All Music Matters

Dear Angry Artist, the music you make matters. That music that

no one paid attention to or gave a second thought, that music

that never got played on radio, that music that was dismissed

and discarded by deejays who never even bothered to listen to

it. It matters because it meant something to you when you made

it. That energy and emotion is still a part of you – don't stop using

your voice. I realised that today when someone I did a song with

13 years ago reached out and all he wanted to say was "hey, do

you remember this song?" To be honest I had forgotten about

the song. The song was never played on radio to my knowledge

nor was it any type of commercial success. I went back to my

archives and started listening to this 13 year old song. It was not

mixed or mastered very well. The vocals sounded amateurish

and the chord progression on the instrumental was predictable

and borderline boring. But something strange happened as I

continued to play this song. Memories of the night it was

recorded started flooding back, the excitement of creating

something brand new is incomparable to any experience on

earth. I remembered working late into the night, forgetting to eat

and only getting back home when all the verses and choruses

where "perfect". No one makes you do that, no one binds you in

a dingy project studio for hours and hours, rehearsing and re-

recording over and over again relentlessly. No one makes us get

back in the booth inspired again to do another song. No one feels

us up with an unexplainable joy when the song is finally mastered

and we want everyone to hear it. We are free. Then something

happens that breaks our spirit and makes us question the reason we did it all. Something binds us to give reason to it and explain

why we make this music. That initial joy turns to self-doubt and

a dull numbness. Don't let anyone kill your vibe and remove you

from your music. Don't try to figure out why you do it. You should

never have to explain a smile.