VEGANGELICA

This song sounds very much like an expression of current sadness that life (and involvement with someone you love) is ephemeral, DiSTANToblivion. I noticed the contrast between descriptions of the event that has to end yet also won't end...do you mean that in the memory the event will linger? And that no matter how much we love a moment...we can try to stay, we won't leave intentionally...we will still lose that moment, that person?

Since you talk about the "best moments of my life," I am reminded of Bryan Adams' song, "Summer of 69," which is one of my favorite songs that describes nostalgia for the past:



One issue I've thought about, while reading your lyrics, is that often you seem to write about your feelings in general terms, rather then describing the details of the events that trigger your feelings. Sometimes I miss the events, the people, who cause the feelings you experience.

When I hear more concrete bits of a *story* I can imagine the story, and this triggers the feelings in me, whereas reading about how the feelings feel directly causes sympathy and understanding but doesn't necessarily trigger the experience of the same feelings.

So, for example, in "Summer of 69" the image of the girl on her mama's porch sticks in my mind, inspiring my imagination, and I feel the longing, the yearning, the nostalgia. If Bryan Adams simply said, "I feel longing, yearning, nostalgia for her" I would understand, but I wouldn't feel those feelings. When I hear the details of what he did with this girl, *then* I start to sink into his moment, feel it as if I were there.

"An unused heart is starting to break"--this line struck me the most with its sadness. I once wrote a line, "My love has gone to seed," that a friend interpreted as very sad, because he felt it meant someone who had a great capacity to love but never found someone on which to lavish it. Your line gives me that same feeling.

Your partial song sounds like it is describing someone ripping himself, or being pulled, slowly away from something he feels he can't have in life.

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DiSTANToblivion

Yes this is very true, not doing too well for the past couple of weeks but lately I've felt a lot better. I couldn't think of anything else to do other than write.

You're so spot on about it Erica... That is exactly what I was trying to say.

I understand. I wish I could write in less general terms, but I honestly feel that if I get more descriptive that someone will read it and know it is about them. Not that I want to keep anything secret or just to myself. I just get a little scared of writing too personal in a descriptive way...

I really want to get better writing in that way though. It tends to become a mess for me when I do. Maybe writing general feelings allow people to decipher their own meanings or put forward their own moments in the lyrics? That could be the only positive side of generalisation like that. Maybe I shouldn't be afraid of opening up and explaining more?

Wow... I can't believe how right you are with that interpretation. It's very, very true. I really like your line "My love has gone to seed" and I agree with what your friend said about it. They hold very similar meanings, I feel that as well.

As always Erica, thank you for your helpful words. I'll try opening up more, maybe to include some events that I've grown up experiencing? Like I said, I find it hard to write that way. But if I don't at least try then I'll never know what I could write next.

- Russ

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VEGANGELICA

This is a very valid concern, Russ! I usually don't use details from my life but make them up about some pretend person's life (based loosely on a real person's life and strongly on my own feelings) for the very same reason: I want to protect people's privacy, and sometimes want to protect my own.

Oh, I feel you are very correct that generalized lyrics allow people to apply them more easily to their own lives. Here's an example of a song that has, I feel, very generalized lyrics (which means I have no clue what they're about other than maybe love!), and many people seem to like "Soon" by Yes:



I'd say only open up more about your own life events if it feels comfortable for you, Russ. Like I said above, I rarely write about things I've experienced myself directly or in a way that matches perfectly my own life. But I do think experimenting is good as a way to stretch yourself, because if you don't try you'll never know! You mentioned you feel songs you write that include more personal details become a mess. What do you feel becomes a mess about them?

~ Erica

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DiSTANToblivion

I start writing and then start to think...
'What if I'm saying this now and I'm completely taking something the wrong way? Out of context?'

Like, say for example, I was to write about a significant moment in my life that turned out wasn't the way I remember it. I want to be honest in what I'm saying. It won't mean the same thing to me if I suddenly were to realise what I was writing was wrong. Maybe I think about it too much and that's what messes it up.

...maybe I just can't find the words sometimes and am making things easier through generalisation? I like to be challenged, I'm going to have to overcome my insecurities I think.

EDIT: Great songs you posted too btw

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VEGANGELICA

Hmm, thanks for the explanation about how you feel your songwriting runs into trouble when you include details from your life.

My perspective on it is a little different, perhaps: when in the past I have written about particular events in my life, my goal was just to capture how I viewed them at that moment. So I have a mess of old poems that make me chuckle now because my view of the situations described in them *is* different now...but I still like having a record of how I felt about something at the time. These old poems are like an internal photograph.

Like that poem of how you felt seated next to a park statue, two people so close but unable to turn to each other, my old poems take me to a particular moment in my life and to a person I was who has changed in some ways since then.

Maybe, DiSTANT, as an exercise, you could try writing about some situation the way you recall yourself viewing it in the past, and then write a second song/poem about the same situation as you see it now, from a greater perspective! Or, you could take a current situation (what is weighing on you now) and write about it as you imagine yourself viewing the situation in the future...or as how you wish you'll see it in the future.

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DiSTANToblivion

It's been quite a while...

Into The Night (Let The Light Lead)

Let your light lead
Set the crystal alight
Echoing the call
Piercing into the night
Let the light lead
across page after page
spoken word for word
Let your light lead

Empty fields span an open universe
With figures spinning, singing
Into the night
An echoes movement, softer still
Dancing toward a distant light
Drifting further into the night

Empty fields frozen over time
With figures staring silent
Into the night
An echoes movement, softer still
fading further…
Floating toward an approaching light

Let yourself be
and set yourself free
Read the words
The voice spoken
all at once they stand still
Let yourself see
and set yourself free
Forever let the light lead

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