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.