Personal Wars / Public Wars

Some songs start with something happening around you.

Others start with something happening inside you.

For me, Cold Shoulders and Behind Enemy Lines come from opposite directions, but they meet in the same place.

Conflict.

Not conflict just for the sake of having something dramatic to write about. I mean the kind of pressure that changes how you think, how you move, and how much of yourself you’re willing to give to a situation.

Cold Shoulders is personal.

It’s about distance. The point where you stop trying to explain every decision and start protecting your own space. There’s emotion in that record, but a lot of it sits underneath the surface.

That’s intentional.

Sometimes the loudest thing a person can do is pull back.

Behind Enemy Lines looks at conflict from a wider angle.

I wrote it in 2001, during a period when war, fear, enemies, and uncertainty suddenly felt much closer to everyday life. But even then, I wasn’t only thinking about soldiers or battlefields.

You can feel trapped inside something without being anywhere near a war.

Pressure can come from your environment.

It can come from other people.

It can come from your own head.

That’s where the two songs connect for me.

One is about what happens when the conflict gets close enough that you start putting walls up.

The other is about trying to understand your position when the whole environment feels unstable.

Different scale.

Same pressure.

That connection says a lot about how I’ve always approached writing.

I don’t really think in terms of, “This is the topic I’m supposed to write about.”

I pay attention to what stays with me.

Sometimes that’s something personal.

Sometimes it’s something happening in the world.

Sometimes it’s an idea I wrote down years ago that suddenly makes more sense later.

That’s also why the name Meloetry still fits me.

Melody and poetry.

The music gives the emotion somewhere to live.

The writing gives it shape.

I don’t want every record to sound the same or talk about the same thing. I’d rather the connection between the songs come from perspective.

If you listen to Cold Shoulders, you’re hearing one side of that perspective.

If you listen to Behind Enemy Lines, you’re hearing another.

One turns inward.

One looks outward.

Both are asking what pressure does to a person.

And that’s probably the thread I’m most interested in following right now.

Not one sound.

Not one subject.

Just telling the truth about whatever is in front of me — or whatever has been sitting with me long enough that I finally have something to say about it.