30 Years of Song Writing

Interview with Henrik W. Gade

by Eddy Thompson

“Here’s my computer, here is my guitar”

[“This is my Home” 2004]

Henrik with his son Lukas (eating a Christmas bun) December 2004

Ever since Henrik became my (tough) editor while I was writing the “Drums” volume of All Aspects series of ROCK & JAZZ series back in 2003, I have been planning to take my revenge. Now it’s payback time! Sitting safely in the interviewer’s chair, I finally got Henrik pinned. It’s the 1^st January 2005, and Henrik is writing the arrangements for the upcoming album with Shepherd Moons “Quicksilver Boy” theses days. But back in 2004, it was 30 years since the first Shepherd Moons songs were written. That’s a whole lot of years, right? Let’s dig into the past and confront the songwriter with his early years.

When did you start writing songs?

I started writing songs in my head when I was about 6-7 years old. I couldn’t write them down, of course, so the songs came and went while I played with my toys. In 1967, though, I wrote my first primitive “real” songs. I didn’t play any instrument at the time, so I began fiddling with a mandolin, which was the only musical instrument in the house. My first songs were actually written on a mandolin on one string (frets and fingering were Greek to me). The year after, I began playing the guitar and in 1969, I started playing the piano. And all of a sudden, the songs came to me, faster and faster.

I consider the year 1974 to be a crucial year, as I wrote my first really good songs and my first rock opera that year. I became a professional songwriter after 7 years of learning by writing and playing in bands.

Who were your songwriter heroes?

As I’m born in 1953, I’m probably supposed to be a Beatles fan, which I am. But I actually preferred Ray Davis from the Kinks and Pete Townsend from the Who. They were both romantic and heavy at the same time, qualities I have tried to achieve for myself over the years; not easy, I can tell you!

How many songs have you written?

I stopped counting in 1980. This last count, I recall, came to about 1,500 songs and maybe (guessing) I have written 2,500 songs by now including my musicals and operas. If you count the published songs only, I have officially written about 500 published songs.

Tell us a little bit about how you write a song?

I usually start with the text. When the text is done, I write the music really fast. It is my experience that the longer a song takes to write, the less the chance for a good song. Some of my best songs are written in a furious tempo. Nowadays, I write on the guitar or inside my head; I gave up the piano in the early 1990’ies, as I found myself stuck with the usual phrases and chords. The guitar gives me a great freedom, while forcing me to stick to either folk, rock, blues, jazz and funk.

The songs almost always come to me from out of the blue, often as a title or a hook line. “Exactly” from 2003 is a good example; the chorus came to me as I walked the streets of Copenhagen a wonderful summer’s day 2002. Or “Wood Killers” from 2004, which was inspired by a couple of men cutting down some 100 years old trees who stood in the way of a new important building.

Other songs are born out of feelings; love, sadness, happiness, fun, anger. These can be political songs like “Bad Soldiers” from 2004 or the song about ADHD and hyperactivity “Quicksilver Boy” from 2004. I seldom write calculated songs, as they normally end up being miserable mistakes.

A few times, I have been lucky to literarily dream up songs, the most prominent example is “Embracing you”. It only needed the chorus, when I awoke and went over to the piano in 1990.

Is it easy to write a song after all these years?

No, song writing – like all other kinds of writing – is often difficult and painful. You never know if you will ever write a good song again. You probably will, but you can never be sure. If you look at the great masters, you will find plenty of examples to make you nervous. Think of Ray Davis, my former hero – when did he last produce a genuine masterpiece – 1967? On the other hand, R.E.M. and Paul McCartney still deliver, so maybe there’s hope?

Which of the Shepherd Moons songs are your personal favourites?

“Love’s so Easy”, “The Ballroom”, “Football” and “Broken Circles” are among my favourite ballads. Among the rock songs I like, to mention some examples, “Seacruise IV”, “Sexy Ivy”, “Full Moon” and “Trust”. I’m generally a great fan of Rock’n’Roll, but I also love funk and strange ballads. I’m not for keeping stylistically!

When are you going to write more songs? Tomorrow? Today?

I don’t write songs in the morning, after lunch or before I sleep every day. I am a professional writer, so I meticulously plan each song collection, book or album, often years in forehand, In the old days, I used to write the songs as they came, but looking back, the periods of spontaneous song writing did not produce more than a few songs a year. That’s the reason for planning, not improvising. So since 2001, I have been writing 12 songs each summer to make sure that Shepherd Moons will not run out of new songs – would hate playing “The Ballroom” as my “latest” song, when I’m 64!

Most of the time, I’m simply collecting titles and ideas, not purposely, but just writing small notes every time an idea pops up in my head. Then I make a complete list of titles shortly before I begin writing in July, often in Finland, where we have a Summerhouse. The song collection title this year (2005) will be “Roll over Stravinsky”, not to be confused with “Roll over Beethoven” by Johnny B. Goode alias Chuck Berry (one of my great heroes!).

We leave Henrik busy writing arrangements for the new album. It will be fun to see what the new songs from 2004 will sound like. Are there any good songs? Did Henrik waste his time? Or did one or two nice songs pop up on the way?

Eddy Thompson, drummer and author of “Drums”
(released on Digital Books™ 2004)