Hi Chris,

I was just wondering... do you ever come up with an idea for a song that you just can't finish?

I've been writing songs for years now and recently I've been going through somewhat of a dry spell lyrically. I'll think of these really cool song titles and I'll know exactly where I want the narrative to go- but the words just don't come out. Writer's block never used to bother me before because I knew it was just part of the process.

But more and more I'm not "blocked" from writing completely- just unable to finish and/or turn the idea into something. Does that make any sense? Do you ever find yourself at the point where you've started 10 songs and haven't finished any of them? Sometimes I actually do like to set something down for a while and then pick it up later and try to write from a different perspective. Sometimes when I want to write, I'm just too much "in the moment," and have to wait until the dust has settled if you know what I mean. But lately, it's just been a string of started projects, with no results. Perhaps this is because I always find myself writing lyrics first...so the melody, hook, refrain, chords, etc. is usually just a result of the words I've written. Thus no words, no song.

Also, (and I apologize for this very, very long question) have you ever heard a song before that someone else wrote and feel like, "if I hadn't heard that just now, I think I may have written the exact same thing (or something similar)?"

There are always songs that I hear and think, "man, I wish I'd written that myself" or, "if only I could have phrased it like that or looked at it this way." In fact, those are the majority of the songs that I consider my favorites (This Time, Kiss You Where You Lay, Starlight, Outside of a Dream- just to mention a few). But then there are those few songs that you hear and wonder... was that writer somehow listening in on my thoughts?

Thanks for writing the soundtrack to my life (and inspiring me to write songs, as well) - Danielle

Danielle,

My impression is that you may be over thinking the songwriting process, and not revelling in the spontaneity of it. To me, if you have ten incomplete ideas, that is amazing, and a definite good sign that the creative springs are flowing. It's just a question of re-directing the waters, or focusing on one idea in as much as your attention span will allow. There's been many times where I'm writing, and I'll play an idea over and over, (we're talking hundreds of times) in the hope that lightning will strike. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. But there is a point when I just feel spent, it didn't happen, and I tuck it away.

I'll revisit the idea in a day or so, and if it's still not happening, or I can't remember the melody, or the words aren't moving me, I throw it in a huge bin I have of misfit lyrics.

The song "Look what the wind blew in" off my newest album, came out of the bin of misfit lyrics. i remember liking the original idea, but feeling like it seemed more of a diary entry than a song, and putting it away cause it felt too personal. Then when i was finishing the album, I felt like I needed something personal, so I broke the lyric out, finished it, etc...

I suppose the thing to remember is that in songwriting the rules are made to be broken, and the beauty is that it's not something you HAVE to do, it's something you should be inspired to do. And if we trace the true inspiration, we can usually finish an idea, as it was meant to be.

And, yes, I always hear songs I wish I'd written, but that has more to do with the fact that we are all connected. Even moreso than we are aware of I think. So the fact that a songwriter in 1962 could write a song that makes my heart bleed in 2010 is both a mystery and a basic truth, that music is a shared, infinite language, and truth is revealed in it's simple beauty.

Thanks for asking,

Chris

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