hanging up my grownup hat and I ’ m just going to stay childlike . Obviously , I ’ m going to pay child support . Now , I don ’ t have child support . Fortunately , my wife is stuck with me through it all , but I ’ m going to be a good husband and Dad , but I ’ m going to stay childlike in my faith and creatively , otherwise nothing ’ s going to happen .
[ Leeland ] I wish someone would ’ ve told me this at 15 or 16 , which I guess it ’ s part of the journey of just growing up and getting older . But I think as a writer you can get really great at the craft of songwriting . There ’ s a million master classes online .
You can get really great at the craft of writing , but it doesn ’ t mean that things you make are going to move you or anyone else anymore . It just means there ’ s going to be catchier . They ’ re going to be written a little bit better . Maybe they ’ re phonetically better . The melodies make a little more sense . And all of that ’ s important because there ’ s craft in anything that you do and you got to get good at the craft and that comes in practice . But I think the thing I ’ ve been trying to think about more in the last six , seven years has been the contemplative part of my life . Because G . K . Chesterton called it the creative trash heap . He said , if you think about your soul has doors , your mind , you ’ re emotions , your imagination . It has doors to it and it ’ s what you look at , what you listen to and what you say , what comes out of your mouth .
Those are like three entryways into your soul . And if you think about it this way , there ’ s like four contemplative parts of your day . When you lie down at night , when you wake up in the morning , when you ’ re seated with nothing to do and when you travel . Those are the four deep thinking parts of your days . And I can either fill that with incessant noise or I can fill it intentionally with things that challenge me and that are deep things .
They either make me laugh and they ’ re happy and they ’ re good , or they ’ re something that makes me really think , and maybe that ’ s the
Word of God . Maybe it ’ s scripture or maybe it ’ s listening to a podcast that really challenges me , and I got to zone in on it and think deeply about it . Or maybe it ’ s listening to an audio book that really moves you a lot .
But if you can take back those contemplative parts of your day and really focus instead of looking ( and this is I ’ m preaching to myself )… instead of looking at mindlessly scrolling at the turmoil of the world on Twitter or on YouTube or pick your social media platform … instead of just mindlessly scrolling on how terrible the world is right now , you ’ re not going to write anything . You ’ re not going to be in the head space to . I call it like “ antennas ”. The more contemplative you start to transform that part of your life with Jesus and putting in innocent good and beautiful things into those deepthinking parts of your days , the better your antennas will get at capturing melodies and sounds and at being inspired . You ’ re more likely to be inspired when your headspace is already in a really healthy place .
And so there ’ s so many writers moving to Nashville and other cities that are getting good at the craft , but then you look at their day-today life and they are just scrolling all day or they ’ re just miserable people and then they write things that are super cool and catchy . This is happening in Nashville , this is happening in Christian music … really catchy worship songs . But then it ’ s like it doesn ’ t move anyone . It doesn ’ t do anything .
You kind of go , well , it ’ s still coming out of us . We ’ re not pulling it out of the sky , out of this place . Your soul is in there . So I think to me , that ’ s become the secret thing that ’ s really impacted my creative life with God , it has been trying to work on those areas of my day .
[ Frank ] Man , did you catch that ? That is gold right there . Very good Leeland . Boy , if we can examine those contemplative moments and fill them with God …. Yes .
[ Leeland ] G . K . Chesterton said , “ You ’ ll build up a strong enough heap of good things ”.
It could be trash , it could just be just mindless trash . And then that ’ s all you have to draw on when you get inspired . But if it ’ s really good things that have moved you , good music , good books , good conversations , things that are deep or funny , things that are just about life that are good , that make you happy . If it ’ s good things that are innocent , they ’ re not twisted , they ’ re not perverted , they ’ re good things . Then , you ’ ll have those things to draw on when inspiration comes knocking and their song will move you even more .
[ Frank ] There ’ s so much in our daily life that is just perverted and some of us only get a couple seconds of it , but some of us allow that seconds to turn into minutes and minutes into hours , into days . And so that ’ s a powerful word . Let ’ s talk a little nuts and bolts of songwriting . Something come to mind ?
[ Leeland ] I would say co-writing . I ’ ll say something quick and these guys can chime in . Co-writing to me is the most important thing to you , to the practical side of your writing development .
Outside of just learning your instrument , it ’ s almost as important as learning an instrument and getting better at your instrument , whether it ’ s guitar or piano or you can ’ t write a song . You can write songs without an instrument , but an instrument is really going to help you in that process . It ’ s very important . It ’ s almost vital to becoming a better songwriter is learning some kind of instrument , tinkering on something and getting decent at playing an instrument , that ’ s going to help you become a better writer .
The next step is the most practical thing you can do . I think for a lot of reasons , there ’ s heady reasons for it , I think that are really good . It represents family . God is Father , Son and Spirit . He ’ s a family in himself . We ’ re not meant to be isolated and alone . So most of us are out there creating things by ourselves , and it ’ s not necessarily bad , but it ’ s also not healthy in
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