Let’s Talk About Songs, Baby
I love songs. I love listening to new songs, discovering new artists, falling in love with new genres, rediscovering new things to love about old favorites. And I love songwriting. I love creating something from nothing, I love jumping into a process without knowing where it will lead, and I love playing around with chord progressions or melodic choices that stir up some type of affection inside of me.
But for me, songwriting is about more than music. For me, it’s a way to process emotions, to collect my thoughts, to investigate my perspectives, and to give words to feelings that have been floating around in the aether. It’s chance for me to name things that haven’t yet been named. Songs are short and sweet; they’re poetic. A song is a snapshot in time, and it doesn't have to be something that defines how we think forever and ever. Most people seem to understand this about songs.
My approach to songwriting tends to be more lyrics-forward. There’s nothing right or wrong about this, it just is what it is. I usually let my lyrics drive my melodies rather than the other way around. I went to a songwriting workshop last month at Art House North, and I loved it so much, especially because this particular workshop had more of a focus on lyric writing.
I am a Christian, and I am an artist. But I struggle to see myself as a “Christian artist” because in some circles, that seems to mean things that feel a little foreign to me. “Foreign” is probably not the right word; it’s the feeling of being a square peg in a round hole, or of wearing the totally wrong outfit to a function where everyone else seems to be dressed the same that I’m trying to convey. I am every bit as much of a human as I am a Christian. So some of my songs might have a little more Bible in them, and others might not have any at all. And in the past I’ve struggled with this. Does this make me not a “good” Christian? Will I alienate some Christian listeners? Without a doubt, I will. And I have. But more and more, I am okay with this.
There were two quotes that became my main takeaways from my time at Art House North last month:
“God is the ocean and we keep writing about a cup of water.”
What if we don’t have to be so narrow in what we call “Christian music”? What if the world belongs to God and all that is in it? What if He truly does own the cattle on a thousand hills? If I sing about those cows, I’m singing about the God who made them and loves them, even if I don’t directly mention Him by name.
What if we can learn about God through more than just repeating theological truisms over and over. What if there’s even more to worshipping God than that? And maybe that’s a different conversation for a later time…
But I loved this Charlie Peacock quote so much. What else can we learn about God today through observing the world around us, through paying attention to what is happening inside of us; through exploring the rest of the ocean, so to speak?
“Take a hatchet to the sacred/secular divide.”
When Sara Groves said this during her talk at the songwriting workshop, it reverberated deep into my soul. For one, I knew instantly that I was in the right place. I have been dancing around this principle for the last few years, to the point that it has become a conviction of mine, and my conscience testifies that this is the way: tear down that sacred/secular divide! And when reverberations from my former way of thinking that was much more legalistic and even fundamentalist pop back up into my mind, I will speak this Sara Groves quote to those thoughts. Mama said that it was okay, mama said that it was quite alright.
As for other things I learned that weekend at Art House North, I am still chewing on that. You will no doubt hear more as it comes out in my songwriting (and blog-writing?). Bottom line: I am so thankful that I went to that songwriting workshop, and I can’t wait to go back again next year.