• What I’ve Learned…

    Posted in Home by Late Night Habit

    People that know me well know that I’ve never been a huge “song writing” kinda guy, or so I thought. I was always more interested in performing, playing shows. I’d never been crazy opposed to the idea of boy bands, and singing songs you don’t write. I was very interested in working with song writers and people that do that kinda thing. I felt that way up until about 2 months ago.

    I’ve always utilized LNH.com as an outlet to be completely upfront and honest with you guys. When Nick and I created this site, the main concept behind it was to form a strong community and to stay as connected to you guys as we could. Over time, our concept has come to be worked. Hits on the site went up, comments consistently increased, and we realized that what we set out to accomplish was working! However, all of this was possible because of the EP we released last year, I believe.

    We wrote that EP with no boundaries, other then to be honest, and to focus on writing what we knew and felt passionate about. We had no idea how catchy people would find it, nor had we ever written a hit single, so we surely didn’t understand the formula to writing a “successful” song. But you guys bought our songs, as you continue to. We had our 2nd largest month on itunes EVER last month!

    Over the last few months, I have experienced some situations I have never felt before involving the creation of music. I have never felt so numb to it, so indifferent. It felt terrible. I had nothing to say. Everything felt so forced. It wasn’t about passion, it wasn’t genuine, it was formulaic and generic, trying desperately to have that “radio sound”. It made me realize something. I had no desire to write music for a mainstream market. The only way my music would ever find its way there was for the mainstream market to come to me. I can only do what I know, and love, and feel strongly about. I think you guys can feel it when its right, and when its wrong.

    So with that in mind, I am excited to lay down some new Late Night Habit songs for you all to hear. I am excited to lay down some new songs, so I can remind myself why I do what I do. Take this note as a grain of salt. Take it as a glimpse into my mind for this new batch of songs. Take it as you will, but know that the next words out of my mouth will have plenty of meaning behind them.

    6.29.2010
    • http://twitter.com/iammattwolk Matt Wolk

      feel free to leave some thoughts on why you love the music you love!

    • http://www.facebook.com/johnstonphil Phil Johnston

      The music I love is music that has changed me, saved me, made me laugh or take life a little less seriously. One thing I think it all had in common was that I felt it was honest.

      I'm not totally sure if I can nail down what “Honest” means in that case but I know it when I feel it – haha

      I love you – men of the late night…no homo

      Philj

    • Hannah

      Can I just say in this post is one of my now top favorite quotes ever: “I can only do what I know, and love, and feel strongly about.”

      I love the music I love because I know the artist put thought into it and when you can feel their emotion and know how hard theyve worked and the music is like a reflection of them and its so kind of pure in a way. And honest too, like Phil said. Its hard to explain but theres something about it when you can just feel how the artist loves the music and their feelings and yeah.

    • catie

      I love the music I love because it says the words that I can't say myself. I love music that's deep and personal, music that lets me know who the singer/songwriter really is, music that makes me feel connected to the band or artist. There are very, very few songs that I'll go out of my way to listen to, or single out on iTunes instead of just putting it on shuffle. These are the songs that speak to me, that make me FEEL something. Whether it's something good or something bad, happiness or sadness, that makes me think “me too!” or just “wow!”

      (By the way, All Across Virginia and Caitlin fit under that criteria.)

    • http://twitter.com/iammattwolk Matt Wolk

      Awesome responses! Its actually cool that you say that about AAV and Caitlin because I wrote All Across VA and Nick wrote Caitlin. Cool to see!

    • catie

      All Across Virginia remains one of my favorite songs. It's a classic!!

    • D44v182

      Hey guys ;)

      Just want to let you know that it's so good so this kind of news. I discovered you on itunes about a year ago, and I have to admit that since there, you're simply my favorite band of all time…;)

      You have that little something in your music, especially in your lyrics, that makes each listening a new evasion, like a reborn, with some unexpected feelings and toughs…that always led you to think about yourself, and put yourself in question, again, again and again, and try to make a better “you”…it's totally amazing !

      I also saw some live session that you've made and you played “Hopeless Romantic”. For those 3 minutes, the earth still stood.
      There is also this song, “Caitlin”… mostly the most powerful song ever made…Unfortunately, I had to wait that I come to the US and creating an US apple store account…because this song isn't available in EU…but when you first hear it on your mp3…you listen it again and again…

      I have to admit, I get a little to excited, but it's so unusual to have some bands like you…as you say, you can really feel that you truly love your music and I think that's the most important point about writing songs…

      I am already totally excited knowing that you'll do some news songs, it's gonna be really hard to wait, but for sure worth with…

      So guys, I really hope that you'll get known worldwide, I can already tell you this; you're getting quite well-known in the French part of Switzerland…and until now, each person to whom I've shown your music always asked me “Who the frack is that ? It's so good”…
      I deeply wish you a lot of success, you really deserve it for everything you gave us…

      Thanks ;)

      D4v-