Does the digital-age affect our ability to process death?

by Caleb Bilgen

While talking with Eric recently on one cool summer evening, the subject of goodbyes came up. We both had similar experiences growing up overseas in dynamic communities where learning to say goodbye became a significant part of our early lives. We differ in one important aspect, though. I am 20 years younger. While reflecting upon past friends and those we have “kept in touch with,” this difference proved to be most notable.

Being born not only in the 70's but also in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea, Eric grew up quite unconnected from the outside world. The only external communication was by post or visitors coming through. For me, on the other hand, being born at the beginning of the internet-b00m (the 90's) as well as in a capital city, I grew up with the growing world at my fingertips via a speedily developing platform called “the internet.” I remember getting an email address to keep in touch with a friend who was moving when I was just 10 years old!

The rest, we all know, happened so very fast. Facebook and other social media platforms have since re-opened so many doors and photo albums we once thought were behind us and have connected millions of people across the globe. It is a good thing, and I am quite happy to be able to reconnect and stay in touch with old friends. But what does it mean for us as we manage our “real” relationships? Does being connected to everyone all the time cause us to take for granted the few people we are with for some of the time? Does it prevent us from being fully present?

A most interesting outcome is that our goodbyes are no longer bound to the probable reality of never coming into contact with a person again. As a result, are we denying ourselves full closure?

My main question became this – as participants in this virtual-connectedness that appears to be without end, has our ability to process “parting” or “letting go” been affected [negatively] by the development of the digital age, especially social media? Consequently, I began to wonder about the ultimate goodbye – death. Death is where we bid farewell to fellow humans with the relative certainty of never interacting with them again. Regardless of how one's culture views it, death is inevitable. But how do we deal with it when we're losing the “essence” of what goodbyes used to be?

While I understand that to such a blanket question no simple answer can be expected, it is important to consider the implications of our involvement in this digital age as relational beings. Since we no longer experience many “true” partings or goodbyes, how can we maintain a healthy process for dealing with death, the ultimate goodbye?

Song Writing Inspiration Part I: The Birds

This is the first of a three part series on what inspires me (Eric) to create.

One day in April I was getting up to go to work at my brother’s greenhouse, and when I looked outside found that it had snowed overnight.  For someone who was born in the tropics and spent a good amount of his adult life near the equator, winter is not easy. Or should I say, for me, winter is not easy, because I would guess that there are those who love it despite having spent a large amount of time in the tropics. On top of that, by April, one feels that winter should be quickly becoming a thing of the past instead of a current event. Needless to say, I was a little discouraged as I headed out to get in the freezing car for yet another numbing drive. It was in this state that I was confronted with a startling truth. When I opened the door to go outside, it was not the cold that hit me, but the birds singing. At that moment I realized that despite the cold and the snow, spring was here, and the birds would be filling the air with their songs again, and this filled me with a desire to create.

This is not the first time that others’ music has inspired me. I have found that others’ music, film, art, architecture and all other sorts of creative acts have filled me with a desire to create; sometimes about the very thing that is prompting me, but more often just to create in general. In return, we hope that we are inspiring others.

Who or what is feeding your creative juices? What is driving you to create?

What has happened to the year?

Post-Concert, Dec. 15, 2012

I thought that with the end of one year and the start of another I (Eric) would take a quick look at what happened to 2012. At the end of last year (2011) we were pumped about the release of Dayenu, and the anticipation of the projects to come. So what happened to those projects? We have a tonne of material, we have equipment, we have some experience, and the desire is burning strong.  So what happened? Well Caleb was able to make it up for about 1 week in the spring and in that time we laid down the foundation for ten songs that we were planning to release as part of two EPs in the summer. The problem is that I love these songs so much that I could not let them go, at least not in the state they were in. Every time I thought I might be ready to finish them off I would learn something new and add another thing to the list of things to change. Then we were hired to arrange, play, record, mix and produce a Christmas CD for Suzanne Harvey. That project took up the rest of the year, in fact we hardly noticed the passing of the days, weeks, and months because it happened so fast. It was a great learning experience as well as being a lot of fun and finished off in December with the release of the CD (Things I Love About Christmas by Suzanne Harvey -  which can be purchased or perused on any of the e-music distribution sites including i-tunes, and amazon) and four enjoyable live performances.

So what happened to 2012? We learned a lot about how to create music and translate that into a digital format that expresses the emotions that we were feeling when we wrote the song. I feel like I have completed a couple years worth of university education on the subject and I'm hoping that is reflected in the music we make.

What to expect in 2013? We should have two EPs available before the summer and are looking to make another complete album for some time near the end of the year. We would love to get the chance to share the songs live but have found that the logistics for that are pretty tricky (visa issues, etc). So we will see, and if this year is like any of the ones past there are some incredible things in store that we can't even imagine. Should be another good year. 

Living in the Present (thoughts from Eric)

With the release of Dayenu representing such a significant amount of time and effort, it has been hard for me personally to move on.  Questions arise: Do we work hard to promote this album or do we spend the majority of time working toward the next? Maybe there is a balance? What do we do next?

With Caleb living in Grand Rapids and us living in Desbarats it makes things even harder. We can not just have a gig here or there for two reasons: 1. The distance between the two places. 2. We require a visa to play in the U.S. and Caleb requires a visa to play in Canada.

So here is what I am doing: I am learning more about Blender (an open source 3D software) in hopes of making an animation video for end up here with you; starting the recording for an EP; looking into visa issues with the plan of embarking on at least a small summer tour of sorts. After all, the creation and playing of music is what it is all about.

If I look too far ahead I end up asking the questions: How are we ever going to get to the point where we are making enough at this to be able to do it full time? How do we get people to listen so that we can build a fan base and tour?...etc. There is no concrete answer to these questions except that today I need to do what I know I should do today. What the future brings is not up to me; my task is to do my work today while looking forward to whatever may come.

Remember the past.

Anticipate the future.

Live in the present.

Three Years, One Month, 24 Days and Counting

Thoughts from Eric...
Have you ever had a favourite band post an announcement stating that they have finished recording and the album should be available in say, 6 months? In the past when I saw that I thought, "What is taking them so long? Why are they stalling?" I now think, "Wow! How are they getting it done so fast?"

I was curious to know what was our earlist recording that ended up on the album, so I shuffled through our early tracks, checking the dates. The earliest I could find are the guitars for Eastern Sky, recorded on Sunday October 5, 2008. We started recording in general before that date but nothing from earlier remains. What a process. What a learning experience. The guitars on that song have more noise than any other track, (which was intentional of course to give it that "in the midst of a great wasteland" feel). At that time we would only work on it for a few hours Sunday afternoon or during the holidays. From there we continued to get it wrong more often than we got it right but each time learning a little bit.

This last 6 months I have been working on it most days of the week, and Caleb whenever he could find time, and it is not done yet. I thought with the release on November 19 that it was finished, but we are continuing through the process of getting the physical cds and making the album available on other music distribution sites. Maybe when the cds arrive in mid-December we will be able to say emphatically, "We are finished!" I will not be surprised though if something else were to pop up, adding to our day counter.

Defining Us

Hannah-Lee...
Over the past several weeks I've been buried in paperwork, filling out applications for provincial and national arts grants, and entering some of our songs in songwriting contests and awards contests.  All of this involves carefully crafting words in answer to probing questions and making decisions about which songs in our repertoire could possibly merit an award.  We're hoping to fund some of our projects this way, and to promote our music in the listening community.  There are a lot of opportunities out there for the independent musician these days, so it is worth the effort.

One of the things I have found to be most difficult in this process is describing our sound.  We don't fit cleanly into any one genre of music.  This is generally a good thing for us; we like the idea of being unique, however when it comes to having to check off a box labelled with a specific genre, it's very frustrating.  Who are we?  We are definitely not pure folk and we are certainly not rock, though our music leans toward an edgier sound at times.  Folk-rock?  Um...okay...sort of.  Most forms for funding and songwriting contests don't offer that description as a category, and most of the time there isn't an "other" box to tick off.  

One contest, the International Songwriting Competition, came through for us, in that it had a category called "AAA", or "Adult Album Alternative".  When I listened to the winners in that category from last year, their sound most closely matched ours; folksy-ecclectic with some edge.  Brilliant!  If only all the forms I have had to fill out could have been that easy.

Hopefully our music will speak louder than my words in all of these endeavours.  After all, labels don't really matter.  Thankfully, in the end, it's the music that is under scrutiny.  We want it to be heard, noticed and appreciated for what it is.

What do you think?  Who are we?  How would you define our sound?  Help us out friends and fans!       

Capturing the Moment

Reflections by Eric...

Last night I received a call from my 8 year old niece in which she proceeded to tell me about her broken arm. The mixture of joy and disappointment, the words she used, the tone of voice, etc., made me smile the whole way through the conversation (which is strange for me because I do not like talking on the telephone). 

After I hung up I tried to recreate those moments for Hannah-Lee but failed. Later that night as I lay awake I tried to recreate it in my mind. I smiled and chuckled but definitely failed. The moment is a pleasant memory but will never be again. 

That started me thinking about why we create music. Each of us has these moments, and we try and capture them with video, pictures, writing, or recording. Writing and performing music can be about the sharing of those moments, or sometimes a song is a moment. A good song will hit you at some point, maybe the first listen, maybe the 5th or 12th, but at some point it will be a moment that you want to experience again. Maybe it just so happens that this is the time that it matched your mood. Some songs you will listen to again just as a memory of that moment, but others are written in such a way that it can hit you again in a different way creating another 'moment'. Those are the songs that become a part of our long-term playlists.

When Be Lyrebirds create a song, it usually comes from a jam session. We hit on something that strikes a chord, then we spend hours, days, months, sometimes years trying to write a song that captures and reflects what had moved us. The rare times that we are able to complete the song within a day or two the song is a stronger reflection of that original moment; others though, change and reflect different moments in time as we continue through the process of completing it. 

For example, because of recording issues, when it came time to mix Cold October Sky we had to re-record the second half, and in the process ended up changing the song to reflect what we were feeling at the moment of the second recording. 

So...something to consider: when you listen to a song and it moves you, part of that is because it is in response to the songwriter's real emotion and state of mind at the very time he/she wrote it; it is a snapshot of a specific and personal moment in time.