Last night I did a performance at PhotographerC Benders place, Heron Park. The focus of the evening was the process of songwriting, he had a link with a thread that was for questions that people had about the 'process'...each artist has their own process, I doubt there are any two that are alike,but there are ones that are similiar.
Some of the questions included "What inspires you to write" "What motivates you more, sorrow or pain?" "What is the process you work in, music or lyrics? What do you use to record and do you do seperate tracks or all ''live' track?"...Interesting....and then i proposed a question for the Audience...'What do you listen to when listening to Live Music, Lyrics? Or Music? A certain content, or a lil of both?" Some of the responses were "Truth. Emotion. Vibe. Music. Feelings. Content. Lyrical power" etc...it was great to see such a broad spectrum of answers...there is no right or wrong in what you listen to.
The range of answers from myself to the audience...motivation comes from experience...I don't necessarily write 'more or less' from either 'sorrow or pain'...happiness or joy....it can come from so many things,but i do have what I call "Sponge Mode"...and that is when I absorb everything around me, like a sponge, and somehow words and music have this amazing way of coming together to create the beginning of a song, which was another question...how does the 'beginning' of the song happen....my reply "it just does'...for myself and I'm sure some other writers also experience it in a similiar way...the music forms, the chords kinda happen..it's almost as if the chords have mouths of their own, and begin to form words....yeah...thing is, when I say that out loud, I get that "OooooooKAY" look, but other writers, kinda understand the concept of what I mean when I say that.
Anyway................the night was Enlightening and informative in not just the fact that I learned a lil bit of what my audience perceives in my music, and I also what I perceive in my audience....This is how Relationships grow, and to me, my audience is a 'relationship' of what brings us together, some common thread we all share, yet for each of us, we experience it just a little bit different...this is where we learn.
Most people that come to my shows, I have learned, are into the lyrics, which is also my main 'root'...writing what I feel, into something that makes sense, and can translate to the listener...in a way where I can kinda bring them into my experience and what I was feeling at the time I wrote it.
Sometimes it's painful.
Sometimes it's a plateau for me, and I reach a new height.
Sometimes it's simply words that enlighten me, days or even months after I've written, and sometimes, it truly is the Universe, writing thru me, making my hand move across the paper, releasing the toxins in me, out onto the paper...into the neck of the guitar....
COmments?
insight?
Experiences?
Feel free to share!!!
