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I’m no Paul McCartney but I’m a songwriter.

I’ve been writing songs since I was about 17. I remember writing my first song during a boring class in high school (probably Algebra) which I promptly named “I Don’t Know What to Write About.” Since then I’ve written over 100 songs, some of them here and here.

The other day, Isabela our 9 year old asked me “Papi, how do you write songs?” Her question got me thinking not only about the process of songwriting, on a guitar, on a piano, lyrics first, melody first, etc but on the source of songwriting.

So where do songs come from?

I often wonder if bands like Switchfoot or Coldplay (bands I admire for their songwriting) worry they will one day run out of songs and will be dropped by their labels. I wonder if one day Chris Martin will get up and nothing pops into his head. No songs about love, life, loss, wonder, love, love and love.

I wonder if I will one day run out of songs.

But then I realize that’s the answer right there. As long as there is love on this earth, and more importantly as long as there are feelers in this world who feel, there will be songs.

This morning I woke up feeling, thinking, processing, crying. No, I didn’t write a song, but every time I get these feelings I realize a song is being born.

It’s a real gift. Not that I’m a gifted or talented song writer (I’m pretty good), but the gift is to feel, to be alive, to be able to process information and life in an artistic way, whether through painting, writing, music, design, speaking, etc.

I remember one time sitting at a coffee shop with a friend talking about our “talents” (pretty short conversation I tell you!). I told my friend how basically jealous I was of him, a USC grad, his dad a successful banker, he was a young church planter starting churches in downtown Long Beach. I was doing nothing as cool. All I was doing was playing music.

I remember telling him “Music is not a gift, what you’re doing is a real gift. I wish I was doing what you’re doing” He turned to me in a very serious way and told me “Trig, I wish I could play music. What you have is an amazing gift that God’s given you that you should feel lucky to have.” I still didn’t believe him but now, years later I can say that my friend was right.

Music is a gift.

Life is a gift, music is a gift and for those of us who view life in melodies and colors, life is music and that is a pretty good deal. I hope to write many more songs in the years to come. I think I will.

Thoughts?