On writing 1

Today's post comes to you from Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, where we're trying to soak in a few warm days of summer.

I woke up in a writing mood, which may be about the turning of the weather or something else. I have learned a lot over the last eight months of trying and failing to write a blog. It will take many, many posts to uncover this, but I think it’s important to describe the process of trying to write about music. For now, I have landed on a plateau where the rule of law seems to be, “It’s okay to be yourself. It’s okay to write. It’s okay to sing and play. It’s okay.”

I fully expect that as I continue on, I will enter other terrain: unfriendly, unfamiliar, even more welcoming—and the rules will change. For now, I am here.

As music is so personal, so political, so consuming, all-encompassing, I cannot write about it quickly. I cannot dash off a post a week, or even a month. I must work through ideas, my own relationships, a vast array of influences. I must gain a confidence or a momentary brashness to publish something. It is a constant feeding of the slow-cooker, the wood burning fire. This short post has been in my mind, rolling around, taking shape, gaining its moss, for weeks or months.

This is why I write a blog and not something else. The point is to learn, not to feed a content machine or to teach people something. My learning takes a long time, something I’m not used to these days where everything is fast and instantaneous, where metrics and publishing and likes dictate so much.

This week...

I'm listening to: "Again and Again" by Sahati and "In the Night" by Childish Gambino, Jorja Smith and Amaarae.

I saw: Kneecap, an Irish film portraying the fictional origin story of Irish-language hip hop group Kneecap. Entertaining and thought-provoking.

I'm reading: Trad Nation by Tes Slominski. Definitely a forthcoming post on this book! It's fabulous.

This is the first post of a short series on writing, position, identity, slow learning, etc.