Just an unoriginal thought ...

There are no new ideas there are only new ways of making them felt. I think that’s what Audre Lorde said. As disheartening as it may seem it can be true in a certain way. I mean especially as a writer. We want to feel like we came up with the cleverest way to say something. But really, what hasn’t been said in a song? How many different ways do you think you can fall in love, be heartbroken, and be torn between decisions. I hate to be the one to break it to you but someone has probably said it before you. But the wonderful truth in that, I heard someone say, is that there are generations experiencing those same feelings for the first time. That is what keeps us relevant. We get to tell these stories for the first time to that boy who just started to like that girl in their class or that girl that feels like she isn’t enough. So that idea makes me think everything doesn’t have to be so clever all the time. It annoys me when the emotion gets lost in a song because the writer is trying so hard to say something in a different way. Now I am not saying that we shouldn’t try to be innovative with our lyrics and words, but I am saying, don’t lose that raw emotion. Don’t lose that way of connecting with an audience in the same way you felt the heartbreak in songs like “If you think you’re lonely now” or “On Bended Knee.” Those songs for me didn’t have to have extra analogies or rap punch lines they just laid it all out, their feelings and I was able to identify with it. I want to write records that people break down crying to like I used to! I don’t always want to think so hard about how I am supposed to feel about the record! Guess that’s the end of my soapbox. Haha.