How To Not Die. The Master Class with Louise Goffin
It happens sometimes. I get stuck in a 21st century low. The phone won’t stop dinging with Russian ‘bots. The calls I want to get aren’t coming in. Because every other person who is NOT a Russian ‘bot communicates with a different social app I don’t use—whether it’s WhatsApp, Insta DM, or Slack—I’m convinced friends can’t find their real friends anymore.
It happens when I’ve forgotten how to unplug. Down the drain of despair I go — swept into a spiral of this-century-sucks!! Who gave PUTIN my number?!? Why are children obsessed with watching boxes being unwrapped? What the hell is Tik Tok? And why is it a THING?
I call this a GenX-istential crisis. It’s a special brand of ennui that comes to those with a pre-digital age imagination and bad attitude that has nowhere to go... For me, it comes around most often because: A. Kids need to get off my lawn, and B. I haven’t written a song lately.
The person who made me feel less alone in my suffering was the grammy nominated artist, Louise Goffin. I’d heard her recent album All These Hellos, and felt an immediate connection; she has a gift for telling personal stories in her songs and she’s full of soundbites I’ve thought before, but not said out loud: “The world doesn’t always reward vulnerability, but the muse often does.”
Several months ago I sensed a crisis brewing. I needed to connect the dots, before the dots got out of hand. So I signed up for Louise Goffin’s Master Class in Songwriting. Louise had traveled across the country to perform for The B/Sider Storytelling Series the night before. She didn’t know me from a banana tree back when I approached her after her house concert in Marin. “The B/Sider!” she said taking my card. “I LOVE that! I’m the daughter of A/Siders, but I’ve always felt like I belonged on side B.”
And with that she was IN. And so was I. I couldn’t wait to learn something from someone like her, who identified with US.
“I’m the daughter of A/Siders, but I’ve always felt like I belonged on side B.”
Louise opens her class sitting on a theater stool under the spotlight, comfortably holding the space, and possibly pearls of wisdom in her corduroy pocket. “Why write songs?” She asks a full room of dreamers. “I mean. Why bother?“ She shrugs, as if her answer is ‘duh’.
“We write songs because if don’t, we die.” She pauses, reflecting with a smile, “I should call this class HOW TO NOT DIE.”
It sounds dramatic. But we, the dreamers, sit nodding, knowing what she means. It’s no joke; blocked creative energy is toxic.
“What do we do to thrive?” She asks s a quintessential B/Sider question. “What is the one small thing that brings us back to ourselves after filling out all those spreadsheets? Or yelling into our screens?“
Louise fires-up her spirit by writing songs (and swimming.) It must be working because she sparkles like rose zircon in person. She is vibrant talking about songs and her need to create them. “What do words taste like? She leads us into a tangent I adore about the deliciousness of the Italian language and the syllables of Hank Williams.
I love ALL of this—her fruits of wisdom. I immediately think of the song, “Tutti Frutti”, which is Italian for, all the fruit. “T-u-tt-i Fr-u-tt-i” tastes as good at is sounds. A Whop Bop-A-Lu-Bop A Whop Bam Boom!
We start by gathering lines of inspiration drawn from a pile of books rescued from a local flea. Everyone collects phrases they like from this hodge-podge. Pretty soon, we’re smiling—because this process is delightful, spontaneous—and fun!
I pick out random phrases like,
Our somewhat family
After the crash
Such a lawyer word
These phrases all have the potential to become something else. Our pens fly across pages, thumping rhythms and humming melodies. We are transfixed, in the powerful moment and energy of creative play. We stretch our imagination—feeling the muscles that go limp when scrolling though a desert of emails—creative muscles that I need to use OR lose.
What comes next is—We write a song! With verses and a catchy chorus. It’s done. Not perfect, but ready to sing. Performing it for the class instantly fills me with everything that was missing—connection, vibration, expression. I am whole again. I am ready to fight Russian ‘bots, face Tik Tok, and hell, ready to save the planet!
And I’ve learned the most important lesson of all — How To Not Die.
Thank you, Louise. You’ve saved another soul!
Louise Goffin brought her BIG heart & soul to The B/Sider stage at The Ideal Glass Gallery, New York City. Learn more about her music here, OR listen to The Great Song Adventure, a great podcast about songs and songwriting Louise co-hosted with Paul Zollo. They interview songwriters like Carole King, Chrissie Hynde, Chuck D of Public Enemy, and Bob Dylan. This is THE place to hear music icons talk about their muse, and talk shop!
She is now launching a new podcast series called Song Chronicles, in which she talks to songwriters, musicians and producers in depth about how songs came to be, the creative process and the back story of the records they made.
You have to stay on your toes to keep up with her—Louise has an album coming out in 2020 titled "Two Different Movies", and while gearing up for her album release, She’s been living in Nashville, attending full time audio engineering college and curating an inaugural songwriters' retreat for The Goffin-King Foundation, a non-profit she founded to provide up-an-coming songwriters the opportunity to collaborate with talented and successful peers and mentors, and to inspire a level of excellence in songwriting that her parents inspired in her.
