At What Cost

Episode #84: At What Cost     (Song starts at 4:38) Welcome. This week's episode has very peaceful feeling about it. The 30 minutes or so just floated by for me, as I recorded it.  I'm really enjoying myself as I talk, no notes, no pre-production.  Tonight I just walked into my studio, thinking "What song shall I talk about.." And this one jumped out at me. I let the song lead the way each week. I've found over the weeks that by having fun, ‘playing’, if you will, it leads my thoughts to some concepts that perhaps I never would have got to as I analyse the songwriting process.  Even the word analysing seems too cold to use as a description of what I'm up to here.  It's 30 minutes of relaxed chat. I'm not trying to twist any arms. There's no underlying persuasive subtext here. What you hear is what you get.  I'm an honest, creative songwriter, writing songs for the love of it after all these years. At What Cost (song #548, written in 2010), came through when I was just noodling on the piano. A nice peaceful little riff happened. The light goes on. The thoughts are focussed, the potential of the music is considered, a decision is made : the intention to carry it through to a finished song is made.  With this song, I put myself somehow inside the mind of my friend as he was observing what was turning out to be the end of a major romantic relationship in his life. There’s a sense of recognising this during the course of the song, with another realisation of more at the end (I love my ‘punchlines’). There's definitely a commitment when you decide you are in the process of writing a song - and it seems like some sort of 'agreement' to work together with the creative muse happens. It's not a ‘contract’, that's too harsh, But it did feel this: from the word go, the first song, all those years ago...it felt like: “Yes, you will be helped to create this music - on the condition you do your best to share it and put it out in the world”.  Since that day, many years ago, that's what I've tried to do: keep writing, recording and sharing it.  I hope you enjoy getting ‘inside a song’ & stepping into the shoes of a songwriter, again, this week - more than that, I hope you enjoy the sound of my voice as I speak, too - people have let me know they find me relaxing and entertaining to listen to. Great!  I really like this recording, too. This is such good fun, please do join me now for half an hour of creative exploration (and if this is your first time here, welcome, again. There are 80-odd previous episodes to listen to…). If you like the song, check out the album: The Man In Blue (streaming now). Sign up to my email list: [email protected] - each week you'll get the links and a bit of inside information about: A new painting, a blog post, a podcast episode and YouTube video. Blog: www.petepascoe.wordpress.com  YouTube: Pete Pascoe Art and Music Website: www.petepascoe.com Music on: www.petepascoe.bandcamp.com  and Streaming everywhere Enjoy!