It's very easy to become locked into narrow approaches and self-limiting thinking when writing songs. I think it's vital to look up from the page, instrument or screen and reach beyond the world of contemporary songwriting, where you will discover a whole range of ideas and practices that can open up new possibilities in your creative work.

As an undergraduate, I studied Philosophy & Politics. I have returned to philosophy in recent years as a tool to enable me to expand my approaches to creative thinking and practice. 

The idea of this blog is to pull together my study of ancient and contemporary philosophy, my work as a songwriter and my experiences of creative coaching to collate some of my thoughts on what I see as the strong connection between philosophical thinking and happy, healthy and productive creative practice. I will post a series of short articles explaining how a variety of philosophical ideas can be directly applied to the creative existence and work of the songwriter.