Why Did I Get Into This?

Why Did I Get Into This?

One of the most often asked questions I get is why did I start playing music. I usually have two answers which are a bit flippant and easy: 1) Girls, and 2) I was born this way.

The first response, is obvious. For some reason, girls like musicians. I figured if I can be ugly and still get the attention of pretty girls it would be ok. I remember taking my guitar to school in high school and practicing in the quad during lunch time. After a few minutes, a couple of girls would come and sit down next to me and eat their lunch and I’d chat with them a bit. Then a few minutes later, there would be another couple of girls. Well, it doesn’t take a psychology genius to figure how that could affect the thinking of a teenage male.

Since those formative years I’ve used my music to express these relationships I’ve had with girls, usually after the relationships have ended. So of course those songs tend to be a bit negative, but they helped express what I couldn’t have said without music. Obviously we all experience these feelings, and I’m glad that people have connected with those songs. That’s why I bother recording and releasing and promoting the songs after I’ve written them, so that you can have them too and connect with them.

The songs I’ve written this year have been more positive, forward, hopeful, etc. I wrote them for a girl that I’ve known for a couple of years. We had always just been friends but people had always asked me if there was something else between us, and if not, they suggested there should be. The Universe even conspired relentlessly in the matter. Anyway, I don’t want this blog to turn into an episode of Oprah so I won’t go into needless details, but have no fear dear reader, give me a situation like that and I’ll be there to fuck it up lickety-splitly. There was denial, a deception, a decoy, and probably a few other ‘d’ words to convolute the whole thing. But besides all that, and intertwined with all that, there were the songs.

At the end of the day, these new songs were failures and didn’t really do what I hoped they would do. The one time in my life I get romantic for a girl and I somehow manage to still mess it up. This girl and I barely even talk anymore, it’s not unfriendly, it’s just quiet and peaceful, and nothing makes me happier to see her smile when I run into her when I’m out and about. Her songs were meant for much more than that though, so I have a handful of shitty failure songs sitting around and I’m not sure what to do with them.

But let’s move on to the second answer I usually give when asked why I started playing music, 2) I was born this way. I’m a songwriter, and these are songs that I’ve written. I don’t have much say in the matter, the songs just form inside of me and then I play them. So despite however I might feel about them I think it’s time for me to turn them over to you.

Here are the demo versions of the songs, they’re kind of rough, but I hope you enjoy them:

http://www.reverbnation.com/saintjohn

Cheers,

SJ