I am setting poems to music over on Patreon. Join me!
Here's the thrust of the thing:
I've always loved setting poems to music. Because good poems are magic. They use words to reach places where words are not native; they subvert the idea that words are just symbols that can only ever point at a thing, that if wielded expertly they can pierce right down into the elemental. Good poems want to talk directly to your body. Like music, I guess.
And as I began to consider starting up a Patreon to find a new way of sharing music (and let's face it, making money) in lieu of playing live shows in the early COVID days, I wanted to give myself something to hang the whole thing on – a concrete creative task to get my (often depleted, these days) juices flowing. And when this idea entered my head from goodness knows where while I was trying to sleep at four in the morning, it made me feel really excited. (Which didn't help with the sleeping, but sometimes you've got to offer something up to the inspiration fairies.)
So here's what this is going to be: every month, I'm going to choose a poem and make it into a song. And then I'll going to make a video of me playing and singing it. And if you subscribe, you get to watch it! And you also get to make requests – ie. tell me what favourite poems, or poets, of yours you'd like me to tackle. I'd love that. And there will be other nuggets here as well: if I happen to write any of my own new songs, you'll get to hear them first, and if I happen to write any poems I think are good enough, I'll recite those for you too. Other things may happen too. We'll just see what comes. I hope you'll join me. I'm pretty excited. And it feels good to be excited these days.
Sound cool? Click below: