the depressions of writing originals...

[Rock_Out_Dudes]

Whenever I write original songs I (most of the time) get a product that is good quality and is a good listen and stuff, but I can't help but feel that it's already been done before, or that I may be labeled a "copycat." For instance, I'm heavily influenced by Metallica, Megadeth, and Randy Rhoads, and whenever I write guitar parts or lyrics there always seems to be some part of one of Metallica, Megadeth, or other artists song that seems to be inside my song despite the fact that I'm trying to write a completely different song. Some people might call this just being influenced heavily by those bands, but I just get the feeling that people are going to see me as trying to rip the bands off (which I'm not) and they might think I was trying to pull one of those Sum41 things. So to my questions:

How do you make sure that your songs don't sound TOO much like your influencing band's songs do?
What do you do if you can kind of feel a different song inside of your song (hopefully you understand what I"m getting at....)?

I might have not explained this very well, or some people just might not understand what I'm trying to get at, but discuss if you have any suggestions or comments, and if not just leave me to you misery... :upset:

[BassMan182]

what you need to do, and this sometimes works for me, is write a song in the morning. or any time that you HAVEN'T been listening to music. if you're like me, you will listen to music pretty much all day, everyday. so basically, you need to free yourself of this. it might be worthwhile opening up to other types of music though, instead of just metal. the ability to combine varying influences isn't exactly original within itself, but the product of this hopefully will be.

[westknife]

play the song for someone else and see what they think. a lot of times, for me, one of my songs will seem like a ripoff to my ears, but anyone else i play it for will be like "nah, it's good, keep it"

[gaslight]

Don't worry too much about it. Just write your songs.

All bands have influences, even if only they are pointedly aware of it. Not everyone has heard every band in the world, so some people won't even know of the influences of one band, and that band will sound totally new to them, even though to someone else it may sound more or less derivative.

The more you write songs, the more you will develop your own style and sound.

Bottom line, don't worry too much about it, just have fun writing your songs and the more you do it, the more they'll feel and sound like your own.

[thewolf]

I agree with BassMan182, start listening to other kinds of music. You may be very surprised at the different kinds of music some of your favorite guitarists/bands listen to regularly, and are influenced by themselves. I know those three bands have been influenced by classical music for example, which is a far cry from metal....or is it? ;)

[Rock_Out_Dudes]

Thanks guys

[cramboli]

When I'm makeing basslines and the sort I'll play something way off of my genre(metal) thus makeing sure it won't sound like another song after makeing it I'll just screw around with the timing and speed to fit towards my genre... If you understand that at all I hope it was helpfull...

[Unproductive]

The easiest way to battle becoming a copycat is to listen to different genres of music. You cant be accused of copying megadeath if you have some other music elements. People are like sponges, you absorb and are influenced by everything. The more varied the sources, the better and more original you'll be.

[devildriver421]

Just get more influences and you should have more variety. I mean yea, people might be like "oh yeah that sounds like the riff in so-and-so", but if you have a ton of different influences, they wont write you off as a copycat

[darkwhite]

yeah man just listen to different types of music. I write the majority of the music for my band as i am the guitar player...I listen to everything from The Eagles to Metallica, from Kelly Clarkson to Submersed. Helps a lot and you can draw ideas from them.

We are a rock band and my singer listens to a lot of R&B stuff to draw ideas from, but he also listens to Trivium (GREAT band) and other heavy stuff like that. My advice is to just have fun with it. Throw in a slow melodic solo in a heavy *** song, or a melodic shred peice in a slow groove of a song.

Just don't really set any limits to what to do

WAIT! my NEW advice is to try different tunings! a new tuning opens a ton of new doors to creativity!

[Camel42]

i dont know; mabey it will sound more original when your band plays it?