Quarantine Creativity

So, life’s a little different now wouldn’t you say?

Cities are quiet, days move slower, people are actively avoiding one another. It’s only been a couple of weeks, yet our entire world has been flipped upside down thanks to a microscopic enemy, COVID-19. I cannot think of one aspect of our daily lives, be it social, professional, personal, that has not drastically changed. It really is quite astonishing how something so small can have such a tremendous impact on the entire world.

As a musician, I would love to say that now is the time where we need music more than ever. A medium by which to bring hope, joy, happiness to those suffering through the magic of song. But that could not be a more inaccurate statement. Clearly, what we need now more than ever are dedicated health care providers, intelligent scientists, and thoughtful leaders to guide us through these uncertain times. To say music, or art in general, is what we need now is selfish statement. But then again, so is writing a blog post expressing my personal thoughts on coronavirus in the hopes that people read and continue to follow me (psst…my Instagram is @carletonkoldykemusic). However, that is not to say that music cannot be helpful during this pandemic. It can offer us distractions from the constant barrage of bad news, a sense of comfort as we wade through uncertainty, and a chance for those of us who write music to take time and conjure up a new song to make sense of this weirdness. If nothing else, you can dance to your favorite tune for a few minutes to feel a minor sense of normality.

And yet, for me personally, being sheltered in my apartment for the last few weeks has done little to get my creative juices flowing. It’s been a fairly repetitive daily routine: wake up, drink coffee, take my vitamins, tickle the strings, play some video games, eat, tickle the strings again, look out my window and contemplate the meaning of all this, convince my hypochondriac girlfriend she doesn’t have “the corona”, stream shows, convince myself I don’t have “the corona”, eat, mix/write melodies on Logic Pro, stream more shows, go to sleep. Oh, I forgot to mention, WASH MY HANDS EVERY 10 MINUTES. But staying inside, staring out to the cloudy skyline of Chicago (god I could use some sun) in my new daily routine has placed me in a writer’s block. Sure, I wrote a little ditty in attempt to keep people’s spirits up, reminiscent of a Raffi or Barney sing-a-long song, but nothing significant that I would add to my songwriting collection. Everything is just stagnant and that is not how I draw inspiration.

But maybe that’s the issue. Maybe trying to draw out inspiration from outside influences is not the way I should go about writing. I mean, in all honesty, just by sitting down and writing this blog post has given me a few ideas that I hadn’t previously considered. Perhaps, my mental word vomit onto this keyboard was enough to jumpstart the engine (BOOM! -song idea right there). Expelling all the garbage that’s been trapped in my brain for the last week is kind of freeing, regardless of whether or not people read this, although I really hope people read this.

So, for all of you songwriters out there who might be stuck, or maybe I’m the only one, just write something. Grab your computer, phone, a pad and paper if you’re a caveman, and just dump your brain out. Get it all out there—every little thought, notion, query, conundrum, fascination, and lay it out in front of you. By the way, is that the correct use of a dash (—) in the previous sentence, I graduated with BA in English and I still don’t know. But I digress. Hopefully this post has helped you breakthrough your writers block. I enjoyed writing this blog post and I’m going to try to keep this up maybe once a week or month, I’m not sure yet. Anyways, I hope you go and start writing and please be sure to stay healthy.

Love you all,

Carleton