The Power of Us

I had a good conversation with Will Kimbrough on Saturday night about his guitar effects pedals. I've always been a fully acoustic musician so it's only been recently that I've had an interest in electric guitars and stomp boxes. He gave me his thoughts on the pedals that he takes with him when he travels (Civil War Fuzz and Garage Tone Axle Grease among others) and explained to me how he does this really cool ethereal effect that I love. I am planning to get delay and overdrive pedals in the not too distant future so I can play around with some of this on my own, although I'll also need a volume pedal to do that ethereal swell Will pulls off....

It sparks creativity in me to talk with other artists and I know I'm not alone in that. For me, seeing another musician at work, or any kind of artist really, spins my thoughts into new directions and leads me to places I may never have visited without that interaction. It makes me feel like when I was a kid excited on Christmas morning, or when I see the ocean or mountains again after a long separation, in awe of life itself. A riff or a bit of percussion leads me to explore that thing that sticks in my head in the context of my own writing, whether I'm writing music or a script. And it always takes me somewhere I enjoy exploring, whether anyone else would consider that place productive or not.

We spend our whole lives inventing and re-inventing ourselves. Like the oscillations of our internal physical and physiological systems, our interactions with others also ebb and flow and contribute to our own personal change in a synergistic way. For me, interacting with other artists reinforces the power that we are all part of, that all of us share. It reminds me how truly amazing we are as a collaborative and communal species.