Warren Spicer, the guitarist/vocalist for the Montreal-based indie rock band Plants and Animals, started as an illustrator. This background still informs his songwriting process, to such an extent that "sketches" are what he calls the preliminary drafting and tooling around before recording a song. And for the new Plants and Animals album, Spicer is trying a new creative process. Whereas like most songwriters Spicer usually begins the process with a guitar and lets the words flow from the music, this time he's trying the opposite tack: he's beginning each song with lyrics before he has any music. According to Spicer, "I want to sing the words without a guitar to find a melody before there are any chords or music. Just sing and see what happens. Then I'll build the chords and harmonic stuff afterwards."
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