So I really don't know how to appreciate compliments. I have gotten a couple of really, really heartfelt compliments from music I've done and when the person talked about how my music made them felt I stood there baffled. Don't get me wrong, my music means a whole lot to me. I've just kind of given up on it actually meaning anything to anyone else.
Back when I was first writing the album, I put Soft up on myspace. One of my friends was on AIM and listened to it and loved how it sounded to the extent that he kept talking about. I don't want you to take the wrong tone from my writing here. The compliment means a thousand worlds to me. The problem lies in I get really, really nervous when that happens. I feel like a deer in the headlights. So I just say thank you repeatedly. I mean I can't join in and say how wonderful the song was. I guess I could have told the story of the conception of the song. That song was probably the first song that was completely written before it was written. But that's another story for another post.
Anyway, it happened again tonight. We had a bonfire bit out at Keystone. I took my classical guitar. If you don't know, I love playing classical and flamenco music and writing my own music in that style. It is not an odd thing for me to get a lot of compliments when I play so you'd think I'd be used to. Most people compliment me because they appreciate the technical difficulty of it or they appreciate hearing something different. Every once in a while, I get a compliment from someone who really feels it. And tonight, one of my friends did exactly that. It was cool, but it was also 20 miinutes of "what the hell is the right thing to say?" So it was 20 minutes of "thanks you" and "no, you're not being weird, it's cool." That last part wasn't a lie, it was cool, I just didn't know what else to say or do. The few times I've written songs for other people, only one of them appreciated it. I played the guitar line and sang the synth line to her after we had sex. Actually funny story, it was Soft.
Back when I was first writing the album, I put Soft up on myspace. One of my friends was on AIM and listened to it and loved how it sounded to the extent that he kept talking about. I don't want you to take the wrong tone from my writing here. The compliment means a thousand worlds to me. The problem lies in I get really, really nervous when that happens. I feel like a deer in the headlights. So I just say thank you repeatedly. I mean I can't join in and say how wonderful the song was. I guess I could have told the story of the conception of the song. That song was probably the first song that was completely written before it was written. But that's another story for another post.
Anyway, it happened again tonight. We had a bonfire bit out at Keystone. I took my classical guitar. If you don't know, I love playing classical and flamenco music and writing my own music in that style. It is not an odd thing for me to get a lot of compliments when I play so you'd think I'd be used to. Most people compliment me because they appreciate the technical difficulty of it or they appreciate hearing something different. Every once in a while, I get a compliment from someone who really feels it. And tonight, one of my friends did exactly that. It was cool, but it was also 20 miinutes of "what the hell is the right thing to say?" So it was 20 minutes of "thanks you" and "no, you're not being weird, it's cool." That last part wasn't a lie, it was cool, I just didn't know what else to say or do. The few times I've written songs for other people, only one of them appreciated it. I played the guitar line and sang the synth line to her after we had sex. Actually funny story, it was Soft.
Now if I receive any tidbits of information about what the artist was doing or thinking when they made a song, or their inspiration or any story, I love it. I eat that stuff up. Because then there really is a connection between artist and fan, and I sort of look at it as I have something that other people don't have (sounds a bit psycho-stalker I know).
This is true of local artists or the big-time people.
I have been thinking about how cool it would be if all actors, musicians, anyone in entertainment had pages where we could go post comments similar to SG. Going to someones website and leaving a note in their guest book just doesn't seem the same anymore.