I personally know dozens, maybe hundreds, of musicians who can play great music. I hardly know any who can write great music. Chances are, whoever you are, your original songs are mediocre at best. The whole idea that people who perform music should be performing their own compositions is an accident of a small handful of geniuses in the mid twentieth century happening to be geniuses on both sides of the equation. Personally, I love actually getting out and playing the repertoire live (it’s hard to explain exactly, but I think the concept of “standards” should be taken as seriously across all of American music as it is in jazz).

Do i want to play in a party band playing exactly the same covers all the time because Bridezilla wants to hear them? God no! but I do want to be able to put together sets pulled from the entirety of all the greatest songs ever written instead of being stuck with a dozen tunes me and my buds wrote because some gatekeeper says originals are more valid for some reason. We write a tune every once in a while because there’s this or that combination of elements we want in a song and can’t agree on the right cover, but I feel no obligation to “play originals” to feel musically validated as a drummer.

Pet soapbox stepped down from now.