So to kick off the show Steve asked me to use one of my own songs to set the bar. So I chose my song “RUOK” because it seemed to resonate with a lot of people and because, well, I like it. That might sound obvious, but there are a few songs I have written that I just won’t play live because I don’t like them (and there are a few I don’t play live because they’re crap!).
This song came about initially out of desire to try and help people who were having a hard time that “it’s gonna be OK”, but as I was writing it and playing it back, the song kind of resisted what I was trying to say.
Now, I’ve had some hard times, as many people have, but I know that I’ve lived a blessed life compared to a lot of people who may hear this song. So when I thought about what I was trying to say, it smacked of insincerity and condescension; who the hell am I to tell someone I know how they’re feeling? How dare I tell them it’s going to be OK when I have no idea of their personal situation?
So I turned the song around; “No, I don’t know what you’re feeling. But I can see you’re having a hard time. If you don’t want to talk about right now, that’s fine, but if you ever do, I’m here. And I won’t judge.”
The song was actually written in isolation of the RUOK Day organisation, but it was an obvious fit. I contacted them to offer it for free as a theme and eventually they got back and said they had no room in their marketing strategy for a theme song, but thanks very much and they were happy to post it on their Facebook page.
I still wanted to contribute to the organisation somehow so I offered to donate a proportion of earnings from the iTunes sales to them. The aim originally was to make the donation on RUOK day (September 12 this year) but the reports from iTunes and Tunecore are delayed by up to 3 months sometimes – currently I’ve earned $4.30 from the song! Once I earn enough to cover the submission fee, I’ll be sure to send it on 🙂
https://facebook.com/Brett.Monten
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ruok-single/id653606080