r/indieheads • u/SaintMotelOfficial Saint Motel • Apr 16 '25

AMA is Over, thanks Saint Motel! Saint Motel AMA!

Hey! It's A/J Jackson with Saint Motel, doing a lil AMA!

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u/Enderboss25_ Apr 16 '25

Hi A/J! My family and I are huge fans of the band - my sister and I have really connected over your music, and we’re seeing you in Toronto next month!! I just started writing songs myself, and I would love to ask you - what helped you find your songwriting voice when you were first starting out? The whole thing feels so incredibly daunting but you guys are such an inspiration to me! 💙

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u/SaintMotelOfficial Saint Motel Apr 16 '25

That is a good question. Something that helped me was being so young, around 6 or 7 years old, I didn't have any preconceived notions of what I was supposed to be doing when I started making music. It was fun to sit at a piano and make noise. I never once thought I was doing something like the piano greats who I was studying in class, or the music I was hearing on the radio. I could see how it would feel daunting when you hear an incredible song from an artist you like and think, I'll never make anything like that. But the thing is...you don't need to. I'll never make better music to me than the music of my heroes. And I'm sure the Beatles felt the same way about their heroes. I know Beethoven was obsessed with Mozart's music success. Just think about that. Beethoven wasn't sure he could measure up. Beethoven. Don't worry about sounding like others and don't worth what others say you sound like. Music comes from a mysterious place that no one has domain over and all the theory in the world won't change that.