Author: Helen Sanderson White

Songwriter, artist, writer and music teacher (singing, piano and music theory) from Buckinghamshire, UK.

on by

Something unusual caught my eye on Facebook the other day, it was a post stating that Alanis Morissette is backing Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 30 day Forgiveness Challenge. At first I thought I’d read the headline wrong, but closer inspection confirmed my initial reading. Why would rock n roll Alanis Morissette back a campaign with Desmond Tutu?

As we all know, Alanis is famous for her 1995 hit single “You Oughta Know” which is about an acrimonious break up with her boyfriend. One thing I’ve always admired about her is her honesty in both her lyrics and in her public life; she has the ability to air her thoughts in a revealing and restorative manner. I too can attest to the need to think through and order my thoughts on various situations through the process of songwriting; there is something very cathartic and healing about letting go and accepting where I am. However, Alanis’ latest response to this creative process made me think…

“I naively thought that the writing of a song could provide healing, but I quickly came to see that regardless of how many nights I would sing ‘You Oughta Know’ over and over again on stage, that the real healing came from actual relationships and communication.” Alanis Morissette, 2014

A bold admission considering the song made her a household name and helped sell 33 million copies of Jagged Little Pill. Through admitting her mistake and making her journey into forgiveness public, she has undoubtedly encouraged and helped many people to experience the same forgiveness and healing. I found her statement very moving as she was prepared to be an “open book” and declare that what she had intended as a public declaration of anger hadn’t fulfilled or healed her. Alanis has stated that up until that point she found songwriting cathartic but it didn’t offer her any healing and that this eventually pushed her to discover where forgiveness begins: with acceptance of each other. In being honest, she has taken responsibility for her former emotions and taken her listeners on a journey that helps them to grow and mature.

The song that she hoped would hurt and seek revenge became part of Alanis’ journey into freedom; she thought her story ended with pain but through time it ended with something very beautiful, absolution and a chance to become a more rounded person. An inspirational tale, it gives us hope that whatever our circumstances are, something good can come out of it if we are prepared to wait and make changes in our lives.

 

 

 

 

 

on by

Last week Pharrell Williams was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey about his hit song “Happy”. She showed him a video montage of people around the world dancing to his song and enjoying the music he had created. The result was that Pharrell burst into tears! In a moment of encouragement Oprah said to him “It’s being used for something that’s greater than yourself…”

During the making of my Sirens and Other Mysteries EP there were a lot of personal setbacks and heartbreak that seemed to get in the way of writing and recording the project. I wrote the song If That’s The Way after I had a miscarriage, it wasn’t an easy song to write and I certainly didn’t think that I would ever be able to sing it in public. In fact, during rehearsals for the recording I sobbed everything time I went to open my mouth. I’d never had this situation with a song before and it worried me; could I actually be that honest with people and let them see my grief in public? Quite frankly I didn’t want to cry on stage in front of a lot of people!

As a consequence of this, I toyed with the idea of taking the song off the CD and right up to the last minute I still hadn’t committed to letting the song go public. Whenever I thought about emailing the producer to say “delete it!” I couldn’t quite do it, something was stopping me. What I didn’t know at the time was that it had the same potential to be used “for something greater than myself”; I just had to move out of the way so that other people could benefit from this. Since I released the song, and the video about it I’ve had an amazing and overwhelming reaction from people: something that I didn’t expect! So even though being honest about where I’m at is scary it was worth it in the end.

 

on by

Thanks for all your support so far! Today we took some amazing steps!

Today I had a meeting with Andrew Tregoning who is the Media Director at Resound Media; we’ve put together a rough plan and concept for the music video and worked through some themes. All very exciting!! The video premise is like a dream come true; I’ve always wanted to make a music video with Central London as the back drop and that is exactly what where going to do! We will be filming in early March (start praying about the weather now folks, we all know what English weather is like!), and we’re currently fleshing out ideas, approaching actors and working on locations etc.

I’ve also got a script to write for the promo video and some video blogs to think about too. It’s going to be a busy few months.

Remember though that none of this would be possible without your support and for that I am eternally grateful! I can’t wait to show you the videos!

Helen x