A few weeks ago, I was invited to play a gig in a bookstore. The setting was intimate, the atmosphere was pregnant with creativity, and the space was lovely as I was surrounded by books and book lovers, writers and avid readers alike. There were a few readings – poetry, spoken word, short stories and novel excerpts – after which I closed the show with a 20-minute set. Overall, it was an evening well spent doing what I love and leaving feeling more inspired on my creative journey. I have reflected on the experience over the last few days, and there are three takeaways I’d like to share today.
The first is on savouring the journey and appreciating how far I’ve come. If someone had told me when I started out musically that I'd be playing soul-affirming gigs in intimate settings to attentive audiences, I don't know how I would have handled it. As much as I’d hoped for this, I don’t think I could have foreseen or predicted the trajectory that has brought me here. This makes me excited for the future and where this road takes me, but it also reminds me to savour the journey, bask in the moment and smell the roses.
Second, is the importance of chance encounters. When I think back to how the gig came about, I realise it happened because I ran into someone at a tram stop on my way to another gig a few weeks prior. She recognised me from a gig I played years ago, which is why she approached me and we spent the tram journey talking about music and books. It turns out she’d recently opened a bookstore and was planning an event, and she asked if I was available to play some songs alongside readings by local authors. Things fell into place from there. On reflection, I traced the occurrence of the gig to the chance encounter at the tram stop, but in a sense, it goes back much further because if she hadn’t seen me play years ago, the tram stop encounter might not have happened.
The third is on the universality of art. After the event, I stayed back to mingle and chat with the attendees and authors, and one of them asked me about a song I'd played that evening. The song – called Time Always Wins – is about dealing with grief, and I shared the experiences that led me to write it. As we talked, they shared how touched they were by it, and I came away with the realisation that most people have experienced some sort of grief at some point in their lives. It occurred to me then, that I'd written a song about a specific experience, and in doing so, I'd opened up a world for others to draw on and process their own experiences. This speaks to the power of music and the universal nature of art as a medium of self-expression.
Here's to more chance encounters, bookstore gigs, and artistic exploits on this creative journey.
P.S.: My debut non-fiction book, Art Is The Way, and my middle-grade novella, A Hollade Christmas, are out everywhere now. You can get them in all good bookstores and from all major online vendors.