Welcome to another 5 Questions with…! This week is with the lovely songwriter Melissa Sheridan!
Fun fact: Melissa’s dad DJ’d for my 13th birthday party.
The song she wrote & recorded with Anna Vaus, “Old School Lovin‘” (& produced by her husband Andy) was featured on a Music Monday in 2016.
How would you describe your musical journey?
Up until a few years ago I would say “a stationary bicycle,” just a lot of work, a lot of “reps” with no return other than inner growth and getting better at exercising the “writing muscle.” Which I would say the “stationary bike years” are just as important, if not more, than the finished marathon. I have at least 500+ great songs in voice memos that the world will probably never hear and that’s not even counting the other 1,000 or so that aren’t that great that I’ve written over the past 10 years.
My musical journey took a major halt in my early 20’s when I was bedridden with an undiagnosed infectious disease for two years. I was later diagnosed with Lyme disease and spent another few years trying to recover and get back into a healthy place physically and mentally. But life & music can be like that sometimes. It can be a lot of stop and go; getting off the bike or “falling off the bike.” Rest is just as important as “the doing.” You need to make time for rest or your art will suffer.
The last two years my mind has shifted from “wanting to win” to “enjoying the process.” I was always forward focused on what I wanted and never enjoyed or appreciated the moments I was in. My prayers were always asking God for something and never really thanking Him. I think that shift in appreciation over expectation has been the catalyst for more opened doors in my life. This year I have four songs in the upcoming Skipstone Pictures film “Max Winslow and the House of Secrets,” I am currently writing music for a movie musical set to come out next summer and I am writing a second children’s musical with a friend. I also started script writing and finished writing my first movie musical that I plan to pitch. I have no idea what doors will stay open, which ones will shut, but I do know that God’s timing and plan is perfect. And honestly writing music is a small part in God’s big plan for my life.
What does your songwriting process look like?
It’s different every time, but most of the time it starts with a melody and lyric that comes to my head while driving around in my mini van 🙂 and yes there are usually screaming toddlers in the back. I actually love getting stuck in traffic because that’s when I get great ideas 🙌🏼. Sometimes I will come into a write with a co-writer/artist with a few ideas already written.
Most recently I have written a lot by myself for this movie musical project and have really enjoyed that. But regardless if I’m writing with others or by myself, I give the song my best and then when it’s finished I move on. It can be a challenge to separate yourself from the art, especially if you really believe in a song. But you have to focus on what you can control, which is just to write a good song, pitch it, if you have the relationships/resources to do so and then let it be. You can’t spend a bunch of energy hoping the artist will cut it or wondering why they didn’t.
Do you have a favorite song you wrote?
I don’t have a favorite. But I do have some favorite people that I enjoy creating with. One of them is my husband Andy. He has been one of my favorite people to do music with. He inspires me to keep writing and whenever I get stuck he always tells me, “you haven’t written your best song yet.” That keeps me on the writing bike 🙂
What’s your favorite part of being a musician?
Every part, but mostly hearing a song I wrote for the first time with full production. Sometimes I cry or get chills from head to toe because it’s just super emotional to hear it how you imagined it. It’s usually better than I imagined because my husband is an incredible producer and he does a lot of production on the projects I write for.
Do you have any advice for budding songwriters & musicians?
The why behind your doing it is more important than the doing. Make sure the why is deeper than just being famous or making money because that type of mindset won’t sustain a career. Also, learn to appreciate the seasons of creativity you’re in. Some months you may not write a song and some months you might write 15 songs. Learn to appreciate all of it.
Also don’t put your worth or identity in what you do. It’s simply that…what you do. You have to separate the two because if you don’t, when you fail at music (which you will) you will see yourself as a failure which isn’t productive. You are more than your music and I believe that music is just a small part in God’s big plan for you.
And there are 5 Questions with…Melissa Sheridan! Make sure to go check her out on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & Soundcloud!
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Barbara Fischer runs Fischarper, LLC and loves her job as a harpist and private music educator. She enjoys blogging about various aspects of the music field on fischarper.com/blog. For more music resources, check out the Fischarper store. Find out where you can find Barbara on the interwebs here. And you can sign up to receive Fischarper updates by joining the email list.