When I was a young girl taking piano and singing lessons, my teacher encouraged me to write songs, as well. I had always written a lot of poems, short stories etc., and was fairly certain of my ability to string words together. I have always been a very meticulous person in pretty much all I do, and writing is no exception. ( thus, brevity is not my strong suit, as anyone who knows me well can tell you:) I like to be extremely descriptive, and not leave out even the slightest detail.
As a teenager, I wrote a lot of poems, most of which, admittedly, were about boys. ( and mostly concerning unrequited love ) I found that by far, my best writing came about after some boy had broken my heart. Probably the only thing I miss ( emotionally ) about being a teenager, is the ability to feel so deeply. Everything seems so incredibly important, symbolic, life-altering, at that age. When the one you adored left you, ( or showed no interest to begin with ) it seemed as though you could never possibly feel that way again, ever, in your entire life. Ah, the drama – it’s nice to be able to look back on it now, smile, and shake my head…
There is something to be said for taking raw emotions like sadness, hurt etc. and turning them into powerful lyrics. Songwriters have obviously been doing it forever, which is why, to this day, a favourite ballad can tug at our heartstrings. When I wrote as a teenager, the intention was purely therapeutic – it was my safe way of letting go of my sadness, and I definitely had a lot of that, which meant I wrote a lot. I still have an old folder full of all my poems and stories, which I found when I moved almost 2 years ago. I found it fascinating being able to read them, thereby “climbing” back into my own teenage brain, and feeling so many intense emotions . It was kind of cool, actually.
I have always been a pretty private person – I like my privacy, and respect that of others. I don’t think I ever intended on letting anyone else read the things I had written – they were just for me, to try and deal with disappointment, and any other negative emotions I may have been feeling at the time. I firmly believe that incredible things can happen if you have the ability to harness any negativity you may feel, turn it around, and redirect it into something positive, and powerful. I would like to do that with some of my words from the past, and even some from the present.
Doing cover songs is always fun – you get to sing songs you know well, and love, but as an indie artist, a vast amount of time and expense is required to cut through all the red tape to get yourself heard that way. My last single took us nearly a year to get on iTunes, and even then, we still couldn’t get on U.S, iTunes, due to licensing agreements specific to the songwriter. In short, if you are not “famous” already, few care to give you a chance.
Anyway, my point is that, although I wonder if anyone would really want to hear what I have to say, I am going to get back to writing some lyrics this Summer. Worst case scenario – I work through some negative emotions … best case, I write about something real that someone else can relate to, and maybe even dance to.
