The Compass of the Body, the Song of the Mountain

Songwriting as pathfinding

1. The Unseen Path

• Writing a song is like following a trail you sense but can’t yet see.

• Your body knows the way—like feet feeling forgotten paths under the snow.

2. The Search

• A chord. Not quite right. Another. Closer.

• The melody slips beyond the next turn—so you circle back, hum slower, or walk away to return at dawn.

3. The Revelation

• Then—a fleeting vantage point reveals it:

  • The thread of the song, woven through the undergrowth.

  • Not invented, but uncovered (of course it curves here, dips there).

4. The Tools as Guides

• Guitar, DAW effects, strange samples, collaborators - what have you…

  • They’re just ways to shift your perspective,

  • To see what the landscape already holds.

5. The good melody

• Songwriting is tracing contours, not drawing them.

• Creation as revelation.

• The body as compass; the mountain as score.