FAWM 2012!

Here we are again. Another February, another FAWM.

That's February Album Writing Month!



I've completed two FAWMs already. This is my third year writing, and my second year organizing. I've had the distinct pleasure of co-organizing with Michael (Battleshy Youths) (Honey Badgers). We're a well-oiled organizational team. Joining us in the effort so far are Todd Chappelle and Aaron Nathans.

Sometimes, it's a little surreal.

The organizing, I mean.

Do you remember the moment when you grew up and realized you could eat bacon WHENEVER YOU WANTED?

That's kind of like this.

The response is incredible. Very few people I've talked to have said no to FAWM. Seven new Delawareans joined this year along with a few folks I know from Philly, and one of our new Delawareans managed to recruit some folks - without even having started FAWM himself.

It ain't a numbers game, though. I just love to cultivate creativity. People have these kernels and grains of the stuff, and sometimes they let it grow and sometimes they don't. I'll tell you one thing: a garden's a sorry place with just one flower.

Pretty soon, we'll embark. We'll be at the inDEpendence musician network on Monday; they meet at Extreme Pizza once a month for the sole purpose of strengthening Delaware's music community. Then we'll be on Graffiti Radio on Tuesday at 8 pm! Listen online by clicking through to that link. Wednesday, I'm taking off work and writing music all day. ;)

Showcase details forthcoming. Yep yep yep. For more info, check out the website or the facebook page for all the happenin's of FAWM in the Delaware area.

Zeal, and Pre-chickens

There has been a lot of this in my life lately.

It's a terrific thing.


In case you can't tell what "it" is, it's musicing. Musicing with people randomly, awesomely, at odd hours of the day and night. Running around water fountains, instruments in hand, yelling the lyrics to a minutes-old song (aptly named, I think, the "one chord song"). Improvising a song on Main Street in the rain about how we weren't busking. Guitaring on the beach with four friends and ten-foot breakers. Referring a new friend to a store that sells balalaikas.

You know how when you leave a place for a long time, you come back and it feels wrong? The doorknobs aren't at the right height, you can't remember the little tricks to all the sticky locks, the faucets turn the wrong way? This is like the opposite. This is like arriving at a place where all the little things actually feel familiar, even though you've never lived there before.

Honestly, there is so much freedom in my life right now, and if somebody saw me running around in the rain singing Puff the Magic Dragon in vocal harmony with my friends, they would seriously doubt my sanity, they would say something disparaging about how kids these days should get a job and become contributing members of society. And, you know what? I wouldn't care. Because I am contributing, just not in one person's narrow mindview. I'm really happy just being crazy. If this is the only life I ever live, I hope I've done it well and much to the consternation of narrow-minded people.

Lately I have been doing a lot of networking, though, and some playing out (most recently, the Queen's open mic). Things are happening, things have been scheduled, mulled over, talked about, collaborated and elaborated upon.

However, I do not count my chickens before they hatch. Ideas are not actual things. So expect updates when the actual things happen, but feel free to ask me in person about ideas, if you want to get your head talked off.

There's a lot of excitement. A lot of potential and energy (potential energy!!) and I hope the momentum doesn't get lost, I hope crazy new things start happening, I hope I will have the courage to take some steps and leaps and bounds when they start manifesting in real life.

FAWM: going after inspiration... with a club.

Michael and I are trying to gather together Delaware (and Delaware-area) songwriters to participate in FAWM, or February Album Writing Month. It's a songwriting challenge; write 1 song every 2 days in February, you end up with 14 songs (about an album's worth).

I managed to complete this challenge last year, and it was amazing. I already had a good pile of songs, but most of my current original repertoire is a direct result of FAWM. The thing that snagged me about FAWM, and the thing that kept me going, was the supportive online community they've built up around it. FAWMers are great -- they come from all different countries and all types of musical backgrounds. They'll listen to your stuff online and give you honest, constructive feedback (if you like).

Online is good, but... I've always been big on community, and I've always been big on music. I don't think we'll ever be sorry we tried to bring together a group of local artists to encourage and hone one another. Nope. Never.

And that's why we're doin' it. Please consider becoming a part of this growing community of artists and songwriters, even if you don't think you can do FAWM.

For more info, check out this site that Michael threw together. Or check us out on facebook!

(Plus, you can watch me through the month of February as I tackle the challenge myself...)

People Who Have Songs

Playing Tate Street Coffee was a great deal of fun. Many thanks to everyone who came, including the gentlemen who are collectively the Space-O-Nots, who sat right in front and sang along to Jonathan Coulton's "Re: Your Brains" and "The Horseshoe Crab Song" (an original, of course).

I admit that this was my first... well, my first "real" gig as "Em, the singer/songwriter." I'm not sure exactly why it qualifies as "real," it just... does. Playing for an hour on my own in a public establishment... I've done it before, but only as a classical guitarist. It's never been an hour of my own stuff.

Nervous? Yeah. About my playing? No. Mostly I was nervous about the fact that I was unleashing my own writing on the world. Playing classical repertoire is a much different experience... you end up playing stuff by a lot of dead white guys. Sometimes they're not dead yet. Sometimes they're not guys. But mostly, yeah, dead white guys. Not your own stuff. The stuff that's your own is the technique and the interpretation of the music. And trust me, it's not that people are not judging -- people are totally judging. People can (and will) tear you a new one over technique and interpretation.

Playing your own stuff... flawless technique is nice, but you can interpret your own music however you want. People are judging your playing by a different standard, maybe trying to relate, maybe just appreciating the musicality of it... maybe listening to the poetry of the words (if applicable). So while I'm used to the stage... it's a whole different world.

And I think that I think too much about what people think. I have songs, and I've watched other people who also have songs -- more or less studied them and tried to find out what it is that people with songs do.

• People who have songs tend to showcase said songs, usually doggedly.
  
• These songs tend to become precious to the communities in which the person belongs.
  
• Occasionally, a person who has songs will rise into the consciousness of wider and wider communities,
  
• but the common thread running through all people with songs is that they never cared much about that bit. They only had their songs and a desire to share.
  

I guess I always had songs, but I never much had the desire for sharing 'till now. If I had to guess, I would say I probably only have God to blame for that. I can't logic it out how it comes to be that desire grows where no desire has ever grown before, or how love multiplies in a world that seems to crush love underfoot at every turn. All I know is, it does.