Too Short For Short Hair

SM and I had nice, delirious conversations last night. He visited again in order "to get as much sleep as possible" before he goes on tour and has to indulge radio audiences and bar staff and bands he doesn't like.

I played some of my new music for him, and in response to one song, he said "What were you thinking of when you wrote this song?" "Content-wise?" "No, what song were you thinking of?" I said "I wasn't thinking about any song." "Just listen..." he said.

We listened, and I still had no idea what he was talking about.

SM has an amazing ability to be harsh and critical about my music without my feeling sensitive. I love people who have the innate ability to be purely constructive.

He said "You know? That Radiohead song? From The Bends?"

I quickly abandoned My Mundane Life in Song and scrolled through Radiohead songs on my Ipod until we found the song in question.

"Shit," I murmered, and was immediately thrust back into the existential crisis involving familiarity.

It's the same chord progression. Fine. This happens. But. Do I only think things I write sound good because I've heard them before?

And, back to a topic from the earlier post, is it the same with people? Are we only drawn to people because they remind us of something/someone else? Is everything we like/do based on familiarity?

SM thinks its all about familiarity. Regularity. "Everyone does this," he explained, and relayed an anecdote about his current band that threw me into convulsive fits of laughter.

But.

Am I unable to write anything new because things I haven't heard before seem wrong to me?

I am happy, at least, that I ripped off a short Radiohead chord progression, since I still get goosebumps every time I hear any melancholy Radiohead song. It would have been tragic if I'd, for example, accidentally rewritten an Avril Lavigne song.

SM said "Knowing this will help your songwriting."

Yes, but knowing this may also stop my songwriting.

I don't know. I am frazzled and crazed at work and someone I work with has started calling me "Daria."