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.
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.
I can just hear you explaining this Eric. :). It's so true, what you say. I love that about music. It's so personal - and not just to the writer/s. The listener takes it in and makes it something of their own. But it's so much about capturing that moment, that feeling, that experience, that time. Some good stuff, my friends. :)
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