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An interview with Todd Shipley
Q: When someone asks you "what style of music do you play?", what is your reply?
A: I play something you like.
Q: Why is that?
A: Anyone who likes music must have their reasons. I write songs that intend to move people. I want very much to connect with the audience, so I infuse my material with different aggregate of emotion. Each song carries a message that I can convey, either lifting or humbling the spirit, but always attending to the conscience.
Q: Who is your biggest influence?
A: My father, because he listened to various styles of music. As a kid, I liked the way he would wear big curly chord head phones and murmur lyrics off key, not being able to hear himself, while playing air guitar.
Q: Who were your father's first influences?
A: The British Invasion, mostly pop music, when whatever began selling on the airwaves was considered pop.
Q: Where do you get your inspiration to write songs?
A: Stealing.
Q: Come again?
A: I write songs about people who don't even know I've taken something from them. I take to the potential dreams I see in people. So I don't literally steal from people, I just want to find a definitive way of expanding someone else's place in the world by crystalizing it in a song, thereby justifying my own experience. I try to expand on the depth I find in people.
Q: How do you justify this approach to song writing?
A: I believe that those artists who influence me, would like my music, and know that I too, have as much reason to believe in it.
Q: Just what is it you feel that you "bring to the table," so to speak?
A: Involvement. The more my music connects with the audience, a synergy develops that boosts my drive and emotion. I thrive on the feedback.
Q: Are you suggesting that criticism has helped you?
A: Absolutely. My good friend and musical mentor Junebug said to me, "every musician brings something to the table", and therefore can never be defeated for having tried. Taking resposibility for creative energy and performing, is something that opens every artist to criticism. I came to understand that the best lead guitarist in the world, is the guy here with you right now. Without that kind of faith, you might just lose the respect you'd hoped to gain.
Q: What kind of influence do you hope to convey?
A: My three rules are: respect yourself, respect others, and respect your environment, and it all comes down to positive energy. The less feedback I receive, the less I'm inspired. I constantly shove myself into someone else's shoes in order to understand that the dreams we share, are all the only potential we'll ever have.
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