What's cookin'?
personal = universal
Trying to remember: I make art to connect, to feel useful, to mark the passage of time, and to release.
I’ve always felt far more comfortable sharing deep truths and experiences on stage than with an individual or a small group. Reflecting now, I think it’s because there is no pressure on anyone to react. Sheltered from platitudes and sympathy, people on stages everywhere are free. I like to use that freedom to say extremely personal things into a microphone.
Anaïs Nin said, “When we go deeply into the personal, we go beyond the personal. We achieve something that is collective.”
That’s what I love about songwriting. How absurdly specific can I get about this experience, this feeling, these mundanities? The degree to which a songwriter can isolate and communicate precise and personal details is directly proportional to the level of connection those for whom the song was written will feel to it. That is, people who can relate. That is, most people.
There are any number of reasons for, layers between, and complicating interactions among feelings, but at the very bottom of it all, there are only a few emotions you can tap into. I guess that’s why the hyper-personal is the hyper-universal.
We (NOWADAYS) were very lucky to host Jonathan Richman for a couple of shows here in Dartmouth this past weekend. He asked us to keep the house lights up just enough so that audience members could see each other.
We talked a bit about politics, and he said that he doesn’t buy what people are saying about the highly divisive times we’re living in. This is a great time to connect with people of all stripes, he assured us, as he stood at the head of the table with his hands flat upon it, “You just have to go right up to people and ask, ‘What’s cookin’?’”.
As an aside, Jonathan doesn’t have a cellphone or email address, and he has no web presence at all. I think he’s cracked the code on how to be an artist without social media- just gotta time travel back a few decades and pioneer/define/defy a genre or two.
UPCOMING THINGS
On November 14, I’m playing a show at the Bus Stop Theatre with Beauts. It’s the release show for their sophomore album, Marigolds.
Tickets are available here.