Dream on

It just goes to show that when you have a dream you have to fully go for it no matter the costs without a thought to what might happen and believe that you can create greatness.

I believe in this dream and it has made me proud!

Love,

Em

Photo: ©Carina Hedlund

Nothing else compares

I have found that there is a sole moment in time where I am completely at peace. You would think that it would be on stage... Close. There is a moment when you get off stage, when you have given in to all those feelings you want to portray and are completely exhausted. That moment when you take that first breath and think; "I nailed it." and look around the room to see all these faces smiling at you, knowing that what you just did there is exactly what you were made to do.

Life in itself causes so many distractions, so many roads and hiccups to chose from or get tossed into and it is so hard to find a way were you feel completely right.
There are so many things you have to do before you get to that moment, if you ever get to that moment.
"But I already know what I want to do. I have known this all along." Well it doesn't work that way, does it?

Music makes me tick, it makes me burn and vibrate and it allows me to feel all these things I have to feel, all these things I want to feel. It provides a safety that is unbeatable. It is my way to speak.
This is why so much of my time is put into the lyrics, they have to fit and make me feel something so that when I record it (live, at home, in a studio) I can feel that emotion I originally put into that song. The lyrics however, doesn't always have to make much sense. I can sit down and play something and the words come flying out and build a beautiful sentence although weird it somehow causes a reaction and people seem to understand where I am heading with it. It's funny that way.
May it be happiness, sadness, anger, love or a sense of respect they all have to make me feel.

I am a perfectionist, not at all in life, everything around me can be messy, but in music I am a perfectionist at heart. It's both good and bad, I can put a song away for several months or years because it doesn't make me tick, it doesn't cause me to feel and later just play it once and find what was wrong, make it better. I can't release or perform something I'm not proud of just because I have to. If I am not sure of the song I'll skip it in a heartbeat.

I may sound pretentious but it's true.

The thing I am trying to say is that no matter what artist or band or song as long as it makes me feel something I can indulge myself in that song for hours.

Love,
Em

Peace

There is a story out about a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In my mind if you are to, in any way, not only strip people (let alone your own people) of their rights to be who they are, but also persecute them you are not in any way working for a world of peace.

I believe that peace equals freedom and acceptance. Freedom to be who you are, love who you want and believe what you want without anyone else telling you that you are less of a being.

As long as what you do is not hurtful to anyone else you deserve to have the fundamental right to support and acceptance of who you are.

Everyone has a past, everyone has done something they are not proud of and yet to pride yourself in being a leader of a country that dictates whether or not you are worthy of the same rights as anyone else depending on who you love...
That is exactly like priding yourself in being a leader of a country that dictates whether or not you have the right to live depending on what color your skin is or what beliefs you have.

It is also a direct violation of the human rights.

A person that can't see beyond their own hatred and loathing to find an understanding and acceptance shall never be my advocate for peace, no matter the actions they may have taken in other situations.

Until there are hard, cold facts that people of a certain sex, a different sexuality, origin, skin color or religion are ALL in their own "category" somehow going to end the world (as some people actually say they will) by existing, or are hurtful to others in a way that is damaging I will continue to believe that whatever heinous acts are committed around the globe are actually committed by individuals.
A person, one person, with a story that chooses to commit such a horrible thing.
NOT a sexuality, a skin color, a religion nor a gender.

And as we look upon it differently...
A person chose to enslave others, several people did, a person chose to persecute jews and a person chose to ban "homosexual propaganda" and decided that being LGBT makes you unfit to parent a child. A person chose to decide that being LGBT makes you so much less of a being that you have to die.

Tell me now, which one of these ideas do you prefer and how much of our time should we spend on blaming everyone else for our own mistakes, hatred, nonacceptance and mistrust?

I do not want to believe in hatred, I do not want to practice it, I want it erased. It can't be done, I know that, and I sometimes feel myself so consumed by this mistrust that I am angry with myself for letting people get to me. I can't stay quiet and that is my burden, my flaw.

It does not matter how old you are in your decision making, it matters how smart you are, how openminded and accepting you are. In order to build a functioning society and world that doesn't feel the need to claim others in their own misguided hatred.
I could never want a person dead simply for being who they are when who they are has done nothing wrong, nothing to deserve other people's hatred and cruelty.

And with that in mind I have found that the people we really should learn from are children. They just don't care.

Believe that you are strong enough to be who you are and I will be right there beside you, fighting for what is rightfully yours.