Asked a 6 year old to give me a subject for a song. I love the process of songwriting and love to “play” withing the process. I never know where the muse will lead me. The suggestion from Hunter (the six year old in question) had to do with raptors… not the basketball team but the dinosaur. His fears of being chased or eaten by the ferocious beast – a beast that is depicted in movies and video games as a single-minded killing machine… no heart…
I let stuff percolate for a day or so then I sat down to write. I don’t want to write literal songs… neither do I want to stuff metaphor down your throat… I also don’t really enjoy explaining exactly what a song is about for me – that just takes half the relationship away. I believe that the listener (yes you!) is an active participant in a song… giving a song meaning based on your own interpretation based on your life experience and stuff. It’s one of the reasons I find that working with video and music is exciting… it gives me audio and visual elements to throw into the mix… I have to follow my gut while I am “in” the process of creating this stuff. Sometimes I only have a faint idea of what it’s about… it reveals itself to me as things progress. In fact, in many cases, I find that new meaning presents itself a long time after I’ve written a song or created some other kind of art. Usually it’s because I’ve brought something new (some experience or insight… or something) to my relationship with it.
Anyway – hope you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think and how you are 🙂
