I wrote this song - a reflection on the creative process

“Listen to this song,” I might say, “I wrote it.” But did I? Is it really mine? What does I wrote it even mean? Let’s sit with this question for a moment or two....

Did I create the language it’s written in? No. Obviously, I inherited it — language is a system of communication passed on from generation to generation.

Did I make the computer or the software it was recorded with? Not at all. I can’t even begin to explain how any of it works.

Did I make the guitar it was written on? No. Even the way it’s tuned, the chords, the whole vocabulary of music — all of that existed long before me.

And what about the ideas in the song? Perhaps they haven’t appeared in this exact combination before, but they’re not uniquely mine. Ideas move through us like weather systems. Even our breakthroughs grow from everything and everyone that came before.

The styles I draw on — reggae, funk, blues, classical, rock, folk — are all lineages. These are living rivers of human creativity flowing into and through me.

The idea of the heroic, isolated creator is just that: an idea - a story we sometimes believe in, but not the truth of how creativity actually happens.

So in what way is this my song? What did I really do? Maybe this: I made myself available. I offered my time, care, curiosity, and attention. In effect, I was a space. And in that space of openness, many rivers, many lineages and multiple weather patterns could meet, mingle, and in so doing, give rise to something new. And that “something new” is what we can call this song.

In the light of what Joseph Campbell referred to as the Earthrise myth*, creativity can be seen as inherently about relationship - both seen and unseen. We’re all part of ecosystems — cultural and musical, as well as planetary. None of us creates alone. When we remember this, making music is not about ownership, it’s about participation in the interconnected web of life. From this viewpoint, a song is not so much a product but a meeting place - a flowering of Planet Earth’s incredible creative potential.

* the understanding that Earth is one dynamic living system