I\u2019ve written songs on and off from a pretty young age. Or I should say I\u2019ve partially written songs. I almost never finish them, because halfway through or so I become hypercritical and decide I hate everything. There will usually be one part of the song that feels right, that actually says what I want to say and how I want to say it, while the rest doesn\u2019t seem to measure up. When I do finish a song, that\u2019s sort of the end of the road. I almost never share what I\u2019ve written with anyone else.<\/p>\n
For these reasons I was immediately hesitant when our final project was assigned that included the option to write an original song. I knew I could compile a playlist easily enough, but for me that felt like taking the easy way out. I\u2019m pretty fond of expressing my opinion, and writing a song about a current social issue seemed like a great way to do that. If I could get it done. I was suddenly determined to finish a damn song, one I knew other people would get to see.<\/p>\n
And so it began. The complete and total lack of any creative inspiration. I had no idea where to start, or even what I wanted my topic to be! Luckily, I remembered that on my phone I\u2019d kept a few recordings of lines to songs that had popped into my head, but never been developed beyond that. I decided to listen back through them and see if anything sparked. There very first one I listened to was the lines, \u201cDanger, Danger\/I look it in the eye\/ sometimes I get to wonderin\u2019 why I\u2019m not afraid to die.\u201d I had forgotten all about them, but suddenly I could clearly see the direction I wanted to go.<\/p>\n
Those lines became the basis for my chorus, which I was able to finish not long after. Then once again I was stumped. By now I knew that I wanted to tackle the issue of alcoholism, but I still wasn\u2019t sure what direction I wanted to address it from. After thinking about it for probably too long, I decided I wanted the song to be written from the female perspective of someone who acknowledges she has a problem, if only vaguely, but at this point doesn\u2019t believe she can change. While I didn\u2019t want the song to be a cry into your Ben & Jerry\u2019s type, I still wanted to convey some sense of sadness behind the wildness of the narrator\u2019s life. I wanted to show that even though she tries to make it seem like she wouldn\u2019t want things any other way, it\u2019s more that she\u2019s resigned herself to the pain.<\/p>\n
Once that decision was made the song flowed pretty easily. Faster than any song I\u2019ve written before. Even so, once it was done I still questioned\/am questioning every line. The thought of other people reading what I have written, something that I care about, well it\u2019s kind of terrifying. It\u2019s a very vulnerable position to be in having others be able to judge something that comes from a personal place. I have such respect for the artists who do it all the time. Ultimately, I think it\u2019s that vulnerability that can make music so unifying and beautiful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve written songs on and off from a pretty young age. Or I should say I\u2019ve partially written songs. I almost never finish them, because halfway through or so I become hypercritical and decide I hate everything. There will usually … Continue reading