While working on new material last month, the ever prolific Dan Webb received a quirky text from an old buddy from Massachusetts called Rich.
“Can you write me three songs?
Song 1: About a motorcycle
Song 2: About a boat
Song 3: About a pickup”
Rather than feeling boxed in by these sparse instructions, Webb experienced it as “a fun, free-ing exercise…I put the other material I was working on aside to keep up with the creative flow that was unleashed by this handful of characters in a text message…The songs came together quickly and I am really pleased with the resulting tunes,” Webb explains via e-mail.
Indeed, the three songs on the resulting Rich Triptych single are a lot of fun. They sound bright and Webb doesn’t overcomplicate things. Motorcycle is a catchy straightforward indie rocker, with subtle touches that reveal themselves upon closer inspection. The doubled vocals work really well, and the “sounds good to me” line is a killer hook. Boat is an alt country leaning track that blows wind in your hair and provides smooth sailing. Pickup is another enjoyable indie rock song where Webb cleverly uses the pickup as a metaphor for a protagonist’s cry for help.
That leaves one lingering question. Why did his old friend Rich commission these songs? Webb doesn’t know, but he has some hypotheses of which this is one is my favorite: “My own wild speculation is that he might be playing with songwriting AI software and wanted something to compare the computers’ output against.” If that is true, I’d put my money on Webb any day.
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp