It's funny where one might find inspiration when writing or hearing a new song. And being just one of four songwriters in a band, it's even stranger how inspiration rears it's head amongst the four of us. Some of us scratch lyrics down in spiral bound notebook after witnessing an event in our everyday lives. Some of us get those "intangible" feelings of joy and contentment (as well as angst and disappointment) that just seem to want to come out in words and music. Some ideas are merely spawned out of an overactive imagination. And some of us just need to tell a story (true or not...it doesn't really matter). I suppose the way at which one arrives at writing a particular song can be infinite.

One of my favorite approaches to songwriting happens to belong to our own John Edick. And this doesn't necessarily have to do with how he arrives at a particular idea. It tends to be his attitude towards the song (after it's written) that interests me. Sometimes he'll come right out and tell you where something came from, and sometimes he won't. In general, John tends to have a very cryptic attitude towards songwriting. Just go ahead...go ahead and ask him what a song means. I would be willing to wager that nine times out of ten, his response would be, "well what does it mean to you?" Then the next part of this conversational dance would be that person describing their notion of what it might mean. Finally, when they're done, John will reply "exactly!!!"

I used to kind of laugh to myself when he'd say things like this. Then it hit me. It was really quite simple. Songs mean different things to different people, even if that wasn't what the original spirit of the song was relating to. Some people relate songs to things going on in their lives. You know..."hey, that happened to me!" Sometimes I know I will relate songs not necessarily to an identical event in my life per say, but rather a moment (or feeling associated with that moment). I remember coming home from a good gig down in Binghamton, and I turned on the radio to hear "Statesboro Blues" by the Almann Brothers. That song is forever tied to that good feeling for me.

Maybe one could describe music as a poetic snapshot of a point in our lives, with all the subtleties and shades of grey of an old black and white photo. Maybe music is like a soundtrack playing to the movie we call our lives. And maybe music is nothing more than a series of ideas and phrases held together with musical notation. Either way, it's kind of fun to figure that out on our own.

Fetish Lane is an American Roots Music Band. Members include Ken Held, Israel Lorimer, Ed Gliha, John Edick, Darrin Trass and Brian O'Connell.

Photography featured on this website was done in large part by friends, fans and family of the band including, but not limited to the following folks: Nikki Bisaha, Sarah Lewis, Aliscia Gaucher, Stacie Edick, Noelle Dasilva, and Johann Cash.

Website design and construction by: Thirsty Fish Graphic Design and Fetish Lane.