Left Of Nashville: A Music Documentary |DIY| Songwriting| Indie Music

Season 2, Ep.17--The Final Act Of Season 2: A Time To Pivot

03.20.2016 - By Brandon BarnettPlay

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Let me start out this one by giving you a little bit of an inside look at the production side of Left Of Nashville. 

 

When I begin a season, I try to have some episodes banked to relieve some of the pressure of only having a week to produce an episode. In the first season, I only had three episodes in the can before I launched. This season, I had six.

 

But it always catches up with me. As you know, trying to have a career in music is ever fluctuating. There are times when so much is going on, that I have trouble keeping up with everything that is happening. I have more than enough content to last me for weeks of episodes. Then, it’s like a ghost town. I find myself waiting on a song to get placed or hoping that something happens in Nashville.

 

That’s when I cover tactical subjects. And it works out, because it adds variety to the show while still having the main thread of the show in tact. 

 

So when I start a season, I know how it is going to begin, but I have no clue how it is going to end. It can be pretty stressful. In the first season, this was another reason  I ended it when I did. But this season, I’ve learned to trust myself a little more, knowing that I will find a way to get an episode out without missing a week. I’ve finally found my groove with this thing.

 

And I think that an unforeseen benefit for you as a listener when I run through the runway that I’ve given myself with banked episodes is that the shows are more current. Starting with episode 8 of this season, I would produce it the same week it aired.

 

My original plan with Season 2 was to have twenty episodes, then take a month off at most before launching the third season featuring LOLO. Well, here we are at 17. After ep.16, I didn’t know what I was going to do for the final four episodes. I was hoping that I would have a song placed by now. I mean, I really wanted to go out with a bang. And I’m also having so much fun this season that I’m not ready to end it yet.

 

I realize that I’ve been resting on my laurels. I’m waiting to be picked. I’m waiting on Any Day to get placed or ’The State I’m In’ to take off. I’m talking a lot about making music in the podcast but I’m not making any. I need to get back to the ‘doing things’ side of the ‘do things and tell people’ equation.

 

So I’ve decided for the third act of this season of Left Of Nashville, to write and record a collection of new songs and take you along with me for the ride. I have a handful songs of various stages of completion that you’ve heard bits and pieces of already.

 

So taking a page out of Jordan Woods-Robinson book of his ‘Songs On Sunday’ project, I am going to write and record a song a week. I won’t have the final mix done in that time but I think I can have a mix good enough to release for the podcast.

 

This will allow me to build my body of work and have you keep me accountable. By announcing this on the podcast and having you with me week to week, it puts a ton of pressure on me to get it done. One of the fears that I’ve always had of writing for Nashville was whether or not I could write multiple songs on a schedule. So this will be a nice exercise to test out whether or not I can write under pressure. 

 

Left Of Nashville

 

Brandon Barnett-Left Of Nashville EP

 

 

 

More episodes from Left Of Nashville: A Music Documentary |DIY| Songwriting| Indie Music