The room at 3 a.m.

The studio is quiet in a way daytime never gets, and every small noise becomes part of the record: the hum of the racks, a chair creaking, the faint tick of a cooling amp.

Tonight was supposed to be a quick vocal comp. Four hours later I was rewriting the bridge, and somehow it was better for it. Some nights the song tells you what it wants if you stay long enough to listen.

Lesson, again: do not leave the room just because it is late. The good ideas keep their own hours.