{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"S1 Ep 2: Using Songwriting as Tool to Know Your Heart with Guest David Wilcox","description":"Welcome to The Verse Chorus Podcast. Thank you for your support and for coming back to listen. We hope you enjoy this episode. Using Songwriting as a Tool to Know Your Heart- with guest David Wilcox Songs come in all different shapes, sounds, and colors, but the best songs are the ones that come from a place of honestly, whether that be pretty or ugly. Today\u2019s special guest, musician David Wilcox, is someone who understands this well. David started writing music while in college, at the age of 19. He had been playing the guitar for about 6 months and although he had never played music before, he had always been moved by it. His first song wasn\u2019t the best, but it gave him the bravery to really express his feelings. The songs he wrote gave him a window into the worlds of others and helped him to see it the way they did. What David most wanted out of songs was a way to envision how great his life could feel--to be able to picture being the person he wanted to be. David feels like if it weren\u2019t for music, he wouldn\u2019t be alive today and certainly wouldn\u2019t have access to the joy he has now. Important Musical Influences in David\u2019s Life When David was 12 years old, he heard a song that really spoke to him, which was \u201cSit Down Old Friend\u201d by Dion. This song was about an adult telling a child that all the things that society values aren\u2019t important, which was revolutionary to David, and also confusing. This song represented an exception to the rule that people were always propping up their chosen persona. This song was different because Dion was being honest and humble about what is really important. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to find the life that will feel good to you, and it\u2019s also so easy to believe lies you hear from mainstream culture and become totally lost.\u201d During the current Covid-19 pandemic, things have started to shift in a way where people feel more comfortable being honest with how they feel. This is not the way we generally interact with each other, but music can give us a way to get there. People are starting to realize what is most precious to them and we may never return to what seemed so important to us before. David has really changed his perspective and values during this time, which has been good. The Song Writing Process When David writes music, he doesn\u2019t have the specific goal of the song being moral or like a parable, but in order to sing the song, it must be. About half the songs David writes, he sings, and for him to sing that song it needs to serve a purpose, such as make someone\u2019s life better or be cathartic in some way. This is the criteria that gets one of David\u2019s songs out into the world. When David sits down to write a song, he picks up his guitar and tries to open his heart, thinking about what it is trying to tell him. What is he hoping for? What is he sad about? Sometimes he\u2019ll write a song about something he needs to say to someone, or maybe the song is about how David wants to evolve as a person, or even about how he may have treated someone else. If it weren\u2019t for song writing, David wouldn\u2019t hear what his heart was trying to say or even hear the message. This is reason enough for David to get quiet and actively listen to what he is feeling. David judges each song he writes by where it takes him emotionally. He compares this process to panning gold, where you take a big pan of possibility and swish it around in the river. Some pieces in the pan will glimmer and those are the ones you pull out, while the rest goes back into the water. Sometimes David will take out the pieces that are \u201cfool\u2019s gold\u201d and use them as place holders to connect one idea to another, from verse to verse. This helps him find different ways of saying the idea he is trying to express. When David is writing his songs, he will work on them for 3 or 4 days and if they are still not right, he will come back to them and try writing to a different rhythm to change things up. He refers to each \u201cstart over\u201d on the song as second or third generation. If the song still isn\u2019t working, he will set it back in the river. Other times, David will revisit a song years later and know how to fix it, whether he realized it was broken before or not. Writing Songs from the Heart One of David\u2019s earliest memories is from when he was 1 or 2 years old and he was trying to say something but didn\u2019t have the words. He remembers how frustrating this was. Now though, he has the discernment of his own emotions to be able to know his heart and how he is feeling through songwriting. He knows how to start a song and get it to where he wants it to be. David has realized that when it comes to the structure of a song and how it\u2019s written, you don\u2019t need to satisfy the arbitrary form of the song, but instead realize that the form of the song is informed by our life experiences. \u201cWhen the song speaks our life, that\u2019s the form it takes.\u201d Thank you to David for being on the show today, speaking about his life and process as a songwriter. To our listeners, please remember to rate, subscribe, and share our podcast with your friends!   Connect with David -on his website -on Instagram -on Twitter -on YouTube Support The Verse Chorus Podcast Visit us on our website and follow us on Facebook! ","author_name":"The Verse Chorus","author_url":"http:\/\/theversechorus.com","html":"