Songwriter Anonymous

I'm really trying to kick my writing habit back into high gear at the moment, and so it was with great delight that I received an invitation to a monthly songwriters meeting from fellow Sunset District'er, Jules, titled "Songwriters Anonymous."  

This past Sunday we had our first meeting. I brought a growler. It was a small gathering. I drank most of the growler. We talked about process, inspiration, blockers, played a few songs, and broke strings, as you do, playing stupid breakup songs.

One of the things that I talked about was how strange it feels to perform certain songs in front of certain people, or a certain group of people, because they know the story behind the song, or at least they think they do. Deeply personal songs carry a heavy weight sometimes, and I've found myself steering away from them in the last few years. It can make you feel like you're living in the past. 

I've got a few songs that I hate to play in front of some people, and as silly as it might seem, when I moved to Atlanta from Florida it really lifted that icky feeling. It inserted a distance, both literal and figurative, that was needed to let me truly enjoy these songs again.

In the past I always used real names in the songs, and then for a while I didn't. I think it's time to make the switch back, so, for fun, I'm going to write a song about a friend of mine and post it up here this week. 

"Hi, my name is John. I write songs."