What is a song anyway? To me it's just a set of building blocks, lumps of clay to mold for yourself. The majority of the skill and creativity I hear in music comes from the arrangements and treatments of a song or piece. Why else am I moved by versions of "Dancing in the Dark" by Mirah and "'Yellow" by Petra Haden when the originals by the Boss and Coldplay do absolutely nothing for me?

Pop and indie culture do not look highly upon the idea of a "cover," especially if it is your debut single. It is much more commendable to write our own songs from scratch, blah blah.

I look at recordings as living, breathing amorphous entities. They are something that co-exist with us, and tag alongside us for the rest of our lives, whether we hate them or love them, wheter we pay attention to them or not. Best of all, we are given free range to do whatever the hell we want with them.

It's almost like a testing ground for the limits of human emotions, an educational environment where we are given a set of tools to help develop, tinker, and define our own personal voice. There will be frustration, there will be stagnation, there will be seemingly wasted hours, days, and months. But when we are capable of transforming that song we've always disliked, that painting people won't shut up about, or anything else that is seemingly in a "fixed state" into something fresh, idiosyncratic, and surprising, it can set off a chain reaction of inspiration that often spills over to all the other portions of our lives (work, social/personal life, family.) And there's no stopping you as long as you can keep that up.