Since long before I joined them, the members of my band have been part of something called the Immersion Composition Society. The ICS and its Minneapolis chapter, the Bullet Lodge, are worth looking into if you’re at all interested in music, composition, the creative process, art, or life.

The philosophy of the ICS, in essence, is this: If you spend too long fussing over your art, you’ll never be satisfied with it; in fact, you stand a good chance of ruining it. This is especially true if you’re a perfectionist and/or tend to think too much, which, let’s face it, most artists are/do.

At a certain point late in the creative process, whether it’s revising a book, mixing an album, or editing a film, you reach a crucial point after which any further effort is only going to dilute and degrade the work (see: Chinese Democracy).

The ICS’ philosophy in action is the Day Album: a collection of new songs you must finish in 24 hours or less. The ICS rules stipulate that you must write and record 20 songs in this period; the Bullet Lodge, thank god, uses six songs as a standard.

The other members of Run At The Dog have each completed dozens of day albums. Almost every Run At The Dog song was composed as a day album song. (The rest were created in a matter of hours, as part of another, different songwriting competition.)

Last month I finally made my first timid foray into the world of day albums. I finished six songs in 24 hours, using GarageBand, a lot of MIDI, some live drums, and my own less than confident singing voice. The quality, ambition, and variety of the results exceeded my expectations; I surprised myself in many different ways, not only as a musician but as a person; and after fifteen years in seven different bands I finally realized that I am, indeed, capable of writing pop songs. I will share one of the tracks from this day album with you here.

“Positive Ice Cream”

The rest of my day album is over here.