Say What You Mean
I was playing a new song idea for my wife the other day (which I occasionally do in the middle of her favourite TV show) and she made an astute observation (which she is quite good at, one of her many fine qualities)…
“It’s funny”, she said, “that you’re often more outspoken about things in your songs than in your everyday life.”
That hit me like a runaway horse cart… I had always held myself as someone who stood up for what they believed in and wore my heart on my sleeve, I have many friends who (unfortunately for them sometimes) have found that I’m rarely short of an opinion… but upon reflection maybe how I've viewed myself isn’t the case?
The song in question, tentatively titled “Just Animals” is a quite blatant call to arms around taking care of the planet, something I’m very concerned with, but how would you know?
I’ve probably erred on the side of playing it down the middle, thinking that if I offend anyone that I’ll lose a music fan… but what does that leave you with besides the empty feeling that comes with simply getting into line…
It’s come up occasionally - I wore a shirt once on stage that said “Stop The Abbotts”, I thought it was clever, except my guitar covered it up. I’ve written no CSG on my arm but didn’t mention a word about it. I’ve written songs expressing displeasure about our government’s poor treatment of refugees and its discriminatory approach to same sex marriage (in One Proud Monkey’s Don Draper) and the apathy we have that allows the elected to get away with almost anything (Judgement Day and Democratik) but you may have missed those… and that’s my fault…
I’ve been watching The War on Waste on the ABC lately, mostly with my mouth agape, and listening to a podcast by The Minimalists plus I've read some great books, Happy, by Derren Brown and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It’s all information and education. It’s motivating. So from now on, I promise, I’m going to say what I mean… and maybe a little bit louder than before.
Thanks for listening
Clint