So I did the interview for the American mag I mentioned last Saturday.
I recently saw this image of “Being a musician today”:
It’s very true :) – and you can add “having a snappy answer to ANY question” to the list.
It’s usually fun giving interviews. I enjoy it. If the questions are inventive enough to require more than the “standard answers”. Questions that make you think about what you’re doing.
I’m not good at snappy answers to short questions, though: What’s your favourite album ever? What’s the ONE thing you want the world to know? What’s THE biggest moment of your carreer? What’s THE most fun thing that has happened on tour this year? What’s your favourite quote? What’s the best piece of advice you were ever given?
Would you know what to say?
I was never able to boil anything down like that. My favourite food? Entirely depends on my mood. Best piece of advice? Depends on the situation. Biggest moment of my carreer? Where do I even begin?
Of course you just take your pick. Or lie? It doesn’t matter at the end of the day. It’s all story-telling.
But I’m struggling with the same thing in my writing. I’ve always been looking to boil everything – living, loving, being – down to a few simple “truths”, in brackets.
The short mantras that would answer ANY question in life. But I usually find when I’ve written a song with a certain conclusion, I’ll feel like writing a song that says the complete opposite.
“Sometimes the fastest way to get there is to go slow”
Yes, but sometimes the fastest way to get there is to go FAST!
And sometimes if you wanna hold on you gotta hold on tight!
A girl once emailed me, slightly indignant, saying “How can you say THIS in one song and then seem to say the opposite in another!!? Where do you stand? – I’m confused!”
Don’t worry, so am I.
But it’s all about balance, isn’t it? Every day is a balancing act. Some days you gotta lean 3% more to the right, the next day you gotta swing your arms to get back to your centre. Maybe that’s why I was never good at giving advice. Or taking it for that matter. You can’t teach balance. That’s all about practice.