SADBOii: How I Wrote “Nothing”

Hello!

I’m SADBOii, a big ol’ nerd, singer songwriter and producer from Australia. I’m very excited to break down my writing and production process of my debut single “Nothing”.

‘Nothing’ is a song about the importance of togetherness, accepting yourself and respecting your mental health. For me it was about really starting the journey of self care so that I could truly let someone in. Having people who love you around you is so incredibly important and a big obstacle to that can be not letting yourself believe you deserve that love.

How I generally start writing a song is with chords first. On the day, I really felt like writing something that hits the major 1 (or tonic) in a 16th rhythm as a pedal point. Based on that, I knew it’d probably feel best keeping the chords over the top relatively simple and for the most part, major chords. I found a nice sound to play the pedal point and then started playing some chords over the top. When I played the progression: 1,,, 5 | 4,,, 5| 6,,, 5| 4,,, 5 | it felt so perfectly melancholic and fitted with the pedal point melodically but also felt juxtaposed to the 16th rhythms. It instantly took me to where I felt like going.

I wrote the pre chorus first actually. Specifically I think the first thing that came out of my mouth after finding the chord progression was “Waiting for the daylight in the dark night”. The note I hit on “daylight” and “dark night” is the 2 (the second note in the scale) and again, it just feels like... hopeful. So I naturally kept coming back to that 2.

Lyrically, that pre chorus talks about that hope that a new day will bring less anxiety than the last;

“Waiting for the daylight in the dark night

is all I could bring me to do.

Inevitably this beating in my chest

was beating me black and blue.”

Then the struggle of wanting to get through how I was feeling, but knowing that would take admitting that I need help;

“I wanted to get it right, but my head left.

I can’t lie, I wanted the truth.

It’s the hardest thing I’ve never done,

it’s nothing like loving you.”

I remember loving that pre chorus and being super excited about it. It actually put a lot of pressure on me to write a great chorus, so naturally I chickened out and went to writing the verse first. In the first verse I wanted to write more about the anxiety, how it feels and the realizations it can often bring with it, whether real or just a fabrication of the anxiety itself;

“Here it comes again like an old forgotten friend,

just heat it up and boil it down to nothing.

Then all at once, it all created sense

like a bullet straight into my flailing head.”

That line; “just heat it up and boil it down to nothing.” is my favourite of the song. I think it’s a combination of how easily it sings but also it’s really quite visual and a simple way of expressing how it can be looking back on a bad episode of anxiety when you’re past it and not really respecting or admitting how bad it was going through it at the time.

Melodically, similar to the pre chorus, I wanted it to keep coming back to an interesting note in the verse. It felt so nice singing on the 7, especially with the pedal note on the 1. For context, the 2 that I used in the pre chorus and the 7 I used in the verse are the notes on either side of the major 1 pedal note. So they rub quite a lot, but I dunno I just really dig it.

The time came to finally attack the chorus, so what I did was actually produce it up a bit so that I could sing from the pre chorus into the chorus and just see what came out naturally.

After a few tries I felt that going up into the higher part of my vocal register was the right thing, especially with the verse and pre sitting in a nice lower tonal part of my voice. I also think a bit of the folky, singer songwriter side of me came out in the melody for the chorus. It starts and finishes on the major 1, which I kind of relate to a lot of my favourite folky songs.

The chorus is where I’m talking about getting that strength and resolve to make a positive change and let someone in. Meeting someone who deserves all that I can give them and knowing what it’d take to do that;

“I’m on my feet so I don’t fall for nothing, nah nah nah nothing.

Nothing but you, nothing but you.

Honestly I’m not dumb and I’m not bluffing.

Won’t fall for nothing. Nothing but you, nothing but you.”

I actually really dig where the second verse and pre go writing wise. I wanted to take the song from being so SADBOii centric to being something about our generations as a whole too and the difficulties and frustrations we face. Mainly in wanting positive change in the world but constantly being looked down on and told we don’t know what’s best.

“Here we go again... What a message we would send,

but they heat it up and boil it down to nothing.

And they built our homes out of “only sticks and stones”

and they made damn sure we can’t afford the real thing.”

What I like about that verse is that reading the lyrics, you get it, it’s pretty straight forward in its metaphors without being super on the nose. Around this time, I was really trying to write songs with a bridge that was more of a post chorus. One that could potentially come back in at the end of the song as an extra hook. The bridge in “Nothing” was one I had actually written previously, but fit really perfectly and summed up what I really wanted from the song. I think it’s where the song has its moment of togetherness;

“Come finish what we started,

this ain’t made for the faint hearted.

Come leave your sleeve unguarded.

Give me all, give me all, give me all you got.”

The inspiration for the bridge melody was again the Irish folk vibes. It feels like you could almost turn it into a sea shanty. It starts and finishes on the major 1 again and just has that air of something you could sing along to. ‘Nothing’ is one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written. I think that comes down to it being exactly and honestly what I needed to write at the time. Also, it came at a time that I was re-learning to produce, so I was trying new things and ended up stumbling on a sound that I really love and that comes naturally. At the end of the day, it’s all well and good to set out to write an absolute smash hit, there are people out there that can genuinely just do that. But I think a great place to start is to branch out and then see what feels natural. Stylistically, just because you haven’t tried a particular genre or production style doesn’t mean it won’t come naturally, you might be surprised. So try something new, then lean into what is working easily for you.

Thanks so much for reading! There are many more songs coming in the future and I’m super excited to show them to you!

SADBOii.

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