Kill Your Darlings
blog Shelly Peiken blog Shelly Peiken

Kill Your Darlings

We hunkered down today and decided to experiment with a non-structured song. We resisted our pop sensibilities and incorporated many different unrepeated sections — a quantum leap out of our comfort zone. We might have to write three versions of the same song before we feel like we hit the mark. There’ll be elements in the versions we scrap that are wonderful and will never see the light of day. It’s been said that writers must “kill their darlings” — get rid of the most precious and especially self-indulgent passages for the greater good of the literary work. Like that. Not easy but necessary. And painful! 💔

Read More
Roll Up
blog Shelly Peiken blog Shelly Peiken

Roll Up

I’ve flown halfway around the world in order to write with someone who makes me better. But Paul and John lived within a mile or 2 of each other. And George and Ringo weren’t far. I can’t even fathom this unlikely convergence of stars colliding … on my visit to Liverpool.

Read More
Get Back
blog Shelly Peiken blog Shelly Peiken

Get Back

The Beatles pulled us into a place we didn’t know existed — a world of uncontrived, un-calculated delicious madness...of minor to major to minor again, of dropped measures and bizarre segues. Yet, the absence of logic never made so much sense. Anything was possible. They cooked with spices we never tasted. It was like we were all virgins and we shall never get that flower back. I miss them. I miss something having that much power over me. ❤️🧡💛💚💙

Read More
Separating the Artist From The Art
blog Shelly Peiken blog Shelly Peiken

Separating the Artist From The Art

Once a creation is released into the universe it exists as separate energy. And entity. The writer may own the copyright but the people own the feeling. It’s out there. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

Read More
Are You a John or a Paul?
blog Shelly Peiken blog Shelly Peiken

Are You a John or a Paul?

You may ask ‘why do we have to choose?’ We don’t. But why not? It’s fun. Do we ultimately prefer John’s heady, trippy world or Paul’s tales of imaginary (and not so imaginary) friends, lovers, mothers, dogs —Maxwell, Rita, Mary, Penny, Martha, Lady M…It’s a long and winding road.

Read More
George & John
blog Shelly Peiken blog Shelly Peiken

George & John

Thankfully Paul & Ringo are still with us. But it’s the magical combination of Paul, John, George & Ringo together that’s left an indelible imprint on my DNA and a gash in my heart where they once existed as a whole. In honor of these feelings I returned to London to revisit and fine-tune an original demo with Phil Thornalley. I can’t thank him enough for sharing the desire to turn this loss into art.

Read More

Confessions.