A random friend request on Myspace led to me discovering this daunting, insane yet brave quest by Another Day On Earth...
Q. Tell everyone a bit about yourself and what you're up to.
My name is Lawrence Bonk and I decided, for reasons I'll probably get into with a therapist in 2010, to write and record a song every single day for a year. I post the results of my daily experiments on a blog, http://www.anotherdayonearth.net.
Q. Why on earth did you take it upon yourself to write a song a day and what do you see the end result being?
I don't exactly know why I did it. It's probably a few reasons. I was feeling pretty dissatisfied and crappy for a while. I went on an alcoholic bender pretty much throughout the holiday season. I got recessioned (my verb) out of some work and I was just kind of, floating around. So I decided, after a very strong coffee, that this this was a good idea. It didn't sink in until about day three or so.
Q. Have any songs surprised you? Which have been your favourites so far?
Many songs have surprised me, in both ways. Nearly every one has. There are songs like 'Messy Love' and 'Sorta Boring Life' which excited the pants off of me when I was writing them, that ended up less than the sum of their parts. There is the opposite spectrum too, songs I wrote in just a few minutes that ended up going places I never imagined. 'Let Let Let Let Let Me In' did that and so did 'Traded In A Dream For Another Dream'. Other than that, my favorites are probably 'We're Just Floating Away' and 'Seesaw Rhythm'. I really hate spelling the word rhythm.
Q. What's your quality control like? Are there days you just think "fuck it, that'll do"?
It's funny. Another main reason I started this was to get a handle on my quality control. I have the kind of perfectionist tendencies that can get in the way of ever feeling finished, of ever really being satisfied with anything. You know the type I'm sure. So my reasoning here was, I'd have to get over that because these songs are coming every single day. In a way I have, but I wouldn't say I ever go "fuck it. that'll do." Especially now that I know people are listening. But still, it's hard to make something great every single day. As long as I never sink below "pretty ok" then I'll be happy.
Q. Give us a top 5 of something.
Top five most ridiculous dreams i've had since beginning this project:
5. going back in time to help a middle school-aged Will Smith beat back some bullies.
4. watching a live close up camera feed of George W Bush at a sporting event as he hummed along to the Beach Boys 'God Only Knows'.
3. hanging out at the white house and realizing that President Obama was playing a pornographic video game.
2. going back in time to visit with my child self and my parents and having to prove to them i was me by reciting a list of memories. thankfully i avoided a space-time paradox.
1. A tie between about fifteen random dreams about the television program "LOST." Maybe I'm a bit obsessed.
