February, the shortest month of the year, is most commonly associated with St. Valentine's Day, Black History Month and Leap Day; however, with the help of the growing popularity of Fawm.org, February will also be known as Album Writing Month.
February Album Writing Month, or FAWM, is an annual month long event that challenges songwriters to compose fourteen songs within the 28 days of February. The tradition of FAWM was created by Madison, Wis. based singer/songwriter, Burr Settles. He was inspired after taking part in the Novel Writing Month program, in which participants each produced a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Settles was enthused by the concept of putting a tight time constriction on a creative process and decided to translate the challenge to songwriting.
In 2004, Settles and three of his friends participated in the first FAWM challenge. Because Settles didn't live near his fellow songwriters, the group used an online forum to track their progress throughout the month. By the end of the month, the four "fawmers" had met and surpassed their outrageous goal of 14 songs each. Because of numerous requests from people who had stumbled upon the FAWM 2004 archive, Fawm.org was set up in 2005, and the challenge was opened to the public.
Although the thought of such an ambitious challenge would put many songwriters into a tizzy, FAWM has continued to consistently attract more and more followers each year. In its sixth annual event, the FAWM 2009 challenge has 2,395 participants and by the end of the month they will have produced upwards of 5,000 original songs. Although few actually complete the task of writing a song every other day for a month, many come back to participate each year and they bring their friends with them. One of the biggest reasons for this is because of the positive and diverse musical community that Fawm.org has been able to create.
Fawm.org allows their members to post their own original songs and access music made by their fellow fawmers. When a new song is posted, it is available for others to comment on, critique and give praise to. All genres of music from "Christian" to "Murder-ballad" can be found on Fawm.org, and participants are of all different ages, experience level,and nationality. The numerous forums offered by the website allow songwriters of all walks of life to discuss every aspect of their FAWM experience.
For fawmers such as Jonathan Huffman, the motivation to continue creating music comes from other musicians. "It's when people see your first song and they like it and start following you…The positive response is what motivates me. The time crunch does help too." Since there is no prize for completing the 14 songs in 28 days and there is no way to guard against cheating, the people who participate are in it for the artistic adrenaline rush. "Right now I have eight out of 14 songs," acknowledged Jonathan. "I had a dream last night that I was at 10, but it's not true."
Although some take the challenge very seriously, many are just in it to say that they tried, or to simply get the creative juices flowing. Almost any songwriter could attest to the fact that the new song every other day pace is ludicrous and a quality song every other day is just impossible. That is why the point of FAWM is to simply encourage songwriters to dedicate time to compose music. Creating masterpieces is not the immediate goal. Fawm.org allows musical growth because it encourages songwriters to see other people's weaknesses and to air and learn from their own mistakes.
As the end to this year's FAWM challenge draws near, many participants are finishing up their 14 songs, and many are still beginning.
"Last year at this point I had written 10 songs. This year I have written one song," fawmer Evin Wolverton said. For me, February was song writing month."
Although he may not have produced as many songs this year as he did last, Evin definitely enjoyed his second year participating in FAWM and had some words of wisdom for anyone who would like to take on the challenge in Februarys to come: "Hide a pen in the pocket of every jacket you own. Keep an inscribable on your person at all times. If feasible, get a portable voice recorder and aggressively befriend it."
Whether or not one may be a professional musician, a mediocre lyricist or someone who just enjoys a catching tune, Fawm.org is an interesting website and can be enjoyed by all.
