I used to work with this cool lady and she would always take an interest in my songwriting. Every Monday, she’d ask how the weekend jam sessions went and if I’d recorded anything new. The weird thing was, anytime I had something uploaded for her to listen to, she’d listen to it through, and then tell me that it’s “not her kind of music” which is fair enough, but it always bemused me that she would take such an interest if she didn’t like what I was making.
One day, I decided to write her a song that she’d enjoy.
Spotify and Apple Music were playing at work all the time, so I knew what sort of songs she was into. Classic Rock. Australian Pub Rock in particular. She was a single mum in her 50’s, a strong, hard woman, an Aussie battler.
I wrote Proud Woman in a weekend, and recorded it at home on borrowed equipment. A mate I regularly jammed with did the vocals for me and when it was done, I uploaded it to my SoundCloud and gave her the link when I got to work.
She liked it.
The experience taught me the value of an audience of one. Even though the recording is rough, the focus on writing a song for one person with the aim that they - that person in particular - enjoys it, I think gave me a different perspective than when I was either writing purely for my own enjoyment, or simply going with some random song idea.
