There's a certain beauty to writing.
Not necessarily a song, or a journal entry, or the book you think will be your breakthrough novel. But just writing. I think that it's adequately healthy for a person to have the opportunity to write down whatever their heart desires at any given time. I have places to write everywhere I go. I type nonsense into my iPhone, I type words like this onto my computer, and in school, I ignore everything around me and write on pieces of paper, and I think it's helped me through more situations than one. Here's how.
Writing is like speaking. You take whats in that nutty little brain of yours and direct it towards something. The beauty is, when you feel so alone, locked up in this brick house with a swat team waiting for you on the other side of the front door, you've got six thousand pounds of TNT ready to blow their heads off. Analogy of the day kids. Swat team is your problems and TNT is the writing, yada yada. Writing about your problems or concerns with the world will make you feel better. That little piece of paper, that computer monitor, that iPhone screen. They make you feel so much less alone. You've got something else that's telling you the same thing you're thinking. A certain feeling of understanding or sympathy. On top of that you've got the damn thing out your head. Your problems are as bad as the song in which you can't forget the hook. But as soon as you write the lyrics down a thousand times you'll most likely forget about it and move on to a new and better song. Wow I'm full of analogies tonight aren't I. This is about the time in my blog posts where I begin to tie music in. Commence band geek.
This is what makes music and songwriting the best therapy money can buy. Personally as a songwriter, I pump out lyrics the most when I'm seriously troubled. Why is this? Music brings a lot more than that little piece of paper, that computer monitor, or that iPhone screen into the picture. This brings in any one of you motherfuckers who decide to listen. If I am going through a rough time, I write down everything that I'm feeling into one of the tools I mentioned. Chances are, it ends up in a song my band plays. My band records the song it ends up in, and it's listened to by our 4 or so guppies. Let's say said guppies were going through a tough time as well. That song will make them feel so much less alone, knowing a rawkstar like myself goes through the same type of thing. This connection makes a lasting impression on them and they decide to come to one of our shows. Next thing you know it's all smiles and tears. Moral of the story: writing something (specifically music here) will do many things. It will make you feel less alone, because your fans can connect to what you're going through. It will make your fans feel less alone because they know you're going through something similar. And you get the satisfaction of finding a way to finally get that trouble off your shoulders, and doing the same favor for someone who supports you. And it gives you an easy and extremely entertaining way to express your feelings without ending up in a convention that's really made for drug abusers.
But let's face it, who wants to go admit their mistakes to anyone and everyone onstage? This separates the boys from the men. And by boys I mean people who keep their writing to themselves (which is perfectly okay), and by men I mean the motherfuckers who have the nuts to scream it to millions of people onstage or through some headphones. I figured this out quite some time ago, and it gave me a new found respect for songwriters. Take Jesse Lacey for example. He wrote a song about how he can't get girls, and he instead decided he'd be better off masturbating. Does he care? Fuck no. It makes him feel good to just admit those things to people. That's a guy I look up to. Musicians that spill their guts in the form of music are my heroes, and the ones I cherish most. And in my musical endeavors, I try to do nothing more or nothing less than just that. It feels like something I could never describe in my wildest dreams. But in a way I kind of like the mystery of it. It makes me want to keep doing it in a subconscious effort to discover the true feeling behind music. And that's the drive that keeps me waking up every morning.
There's a certain beauty to writing. And I feel like I'm starting to catch on.
Much Love,
- Jake
Watch me as I cut myself wide open on this stage, yes I am paid to spill my guts.
No comments:
Post a Comment