Writing is much more than a hobby for me. It’s a means of processing the things that happen around and within me. From an early age, when there was something heavy on my heart, I wrote it down. I kept track of where I was, even if I was wrong and just unaware of it. This became more interesting as life progressed and I began to revisit the old folded up sheets of paper. It’s good to go back and see where the heavy weight came from and whether or not it’s still there. I’ve learned a lot about myself and my tendencies by writing things down. The lessons usually come after the fact, because I get too caught up in the present to see it right away. It takes time to increase self-awareness, and a big part of that is understanding why you are the way you are, why you think the way you think… what brought you here.

Even though music has been a passion from a very early age, I never considered writing songs until I went to college. Before then, I played in bands where someone else was always the songwriter. I was just the drummer. All I cared about was beating the livin’ snot out of the drums, in my hormonal fit of teenage rage. When I moved away to college, I didn’t know anyone. I wasn’t in a band anymore. I didn’t have that musical outlet to unleash what was inside. That is when I began writing songs of my own. I had been writing my thoughts down for years, so I had plenty of things I wanted to sing about. I just needed to find a more creative way of saying it, and in the meantime, learn how to sing and play piano at the same time. I spent hours on end in the university’s practice rooms, developing my craft. I loved it, even though I’m sure many of the songs sucked. It was my escape. It was as if the world stopped spinning for as long as I was playing. It was even better than beating the livin’ snot out of my drums!

My songwriting has become a little more focused since then. I strive to be transparent with everything I write. I’m not concerned with what somebody may think of me because of a song I wrote. The reality is that I’m 28 years old and an independent songwriter. The world is over-saturated with musicians and artists these days with the Internet and I may die an unknown, independent songwriter. So if I’m going to write something and put it out there, it might as well be something that I whole-heartedly believe in, and something that I believe has lasting value beyond the music. I don’t want my listeners to feel like they’re being sold a product that was specifically designed to make money. That’s not me. That’s not what I want out of songwriting. I want them to know that there are artists out there who simply want to make good-hearted, honest music.

-Dave Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.