Are You Strangling Your Best Songs?

Obvious to you. Amazing to others. from Derek Sivers on Vimeo.

AVC: Do you generally feel like you have a good sense of what your best work is? Because obviously you have fans who love songs that you’ve recorded but never released.

Ryan Adams: At this point, I would say that I definitely don’t know. I used to think I did…

With this record, these are the songs that really stood out for people around me that love my music, that are close to it, and that I respect. I think I got the picture for the first time. I think I understood that it was those songs that happen by accident when I’m not thinking that people like best. So I’m probably not a very good judge. But I like the irony of it.

Source: A.V. Club Interview with Ryan Adams

 

One of the prime challenges of songwriting–and performing–is hearing yourself objectively, the way a listener hears you. No listener sits and agonizes over every lyric, note, and syllable the way the song’s writer does. The subtle touches that make one of your songs great might go entirely unnoticed while your simplest material flourishes.

The song you’re most invested in personally might not be the one that grabs everyone by the ear hairs. The experience of writing is much different from the experience of listening–which is one of the reasons that collaborating with other songsters and musicians lends an advantage. It narrows the gap.