Creative Process - Gus Wenner

The majority of my inspiration, of my creativity, comes from sadness or being lonesome. I don't know whether it is simply because I do not want to sit in a room with a guitar and a notebook when I am feeling upbeat, or if it because feeling down is what inspires me. But when thinking about it the majority of songs I write come from some place of sorrow, even if they end up somewhere else. Although I have been pressured to write songs in the past - for a recording session, or some other ominous deadline - they never end up the way I want them to. The song's that I am truly proud of, the songs that I feel no shame towards, are the ones I write when I am sad, alone in a room. People become distractions - the only element I am willing to deal with when I am writing a song I feel passion for is nature; a force that leaves me powerless, dead in its tracks. The moment when inspiration hits me, when I want a guitar and a pen, or pencil, not a computer, often comes from the art of others. A while back I had an acquaintance who died, and I felt terrible about it. At that moment I wanted to write a song, but I felt physically and emotionally paralyzed. Only two years later when I was driving in a car and Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row" came on the radio did I walk to my room and write a song about it. I would be a fool not to credit my inspiration, often times my sadness, my creativity to that of others. Below I will post a link to the recordings of a few songs I have written. On the track "In California," I was feeling particularly inspired, or down, maybe those two are the same for me.

www.axissound.com/josefk