Hey Charlie,

I played the latest version of Bible for some friends at a party last night, and they started dancing around the house (no kidding) and told me it was "fun" and not to touch it--so I guess I will leave it alone for a week.

In terms of "authenticity"--I know that when I listen to some stuff like Coldplay's "The Scientist"--I can tell Chris Martin was in a trance when he wrote it. It comes across as pure. Gives me goosebumps. So I am writing a lot on the piano now and trying to go into that trance-like state where the song comes first and the production comes second. For people who want to "feel" a real song I don't think you can manufacture it. It has to come from the soul--almost in a trance.

Commercial music on the other hand is manufactured.

And Bible was manufactured for sure, once I had the idea, to see if I could write a pitchable commercial song in the hardest market to pitch in--country. Am I getting close. They say so in Nashville. Is it David. No. Absolutely not. It is and was an experiment.

What is "David music?" Not sure. I am still inventing that--but I do know I want to get back to the almost trance-like state I used to write in when I was a kid. I think I got a lot closer on She Takes Me Away, which was on the forum this year.

I don't think anything is necessarily "bleeding" authenticity other than taking too much advice from industry folks on what I should do and who I should listen to on the radio. That doesn't usually work for me. I don't really like what's on radio all that much. My idol is Bob Dylan, who clearly doesn't give a d...if people like his music or not, and to my mind that is what makes him great. All I know is that I want to go to that place where Bob and other people like him go (Joni Mitchell also comes to mind) which is a place of absolute freedom and musical purity. How do you get there? I don't know. I guess you just keep walking and playing.

And Charlie, I have learned A LOT from you and Herb and Floyd and others on production lately--stuff like compression. The latest version of Bible sounded exactly like radio when I played it on the home stereo. It really pops production-wise. I compressed the living you know what out if it.

I know that is a lot of stuff.

I guess what I am saying is I take music very seriously, I think all of it is poetry, and I am still on a poetic journey.

I have no idea where I will end up but I am loving every minute of it.

David Snyder
Songwriter/Renaissance Man
Studio + Fingers

https://davidsnydersongs.com/
https://spoti.fi/359Gigs
www.davidsnydermusic.com/
www.reverbnation.com/davidpsnyder
www.soundcloud.com/davidsnyderchannel
https://www.songtradr.com/user/profile/david.snyder