PAUL ROSEVEAR

Hemingway said that when he first approached the typewriter each day, his aim was always to “Write one true sentence.” 

I have found this advice to be incredibly valuable as a songwriter.  

When you start with the truth, you know you’re headed in the right direction. 

Starting with the truth is sort of like setting your creative GPS for a host of desirable destinations: 

Integrity 

Honesty 

Authenticity 

Relatability 

Don’t overthink it. Just pause, get in touch with what you’re thinking or feeling at the moment, and say it:  

“I can’t stop thinking about you.” 

“I’m sorry for what I did.” 

“You make me so happy.” 

“What happened to us?” 

Starting with the truth is like building a doorway into your song that is constructed with integrity. You can pass through it as a creator and know you’re in the right place. And your listeners can walk through it and feel that they are in the presence of an artist who can be trusted with their emotions. 

A really important aspect of this is to state the truth plainly. 

For instance, instead of saying “I can’t stop thinking about you,” you might be tempted to say: 

“The jagged edges of your memory stick in my brain” 

There’s nothing technically wrong with that—you can say whatever you want to say, it’s your song.  

But it may set you down a path of obscurity where you end up writing a bunch of stuff that sounds vaguely poetic, but no one will understand—a real quick way to lose your listener. On the other hand, when Bob Marley sings, “Don’t worry about a thing, everything little thing is gonna be alright,” we all know what he means. 

Besides that, the other benefit of striving for clarity is that it forces you to really understand what you’re trying to say. You can’t hide behind esoteric abstractions—you have to really investigate what you’re trying to put across and find ways to say it in plain language.  

This is always challenging and thrilling process.  

And here’s the best part. In my experience, the practice of saying things plainly and clearly will often lead you to poetry eventually—and the kind that won’t require an audience to wonder what you mean. 

Start with the truth, and say it plainly. It sets the tone for everything that follows. That’s how you build song on a strong foundation.

Is there a more famous poem than Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”? We love it and we fear it. In a few lines, it sums up a simple truth about life: You can’t go both ways. And whichever way you go, you’ll bring the unlived life with you.   

The unlived life is exactly what Morgan Wallen’s latest single “Sand In My Boots” captures so beautifully. In the song, the singer meets a girl who seems to be his soulmate. They spend one picture-perfect night together and by the morning she’s gone, taking his heart with her. We join our hero on the long road back home: a lone cowboy driving down open highway, sun beating down on his worn-out pickup, wind in his hair—heartbroken, but soldiering on.  

When I first heard the song, I loved it immediately. It gave me a feeling that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. But after a few days and many listens, it dawned on me. 

Rewind to the summer of 2002. I’d recently broken up with my first serious girlfriend. It was one of those everything-looks-great-on-paper situations, but deep down I knew I had to move on. But once the deed was done it felt like I’d made a mistake. My mind begin playing that movie of the happy, perfect life we could have had together. You know the one. 

At the time, the song that captured this precise feeling of having it all and throwing it away was by a band named Creeper Lagoon. The song was called “Chance of Lifetime. It was big and lush and cinematic and spoke to the life the singer had carelessly left behind: 

Guess I just missed 

The chance of a lifetime 

Romance and sweet wine 

Easy living 

Was just beginning 

That happy ending was his, if only he’d been able to recognize it. We’ve all had these moments in our lives. We see the glimmer of the perfect job, the perfect relationship, the perfect house, the perfect children, and our imagination fills in the rest. There is immense pleasure, as well as immense pain, to be found in these fantasies. Especially when they crash against the rocks of reality. But isn’t there a part of you that loves the pain? It hurts, but at least you feel alive.  "Oh break my heart; oh, break it again, so I can learn to love even more again," said Rumi.

Ultimately, what I love about both of these songs is they show us characters in transition, leaving one road for another. It's the in-between moments that really define our stories. “Sand in my Boots” brings us into one of those turning points with exquisite clarity. And as Frost reminds us, they make all the difference.

Anyone who has ever lost someone can tell you that they have a way of returning to you from time to time, often when you least expect it. That's what this song is about. - Paul

Scroll down past lyrics to listen.

There you go 
Sneaking up on me again 
Thought you were gone forever 
Now it’s like you never left 
Feel your hand on my shoulder 
Hear your voice in my head 
There you go sneaking up on me again 

There you go 
Bringing out the best in me 
Pointing out the good things 
That I could never see 
You never told me what to do 
You only showed me how to be 
There you go 
Bringing out the best in me 

Always takes me by surprise 
The way you show up time to time 
Out of nowhere you crash in 
To the day I’m living in 
And break my heart all over again 
And make me thankful for just all that I have 

There you go 
Telling me that I’m not done 
Reminding me that 
What I’ve got’s enough 
When I wanted tender 
You always gave me tough 
There you go 
Telling me that I’m not done 

There you go 
Sneaking up on me again 
Always when I need you most 
And when I least expect / And never when I would expect 
For now I know, you’ve got to go 
And the world will turn and spin 
Until you’re back sneaking up on me again

Thanks for stopping by my new blog. I'm excited to experiment with what to post here. Songs-in-progress, tips on creativity, personal stories—it's all fair game. Stay tuned, and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any updates. 

Appreciate ya,

Paul