The truth about songwriting and imposter syndrome

Not everything you write will be a hit, and that’s okay…

It’s easy to fire up your favourite streaming service or put a 12” on your record player and feel envious. It can feel like there is a whole world of amazing songs out there, but when you go to your DAW, you see a bulging folder of unfinished songs or finished ones that leave you uninspired. It’s devastating.  

You’re not the only person to have those feelings. Those moments can breed insecurity, imposter syndrome, and self-doubt. But it’s normal. I call it the curse of the creative: we creative types have an innate desire to make things, and when we do, it gives us a great feeling: A sense of worth and pride.

But when ideas don’t flourish as you’d like them to, you can feel stuck. As incomplete as that folder of demos. That’s the curse. We need to create, but can’t always do that. And when we can, it isn’t always a humdinger.

I repeat, that’s normal. And even the most successful songwriters are plagued with these very same issues.

Experience and perseverance

With Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty wrote a score of seminal hits in the late 1960s and early ‘70s: Have You Ever Seen the Rain, Fortunate Son, Bad Moon Rising, Green River. They're all timeless bangers. But that doesn’t mean that every time he picked up his modded ‘Acme’ Rickenbacker, hits came pouring out of him like liquid shit after a radioactive curry (sorry for the imagery).

“When I started back in those days, I used to say, for every song you hear from me, I've written 10 that I've thrown away,” he recently told Rick Beato. “It didn't mean that I actually finished all 10. It meant that, somewhere along the way, this isn't going to develop the way I want, so I better turn the page and start on something else.”

The way I see it, every time I create something, I’m adding to my catalogue of experience. One of the best guitar solos I ever wrote (in my opinion) was for a song called Phantom Force. It’s got some fun and rapid-fire legato techniques at the start, some melodic licks, and a little bit of “look what I can do.” But that solo wouldn’t have existed had I not failed at a similar style solo months earlier.

That whole song was ultimately scrapped. It just wasn’t right. I admitted defeat, dusted myself off, and went again. I look back at that song now and see it as serving a purpose. That song walked (or at least tried to), so my Phantom Force solo could run. Not everything you write will be release-worthy, but the process of trying to provide valuable experiences that you can benefit from later down the line.

Even the greats think they’re crap

Jeff Beck is one of the world’s most unique guitar players. His whole career defied convention, and despite never re-entering band life after the Jeff Beck Group, he had offers to join Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones. He’s a legend of the electric guitar. Everyone knows it. Expect the man himself.

“He could reach up into the stars and make magic with his playing. His choice of notes was always absolutely perfect,” another guitar icon, Ritchie Blackmore, recently said of him (via Guitar World).

However...

“He would always put himself down,” Blackmore added. “I'd say, ‘How is your latest record, Jeff?’ And he'd go, ‘Oh, it's a lot of rubbish.’ He would always say that about anything he put out. He was always reaching for something he couldn't find.”

That, again, is the curse of the creative. We too often look outwards. Beck likely heard music from other people and compared it to his own. That can accentuate those feelings of inferiority, when the truth is, as songwriters, we should learn to accept that our voice is our voice.

Something no one else will ever have

Your playing might not be as flashy as the next guy, or as heavy, as catchy, whatever it is. But it’s your voice, and no one else has that. There’s a reason bands like Airbourne have come and gone; they lack originality as they’re too focused on replicating the voices of others.

Once you can learn to love who you are as a guitarist, fundamentally, then you will be able to better manage these negative feelings. I’m currently in the process of shaping a new band project, and this has been an invaluable lesson for me. Instead of trying to sound like X band because I think they’re great, or writing an idea that sounds like Y band and falling too far down the rabbit hole of imitating them to get the song over the line, I’m trying my best to let my voice lead the way.

It’s easier said than done. But next time you’re struggling, remind yourself that it’s normal. You may put your guitar heroes on a pedestal because of how great you think their music is and how talented they are, but in reality, they are just as human as you.

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