THE REASONS I WRITE SONGS

I once had a friend who told me he was going to write a book. Here is how our conversation went:
Him: “I’m going to write a book”
Me: “What will it be about?”
Him: “I don’t know. Anything.”
Me: “What do you feel like you have to say?”
Him: “Nothing. I just want a boat.”
Me: “You’re going to write a book about nothing so you can buy a boat?”
Him: “Don’t you think that will work?”
Me: “Not sure that’s the best plan to get a boat.”

I was 20 at the time and he was 50. Even then, I knew that a writer has to have something to say before anyone is going to throw down money to buy it.
I know – some of you are going to say that Jerry Seinfeld made millions off of a TV show about nothing. But that is false. His show was actually about life. And he had something to say about it every week. It wasn’t always deep, but it pointed out a truth about life on earth.
I was thinking back on that story today and it reminded me of some of the reasons I write.
 
REASONS I WRITE
 
I feel like I have something to say. I grew up in some difficult circumstances. I’ve learned about life in some rather irregular ways and I believe that getting through them gave me some insight that can help other people.
 
I want to bring a little “light” into the world. As a teenager, there was a lot of “darkness” from anger, depression, and addiction in me and I was actually growing in a pretty dark environment. I try to write things that might bring light into someone’s life or just into their day.
 
I love music. I can’t remember a time in my life that didn’t include music. I would listen to the radio in amazement wondering how those songs were written and recorded.
 
Words fascinate me. Being Persian, words and literature are huge part of my existence. Putting words together in different combinations to say things I have never heard before is a challenge to me and is inspirational.
 
Creating still feels like magic to me. Walking into the room with someone and leaving several hours later with a new song that we both love is like no other feeling on earth. Each new one inspires me to try to write one even better the following day.
 
Those are the main reasons I write. I do get paid for it, but I’d still do it even if I didn’t.

Author

Hangi Tavakoli is our in-house established and professional music producer with more than 15 years of experience in music production, mix and mastering, recording engineering, live sound designing/engineering, lyrics writing and music arrangement. He has produced more than 800 and written more than 2000 published songs to-date, including some major hits in international scale.