Art is self-expression, each medium a unique language for artists to communicate what’s going on in their minds and in their bodies. As such, an artists work reveals aspects of the artist.
I used my previous project, WP1, to explore how my relationship with acting impacted my relationship with masculinity, arguing that the craft of acting reveals the actor's insecurities. For this project, I wanted to continue the exploration of how my art is reflective of my own complexity as a person. I chose to examine my music this time.
I want to know how my music reveals myself and what aspects of myself will appear in my music.
As an artist, my art will reflect who I was at the time that I created it, and in the case of my music, that will of course include my musical influences, topics of interest, and struggles at the time. Beyond this though, I want to be able to identify the connection between all these elements that went into my songwriting and my own growth as a person over the time that I've been writing music.
To create this archive, I chose to explore more perspectives than just my own. I feel that we grow the most as artists when we see our work through the audience's lens, and so I chose to have conversations with three listeners exploring 10 of my songs that I've written through their unique perspectives.
I chose 10 songs that were the most prominent in my musical journey, starting from one of the first songs I've ever written to the most recent song I've written, with the songs in between representing songs I wrote at different significant times in my life. As for the people, I also wanted a range in the kinds of perspectives I'd be getting: Natalie and Gabriell, my first two guests, went to high school with me, with Nat and I having gotten closer in senior year and Gabe and I having been close since freshman year, and I met Isaiah, my third guest, last semester. Gabe did acting with me in high-school and has no musical knowledge, Nat studied musical theatre so she has a little more musical knowledge, and Isaiah is a musician. All this allowed for my listeners to hear the journey of my musical evolution with a unique approach.
Formatting this archive as a podcast allows for these recordings to hold not only our ideas but our humanity, with all the imperfections and stutters and vocal inflections; this humanness is something that is very important to me and my work.
These discussions allow me to delve into elements of my artistic process that I wouldn't have thought to explore and make connections between different song and ideas that carry through into my personal life. Having guests gives me an outside perspective to my music that will allow me to uncover not only elements that I would have looked over but also forces me to confront my audience and make sure I'm engaging in a mutual dialogue, as well as pushes me to be more purposeful in my analysis.