Q: i add some melody and then some chords and try to stick some bass in there and by the time the drums get in it all feels like plain bread with no real meat or energy to it
A: if you start with songs that are extremely short (1 to 2 seconds) you can easily tend to it fully and make it perfect, and find out what works very quickly, because you only have a tiny span of time to work with. then make the next song slightly longer.... A crisis will set in somewhere around when you get to 18 seconds or more, but by then you will have created a lot of great recordings, so you'll have the experience needed to take on the new challenge by that point