Dropping off my sister at elementary school... That's the first memory I ever had on planet earth. Nothing special about it, nothing ironic, or comical, or dramatic, just watching from my car seat as my sister eagerly ran up the cement pathway to receive the higher educational learning that fox school had to offer.
It intrigs me that my brain picked that moment out of my younger years to be my first memory. Why not something with a little more substance? A little more danger or excitement! Childbirths pretty dramatic.,, Drugs, extensive amounts of pain, adjectives, things gettin' cut off of ya hoping they don't cut the wrong thing, or too much... Drama! Why not that?! Or something important like my first steps. Big milestone that is. The day I declared to the world that I'm gonna step all over its face for the rest of my life so eat it! Why not that.......
I'd be lying if I said I was destined for music since I was a kid. That I came from my mothers womb with a guitar strapped around my shoulder and a harmonica around my neck singin' Bob Dylan tunes.. That's just not the case. All was fine and good in my infant days, my destiny was set for being a astro physicist /heart surgeon... Til BAM! My head met with the corner of the upstairs door jam coaxed by the hair twirling neglectful babysitter who was paid specifically for keeping my, as some would say, specially advanced gifted noggin from coming in contact with foreign objects.. I've been destined for being a musician ever since..
Being a songwriter is not, by any means, easy. Sure to write any ol song can be cake, anyone can do it.. But are you good at it? How do you become a good songwriter? Questions I'm figuring out right now.. I know the deepest songs I've written I've had to go back to many times.. "Oh the verses suck" or "the hooks not catchy" or "the dialogue sounds like it came from a 3 years olds cat" Where do you find the titles and concepts and word play and melody? Then make them all hit together to then present it to a guy smokin' a cigar, in a air conditioned room, who's already seen three people who look like ya in the same day, with a brooklyn accent sayin' either "ya got what it takes kid your gonna go faaaarrr *puff* *puff*" or "give up the ghost kid you'll never make it *puff*..." no easy task...
Requires major solitude and collaboration. Just hope you like spending time with yourself and others cause your gonna get a lot of it... People say that the best songs are written either in the worst or best moments of our lives.. Which I believe is partially true.. Partially because Ya, we do write our best when we go through those seasons of life, but never in the actual moment.. What I mean by that is when you breaking up with a girlfriend you don't stop in the middle of the convo and say, wait hold on baby I gotta write this down, or on the other side when you get your first kiss you don't de-lip and announce you got a melody in your head and you gotta bounce... no... You play it all out... Soak in all those feelings.. Then in those times of solitude, and collaboration you let it all flow out. Where's there's a little peace for you to hear the whispering melodies of your heart and soul... The calm in between the storms...
Maybe that's why my brain picked the memory it did... Maybe that's the key to songwriting. Finding and holding onto the calm in between the storms. Finding the peace to, as John Mahyer would put it, say what I need to say..
All in all I don't know what this life will lead to. I wonder what God will make of me out of all of this.. But all I can do is say what I need to say now, then face life's situations as they get thrown my way, then write about them..
I hope this letter finds you well as Paul would say,
keep singin' friends
jeffrey
