Art

I generally like to say something pretty outragious or generally wide-sweeping a few times a year, here's the first for 2006:

ART IS FOR THE ARTIST. IF OTHERS ENJOY IT TOO; THAT'S A BONUS!

Before you reply and tear it down (which you're welcome to do) I'll give you some context. I wrote this down last night. I'm currently experiencing a bit of a dry patch creatively; post-album bends I suppose. I was reflecting on what it is that holds me back and realised that, apart from lack of time, one thing is that nowadays I tend to filter every idea through a seive of 'What will he/she think', 'What will the Christians think?', or even 'What will God think?'...

I came to the conclusion that this really isn't the right way to do it. It's not that I don't care what people think - because obviously you want people to like your music if it's going to sell...but trying to predict a reation or prempt which box I'll be squeezed into is a waste of effort. Feels like I'm throwing out ideas prematurely and it's time for that to stop!

One thing Bob Dylan said was that a song-writer just needs to keep writing songs... Song after song after song after song - and eventually they'll bump into one that's great. I've always tried to buy into that school of thought but I realise that recently I've ended up thinking way too hard - trying to make the picture appear all at once out of thin air rather than by gently drawing a line at a time.

I guess I just need to buy more pads of paper...