Let The Necessary Speak

What is Essential?

The idea of stripping down an idea to it's essence has had a big impact on me over the past year in terms of how i live in general and how I create music specifically. Famous artist and cultural icon Pablo Picasso said,

"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality."


This theme is very much on my mind as I try to write an album full of songs driven by the idea of continuous personal growth and development and also driven by the music of the guitar. In both the ideas and music I am seeking to transcend the obvious in order to present the basic concepts.

Another abstract painter; Hans Hofmann stated,

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

It may sound trite, but one of the questions I often ask as I work on LYRE's debut album is, "What if Picasso were writing these lyrics or guitar part? What would he find he could not do without and still present the subject?"

Picasso also said,

"There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.

My goal is to pull off the musical equivalent of transforming a yellow spot into the sun.

Cheers For Now,
Dave