Everything Comes To An End – Song and a Chat

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:25 — 22.9MB)

Episode #80: Everything Comes To An End (Song starts 4:16)

Hi there, thanks for stopping by and checking out the show notes for today’s episode.

This podcast is where you’ll get to hear a how a song comes together and gain an insight into what makes a songwriter tick. It’s proving to be an ongoing exploration. I never realised it was so complicated. Writing songs is something I’ve never taken for granted. It’s hugely rewarding. I find songwriting to be a very quick and enjoyable process…

A couple of things I’ve picked up from these episodes: How definitely it feels like you leave the room, you go into another world – it’s like being in a movie, when you’re in the creative act of writing a song.

You feel like you’re casting around, somewhere deep within, waiting for an idea to pop up. What pops up is a feeling. An emotion. Sometimes it comes complete with whole sentences. Sometimes you see characters acting out a scene that somehow makes sense to you. It rings true.

That’s the key (or one of them), as a songwriter, I would say this is pretty much number one: it must ring true to you. If you’re going to expect the audience to buy it. People instinctively know when something doesn’t feel right. It’s like trying to pull the wool over a two year old’s eyes when you say ” no there’s no ice cream left” and they look you in the eye with that look. Yep. Fail.

So feeling is the key. Back in 2014, I wrote this one (song #602) in the middle of a busy day at a primary school where I teach piano. You’ll see it took a huge sense of focus to get a song written that day.

That’s another big thing. You gotta have tenacity – stick with it and believe in yourself. In fact, I think you get beyond that whole ‘believing in yourself or not’ as an artist … It’s part of the journey. Yes, you do doubt your work (after all these years I do, from time to time – both the paintings I do and the songs I write). It can be a mood thing. So it pays to watch yourself – don’t be too hard on a creative project you’ve got underway. If you’ve hit a rough patch maybe just go get some sunshine, have a rest and come back to it and perhaps you’ll see it doesn’t have to be thrown out after all.

Ok on with the show. I hope you enjoy today’s song and I hope you enjoy the chat.

Recording these podcasts episodes each week is a rock solid part of my schedule. It’s a most enjoyable thing to be doing. Each episode flows for me. I generally record the 30 minutes without stopping. It’s all off the cuff. Before I hit the record button, I have very little idea about what I’m going to talk about each time. I always have a feeling it’s going to be fun and entertaining. At a time of such unknowns, it’s particularly nice to have this time waiting for me.

It’s waiting for you too. See you when you hit play.

Pete