Devachan Music - Community Room

This gets into my politics a bit. I used to think that "success" in songwriting meant getting hit songs on the radio that millions of people would hear. Of course, all my friends were musicians playing to a much smaller circuit. When they started liking my songs, I was honored and delighted. But something in me said, "Don't get yourself too fatheaded about this. After all, if you were writing really great songs somebody really famous would record them."

This is a confessional point for me, because in retrospect I'm not proud of this attitude, but it was understandable. That's the way we're all trained to think about the music business. As I look back on it, maybe (and this is irony most rich) my angels gave me all these other things to do in my life just so I wouldn't have time to pursue this particular agenda. Because I have no doubt I could have been writing successful pop songs for many years. (Actually I have and they're just still sitting in my journals!) Instead, my songs circulated among a small crowd, by the grapevine so to speak. And in the meantime I got my head screwed on straighter.

Now what I believe is this. I'm privileged to know some of the greatest musicians alive today. They're mostly recording for small, independent labels and selling records in the thousands or tens of thousands instead of the millions. But they are keeping the spirit of traditional music alive and moving forward, and they play real, no-bullshit, honest and skillful music that enriches and ennobles the people who hear it instead of manipulating, hypnotizing or pandering to them. So why not give them first crack at the best songs? If, every time a songwriter gets art and craft polished enough to be consistently producing quality songs they turn all their attention to getting those songs to the people who are already famous (many of whom, don't get me wrong are also great musicians), then the playing field is never level.

And here, a brief note on "famous." I WANT TO BE FAMOUS. There — I've said it. (God, I feel better already!) But I want to be famous for what I do; I don't want to do what I do to be famous. And if I talk about my particular circle of musical friends and say I hope they become famous, what I mean is that I hope more and more windows open up for human-sized and human-hearted music again. Famous people are simply those that most people get exposed to. I think it would be a good thing for the world if more people were at least given the choice of other kinds of music to listen to. I honestly believe that, given that choice, people would respond to the same qualities in music that I do when I'm sitting around the living room.

So I'm quite content, at this point, getting songs into the hands of great artists who will do justice to the voices speaking through those songs. I guess I wouldn't turn down a chance to have a song recorded by a popular artist whose music I didn't respect, if that were to come up. But I wouldn't put energy into making it happen either. And who knows? Instead of thinking "If you were writing really great songs somebody really famous would record them," how about "if you write really great songs and someone great records them, why couldn't they become famous?"

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