A collection of my favorite lyrics I’ve written to songs that never found their home.

As any songwriter could tell you, the list of songs that go unfinished is often longer than the collection of songs that reach their debut.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I think it is inherently part of the therapeutic process of what songwriting even means.

When I sit down to write a song, no one is forcing me to put words and melodies together with paper and pen.

Although it tends to come differently every time, the foundation of why a song comes to me in the first place is simply because my heart incessantly continues to tell my mind what it feels until I get it out of my system.

Caught browsing through my favorite guitar shop in New York City, Rudy’s Music, I am living the dream having this many guitars at my fingertips.

Songwriting is solely the most important thing I’ve ever done to make something out of the experiences I’ve had as a growing person, but that also means that some of my favorite lyrics have gotten quite lost in the song that never made it anywhere.

The songs in which the following lyrics originated from may not have attributed enough inspiration to be completed, but that doesn’t mean the words I conjured up don’t still hold their grip in the depths of my heart.

Here are some of my most treasured, lost but not forgotten original lyrics:

“The stars are aligning in ways that won’t allow me to do anything but miss you.”

“You’ll never understand how slowly time moves when you’re broken.”

“You took all I had, and then you fled like a bullet from a smoking gun.”

“Having love shouldn’t feel the way it all did. Both being together and apart alike shouldn’t feel like living in the torrential rain that wiped away any chance of a clean break.”

“In the end, there is no winner.”

“The echo of his name in the background of every beat my heart will make parallels with my needing him to live with how he bled me dry.”

“The right people fell in love at the wrong time.”

“Lingering limbs lasted for hours, as if they didn’t even know they were doing so.”

“In a blanket of you, I couldn’t imagine any other world where we were anywhere else.”

“Happiness lives in our fleeting moment of togetherness, knowingly so like a dying rose.”

–  C.M.

How the British ex-boyband star is launching his solo career.

Since the unprecedented rate of the rise of British boy band One Direction, “Harry Styles” has become one of pop culture’s biggest household names.

The boyband started to claim their success in early 2012, after placing third place in the UK’s music competition television show, “The X Factor.”

With a now whopping 19.8 million followers on Instagram and near 30 million on Twitter, Styles is on the fast track to continuously claiming more success.

Since the hiatus of One Direction, Styles’ first big announcement of a project apart from the boyband was that of his lead role in an upcoming Christopher Nolan war film, “Dunkirk.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I will most certainly be front row at the movie theater the night of the premier, but that is actually not the most exciting recent release of news from Styles on his solo adventures.

On March 31, Harry Styles officially announced the release date of his first ever single as a solo artist, and the whole world seemingly freaked.

The last of the ex-boyband members to announce solo music, Styles seemed to keep people on their toes, waiting to see what he would do next, and that’s exactly the question pressing all of us.

Those who know him well could probably form an idea of what kind of realm of content to expect, but whatever he has planned, I imagine it will be surpass everyone’s theories.

Press releases have gone out quite globally as the world awaits the release of his new music, with Columbia Records releasing a statement that “[Sign of the Times] has been likened to Queen and other big British rock of the ‘70’s.”

As well as having a predicted similar sound, Styles’ announcement of his “Sign of the Times” just so coincidentally happened to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Prince’s classic album, Sign o’ the Times.

Could Styles be alluding the hint that his new music to come follows a similar sound of music icon, Prince?

The world will just have to wait and see…

Check back on his website or social media on April 7th for a first listen of “Sign of the Times.”

–  C.M.

How John Mayer is creating his own rules for creating and sharing new music

John Mayer is no amateur to major success in music, but with the release of his newest album, The Search for Everything, he’s changing up the norm quite a bit.

Most albums follow the usual trend of pre-release promotion with a set release date, and that’s that.

Mayer, the creative genius he is, is trying something entirely new when it comes to his 11th studio album.

The Search for Everything is no typical album; it’s being released in “waves.”

Wave One was the first segment of the whole to be released on January 20, after his song “Love On the Weekend” was released as the first new single.

The first wave featured four songs off of the new album, which gave listeners just a taste of what’s to come – enough to keep us all enticed without giving too much away.

Wave Two, the following release, was available for download February 24 with another four new songs.

The time drawn out between releases kept fans on the edge of their seats as they patiently waited for more, which I find riveting.

We’ve all seen artists do the same classic thing, and there’s nothing wrong with that because it works.

“Why stray from something that you clearly know works?”, feels like a logical question.

First comes the initial announcement of new content in the foreseeable future, and then the first single.

Next there may be some additional promotion followed by the full album release, and maybe even a tour.

While Mayer could’ve certainly gone by the same methods and received inherently as much success, he continues to follow his creative gene which led him to this.

With both Wave One and Wave Two now having been released, Mayer has said that next to come is the release of the rest of the full album.

As the waves come out, Mayer also released coinciding tour dates.

It almost feels like a game that way, and that keeps people intrigued.

I’m not sure this technique would’ve proven successful for a number of other artists, as it may actually lose the interest of those who would’ve rather just heard everything upon one release and be done with it.

Mayer took a risk, but I’d like to think that’s what makes great artists even greater.

He even has that nonchalant kind of attitude when interacting with fans about his music on Twitter, featuring the following responses as some of my all-time favorite:

With the impending release of the last segment of Mayer’s new album, we’re all awaiting the final step in the search he has created for his listeners.

Knowing the amplitudes of the success of his previous work, it’s definitely going to be one to look out for.

–  C.M.

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Myself and Erin Steil (left) excited to be reunited after first meeting at a separate Taylor Swift event in Tampa, FL. There was no shortage of laughing or dancing as we all had the time of our lives at the private pre-party.

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