Inspiration In Simple Places

When it comes to writing music I don't think it's necessary to stress out about the lack of inspiration. Ultimately, inspiration (The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative) comes when you least expect it and is actually best served as a surprise. Sure, it's a great feeling to do something with the intent of poking at that creative area in the brain to get something moving and it actually works. But for me, I like just going through life and letting that inspiration hit me in the weirdest places and sometimes some of the most obvious places that I wouldn't even think of looking. Whether it be a magazine article, a news broadcast, a simple sentence that my wife speaks or a song on the radio. Even that painting on my friend's wall or the piece that I hung in my own creative room.

I mentioned in my last post ("Only Apart," Still One of My Faves) about one of my favorite songs that I've written "Only Apart". I had my wife recreate the page from the lyric book of the original lyrics of the song. (I didn't have the heart to cut it out of the actual book.) I then got a float frame so I could see both sides and hung it in my creative room. My intention was merely give the room some decoration and an artistic feel while also reminding me of accomplishes past, but I never thought it would be a rich source of inspiration. With all the scribbles and crossed out words that plaster both sides of the page from top to bottom, this lyric page is exactly what I like to see in my lyric book when I write a song. A messy scrawl of thoughts and even doodles is the ultimate proof that a song has been thought out and toiled over for a good period of time. You can actually leaf through my book and pick out all the songs that have died or stalled and the ones that have been become finished pieces pretty easily (with some rare exceptions).

It's not very often that I get to see a physical representation of my music and it's time like these that I can actually "see" my music as a piece of art instead of just hearing. It might not seem like much but having that lyric page on the wall here behind me is a great source of inspiration just for the sheer fact that I want to make more lyric pages that look just like that and songs just like that one of which I can be just as proud.

So whenever I need a little push when I'm struggling on a song I just sit in my creative room facing that frame and I float away into thought. Really, that was the whole intent of the room anyway with it's orange  walls and comfy feel. It looks like I accomplished what I was going for even in the places that I didn't intend. Rock on!

Teen Mom

Guest post written by Derick Burks

I convinced my sister to start watching the show “Teen Mom”. She and her husband just got satellite TV from www.EXPERTsatellite.com, so she was excited to find a new show that she could consistently watch. I’ve been watching Teen Mom since its first episode and honestly, it’s like watching a train wreck. I think it is so sad that these girls have babies at such a young age and have no family support. Many of them are not in a relationship with the father of their babies. You would think that having a baby would cause these girls to grow up, but many of them are still very immature. I will be interested to see what their children are like when they grow up. Statistically, people who were babies of teenage mothers will most likely have babies when they are teenagers.

I often wonder if this show is deferring teenagers from having children or making them think that they should have children at a young age. I cannot imagine having had a baby when I was in high school or college. I had our first child when I was 26, and only then did I feel that I was truly ready to begin raising a child.

"Only Apart", Still One of My Faves

Out of all my songs, "Only Apart" is still one of my favorites to listen to and perform. I wrote it more than 4 years ago (it feels like longer than that) and it was actually one of the last songs that we worked on as a group in my band Now Transmission. We never quite finished the full band version before we parted ways. As a band it had some cool things going for it but I'll always have a fondness for it in the raw acoustic form. I recorded the video below about 3 years ago but it still pretty much holds the same basic form today.

I've always been really proud of this song and I even framed and hung the page of hand written lyrics on my wall here in my creative room. It really adds to the creative feel. Sometimes I just take it down and look at it. Is that weird? Rock on!

Technology Central

Guest post written by my buddy Aldo Mays

There's nothing like the drone of the TV from the living room when you're trying to have a family dinner and I can't get my daughter to eat with us to save my life. She's pretty much obsessed with technology and when I told her last week there would be no texting at the table she said "Fine! Then I guess I just won't eat!" That won't really work. So anyway, I finally got her to agree to eat if she could watch TV during the  meal...I figure it's baby steps.

Anyway, we got http://get.wildblue.com/ internet at home, too, and my intention was that it would help her with her homework and I'd be able to do some online banking but really she spends all her time now on social networking sites and "chatting" with her friends. I don't mind a little technology and it sure has made my life easier in some ways but it's really ruining our family dynamics and I think my daughter's technology obsession is getting a little bit out of hand.

Not Even Close To "Done With This"

I'm continually writing new material and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. Sometimes I feel like I've only just begun. But occasionally I can't help but look back at old material and bask in my few but very pride filled musical moments of my past.

I will always remember the story behind the creation of my song "Done With This" very well. It was my senior year at the University of Maine, the last week of finals before the end of the fall semester. It was getting down to the nitty gritty of my core business classes, final projects, long papers and extremely boring group presentation sessions that everyone was required to attend. In the last presentation of the session in one of the biggest lecture halls on campus I could barely stay concious. The only thing keeping my nodding head from drifting off to dream land was my pen as I wrote down every angsty feeling that flowed through me at that moment. The more I wrote, the more I woke and the more I woke, the more I just couldn't stop.

The rest of the session flew by in a sea of words and a rush of inspiration that almost carried me all the way to the neighboring town of Old Town where my guitar waited in the small upstairs bedroom of the house I was renting with some friends. Quickly a guitar a riff floated into the air and the lyrical melody soon after. It couldn't have been more than hour after I got home when I had a rough version of "Done With This" recorded on my computer.

 I don't know how many times I've told this story but no matter how dull it may seem to anyone else, it never gets old to me. Recalling this moment in my songwriting history makes me think of why I love writing music in the first place and why I don't think I can ever stop for as long as I live.

Rock on.

Mom's Worries

Guest post of the week by Brittany Booker

Mom's been so concerned with money lately which I guess I can respect but she needs to chill out a bit. I love her to death but it seems like every other word she says is about coupons and taking money out of the bank and looking for good Internet Packages Deals that she can save money on...I think it's because she's going to retire relatively soon and needs to make sure she's got enough money to live on but you know, at the end of the day mom worked really hard for a lot of years and I know she's got plenty of money. I don't she felt financially secure since dad dies but she knows that me or my brother would take care of her if anything every happened and we needed to - I don't know why she's such a worry wart. I love her to death but she needs to chill out otherwise she's going to have a heart attack or something from being so stressed out all the time!