1A- The Emotions of Sound

I have always been inspired by sound and the effect that hearing a song at a given moment has had on my life.  In my teenage years, high school especially, I went through some really rough times.  Mostly, concerning the demise of my parents marriage and my moms ongoing battle with alcoholism.  I found in these dark moments are when I was most inspired and really connected with my creativity.  The negative things going on around me inspired me to find and create music with an honest message.  By honest I mean the tone of the song embodying my emotional state and the lyrics expressing what I am going through.  I found writing lyrics helped me express poetically what I couldn't say to my parents, friends, or my first love.  I believe the emotional power a song holds is drastically underrated.  I truly believe music and the meanings and emotion some special songs brought me had an enormous effect on my life.  In a lot of ways, music helps me heal a lot of "emotional wounds," if you will. 

I get a lot of my creativity and inspiration from listening to songs with a deeper meaning.  I really enjoy decoding lyrics and trying to understand how the artist/s must have been feeling or what they were inspired by when writing the song. The emotional tone of the message also has a large impact.  Some artists that I am particularly inspired by that I believe embody all that I have mentioned include Manchester Orchestra, As Tall As Lions, Brand New and Death Cab for Cutie. Manchester Orchestra has especially influenced my work, especially when it comes to my use of text and subtext in songs I write.  They use incredible metaphors and manipulate words into poetry. With first listen, some of their lyrics may feel confusing and seem to not make much sense but once you take a deeper look the meanings they hold are extremely powerful.  Andy Hull ( lead vocalist/guitar/writer) and the meanings behind all of his lyrics are an extreme inspiration to me and my work. My favorite example of their use of text & subtext is in the song I Can Barely Breathe.

A few lyrics that represent their use of text & subtext in this song are " But then I saw your face.  Your turning skin into a dirty secret."  The text it's self seems a bit confusing but in my opinion the meaning behind these words (subtext) is an extremely powerful message.  " You're turning skin into a dirty secret," in my opinion is him referring to a girl and her wearing a lot of make up for example and this representing societies fear with being yourself and the media's obsession with improving your self and keeping the natural you a secret.  Another lyric in this song that I feel holds an important message is the lyric " everybody has their reasons that's the reason we're all gonna die." The use of text here is saying everyone has their reasons but the subtext is that everyone has an excuse for putting themselves above everyone else and at the end of the day, " that's the reason we're all gonna die," only looking out for ourselves and not the people around you will eventually be your demise.  The last lyric I wanted to mention in this song is the one that I feel is the most powerful.  Not only do the words hold a strong meaning but the tone and dynamics of this part in the song shake you to your bones and really add a strong emotion to the end of the song.  The lyric is " When I fly solo, I fly so high."  I believe this lyrics sums up the message of the song and also has a bit of irony to the words.  The subtext of this lyric is when you are alone you can focus on your self and therefore have more room to succeed. But I feel there is a bit of irony to this line because you may be alone and successful but at the end of the day you are alone.  You may fly high when you are alone but flying high alone is not happiness its avoiding the effects others have on your life. 

Brand New is another band that really inspires me and fuels my creativity.   Although I feel Brand New has some incredible lyrics and complex meaning to their songs what I really feel they do best is their use of tension & release.  They use tension & release to increase the dramatics of their songs and they do it beautifully.  The song in particular that I want to mention is Jesus Christ.  Towards the end of the song they hit you with a set of extremely powerful words accompanied by an intense dark melody.  Then suddenly the music cuts and its silence.  The silence continues for an unusual amount of time.  Its not a long time but enough for you to feel uncomfortable wondering if the song is really over or not.  Then it releases the tension when it hits you with the main riff a few more times as the song comes to a close. 

emo but loveable nerd who brought the comedic relief to the show.  Death Cab and their music helped solidify his character and keep the affinity or similarity between the character or Seth and the image of Death Cab.  Their song Title & Registration has been a big inspiration to my music.  It was actually the inspiration for a recent song I wrote about how things from the past, be it pictures, gifts, notes, etc. always seem to find a way of creeping up on you in the present.  The song Title & Registration is about accidentally finding things from the past that you have stashed away in your glove box and reflecting on then and now and how things have changed and where you stand with that emotionally.  I feel this song deals with the conscious and subconscious in an interesting way.  The song describes that consciously you are just looking for something in the glove box, not consciously looking for things from your past.  But when you find that small reminder subconsciously the glove box doesn't become just a place for important papers but for memories you thought you have forgotten or stashed away that have always subconsciously been there but have been hiding from you. Take a listen. 

These are just three examples of hundreds of songs that inspire me in one way or another.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words but a song is worth a million pictures and I've found that to be nothing but truth.