Music as an art form. Professional pianist, hobbyist singer/songwriter and producer.
Music to me is partially a rather vain and shy attempt to help other people understand me, and partially a way of helping me understand myself, in a vague, broad, difficult to translate-into-words sense. It's my vessel of passion and emotion. I've never felt the way I have listening to certain songs than I've felt, say, looking at visual art, or reading a book.
I just want people to hear what I have to say through this medium. Music is nothing without listeners.
I feel like I'm always on the outside looking in; I would leave the world to its own devices, and simply try to exist within it.
The Script - We Cry has always stuck with me. Reminds me of long car trips and my mother.
A unique, very small artist I found on the internet named "Worrywort" has to be my all-time favourite. His music and visual art is so vulnerable and relatable (at least, to me) in it's themes, and it is easy to see he is clearly musically gifted. Apart from Worrywort, I am also a big fan of Sufjan Stevens, Angus and Julia Stone, Gregory and the Hawk and Radiohead.
A very specific, very situational feeling. Music just... comes and leaves me whenever it wants. For me to say I am in complete control of what I write would be a blatant lie.
Everyone is vulnerable, nobody is perfect, emotions are what makes life worth living, and feeling alien is okay; you are never always entirely alone.
Anxious. When I play, I seek approval from the audience. I know my music is not what most people hear, especially because of my musical structures and the self-taught way I play and write. Because of this, when the audience smiles, nods or claps, I feel completely validated; I am good enough.
Specific parts of the music industry is highly over-saturated, such as hip-hop, rap, electronic, and the recent wave of lo-fi sampled hip-hop. It is more important to stand out than to be good at a specific generic style, in my opinion. As bad as it may sound, I wish the music industry was less saturated, and I wish that more record labels would drop the corporate, cold way of viewing artists. Give the lo-fi bedroom musicians a chance; you could have a David Bowie, an Elton John or a Bob Dylan on your hands.
Musicians facebook! We shall see.
Other musicians telling me what to do. It simply doesn't work; I write and perform in a different "language".
Specific bands, yes, of course.
Originality, relatability and vulnerability. One of the most recent acts to conquer this are the duo "Twenty One Pilots".
Obviously Worrywort! I also have to recommend Carvist. A quick trawl of the back-catalog of Bandcamp will give you some very interesting, undiscovered acts.