Mark reflects on his dog via song.

Author:  Mark Seymour.

Date: 24 July 2022.

Original URL: N/A.

Article Text

I try not to talk about my songs. Unless I’m asked. Or I’m paid to do it.

More to the point, ‘how’ I do it…

The actual writing itself.

There are workshops you can go to where you can learn this stuff, where to put all the bits.

But when I have a crack at it, more often than not I leave people confused and disappointed.

Because the truth is, before the chords, the words, or even the thing that drives the story, comes the difficult inner voice

Where in lies anguish, desire and loss..

It is your SELF that speaks first, the force that drives you to pick up the guitar in the first place..

You cannot create wonder or touch hearts, if that’s what you’re striving to do, unless you are willing to fess up to your SELF.

To own your condition..

How much does this song really mean to you? How high are the stakes?

Is it a matter of life or death?

Right now I’ve got a pile of audio files on my desktop.. they’ve all got the same title.

But only one moves me. So I delete all the others. Why?

Because right then, I only believe in that one. All I can say is, ‘It feels right.’ I know because I sense, right in that moment, that the song isn’t lying to me anymore

but even before that, I know one hard-worn fact:

If I don’t believe in it, my voice will betray me. The song will sound like a lie.

Still, why bother? Why the struggle? Why wrestle with your inner life to convey these fleeting moments of feeling?

The answer lies in my dog’s eyes in the morning..

My little mongrel looking back at me

Yearning to be loved.

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