Ithaca, NY – “How Sweet It Is” – Trumansburg High School – May 23, 2000

The gig today was a teaching gig. Delucchi and I got a 7 am wake-up call to ensure on-time attendance at Trumansburg High School’s opening bell. Unaccustomed to any day that starts before 10 am, I followed my sleepy hand down the hotel corridor in search of complimentary coffee in the lobby. My pajamas and messy bun inspired disapproving looks from the business men and women dressed in suits and pinned up coiffure but, luckily, I was too tired to be ashamed.

The drive to school was gray and drizzly and when the first period bell rang, a twinge of panic shook me back to my own high school days. The stale stench of paper and the residue of dreams in which I turned up naked for my SATs haunted me. Exams, insecurities, and self-doubt (“oh my!”)–Each gripped me like a hormonal hangover.

My first lesson was a music class full of sophomores sitting in a semi-circle. Some probably know more about music than I do I thought as I entered the room. Self-conscious about my music-reading illiteracy, I took a seat among them and watched their eyes dart to their classmates, wondering if their questions were important enough or smart enough to ask.

With energy fueled by coffee and sheer unpreparedness, I told them what I knew about writing music.

Songwriting

• It’s about getting out of your own way and listening to what wants to be carved from the fabric of silence.
• Having a relationship with muse is as intimate as having a boyfriend or girlfriend and almost as time-consuming.
• It’s about listening and then being practiced enough with an instrument, to paint with it what you hear.
• It’s about learning healthy techniques to stave off your internal ‘judge.’

Next, I told them some tips and tricks for performance….

Performance

• You can use an audience’s energy to fuel you and then recycle it back to them.
• If you’re nervous look into the spotlight. Treat it like the person you wrote the song for or best friend.
• You can cure nerves backstage with push-ups and leg exchanges and reframing fear as excitement.
• The ultimate goal is to connect with a song so deeply that the audience disappears and gets the Peeping Tom thrill (from the comfort of their dark seats) of seeing someone at their most human, on stage.

Touring

As the class winded down I spelled out the logistics of getting a band on the road and told the class how difficult yet rewarding it is to be a musician.

• I explained that being a touring musician is a blue-collar job. It’s not glamorous. It’s pull-out couches and bad coffee and smoky rooms and drunk hecklers (at least in the beginning it is).
• I explained the rewards and consequences of being an indie artist vs a signed act and
• I told them why I believe all of them should pursue the artist’s life.

“Life is an interpretation,” I told them “no one else on earth is going to see the world the way you see it. Therefore you owe it to the rest of us to share your world by creating art so we can be expanded by it.”

Still, after class someone wanted to know: “How do I get famous?” and I looked into her cute insecure face all covered with fragile poreless skin and I saw myself in the audacious twinkle of her eye.

“Write this down,” I told her, “sit down with a pencil and a paper and write out all the reasons you want to be famous. Be honest about it. Next, write down what you think will make your life successful. Then make sure they’re in sync with each other.” She seemed content with my response though I knew I wasn’t answering her question.

“Keep that piece of paper, OK?” I said as I turned down the colorful graffitied hallway—with the scrawls that read, “I love so and so” and “fuck high school.” Passing students plastered between staunch blue lockers, I saw through anxious expressions into the depths of shining souls, and what I saw is that they, just like the rest of us, just want to be loved…

To be truly, truly, loved.