This week I was reminded of an old radio interview with Passenger, one of my favourite musicians. If the name rings a bell, it might be because you’re likely familiar with his 2012 hit, Let Her Go. It is a lovely song, and the one most associated with him, but he talks about how he had no idea it was going to be a hit. That song was on an album he released called All The Little Lights, and he was sure that there was another song on the album, The Wrong Direction, that would be the big hit. The Wrong Direction is one of my favourite songs of all time, and although it did quite well, it didn’t even come close to the level of popularity attained by Let Her Go.
The point Passenger was making is simple: for years he tried to predict which songs would be popular whenever he released new material, and it almost never worked out as he predicted. This has been on my mind recently. I’ve been working on a few projects that I’ve dedicated a lot of time to over the last few years, and some of them are now coming to fruition and are on the brink of being released. I’ll share more details in due course. For now, though, I feel the need to write this as a reminder, a note to self, a realisation even, that it is futile to predict the impact of art. Countless artists have learnt that there’s no way to accurately predict the relationships that listeners will have to their music, no way to tell which of their stories will resonate with the readers, no way to tell what aspects of their art will make an impact with the public.
The story of how Let Her Go became a hit is fascinating. As Passenger tells it, a DJ from the Netherlands emailed him saying he loved it and asking if he could introduce the song to some Dutch radio stations. The song went on to trend in the Netherlands, and it then spread to other countries, eventually topping the charts in the UK, the US and a host of other countries. This groundbreaking success that has seen the song amass over a billion streams and views on Spotify and YouTube respectively, all started because of one email, from someone based in what would’ve never been considered the primary or target market for his music.
Passenger couldn’t have possibly predicted the chain of events that led to the popularity of his song. If he’d tried to predict and act on them, if he’d attempted to make art with any sort of predicted impact in mind, it’s unlikely that he would be the artist he is today. This reminder of Passenger’s story is timely for me. I’m reminded that, tempting as it might be, to attempt to make art with any sort of predicted impact in mind, is to not be true to the art, or the artist. For all intents and purposes, predicting the impact of art is futile.
PS: Just a reminder that my latest single, Feels Like Rain is out now, everywhere. You can listen to it on several platforms. Please share it with a friend, share it with your social networks, and consider subscribing to the newsletter (below), my YouTube channel, or wherever else you listen to music.