Lyrics, More Than Words

I've written many lyrics in my songwriting days. I have a pile of books and folder upon computer folder to prove it. Not every lyric has turned into a song, and not every song has been completed, but to me that's not the most important part. The most important part for me is getting those words out. I love taking words and putting them together so they form something special. To form something that hasn't been portrayed before or can be viewed in a different way.

But lyrics are so much more than words. Just like a good novel can have a movie playing in your mind, a good lyric should do the same thing. It should get you involved in the story and have images floating in your brain of how all those words come together and make something real.

I've been very proud of some of the lyrics that have come from my hand by the way they portray something that I was trying get across. I can feel it by being overcome by the emotions that were taking control of me to write the song in the first place as well as the images that I connect with those emotions as I listen to or perform a song.

Out of all of the songs I've written, one stands out in my mind as one of the songs I am most happy with and has continued to motivate me to carry on. And not because of something I did with it but what someone else did with the words, making it so much more than words.

The song "Nothing" came about probably sometime in 2002 while I was in college. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was the first complete song I ever created. It was also one of the first songs of mine that I introduced to my now former band Now Transmission. It's a serious song, maybe a little bit of a downer, but it has an uplifting message about not being alone in the world. Me and the guys from Now Transmission turned it into a decent ballad type rock song that is still one of my favorites of ours. We included the tune on two of your EPs, the second version a much needed update. (You can listen to "Nothing" and other tunes from NT by clicking here.)

But anyway, I'm losing track of my point here. What excites me about looking back at this song is the picture below that was created out of the words that I wrote.
The picture was created by my wonderful girlfriend Kallie, who at the time was a friend that I had met at school and worked with. I was blown away when she first showed me her creation. Though it may not portray the emotion that the song does, the image of her face rising from the words that I wrote was inspiration for me to continue and prove that lyrics can literally become more than words. I don't think she realized how much that piece of art meant to me at the time and how it motivated me to continue writing. Though the picture literally showed a face, the piece became an example of what I wanted to be able to do with my lyrics from then on; create pictures in people's minds from my words.

So thank you Kallie for inspiring me way back then as well as now. And I'm sure you don't mind the plug at all. (*wink wink*) Check out some examples of Kallie's amazing art work at her site by visiting kalliemehuren.com.