Dare to Suck
The songwriter session that I was most stoked about was led by Ian Eskelin. Now, most people at CMS (I assume) had no idea who Ian was...until the Friday night concert when they did a "songwriter in the round" session with like five or six songwriters*** when he introduced himself and said he wrote "This Is The Stuff" with Francesca Battistelli.
But I was pretty hyped up before I got to the conference. I had a video Eskelin did called Supersonic Dream Day - videos of the album of the same name - from when he was just starting out in the industry - here's a sample.
Then, a few years later, I caught his band All Star United opening for Third Day with another band who was just starting out (the fledgling Switchfoot). All Star United killed that night - their show was as good or better than Third Day's - I just didn't know their music - but I bought the debut album immediately - and memorized it.**** And since I'm a liner note junkie, I saw Eskelin's name all over the album. Bought the second All Star United album and felt it was even stronger. But, eventually, I lost track of ASU and didn't think about them, or Ian Eskelin, again...
Until I heard "This Is the Stuff" on the radio the first time and I said to Lori, "Ian Eskelin wrote that." She said, "Who?" I went through the whole story of who he is - she thought he was some guy I knew from back in the day... Anyway, I did a quick search and, sure enough, there he was. Co-writer.
So - that's the long prelude to what I really want to talk about. I went to two songwriter sessions - one by Eskelin, another by a woman that I would call a "Creativity Coach."
Here's the difference:
Eskelin makes a living writing songs.
The woman makes a living encouraging people to write songs.
The advice given was sometimes diametrically opposed. And it's no surprise, they come from completely different worldviews.
But, both said one thing, in, again, very different words, that is true about any creative endeavor, any task that you want to take on, any challenge before you. I'll use Ian's words because they're the most succinct:
DARE TO SUCK
H was talking about writing melodies and co-writing and he said you just have to put it out there - throw out lots of ideas, most of them will suck...but something won't, something will spark something that will spark something.
Fear keeps us back too often - fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of ridicule, whatever.
Dare to suck.
It's actually the title of a book (who knew?).
What does it mean? It means:
START
TRY
TAKE A CHANCE
Failure is always an option - and an opportunity.
Sucking is part of the success trajectory. It's Edison's "3,000 different theories with the electric light"***** that you try and fail and try again.
The point is to dare...
...and dare again
*Christian Musician Summit at the Chapel in Buffalo
**You know, "Integrating Traditional and Contemporary Music into Worship" and the like...
***Including Bob Halligan, Jr and Ashley Cleveland - Mandisa was the featured songwriter (she did three or four songs) and the others I didn't know, though I knew one of the songs - Benji Cowart - the worship leader at the Chapel who co-wrote Redeemed with Mike Weaver (Big Daddy Weave) and Don Poythress who wrote a great song I had not heard before, Willie Nelson's "You Remain"
****Switchfoot, as I recall, sucked that night. We left the hall in search of some rest for our ears, they were that bad. Or so I remember it. Of course, now they're pretty awesome...but everybody has to start somewhere...and usually they suck...
*****Yeah, he probably didn't say, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Maybe - kinda what he DID say about the light bulb, but much more bumper stickerish - or in this case GE Ad copy-ish, so...probably not...
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