The War of Art

Most of us have two lives: the life we live and the unlived life within us.

Between the two stands Resistance. It is that inner voice that always keeps us from moving forward, reminding us about the comfort in staying complacent. And it never goes away. I met Resistance when I stepped into the tedious, exhausting, but ultimately rewarding process of making music.

Whether you are Michael Jackson or a kid aspiring to be the next Michael Jackson, every artist starts with an empty sound track. In that moment, the possibilities can feel infinite. Whether your motivation comes from political injustice, the beauty of the nature, or a recent heartbreak, you are convicted.

From there, the work becomes a constant process of trusting your gut. You work with different sounds and try to build a catchy progression. Once you have the foundation, you look for a melody, and then play with dynamics, deciding when to create tension and when to release. As you go, your ear starts to develop and tell you what works and what doesn’t. But even a good instrumental is only half the story. If the lyrics don’t flow or aren’t memorable, the song is a complete flop.

During my freshmen year of college, I helped my friend Jabez release his first single. Working with a simple chord progression he came up with in his room, we made countless drafts experimenting with different lyrics and melodies until we came to one we were both satisfied with. We even went as far as to create a concept for an entire music video.

God is Creator. And if we’re made in His image, then creativity was never something we had to chase. It was something we were given. But it requires the effort to show up and the willingness to do the work when the Resistance is loudest.

SEOUL. This song frames the narrator’s relationship with the city as a personified romance. It’s about the realization that our deepest relationships aren’t always with people, but with the places that shape us.