Hundreds of songs…thousands or tens of thousands of thoughts, over the years.  Some have come and gone, lingering in the depths of my hard drive or relegated to the scrap heap.  Some have persisted and some released into the world.  Probably 3-4% of the songs I've written over the years are political in nature or related to some issue of justice…or injustice as it were.  But over the last 7-10 years, that percentage has risen steadily and at this point, I'd say it's the focus of at least half of my work.

This is not an accident…not a nature progression or an evolution in writing.  It's in response to the world around me and I have no more control over it than I would have control over holding my breath under water.  

In between other releases, I've written and released love songs, messages in song to my daughter, my family, to people I knew years ago.  But only the politically-fueled releases are for the wider world.  If I have one fervent wish - one vision I can look back on at the end of my years and say that I realized, it's not money, not fame, not even notoriety.  It would simply be to be able to say that something I did mattered to someone.  When I was a teenager, people listened to pop music, grunge, glam metal and a host of other musical styles that reflected their identity in some way or another.  I was never into it - I didn't care about loud guitars or ripped-up jeans or the pop charts.  I loved music that spoke in a voice that made me understand something.  

I first heard Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones probably 25 years or more after it was released.  Prior to that, I didn't understand why I should care about the Stones or Led Zeppelin or the Beatles or anyone else that my parents consumed like locusts in the 60s and 70s.  Their popularity made me averse to them immediately.  So when I first heard Gimme Shelter at a friend's house during a party, I switched off at first, as per usual. But for some reason (drugs) it re-acquired my focus during the first Merry Clayton stanza.  I listened…heard the words.  More importantly, felt the passion and sentiment in them and it instantly transported me back in time to the period when the song was fresh - Vietnam War, social unrest, Kent State, Nixon, civil rights…I felt as if I'd been hit by a truck full of baseball bats.  My gut lurched, my mind seethed and I began to feel angry and agitated…agitated.

It's the ultimate expression of the power of music, of a lyrical message…but most of all, of creating a sense of urgency with that message.  ‘This is something you need to hear…again and again.'

From that moment, the music that gripped and inspired me the most shared this in common - Pink Floyd's The Wall, The Clash, U2…it all mattered.  

Low is coming out in a few weeks.  As I sit in the studio slogging my way through tracking the vocals, I realized once again that bringing it to fruition isn't about how well I sing or how loud the drums are…it's about relaying the message with the urgency, the passion and the meaning that it deserves.  We'll see how it goes, but I'll say this: if I need to tear my vocal chords apart to properly convey the sense of urgency of the moment…if I have to exhaust every ounce of energy in my body and my voice to get it there, I will happily do so just to create a work that is a shadow of the work that inspired it.