It’s now six months since we released our debut album, it’s 37 minutes of music, that’s all. It seems like such an insignificant amount of music yet I feel absolutely privileged to have been a part of it. Individually we’ve all spent at least 10,000 hours developing our own particular skill to craft the songs in a way that they make sense to us all. That’s tens of thousands of hours spent alone in a room, in a garage, in rehearsals, in lessons, writing terrible songs, getting laughed off stage and still come back for more.
You see, we’re the lucky ones, there’s thousands of people who have developed skills the same as we have but never got the chance to put it to the test and do an album. There’s even far, far more people who wished they’d developed a certain skill but just never got around to it or just never had the focus or belief that they could do it. These are the people I think about when I have those days where I don’t know why I’m doing this. I could have spent all those hours and all that focus on a better education or qualification and have a really well paid job now…. So…. WHY???
There’s something intoxicating and addictively energising about the overwhelmingly impossible odds against us. You see, even though we’ve been far luckier than so many other people who have also put in the hours, we’re still as insignificant as you can get. The challenge now is to go again into the unknown and to go beyond what we think is possible. We still have no record company backing, no PR company, no management company behind us but the more we play, the more we rehearse, everything will come together again. I’ve started more advanced guitar lessons, if I can improve my technique and style of playing then I can open my mind to new ways of writing. Rather than being worried about the unknown, it can be very exciting when you’re developing a skill, you just want to put it to use as soon as you can!!
This still brings me back to the why? Well, everyone is driven to do something, some people choose to ignore it, some people go with it and some people just can’t find what it is. My belief though, is that everyone knows, you just have to listen to what you’re telling yourself!! It’s the quiet moments in bed at night or first thing in the morning, or during the cold journey to work on a winters’ morning, that’s when you need to quieten your mind and just listen.
There is something you want to do so much that you’d be willing to go against what everyone thinks just to do it. There is something you think you can do that no one else believes you can do, something that you would love to give your time and focus to. Now, here’s the hard but simple truth, in order to do that thing, all you have to do is just decide to do it. It doesn’t matter what age you are, it doesn’t matter how much you weigh, what you look like, how poor you are or any of those same tired excuses you’ve been hiding behind. Your passion, your pain and your doubt are your greatest assets, praise the lord for all of them, they are exactly what’s going to drive you to do this thing.
Spend one hour a week doing it, two hours if you can, whatever time you can spare. If you’ve got no time then make time, if it’s your partner, your brother, your friend who has this passion for something then help them see it through. You’re different than everybody else, you showed up to do something different and even the people who laugh at you, secretly admire your courage.
I absolutely love thinking of new melodies, I just love it. It requires nothing of me just my willingness to let my mind wander around, throwing notes, chords and sounds together. I also just love words, phrases and rhymes that I’ve never heard before, that way of saying something in a way that was never said before. It’s very like that quick witted friend that everyone has, that person who can just think of something off the cuff that lights up the whole room. It’s creativity, it’s taking everything you’ve learned and everything you’ve been through and turning it into something new in a way only you can…. WHY?? Yip, we’re back to the why part… Honestly, why is none of your business, don’t spend as much time as I have tripping over the why part, just do the thing you love and you will never be unhappy. People might think you’re a bit mad but shur, come on, be honest, most people probably think you’re a bit odd anyway so you might as well go ahead and prove them right!!!
We’re releasing our second single very soon, thousands and thousands of hours since we were kids to release four minutes of music that most people won’t listen to, yip, there’s a certain amount of insanity required to follow your passion but finding a group of friends with the same unique characteristic is a phenomenal feeling. It starts now.