Stories and songs; or in my case, both.

After living under a rock for half the year and doing practically nothing musically (studying something completely different hasn't helped!), I feel I'm finally jumping back on the musical bandwagon. I've got plans in the pipeline to make my own Soundcloud after urging from friends and finally stick some music out there. Goodness knows I've got enough of it sitting around on my computer! I think it might be time for the world to hear...
Plus there's two brand-spanking new tracks I've got going at the moment. One's my third song of the year, a yearning number simply entitled Wanting (check out the lyrics here). The other is an instrumental piece that is still a work in progress, called It Only Rains In Winter. Bit of a melodramatic title, but hey. I'm a musician and we love our melodrama!

Oh, and I've come to the conclusion that 2013 has been an interesting year for my songwriting.

In some ways it's like a whole new direction where I write songs which come in surges and really bite at the core of my beliefs. These songs are raw, both emotionally and musically. And it seems I've finally got to a point where I can fully embrace my love of acoustic and ambient music and kinda incorporate them in to my own sound. As for lyrically, the words seem to be dancing around the edges, touching on deep nerves and weaving together stories that just move my soul. Why? Because they're mine. And to a certain extent, they're all true. I think every songwriter gets like that. Even if you are just going straight for the pop hits about love and dancing and all those cliched subject, you still are seeing it from your perspective. It's still got YOU in there.
I reckon the best songs are the most honest. But at the same time, this year I've strove to get away from that. Because I always write about myself, it gets a little bit daunting. Almost as if the songs are getting to personal. And I find it hard to show them to people because they're like pieces of me, and I have this fear that if people reject them they're rejecting me. I guess its a constant battle of wearing your heart on your sleeve but trying to take it off. I want to write songs which move people. That inspire them, that make them hope, that bring them joy. That point them to something (and Someone!) a lot bigger than them. If through my words and my playing I can do that, then in my eyes that will be the peak of any musical endeavour.
I wrote this a while ago, rebelling against the formal structures of my essays and assignments and university work just to get back to a place where I belong. This, ultimately, is why I do what I do:

"I write to create. Create, not just echo something, whether it be a mood, a feeling, a series of events or a place. Through my writings I wish to communicate a small part of my story, a small part of my song and do so in a way that will take the reader, the listener elsewhere and make them think about their story and how it relates to mine. That they will join me in a world far from here, one a little bit warmer, perhaps more unlikely and mysterious. One that is both less real and in an indescribable way more real than the world we come from. That for a moment this work of writing will tie both author and reader to a similar storyline, both utterly enthralled in the world they are creating or consuming. That is why I write."

So that's where I am at the moment. Hopefully going to start writing some music soon for my band Preeti and the Gentlemen (check us out at https://www.facebook.com/PreetiAndTheGentlemen?ref=ts&fref=ts if you haven't already!), and start getting out there and playing gigs. But until then I'll keep doing my thing, keep writing, keep practicing and playing. Music is a journey, and in the end, you never know where it will take you.
I'm just so immensely grateful I'm on the journey. And I hope you'll join me....

Blessings,

Jordan