{"id":31583,"date":"2026-03-01T00:11:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/?p=31583"},"modified":"2026-02-23T10:56:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:56:41","slug":"say-the-next-true-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/say-the-next-true-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Say the Next True Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This has been my lyric-writing mantra for decades now. The idea is, if you get stuck, ignore everything\u2014rhythm, rhyme, syllables, \u201cvoice\u201d\u2014and just say the truest thing you know how to say. It doesn\u2019t have to be about whatever the song is about. It definitely does not need to be poetic or attractively crafted. It just needs to track, syllable by syllable, with a lived truth that is local to you.<\/p>\n

You would be amazed how often that very prosaic and \u201cunusable\u201d bit of filler turns out to be the key line in the song, the one that defines it and binds it together.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean to suggest that songs need to be true. Mine almost never are, at least in the traditional sense of \u201ctrue.\u201d Just that the process of saying something true has a way of catalyzing a moment in a unique and powerful way. We tend to use a lot of words to avoid saying things. The shortest distance to the end of a sentence is usually through a truth.<\/p>\n

I still remember the first time I wrote a line in a lyric this way. I was already two albums into my \u201ccareer.\u201d If you heard my songs from that time, you\u2019d have thought you were hearing confessionals. I might even have thought the same as I was writing them. But they weren\u2019t, or not really. I didn\u2019t want to say bad things about anyone that anyone I knew, might know. So, I handed anything dicey off to a character to say or feel.<\/p>\n

Then a song of mine called song \u201cWasted Anyway\u201d came around. I\u2019d been battling one verse in it for months\u2014failing to release it from wherever it was waiting for me to find it. Finally, one night, tired of falling short of this task, I swapped my mindset around: instead of asking, \u201cwhat would I say if I were this character?\u201d I asked, \u201cWhat would this character say if he were me? What is the truth of my world?\u201d I scribbled down what I thought was a brainstorming seed about the situation I was in at the time, something I\u2019d never quite thought of in this way: \u201cShe has her anger, I have my wine.\u201d Two coping mechanisms, each inflamed by the other. You get it.<\/p>\n

It seems almost quaint to admit it, but it actually TERRIFIED me to write that down. My whole current life was contained in that short note. I\u2019d never even considered it that way, let alone say it. I\u2019d never been that honest about it with anyone in real life, one on one, let alone in a song that was theoretically to be heard by many, including the \u201cshe\u201d in question. I read it again and got my mind blown again. Then I got scared anew. I literally actively hoped I couldn\u2019t use it in the song I was desperate to finish, because I knew if I could, I\u2019d have to. It was too powerful a sentiment not to say.<\/p>\n

But wouldn\u2019t you goddamn know it? The slot in the lyric I was trying to fill turned out to be introduced by a word that rhymed with \u201cwine.\u201d And that \u201cunsable\u201d brainstorming seed slotted into place practically syllable by syllable with the open spot. And the sentiment\u2026annoyingly, deadly on-point. I mean, the song was called \u201cWasted Anyway,\u201d about a narrator who makes the choice to stay numb rather than deal with the reality of his situation. This off-hand brainstorming note that I was sure I couldn\u2019t get near, lyrically or conceptually, turned out verbatim to be the defining line of that song.<\/p>\n

In fact, that one line changed how I wrote songs forever. And it also changed how I dealt with others, and still do. \u201cSay the next true thing\u201d is practically a CNN-style news crawl across the bottom of my mental television screen, all day long.<\/p>\n

It is very powerful to speak a direct, human truth. It is like a Tesseract for the soul. I am practically obsessed with the topic. As a result, I am also interested in the many ways we tend obfuscate truth, both in art and in life.<\/p>\n

Many of us hide true statements behind accurate<\/em> ones. Accuracy is something true about the world. \u201cTruth\u201d is something true about us. Sometimes they correspond. \u201cMiles to go before I sleep\u201d is a true statement about the journey, but it is really about the speaker. More often, they don\u2019t, and accuracy is used to sound like a truth when none is being shared. We\u2019ve all heard songs that use accuracy\u2014\u201dyou wore a blue shirt that day\u201d\u2014as a stand-in for truth. We\u2019ve also all heard people do this in real life. \u201cI was at the store\u201d is an accurate statement. \u201cI find myself looking for reasons to go out more these days, because I think I might be hoping I meet someone else\u201d is a truth. You wouldn\u2019t like to hear it, but you\u2019d surely prefer to have heard it than to find out in retrospect that it was the truth behind all those store visits.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we use \u201ceasy\u201d truths to avoid having to dispense hard ones. \u201cI have social anxiety\u201d is a self-aware and charmingly candid statement that makes the speaker seem open about him- or herself. \u201cI have an almost crippling fear of rejection or mockery, so I prefer to avoid situations where that has the potential to happen\u201d is way harder to say but is often the much truer (and arguably more interesting) statement.<\/p>\n

I have often said that first truth. Do I really mean the second one? I\u2019m not sure but writing that paragraph will now certainly have me thinking about it.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all heard songs that do this as well\u2014dispense the easy truth of \u201cyou hurt me\u201d in order to avoid the hard one of \u201cI let you hurt me for reasons that make me feel ashamed about myself.\u201d But that<\/em> song\u2014\u201cWhy do I keep letting myself get hurt by undeserving minds like you\u201d\u2014is way more artistically fertile than the well-trodden \u201cI loved you, you left me, you suck.\u201d Even though that latter line would make a killer country novelty song.<\/p>\n

It is crazy how often a direct human truth opens roads that, in retrospect, you can\u2019t imagine not having gone down.<\/p>\n

This month\u2019s unsolicited advice is: if you don\u2019t know what to say next, say the next true thing. In art\/lyrics, certainly. But more important, in life. Honor your listener with the bravest, shortest truth you know how to say. It is terrifying, but it\u2019s also exhilarating and liberating.<\/p>\n

Now, if you\u2019ll excuse me, I\u2019ve got to go finish my newest song, \u201cI Loved You, You Left Me, You Suck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

Josh Weinstein<\/strong><\/em> is an SDMA-winning songwriter, arranger, producer, and pianist\/organist\/keyboard player originally from New York. He holds a Ph.D. in music and teaches college and private lessons across a variety of disciplines. His dog is way cooler than he is.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This has been my lyric-writing mantra for decades now. The idea is, if you get stuck, ignore everything\u2014rhythm, rhyme, syllables, \u201cvoice\u201d\u2014and just say the truest thing you know how to say. It doesn\u2019t have to be about whatever the song is about. It definitely does not need to be poetic or attractively crafted. It just needs to track, syllable by syllable, with a lived truth that is local to you. You would be amazed how often that very prosaic and \u201cunusable\u201d bit of filler turns out to be the key line in the song, the one that defines it and binds it together. I don\u2019t mean to suggest that songs need to be true. Mine almost never are, at least in the traditional sense of \u201ctrue.\u201d Just that the process of saying something true has a way of catalyzing a moment in a unique and powerful way. We tend to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unsolicited-advice"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31583"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31587,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31583\/revisions\/31587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}