Radium

I went through a period of trying to write commercial songs. Fix Me Up, and Cover Me, featured a few blogs earlier, were two of them.

Radium is another. It was a rewrite of an earlier tune I’d written, called Breathe. Funnily, there’s a friend I have who isn’t mad on any of my music, except for that earlier rendition of the song, which he adored. And now, sadly for him, that version is lost in the mists of time.

Anyway, I want to say that, although I’m very happy with the song writing craftsmanship of those earlier uncommercial “commercial” songs I wrote, they never felt like my songs.

There is no moral lesson to this. I completely understand when people pursue that writing route. And it’s a real achievement to get to a point where you make real money (i.e. profit) from the craft of songwriting. But it isn’t a route I want to go down anymore. I want to write songs that express my own vision and personality, not ones that try to meet other criteria.

Mostly, for better or worse, I’ve done that.

However, I do think, ironically, that in this day and age, with the advent of Ai, and a kind of predicability to most commercial “pop” music, we might be on to something. “Doing your own thang!”, though it be weird and quirky, as long as it is GOOD, could be what people start to want.

In fact that’s always been the case. Back in the day Punk became popular, largely because it kicked against the popular music of the time. It brought a fresh vitality and energy to things.

Music will always reinvent itself, even if some of the foundations remain unchanging and unchanged. I would argue it’s always better to avoid trying to copy someone else, however great they me be. We can’t help being influenced, but we don’t need to try to mimic.

So I pursue this path regardless of outcomes that could be called “success” in many peoples eyes. At the very least, it’s fun and interesting.