Sunday, April 26, 2009

the tao of mayer

"i rent a room and i fill the spaces with wood in places to make it feel like home
but all i feel is alone
it might be a quarter life crisis or just the stirring in my soul.

either way, i wonder sometimes about the outcome
of a still verdictless life
am i living it right?"
- from "why georgia" by john mayer


when john mayer's first full-length studio album was released, he was 24. considering that he released his ep in 1999 at age 22, he probably wrote most of the songs in his late teens or very very early 20s.

which is where i am right now.

i know it's silly to gather wisdom and comfort from the words of a musician who lives a very different life from mine. john mayer left the berkelee college of music in boston and moved to atlanta to make a career out of his music. i semi-moved to seremban because that's where i have to transit en route to a career as a doctor. but it's funny how i can relate all the same to the middle-class disenchantment and frustration with life he writes about, the kind that alot of my peers go through as well.

i'm listening to "room for squares" at the moment. the way he sings some of those songs now, as heard on his live in los angeles album "where the light is", is very different from how he performed them, recorded them, 8 years ago.

"why georgia", my favourite song until "gravity" came along, is no longer the insecure melody it once was...now he sings it laced with amusement, probably with a "man, i was so naive and idealistic back then" sentiment.

it makes me wonder how things will be like when i'm 32.

i probably won't be a successful recording artist who works wonders with my guitar and is engaged in various on-again-off-again relationships with sitcom/romcom stars. probably not.

but i hope i'll sing my own songs differently by then too, as an improved version of the person i am today. perhaps not with the same kind of dismissal john mayer seems to have towards his earlier music about the struggles of making it in the recording industry. perhaps with more grace towards the same period of uncertainty we go through as young adults and with empathy at the people who are just as unsure as i was back then.

don't believe me when i say i've got it down. one day i will, but for now? i'm gonna go listen to the rest of the album.

lishun at 5:49 PM

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