The Hidden Joys Of Songwriting
Writing is a lonely thing. At least for me it is; I sit in my same old room and I try to coax something out of nothing. I try to make the instruments sing new songs or make new sounds, but my fingers fall into the same worn grooves of the same chords every time. It feels silly sometimes pretending to be a songwriter. I wonder if the songs mean anything to anyone else but me. Sometimes I start to believe my critics and I think it’s time to quit trying.
And then I discovered youtube.
Well, actually I discovered all the people on youtube who took the songs we wrote and did something with them. Thousands and thousands of videos. I tried to watch them all and gave up after an entire day. There are people singing Superchick songs, playing Superchick songs, teaching other people to play Superchick songs, remixing Superchick songs, making music videos to Superchick songs, riding horses to Superchick songs, animating lego to Superchick songs and dressing up like zombies and choreographing a dance routine to Superchick songs. In fact there’s one insanely awesome girl named Melissa Pemberton who stunt flies airplanes to Superchick songs. There’s an 8 year old girl playing drums along with “Rock What You Got.” There’s a female wrestler who makes her entrance to a Superchick song. I even found people covering songs I wrote before Superchick.
It’s all a little mind boggling.
You sit in your studio/dungeon like Howard Hughes during the recluse years. You sift through the same old soil every day, hoping something new takes root, and you never think it’s going to mean anything to anyone… And then one day you discover people singing these songs and making them their own. I remember teaching myself to play axel F on the piano as my liberation from classical music, and never in my wildest dreams did I imagine someone would teach themselves to play a song that came out of my fingers. And then write it out onto sheet music and give it to other people so they could play it…. It’s really humbling. It gives me hope.
I fail to meet my own standards. I fail to meet the critics’ expectations. But it’s a huge blessing to have written songs and that someone in an itunes review would then say:
This album was the soundtrack to my summer.
Thank you so much to anyone who ever listened.
(Read more thoughts from Max at maxwax11.com)
awe! I’ll add to your list and say that I can play your music on my guitar!
Comment by Valerie — 5/15/2010 @ 10:55 am
I play superchick songs on the piano! and sing them with all my friends. Speaking of which, this music is definitely one of the rare strands that held my longest friendship together through our rocky transition into college–without being able to sing along together, things would have stayed awkward and we would have continued to drift apart. Superchick is the only band we have in common.
Keep rockin’ it! your songs never sound stale or repeatative, and they mean a lot to me.
Peace.
Comment by Jazz — 5/15/2010 @ 6:53 pm
P.S. Max, you’re a magician in the production studio! your work is really astouding!
Comment by Jazz — 5/15/2010 @ 6:54 pm
I love to play Stand in the Rain on guitar and I want to try to play a song on cornet (sorta like a trumpet but smaller and softer) Anyway, Your songs are so inspiring for a girl like me; a school geek and a Jesus freak
love ya
Eliza
Comment by Eliza — 5/16/2010 @ 1:22 am
I’m writing songs but none of them are any good! Do you have any tips?
luv
lia
Comment by Alia — 5/20/2010 @ 12:35 pm
Hey guys!
I just wanted to tell you that you guys just rock! I have just spent the last hour listening to your music and it all started because I used your song So Bright and Hey Hey for a youth group lesson. Tomorrow i’m teaching a bible study at my school and decided to use your songs again. The songs that you guys produce are so easy for me to relate to, and I find them to be so encouraging. Tonight I would listen for a bit and then pop onto facebook and everytime I got on facebook I could just feel my mood going down. I just wanted to say thanks and that i’m positive your music touches more people than you know. Thanks for keeping it real, as a female some days this world has me buying the lies.. but then i just realize their lies… haha.. Thanks again! Keep up the awesome music!
Comment by Mandy — 6/1/2010 @ 7:03 pm