SONGWRITING IS ARCHAEOLOGY
I had such a great conversation with Zach Fischer from Good Looking Friends. It was really just two fans of music talking about everything from politics, R Kelly and David Bowie to how people can completely disregard that Michael Jackson “almost” threw a baby off the balcony (and other terrible things) but still love him and his music. We both had periods of time in recent years where we thought music had just run out of creating songs from the available 11 (musical) notes, but we both agreed that it is a great time for music!
If my biggest let down was that I sent a friend request to somebody and they didn’t accept me, my song is gonna suck.
Being in a band and being a songwriter myself at one point, it was really interesting to hear his point of view on the subject. Now that photography is my primary art form, I talked to him about how it often becomes a mental battle whenever using filters and presets even if I only use it as a starting point. Zach had a great analogy of this with music and said something that made me feel better. I feel that every artist has that struggle of trying to create something new while somehow knowing that you can’t escape being influenced by things that have already been done.
As long as you are doing it on purpose, and if it’s to add a dimension to some newness by putting together a bunch of things that have already happened to create a new experience, I think it’s all good.
Ultimately I have to agree with Zach that songwriting is in fact archaeology and artists are archaeologists. What do you think?
[+] GOOD LOOKING FRIENDS
