Recently, a situation arose that inspired me to think about my creative process. More specifically, how life inspires my creations.
As a songwriter, I gather inspiration from experiences and observations. In turn, those become stories in my songs. Experiences that are great, horrible, life changing, mistakes, thought provoking, and humorous all can influence my stories. Likewise, observations that are of people doing good, bad, awesome, and selfish actions can influence my stories. The common ground is that experience and observation influence the fiction I create.
…the fiction I create.
Rarely does 100% of a song reflect something that actually happened as it actually happened. Some songs get close. Really close. Some songs get no closer than you currently are to Neptune. Neptune is further than Uranus.
I try to take the inspirations for a song, which vary, and create details to which people may relate. Therein lies the crux of the recent situation. But more on the idea first… Songwriters want to write a song that connects to a memory, generates a feeling, or causes reflective thought in the greatest amount of people that hear the song. I realize I’m not going to be a world famous or even regionally famous songwriter. I write because I love the creative outlet, I do well performing my original content, and there’s always the opportunity to connect your art with people.
The situation, simply–my songs aren’t about you. Maybe inspired by something you did, said, mentioned, or possibly mumbled. Or, not. If you find yourself or a friend or anyone in one of my songs, it’s because I’m trying to write about relatable topics that people can understand.
The situation, simply–my songs aren’t about you.
To expand on why I write, focus on the phrase ‘creative outlet’ take the word ‘outlet.’ Long story for another time–I’m an emotional person. It’s just how I’m made. I feel sad; I write sad songs. I feel happy; I write happy songs. I feel moody and hurt; I’ll write (guess…) songs that see the world in moody and hurtful eyes. I write to process my feelings. Friends are an area in which I’m poor. Yes, I have a few people that I know through music or work, but rarely do people know me. I’m not complaining, I’m describing. Due to my shortage of willing ears, I have my art to process my feelings.
Please understand what I am describing here. Experience and observation lead to inspiration. Inspiration leads me to create stories that attempt to have universal elements that lead to people making connections. I am not designing specific references. Anyone part of any inspiration should be able to differentiate between what happened and what did not. I definitely can.
In our world of opinions and skewed, relative standards, I cannot stop anyone from thinking what they want. But, that does not mean such thoughts are correct. Thank you for checking out indie music.