Interview:

I believe that music can act as a spiritual conduit; as a doorway into what the Irish refer to as “thin places”, where the lines of demarcation between the physical and the spiritual worlds are closely aligned. I interview many songwriters who express to me that they feel their songs often come to them fully formed, and that they, as the writers, are simply channeling what already exists into a tangible form. Writers often use their words and music to make sense of the chaos around them, and moreover, of the chaos within them.

Grammy and Academy Award-winning songwriter and artist Melissa Etheridge told me that her songs predicted her battle with breast cancer. “I’d been writing messages to myself, to warn myself and speak my feelings. And of course that’s what I was doing when I was a child – it was a place to put my fear. That part of me that couldn’t speak, that was connected to my spirit and spirituality was deadened, except in the music. And so I started a connection more with the universe, or God, or whatever one wants to call that”. I don’t believe that random patterns dictate our lives; I believe we are all here for a purpose, and divining that purpose, some reason for our existence and creation, is what gives voice to music.

“I interview many songwriters who express to me that they feel their songs often come to them fully formed, and that they, as the writers, are simply channeling what already exists into a tangible form.”
– Dan Kimpel, author of “Electrify My Soul: Songwriters And The Spiritual Source”