The Songwriter's Muse

Inspiration can strike in the oddest of places ... here I am, sitting in a motorway services somewhere on the M1 on a wet Sunday afternoon and a song has began to take shape in my head!

I used to be quite a prolific songwriter (not all good, but a few memorable ones!) but I've gotten out of the habit in recent years. However, after an enjoyable and extraordinary encounter this weekend, musical inspiration seems to have infiltrated my unconscious ... and I feel excited by it!

I never had a set way of writing songs. Sometimes the lyrics would come first, at other times the melody or the chords would introduce themselves to me as I played my guitar or piano. Sometimes they'd make themselves known to me simultaneously. I always had a storyline for a song ... a complete, contained little tale told in a few verses and a chorus, with sometimes a 'middle eight' or a reprieve thrown in for good measure.

Today though, I'm sitting here looking at the cars and lorries driving by on the M1 and the storyline has presented itself to me, visually initially, inside my head. I can see images in my mind ... almost like the video that would accompany the song. From the images I can see the atmosphere the song will contain, and from that atmosphere, I can hear, in my mind, the feel, shape and sound the song will take.

From that storyline and atmosphere, I'm writing potential lyrics, the story the song will sing. Of course, they'll change as they find their place in the music yet to be composed. Their structure and rhymes will change and adapt as they find their best fit amongst the melody, chords and rhythm.

My songs have always been inspired by personal experience; by something that's happened to me, been said to me, or that I've seen or read. They're not always an accurate representation of my personal experience and feelings, but sometimes adaptations, exaggerations, contractions, alternative realities. And I like the ambiguity that comes from knowing that others don't my truth; is the song my reality, or is it not?! It allows me to be emotionally present in the songs whilst not laying myself too vulnerably bare. (Similar in many ways to how I write this blog).

And I feel so excited! I can't wait to get home and sit down with my guitar or at my piano and allow the music to flow. Because for me, as a songwriter, that's what needs to happen; the song needs to flow. It feels like the song writes itself; like I'm just the channel through which the lyrics and music find life.

And that's such an exciting process! I remember the sense of achievement, awe, contentment and pride when a song has been born. Something that I've created and given life to.

And right now, I'm looking forward to feeling that unmistakeable feeling once again ... very soon!

And following from my previous entry ... I wonder if the people around me now can see any outward signs of my inner excitement as I manically type this up alongside the lyrics on my iPad!?!

  

... with special thanks to my brown eyed inspiration ;-)