Creativity and inspiration comes in waves.

When it hits, it can be pretty overwhelming. It keeps me up at night, then wakes me up in the 3 o’clock hour in the morning. I’m exhausted, but also exhilarated.

Even my stomach gets kind of upset- my whole body is running on hyperdrive. It’s definitely an unsustainable state of being.

Nonetheless, I can be highly productive when it hits. My mind churns with ideas, and it feels like stroke after stroke of genius. I feel urgency to “get them down” in some format before they evaporate into the mundanity of everyday life.

All that to say- last week, in the aftermath of my Valentine’s Day show, I found myself in an unexpected situation. I had all the right tools and parts to embark on a new journey: songwriting.

I’d been intensely studying songs, lyrics, harmony, and training my voice for the past six months. When that wrapped up, I let myself recover- reconnecting with friends, going to concerts, listening to new music, etc.

One (literally) freezing morning, I found myself at a metaphorical table with all the right ingredients to write a song: musical training, a voice, and a hit of inspiration. Even the diary/journal-like style of writing is something that is something I’ve personally practiced for much of my life, and publicly on this blog for the past five years.

I’m going to ride this wave while I’m on it, and I’m super excited to share what I’ve been working on soon. Teaser: my first two songs came out in a sort of country style, which was very surprising to me!

Life as a musician has served me a consistently exciting and challenging journey. I think if you asked me to write a song even just six months ago, I would have probably looked at you weirdly and said I didn’t know how.

I hope this account somewhat articulates what it feels like when creativity strikes. It’s all-consuming and obsessive, illogical and passionate. It’s like I’m a conduit for the artistic ideas- acting in service of the wave.