What Is Inspiration?

1 comment May 4th, 2008

What exactly is it that inspires people? Why do people become inspired? I’ll tell you that I do not know the answer to that. Currently, I am going through something of a writer’s block but my songwriter’s process isn’t important enough to really matter. I literally just got off the phone with a friend of mine who I’ve played with a few times. After telling me that he is going through a figurative dry spell we openly discussed how to get through our respective failing processes. He wrote a great song about someone who he is starting to fall in love with, so to speak. It has been a relationship that has been building for years and that is no question — a rare bond that someone going through that is extremely lucky to have. But that bond has produced 1, maybe 2 or 3, great songs. My tongue-in-cheek advice to the man was to break up with her…or to have her break up with him. Think about it and from personal experience - sad to say - it is truly an inspirational experience. It’s been years since my last break-up and I’m getting married in, count it, ONE month but I’m still able to write depressing, sadness inspired songs much more easily than happy tunes. So really, what is inspiration? I prefer being happy so what do I have to do? My next idea is to ride the Raging Bull with a pen and paper and see what comes. I’ll keep you posted.