is very treacherous due to not only the inherent dangers of riding on top of a freight train for days on end, but also the violence, kidnapping and extortion experienced by many along the way.  Obviously, I have no personal experience with this and I almost stopped writing it because I questioned whether or not I was qualified to do so.  In the end I decided it was an important story to tell and any additional awareness on this subject would be a net positive.   So I wrote the song and tried to highlight the determination, strength and bravery of those who face all these dangers in seeking a better life.  That song was very heavy and literally the day after I finished El Tren the song Silas James was written.  Silas James is completely fictional character that is about as positive, accepting and non-judgmental as they come.   He owns a record store and uses music to help his patrons and it was just the type of person I needed to believe existed.  So I created him.  

What’s the best advice you have ever gotten from another musician?
When I was first starting out trying my hand at being a musician I had the pleasure of meeting the late Chris Whitley before one of his gigs in Boulder, Colorado.  He was a man of few words and his advice was to simply to find your voice and persevere.  I think that is great advice and do my best to try to follow it.  Specifically, write music that speaks to you and don’t worry about sounding like someone or something else.  Once you start to find your own voice, follow it and be persistent and don’t let anyone (including yourself) make you deviate from that path to sound like someone or something you are not. 

Who would you love to collaborate with?
This is probably a really long list, there are so many tremendous songwriters out there.  If I had to pick a few in the moment, I would love to collaborate with Chris Knight.   He’s one of my favorite songwriters and I was excited to include his tune Enough Rope on my latest CD.  I think he is a great storyteller and really has a knack for writing simple, yet powerful songs.   James McMurtry is another one I’d be over the moon to work with.  His lyrics are so poetic yet relatable. That can be a really hard line to walk and he does it masterfully.

Which song of yours gets the best crowd response?
I play a lot of solo gigs with just me on the guitar, harmonica and the stomp board.  I usually deviate from the recorded material and throw in some original delta blues songs on the slide guitar here and there.  These almost always get a great response.  I have every intention of putting together a whole record of blues tunes that features this side of my music a little more prominently.  Maybe that will be my next project. 

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