‘How toWrite One Song’
By Jeff Tweedy, Dutton, 176 pages, $23
me at all. I don’t spend a lot of time contemplating how it’s being perceived. The perception part is fine. Howit’s received sometimes is hurtful. A lot of people don’t receive it in the spirit thatwas created. It’s always a shock tome, to my system, howdismissive some people can be about something that I love, that I made, that I care about. But the antidote forme has always been making the next song Iwant to sing. And I always have to be pretty deeply involved with making some new songs by the time a record comes out, or I sit around and feel downtrodden— no matter howwell it’s received, to be honest, because it’s always a little deflating.
Q: Youmake a point of telling people in this book that they have to play their song for someone else. Why?
A: I think I strongly suggested it (chuckles). Maybe I said you have to. I just think everybody at one point in their life should sing a song for somebody, and I don’t knowif I can articulate exactlywhy that is. I just think it’s an act of faith. I think it’s a really pure, intimate thing to do. There aren’t a lot of opportunities for intimacy in the world, and you’re trusting
someone else enough to listen to you sing a song that you’vewritten, and trusting yourself enough or believing in yourself enough to do that. I just like to think that itwould help almost anybody that attempts that. Even getting to the edge of it and chickening out, I think is going to uncover and reveal something about yourself that is worth knowing.
Q: And that’s the point of this exercise, right? It’s not just to create something, but to “disappear,” as you put it in the book.
A: Yeah, I thinkwe’re all burdened by the notion of ourselves. At least I am. I just feel like I’m probably not that much different than most people, and I would think that everybody gets sick of themselves a little bit. We tend to only really disappear doing menial labor and zoning out in front of the TV, which I don’t think is quite the same thing as disappearing into yourself. Those are disappearing into the exterior and, and I think there’s a distinction there. It’s acknowledging that you have that power within you, and it feels a lot better coming back from that place within yourself than it feels coming back to your day-to-day concerns from something thatwas external to you, like a TV show. I don’t feel the same sense ofwonder or beauty.