In a strange coincidence, Matt Welch links to a post by Doktor Frank that began as a reflection on attending a recent Bob Mould show. Bob Mould was the guitarist and lead singer of Husker Du.

Doktor Frank's piece is a superb rumination on songwriting, communication, and the relationship that exists between a songwriter/performer and the listener. There are also some excellent reflections in the comments section.

The longer I've been involved in this business of writing music and releasing it, the more and more I'm convinced that the relationship between writer/performer and the audience is something akin to a conversation, albeit a terribly abstract and indirect one. As one commenter does point out, it's often hard for a producer/performer to actually log the evidence of that returned dialogue, but it is out there, in two ways I think: one is as a sort of ineffable connection, based largely on the knowledge that people are listening to your records and coming to hear you play. The second is through actual feedback.

I'm always thrilled when I receive emails or messages from people I don't know. Appreciation for what I try to do is a wonderful and gratifying thing, and I'm grateful for it. One thing I find especially interesting and valuable are the emails and messages that inquire about particular aspects of a tune, or the album, or a number of tracks. Sometimes, the questions can seem quite personal or intimate in regards to my feelings or thoughts or motivations, and how they engendered or underlay a particular piece of music; questions I'm not sure a stranger would ever ask another stranger. I've had a number of people practically insist that their interpretation of a track or the album had to be what I was feeling or thinking, or intending to communicate, even if it wasn't, or was only partially. Dr. Frank seems to express a similar notion: "One of the strangest and most powerful things about the singer-songwriter/audience relationship is this disconnected but oddly genuine-seeming intimacy you can feel towards someone you don't actually know." Indeed. Even if the knowledge and seeming intimacy is based on falsehoods, that feeling is there, and such listeners feel comfortable enough to ask questions that might otherwise be inappropriate.

I welcome this. Mainly because to me, it's saying that I've managed to invite somebody into what I'm doing, rather than keep them at arm's length. I've hopefully had enough of substance to communicate that an engaged listener might feel communicated with, and perhaps feel the impulse to accept that abstract invitation and take up this ethereal conversation with me. I look at such feedback as evidence of that conversation, which then in fact become an actual conversation.

Anyway, enough about me and my impressions of being on this end of music. Go read Doktor Frank's thoughts, built as they are on having a foot each on both sides of the artist/audience conversation. It's a better read than mine.

As an aside, I'd totally forgotten that Bob Mould had done that sort-of techno influenced album. You'd think I'd have jumped on that, given my love for Husker Du and my obvious involvement in all things electronica. I'll have to make it a point to check it out.