Art is a fundamental part of our world, and its existence contributes to the quality of our everyday experience. It’s found in the music we listen to, the shows we watch, the ways we move (well, sometimes), and perhaps even our state of mind, assuming it’s a good day. At the same time, we are surrounded by non-art: music without soul, products built in accordance with the doctrine of planned obsolescence, and aisles lined with processed food, all made without love and packaged into colorful, chemically stained boxes. So what leads us to call some things "art" while others things we do not?
The Non-linear Life - Some Thoughts on Cycles, Seeding, and Songs
Recently I wrote about my songwriting process and how, as I've grown and developed, it has taken a cyclical form. The cycle of my creative process oscillates between living fully and writing deeply, seeding and harvesting. This pattern of cycles should be familiar, because everything in our reality unfolds in this way. Beneath the love, the pain, the sun, the dark, the Earth and the sky, there likely exists only shimming vibrations.
After all that exploration I've reverted to thinking inside the box
I spent the evening with a friend and fellow songwriter recently. We've been meeting to discuss his songs, aspects of his performance, and how his sound might translate to a full album. The last time we met he told me that he felt he needed to get “out of his little box,” referring to the collection of chords and techniques he keeps within his musical repertoire. This was an interesting comment to me, especially since we’ve been looking at Ryan Adams’ guitar playing and how he's managed to a lot with a little, guitar-wise, throughout his career.
Society, Songwriting, and the Art of Creating from Essential Nature
When it comes to songwriting there’s no set formula for success. Writers come in all shapes and sizes, sexes and ages, and they each have a unique approach to courting the muse, which for some may even be denial of the muse altogether and the adoption of more formulaic approaches to creativity. I’ve often wondered why some people seem to pour out songs as fast as their free-time will allow, while others only manage write a new song every year or two? Perhaps the reason is that some people are simply more gifted than others, more blessed. On the other hand, might it possible that more prolific writers have improved the quality of their relationship to the muse--and thereby the quality of their songs--by better aligning themselves with their own essential nature?
Star Wars, Fractal Geometry, and the Mystery of Timeless Songwriting
Songwriting, like all art forms, is a never ending dance in which each of us works to continuously perfect our steps. As I write new songs, my process is to make recordings of them and place those recordings in a folder on my computer. Once I've done this I walk away from them and wait to see how they feel to me with the passage of time. Invariably, there are those that stand out, begging to see the real world, and those that are destined to live out their lives in that folder, never to be played again or heard by another human being. I wonder about that folder and I wonder about those songs, the ones that don’t seem to pass the test of time. What is it that distinguishes one from the other?
Thoughts on Pseudoscience, the baby, the bathwater, and the big picture
Pseudoscience is a term we hear again and again, and it's on my mind a lot as I tend to be overly analytical while remaining fairly open-minded about the nature of truth and possibility. It’s always seemed unwise to me to rely on a single method of inquiry, such as empirical observation, when considering purpose and direction, especially since such a large percentage of the universe is empirically unobservable. Given this fact it feels indulgent to hold what humanity “knows” too tightly, as history teaches us harsh lessons about this modality. This more "open" approach inevitably leads me to an interesting mix of authors, podcasters, theories and thoughts. Predictably, some of the works are extolled by science while others bear the dreaded moniker of “pseudoscience.”
I have a confession to make, I've got no idea what I'm doing
I’m not sure if the stuff I’ve been “publishing” to this blog is getting seen, and I truly have little preference in the matter (in a good way). While a large readership is not something I’m after, I do care strongly about elegance, consistency, and the balance of form and function into a marriage that proceeds in an efficient manner. It’s these facts that have prompted me to write this half confessional, half apologetic post. Just like I prefer my understandings and beliefs to have reason and flow, so to should songs, records, and even blogs. And right now, this blog feels all over the map to me.
Evolution via expression and experience - The art of give and take
A revolutionary, albeit controversial, scientific theory named Integrated Information Theory (IIT) has been growing in popularity lately. This theory is unique in that it integrates consciousness as a fundamental mechanism of evolution and cosmology. This fact alone seems revolutionary, at least to an outsider such as myself; from out here it seems as if science has been dead set on proving consciousness to be an epiphenomenon of the human machine, holding fast to the materialist and reductionist viewpoint. Maybe that's why I'm pulling for this theory...I mean...is anyone else getting tired of being told they aren’t a free thinking, conscious entity?
A Good American Life Examined: THE MYSTERY OF SONGWRITING PART 4
When I wrote the song A Good American Life everything happened pretty fast. I’d stopped at Whole Foods on the way to the office and had a friendly exchange with the woman at the register. She’d mentioned how the previous evening she’d come home, made herself dinner, and settled in to spend the evening binge watching one show or another on TV. I quipped “sounds like a good American life to me,” causing us both to laugh as I headed off to continue my day. But as I walked to my car the words struck me as interesting, and a song began to form. By the time I arrived at work 15 minutes later the song was basically done and it received little treatment thereafter, other than some structural editing. Since that day I’ve had time to consider those lyrics--words that came through me more than from me--to ruminate on how writing that song directly about myself would have meant so much less in the end.
The art of forgetting yourself: THE MYSTERY OF SONGWRITING PART 3
Last week I mentioned that with this post I’d begin talking more directly about the basic elements of songwriting and depart from the esoteric discussions of inspiration, imagination, and all that “unteachable” stuff. Then again, isn’t the whole idea of songwriting unteachable by nature? You can be taught chords and clefs, technique and perhaps even touch, but who can teach you to be you? A song that is authentically yours--one that you’ve poured your heart into--is like a fingerprint. By definition that song is something only you could create, and no one can teach you that. That is a journey every writer makes alone. Perhaps that’s why it’s so rewarding when a writer starts to hit their stride?
So maybe this week’s post is a little esoteric…it’s all about perspective.
Inspiration, Don’t be a hero: THE MYSTERY OF SONGWRITING PART 2
I know it’s different for everyone, but for me all songs start with a feeling: I feel songs, I don’t hear them. It took a long time to become aware of this fact, that realization only took place in the last year. In other words, I was involved in the process quite successfully before I began to understand how the process actually worked. In conducting a thought experiment around this process, I’ll state that when I feel a song I “become” it in some sense, and once I’ve become the song I know how to write it, or at least write enough of it that I can use existing songwriting structures and modalities to animate the truth of the song. If that’s done with honesty and if the feeling of the song is kept central (this is where the writer puts their ego aside) a song that’s authentic is created.
Well worn wide awake music: The mystery of songwriting part 1
As I’ve been turning towards music more in the last couple of years I’ve been experiencing increased success with songwriting (“Increased success” can best be understood as writing better songs with less effort.) I’d been writing songs for many years, but I finally began to consider making an album when the songs I was writing felt “right.” What does that mean exactly?
Searcher Thinker Singer Songwriter...Blogger?
The time has come…I’m adding a blog to my website, well, added if you’re reading this. It’s a funny thing, blogs and me, as I’ve attempted to start them before but could never gain any traction. Each previous attempt has fizzled, sinking deep into the mire of lost web content--all those thoughts and emotions gone forever--not just from me, but from the millions of others who thought they’d give blogging a go only to relent when they failed to achieve any reasonable semblance of readership.
This time may be different though. For starters, this blog wasn’t really my idea, at least not at first. The blog was suggested to me as being a good driver of web traffic, for giving fans something more to find on my website, and for aiding in search engine optimization; all of the above really. It took me a while to warm to the notion...