Why write songs?

“What do I really want to say in music and why do I want to say it?”

” What do I hope to achieve with a musical communication?”

These are questions that have been with me lately as I am getting ready for my upcoming concert in Victoria, BC. As I stay with these questions, I find myself dismissing the importance of sharing the struggles of my little me. In moments like these I think that my music should have a bigger purpose and that it should carry a clear message for change. On the other hand, I also recognize the desire to make music that is “agendaless”, and that does not impose, but simply shares a human experience whose interaction with the listener might or might not bear fruit.

As I cultivate these questions and drink my coffee at the funky Cornerstone Cafe (Victoria, BC)I look around and I see the Cafe’s guestbook on the table. Curiously I open it and to my surprise I find this anonymous text that beautifully addresses the ‘what for’ of artmaking, which of course can aplly to songwriting. Take a read and see how beautifull synchronicities happen and offer whimsicall gifts to us, in the same way a song can do.

LISTEN! It doesn’t matter what it is. If you’re a master poet or a flawless artist…share something with us. What makes something art isn’t the product, it’s the process. Take inspiration from within and put it on the paper. What makes art meaningful is the communication of emotion. Whether it’s simple like a hot cup of tea on a cold winter day or a lifetime’s worth of effort coming to a grand conclusion, if you can get someone to feel these things, to share these emotions with a total stranger you may never meet, that is art. And to me that is more beautiful, meaningful, poignant than any refined, shiny sketch we get told is art. Share a story, write a poem, make a sketch… [create a song].