A couple weeks ago - I was literally laying on my couch watching back to back episodes of Law and Order SVU and drowning myself in a bag of white chocolate chips one weekend to the next week rescuing a dog and returning it to it's owner outside of my new fav cowriter Andy Hunt's house to us drinking coffee, writing a pop song, laughing and eating chocolate bars together while taking pics of the moment and sending silly tweets out. It's so much better to consume chocolate together than alone...
It can change on a dime... Speaking of that phrase - what the heck does it mean to change on a dime?!? Whaaaat? How does a dime change? I must do some investigating... Back to straight talk -the ups and downs of this biz is what makes it so tough. Some choose to work relentlessly, some choose to drink and some choose to just walk away... we all have our ways of dealing with it. The highs are so high and the lows can be oh so low. Here's my opinion on what makes this business so crazy... Normally, you have a job and you go to work and then go home and leave it behind. You eat dinner with the fam and talk about your day and maybe watch some TV only to think about what time you have to get up tomorrow for work or the lunch meeting that you have with your boss the next day... I heard a quote once and I think I tweaked it a bit in my own words, but it's says so much - "It's not what you do what makes who you are but what you do with what you do that does." So, what happens when what you do IS who you are?!?! Herein lies the craziness... when we create a song it IS a piece of us - it comes from inside of us - our heart, our experiences or merely just a crock of crikey that we make up, but it still come from WITHIN us. So, what we do IS who we are.
9.999 times out of 10 in this biz, you'll get rejected or no feedback at all and when who you are gets lets down over and over again - how do you deal? How do you make it when you put yourself out there song by song and day after day and it's either not noticed or completely rejected? That's hard on the heart. But - I've found that this business is just like life...
When it comes down to it, we MUST, I repeat MUST find joy in the smallest of small of things. We cannot be defined by what we do or what others think of us. We've got to be happy with the process, the journey and not the end result. We've got to have faith. We need to fill the void with healthy things that make us better, and we have to know in our hearts that our dreams ARE important and the chance to follow and explore those dreams is what life is all about no matter what happens. In the end, we are going to remember the experiences that we had and the relationships that we made - not the money or fame or success. So, until then - it's all about enjoying the ride - even if if it's full of bumps, twists, upside down loopty-loops and terrifying plunges - it is still beautiful.
I think, particularly, that the function of the composer is to touch the hearts of others. Those who can do this are those who seek inspiration within themselves. Only by knowing yourself and knowing how to express it through music, poetry, painting or any other kind of art that can, the artist, touching the hearts of others.
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of art that matters. This is the kind of music I try to do. I want to do. When I write my songs I try to follow my heart. Once a girl about 15 years old came to tell me that my song called "Flores Falsas Parte III" (Fake Flowers Part III) was her favorite song of all time.
I never felt more rewarded in my life.
This is more important than money, recognition, fame, etc. ...
MG