The Power of a Song

March 11th, 2008 at 06:46am Jonathan Bradley

Hello. It is amazing to see what a simple collection of words can do. For the following examples I will use my experiences with songs I’ve written but I would like to hear stories of your own. A single song can mean nothing to one person and everything to another. I have a song called, “Better Without You”, and there have been times when people have come to me tearing up yet other times people yawn through it. I have a song called, “My Interpretation of the Kind of Song Lifehouse Would Sing if They Were Frustrated After Playing Super Paper Mario for the Nintendo Wii”, and trust me - some people really, really get a kick out of it yet some others could’ve cared less what they just heard after listening to it. The point here is that despite the fact that singer/songwriters write songs based on relevant experiences it still feels good knowing that someone else has made a connection to it. Playing as a solo musician in the area and being relatively unknown it is sometimes difficult to find the right ears to hear my voice, so to speak. If Bright Eyes was coming to town, for example, every single person in the audience would be there because they’ve bonded somehow to either Conor Oberst or his music. For me and many others in this town that is the challenge : To play for a crowd of few to find that one who gets it. The one who likes it. The one who wants more of what you have. It can sometimes be defeating to be a solo musician performing for others but knowing that just one person has been affected by what you’ve created makes it worthwhile. So I’m going to keep doing it. I hope to see you next time I play. 

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