I tend to feel really protective of songs, and if they aren’t sitting well in a record, I’ll pull them tight to my chest until I feel it’s a better time.
I’d love to claim the title of ‘songwriter’ or ‘intellectual,’ but the truth is that anything that I ever learned how to do in conjunction with music was purely so that I would have a platform to sing from.
So much of the way a singer physically damages their voice could be caused by stress or nerves. I would never be so brazen as to assume that it’s the only problem but there’s got to be a reason that a martial artist can harness enough peace to smash his head through a cinder block without leaving a scratch.
In life, I’m most inspired by entertaining people and driven by the desire to do it by such a powerful force that I think it influences everything I do.
I’m not so arrogant to consider mine the only legitimate art form. I can’t in one breath make a fuss about someone compartmentalizing music into genre and then in the next accuse advertising and short film of not being art.
If I learned to play guitar it was so that I would have something to sing to, if I learned to write a song it was so that I would have something to sing. So the gut feeling you’re talking about comes from singing and communicating the lyrics and what it is that we feel.
I used to turn to nature and animals a lot. And fishing. I spend time still with my Bible and the gospel music, and I still have to feed the animals! But my wife and daughter have brought me a world of perspective when I’m feeling just a little “extra important.”
