The other Sunday, I briefly explained to local poet Dave Marrow that I was struggling a bit with my new material after attempting to summarise the music I make into a short cohesive sentence. The problem I was facing was that as I was writing, I was constantly asking myself whether this new material matched up with what I had described my music as.
After about a week of pondering over a half finished song, I decided upon two things:
- Although people say my music is dreary and bleak, they are actually wrong. Yes it's sincere but often the subjects and the chord progressions have a positive feel to them, you just have to listen a little harder to realise. To question my new material as to whether it sounds too happy is the craziest thing I have ever done in my career as a songwriter.
- It's not important to limit yourself to a style or genre if the songs you are writing are personal to you and you connect with them when you perform. It's probably a good thing to have a range of songs that touch upon different styles and genres in your repertoire. It shows that you are a well rounded musician.
So the new plan for finishing my half written song was:
- Just write good music
Now I am forever evaluating the lines I have written and am discarding verses and chord arrangements like nobodys business. I am becoming an absolute perfectionist and won't allow myself to perform this song until I am happy that it is a better, more developed song then anything I have played before. This is starting to hold me back.
Still, there's a great song lurking amongst those lines, I just need to pick away and find it. And it's good to be critical of yourself yea?
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