Behind ‘like dad, like son’

One of my beautiful band members said to me during rehearsal for my most recent shows with Thelma ‘like dad, like son is so brutal. I love brutal songs though’. And honestly, it struck a bit of a cord in the moment (nothing on them of course, this was a me problem). 

I started thinking (spiralling, a little): what is appropriate to share? What is appropriate to write about in the name of expression and creativity? Why am I doing this? Etc.,

Then I played the show and shared that moment with real humans, and it reminded me that even though songwriting is deeply personal and vulnerable - it is actually not about me, at all. There are so many different ways this song might be related to or understood. 

I watched this Jon Bellion interview recently where he talked about how you never know if the creativity or song is actually going to show up - we are merely the instrument, and God plays through us. And sometimes He won’t. Music creation and thought processes are can be unexplainable sometimes. 

‘like dad, like son’ is one of those songs that just poured out without really intending to specifically write about those events. It was very cathartic, and it was creating something ‘beautiful’ from a bad situation.

There is the deep itch I have to create that doesn’t stop (noting I’ve tried to quit making music many times - there are plenty more fiscally safe things to do). 

It is deeply honouring get to package up those harder, nuanced and complicated parts of life into pieces of music that can soundtrack people’s lives and days. Not to necessarily dwell too much in sad emotions, but to kinda reach a hand out to say - hey, I’ve been there. It does get better.

(This is the sort of vibe I went for in the music video too - you’ll see!)

I wrote it on a songwriting camp in Mexico - and it was the first time I was writing in a room with more than one or two other people. I can be a bit of a control freak (if you know, you know, lol) when writing for my own project, but I think what made this particular song special was the space the other writers facilitated to get vulnerable and actually sit with what I had gone through (it might not seem like it, but I really struggle with that).

Another weird thing about releasing music is that songs often take a while to come out - and I feel like a completely different person now compared to how I did when I wrote like dad, like son. But I do also feel a sense of joy and gratitude for who Lucy was then - and the constant growth and change I’ve gotten to experience. It is a privilege to keep a diary in this way.