Streeter Seidell is a comedy writer and (mediocre) drummer living in Brooklyn, NY. During the day he edits the front page of CollegeHumor.com but when the sun goes down he takes his place at the helm of the Indablog. He maintains a personal blog at StreeterSeidell.com and wants to make sure you know he once wrote something for the New York Times and that it was, in the words of his mother, "Amazing! You're so talented!"

To tell the truth, it goes both ways for me...but that sometimes means that it's hard to write melody for the lyrics, or vice-versa.

I pretty much get the first few lyrics and the melody at the same time, Usually that couple line piece becomes the chorus and I just fill in the rest around it...but...it's fluid

nice topic.first i dont consider myself a lyricist. but when i do i need a topic first. then a phrase .at that point it becomes construction site. now this is where it gets tricky i also make it a meal. from shopping 4 ingredients 2 putting it on the table, i try with all i got 2 make it taste good. even when im just putting 2 guitar lines 2 gether with no lyrics ,i need topic then build.which comes first chicken or the egg? it does,nt matter which ever i got, im trying 2 cook.

I have always made the music first. In fact, I've often composed an entire song and then filled in the lyrics (and the main melody) based on what the "mood" of the song is and what it evokes in my mind. This has the possibility of being very limiting though, because my lyrics and the melody they're sung to have to follow the chord progression(s) I've already created (unless, of course, I want to cut out chunks of the song on the computer and then completely redo them...not likely.) It has usually worked out okay, with the inevitable successes and failures. I'm a terrible lyricist, which is, I'm sure, why I leave it until last.

I just noodle around on an instrument until I find something that I like that goes with the feeling that I am trying to express... then I just hope that I will get into a similar mood and find some lyrics for it... shows you how efficient I am.....

Well I have been using FL studios for 3 years now and i think I have inproved alot from my first song. i get all my ideas for the songs I make from my piano i make all my music on my piano then write it out then remix my music on FL Studios. this song i have posted isent quite done yet it will be soon though. Hope you enjoy it!

I have only written two songs. The first one "Dance for Joy" just kind of came to me, and since I don't play an instrument I had to find some loops that fit what I heard in my head. The second was a collaboration with another Indaba member Steve Fultz. He made the instrumental and I wrote the lyrics and sang. I ran off of the title he gave "They Hide",bout escaping into your imagination when things get hard like kids do. For me the lyrics are the most difficult part. Feel free to come take a listen and let me know what you think.

I will leave the chicken or the egg out of this :-)

To me...
It all starts with a concept, an image, some form of reversed synesthesia. There is something that touches you and you grab the image of it.
As you sit down, you already have something in your head.
It might sound out of place but, besides my H4n field recorder, I always carry a small digital camera with me.
Those snapshots are, for me, the foundation of what I want to write.
Sometimes its the melody. Sometimes its just a bass line. Sometimes is just something you read on Wire, Wired or even at the Wall Street Journal.
Sometimes is a poem by e.e.cummings and sometimes a paragraph of "Einstein's Dreams" by Alan Lightman.

It is life. Where it starts, for me, is from life and the world around me.

Then comes the most difficult process: To actually come up with the sounds that you already have in your mind, to build the beats you already have in your heart.

Long hours of Reaktor, MAX/Msp await.
But it is always worthwhile.

i usually start witha drum beat fast or slow play along or jam for a while and something formulatles it will evolve after 3 to maybe 10 times over the course of a few days in a row while it develops the idea of what the song may mean or a description starts to take place and if idont record it within 2 or 3 days of that its gone lol

I usually start with a riff that I made up from an improvisation session. Sometimes I have ideas in mind and try to make a song off of that, but that doesn't always work that well, but sometimes it can with the riff matching the song. I usually make the lyrics last after I've done the whole song for different reasons. Mainly because they can be tedious and they require different steps than the other stuff. Idk, just I usually get out the melody, though I can come up with many ideas for one in my head though. XD