Flourish

One of the most challenging and rewarding things that I have ever done is play music. Playing music allows you to come together with other people and put together something entirely new from nothing. Around 2014 I had started a new band with some friends and we began writing what we would later call 'Flourish'. In the following year we brought this project to life and released it. Writing music has always been a passion of mine and this was one of the first times I was able to work on a project that I could be proud of.

A lot of the lyricism on this project focuses on the internal struggles one of us was having with religion. This is a heavy topic that paired well with our instrumentals to really tie together the project. One verse reads

 "If you help me help myself to be like you, to be as great as the things you do, would you see in me what I see in you? I can't help but be myself. Figure this; you won't figure out how to be without doubt if you can't find the present in yourself. So break me down again to help me understand the man I am."

I think that while obviously the music is important when writing songs, the lyricism can often make the difference between a good song and a song that is just okay. Lyrics also allow the writer to attach a lot of personal meaning to a song and project a message. Because of this when we were writing the lyrics were something that we went over and changed many times before settling.

One song in particular I am proud of is 'Recollect'. While most of our songs were a collaborative effort Recollect was a song that I had wrote years prior and had consistently been working on. Being able to take a song that had been somewhat of a fixation of mine for years and truly fleshing it out was a great experience.

Looking back today on these songs is an interesting experience, because while I am happy with how Flourish came out each listen I think of more improvements we could have made. This has led me to believe that art is never truly perfect and we could've continued writing these same songs for years. Writing Flourish was an experience I am truly glad I was lucky enough to have and I hope that music will continue to bring me experiences like this one.