Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

This year I’m thankful for a lot of things. And thankful for a lot of things being over. 2008 was my worst year and (in some ways) my best year all rolled into one parcel that has left me strangely optimistic for this next season of my life.

I’m hoping that for you this year held more good things than bad, but if not, remember there’s never a wrong time for champagne…

One day I hope we’ll all be able to celebrate with you in person.

Cheers!

S.

I’m sitting in bed in my Nashville ‘second home’ and it’s time for me to start packing up. After 8 new songs, 1 new guitar, a pair of cowboy boots, a bunch of meetings, calls, lunches, dinners, corridor greetings and some Christmas shopping I’ll be jumping on the plane with a lovely warm feeling that this trip has been so worthwhile. I never take for granted the chance to write with the talented people I get to write with here and the friendships I make along the way... these are some of my favourite people.

That said, putting my toothbrush in my wash bag for the last time on a trip like this is always a sweet moment because it’s the first time I let myself fully focus on my family and how I wish I was back there without 20 hours of travelling. There’s an extra spring in my step this time because I know I’ve been upgraded to first class on at least one of my flights. That feels nice.

Some things I’ve learnt this trip –

• Keep writing - my job is to write the best songs I can, whatever is going on around me. Even in the chaos the music industry is in right now the most intelligent thing I can do is to focus on improving my craft, writing as much as I can, as broadly as I can with as many different writers and artists.
• Listen, listen, listen - coming to a co-write with several great ideas is always a great idea. If I can articulate them well then there's a good chance we will come up with gold. But sometimes I serve my co-writer and the song we write better by listening to their ideas first because, even if their idea is not as strong as mine, their buy-in to the process makes the overall result better. And it's all the more important when I'm writing with an artist.
  
• There’s always more to learn - there are still deep pools of learning I have yet to dive into… that’s exciting. It's also time consuming. I need to give myself time and space to jump in and have a good splash around. Seems like this onion is still growing. I know, that's two metaphors.
  
• Keep coming back - the routine of coming over regularly is a powerful way to build catalogue… it seems like yesterday I had my first ‘grown up’ co-write with Joel but I now find myself with 166 songs written here with 66 co-writers over 20 trips plus video co-writes. It doesn’t feel like I worked that hard but the numbers speak for themselves.
  
• To work my best ideas – there are ideas that seem to surface time and time again from my subconscious… normally they’re musical ideas… if they keep coming back I think it’s for a purpose. So I need to listen to them harder, value them for that and try my best to make them into the best they can be. There’s one song that stands out from this trip for exactly that reason. I’ll be interested to see where it goes.

The journey continues… the next step is to pack my toothbrush.

S.

Hey friends,

The new website's up and running. Some of my latest demos and links and stuff. A lot more coming.

Feel free to check out www.simonhawkins.com

S.

Sandra bought Barts a missing Mr Men book about Mr Tickle from a second hand book shop. Reading it to our little man, I started with the first page and noticed a dedication…

“To our wonderful little Robbie, we love you so much, Uncle Waynie-Wayne and Auntie Ju-Ju, XXXXX”

Little Robbie has probably grown up by now, a gangly youth with long hair, whispey stubble, spots and a sleeper through his navel. But somehow it still felt wrong that Barty should be cashing in on ex-little Robbie’s stuff.

Is that weird?

Maybe not as weird as me announcing to the whole world that people actually call themselves 'Waynie-Wayne and Ju-Ju'

S.