I’ve been trying to finish some songs lately and feel like I’m stumbling with the lyrics. I’ve got a bunch of musical ideas that I really like; things that are in what I’d call “song form”, just waiting for the words that will complete them. Usually that’s how it goes for me, I’ll rarely sit down thinking I’m going to write about “this”. Instead I try to let the song reveal itself to me and in most cases it tells me what it wants to be about. I’m sure that sounds kind of passive, but for me songwriting is like a combination of stone sculpting and putting together a puzzle. In some ways you just keep chipping away and refining the raw idea until you find the final shape that’s waiting inside. Then like a puzzle you try different pieces, both musically and lyrically until you’ve got a finished picture that you like.
Of course it’s never a uniform process, each song is unique and comes together in it’s own way. Sometimes there are songs that fall in your lap and just happen. They come to you almost fully formed with seemingly very little effort. I think most writers would tell you that those tend to be your best songs. Those are the ones you live for. Johanna’s Dreams is that kind of song for me. I think I wrote the whole thing within twenty minutes or a half an hour. It’s a powerful experience when that happens.
Most of the time however songwriting is work for me, albeit work that I love to do. And inevitably I’ll hit spots like this where I’m struggling to figure out just what it is that I want to say, or how to say something that’s been said a hundred times before in some new and fresh way. It can get frustrating and even scary at times. You wonder if you’ll ever get through it. But I try to remember that I’ve been here before, right where I’m sitting now and I’ve always found a way through. I’ve gotta believe that’ll happen again. So I’ll keep chipping away and see where it takes me.
