Artists try so hard and for so long to get everyone to quiet down so they can be heard.
But then when everyone does quiet down it gets uncomfortable because the artist doesn’t have much practice at this step…having only practiced shushing the crowd.
An artist’s job is not to get heard or be heard…it’s to play something worth hearing.
That is what making stuff is all about.
Too often we get caught up in all the stuff we hope comes after we make our thing.
But being glad you made something is a worthy enough reason to keep making.
»» The second you take your guitar outside of your bedroom, you’re engaging in a different game…a game far beyond simply being glad of what you’ve made. But the essence, the reality, the truth is that you’re just someone sitting there making something.
»» Shout out to Stella for this one
You can’t write a song that is 100 years old.
You can’t sit in Nashville and get inspired by breathing the ocean air.
You can’t feel exactly what someone else is feeling in the exact same way.
You write songs in the time and place and head space you have. You can imagine otherwise but it will always come back through the lens of now. You can’t help it.