It's been a little while due to traveling and other such life events since my last post, but I'm back with another installment in "The Art of the Song" series. Are you enjoying these stories? If so, I'd love to hear from you, and I encourage you to share these blogs & songs with others who may enjoy them as well!
Musically yours,
~Tara
The Art of a Song: "Every Day"
I tried to write lyrics to this song for a year. Not continually, but I made attempts throughout the year, and all that I still had staring at me was a blank page and the title given to me by Jeff Soukup, who had written the music. I thought it was a stunningly beautiful melody and chord structure and the title he had given it already just fit. I was determined to keep it—I feel like sometimes songs just name themselves. But I couldn’t get anywhere with it. What, what was this melody saying…?
And then, one day—the day after the end of a relationship (that kind of day where you just let yourself stay in your PJs all day and take relaxing bubble baths and eat chocolate because, what else can you do at a time like that?), I picked up a pencil, put some notebook paper on my trusty pink clipboard, and wrote the whole thing out in one sitting, hardly even going back to correct or change anything.
Suddenly, I knew what I wanted to say. It was like I hadn’t known for so long what that melody conveyed, just like I hadn’t know how to express what was missing in that relationship. The words had failed me when I was so desperately trying to explain what I needed from him. And then, after all that time, I just knew. All of those feelings became words and brought clarity to the quagmire of my troubled emotions. All too often, I find the right words to say long after the moment has passed, and, perhaps just as often, my bravery is found wanting in those moments to say the important things out loud, even if sometimes they are on the tip of my tongue. But that's one of the special things about the art of songwriting: there's no statute of limitations for sharing those things, as long as you eventually drum up the courage and a little bit—or a lot—of patience to find them.
It’s such a mystery why certain things take us so long to figure out. I guess the melody was just waiting for the right time and the right words to carry—or maybe it was always there, just waiting for me to figure it out in my heart.