After hearing my song Adelaide Born a dear friend suggested
that I might write a series of songs in tribute to my home city of Adelaide. Aside
from the fact that a few local songwriters (Keith Preston and his merry band,
and Fergus Maximus and Dr D) have already done a fine job of this, it’s not
really a thing I’m likely to do. I was asked
earlier this year why I write songs and my reply was almost glib but it’s the
truth. I just have to. It’s just something I’ve always done. It fulfills a need
somehow and it wasn’t ever a conscious decision. It just happened – around age
18 and has continued on and off ever since. What I find fascinating is that
there are many fine musicians, some of them outstanding, who have never had the
slightest inclination to write their own music. They are quite happy excelling
in their craft while playing the music of others.
In a recent songwriting competition people were invited to write a
song about South Australia. As I have done more travelling round my home state
in this COVID world than in the previous 60 years I thought now would be a good
time to put that experience into song. But I missed the deadline. The song will
get written – I have begun – but it will take weeks. Perhaps months. There are
one or two songs I have written very quickly but the norm for me is that they come
into being slowly over an undefined timeframe. It’s a mood thing. Call it
waiting for the creative urge if you like, but that’s how new songs happen for
me. They come in dribs and drabs over time with no timetable; get reworked and
changed as they grow, and at some point are ‘finished.’ (In fact many songs are
never finished. It is always illuminating to go back and see the original
lyrics of a song, or hear the original tune and realise how much it has changed
over the years. They tend to have their own organic life where they keep
evolving. ) However, I guess if I forced myself to, or if
it were important enough to meet a deadline and finish a song by a certain date,
I may be able to, but it's clearly not my preferred way of operating.
Songwriting for me is more of an organic process
that occurs when the spirit is moved, or when I feel have something to say. In
that sense it plays something of a cathartic role – the expression of thoughts
and feelings that you need to get out. In the same way that a writer or painter
may use their craft to clarify thoughts, exorcise demons, or simply think
things through. These kinds of experiences don’t typically run to a timeframe.
They happen when they need to. Or when one is moved, inspired, or provoked!
