There are a lot of bands & solo songwriters out there who would release full length albums on a yearly basis. Out of every album, they would pick like two or 3 songs that they would consider to be “hit singles” for radio airplay or to make professional videos of. There are also some bands out there who don’t care to make “radio friendly singles”, they’re more worried about making good music. So which is more important? Making hit songs that people can never get out of their heads and sing along to or just making art?

I would say the art and the good music is way more important. All the songs I’ve written in the past, I never called any of them hit songs. There is no such thing as hit songs in the world of local music. I’m more worried about writing the best songs possible. If other people happen to call certain songs a “hit song” and would consider radio friendly, that’s all fine and good. That’s how you want to do it. You don’t want to call any of your songs “hit songs”. You want to let the people do that. You can tell if your song is a hit by the popularity of the people and the  big reception the song gets. You never go, “Oh, this song would make a good radio single, lets put it on”. You want to let your fanbase pick the songs that deserve popularity. You know your song will be a hit if it gets a lot of plays online (I mean a lot of them at least somewhere around 10,000 – 1,000,000 plays or over — same with videos — or if the song gets a large audience reaction from your shows).

Other than that, I’m not too worried about writing radio friendly music like a lot of bands seem to be obsessed with. I just want to make music, ya know? Put it out there, and see what happens. Let the music speak on it’s own. I understand that bands want to make radio friendly music just to get somewhere with it and they know that hit songs help make the money but if you focus more on the art part of songwriting — the people will still support your music as long as they’re good.

Don’t worry about writing hits. You want to make all of your songs great. I don’t care to get radio airplay or make official videos. I just want to make good music that people can enjoy.

Speaking of new music, I should start writing again soon. I’ve read enough poetry so I should start writing poems/lyrics as soon as possible. I want to make new music this summer. They will probably end up being mostly topical and political songs.

Kev