Acknowledging the lucky breaks are paramount to enjoying life. Not being defensive about our successes/failures. So, in short.

Dan Mangan

Categorized in : Break Lucky Enjoy Life

Sometimes I just don't have time to wait for the muse to come, so I've developed things to force the muse to come back.

muse waiting sometimes

I had a rule that I would never force the muse in my younger days. I would follow the feeling. I would just put the pen down and walk away, and wait for it to come back. But these days, I have a kid, I tour a lot, and I'm always short on time.

waiting feelings kids

There's when a phrase circles in my head in a number of ways for any number of days, weeks, or months, and then that eventually becomes a song. There's a slow permeation of the idea and then that leads into a bunch of themes and becomes a bunch of lines.

circles song ideas

I don't believe in the myth of the "self made man". Nobody gets t... by Dan Mangan

I don't believe in the myth of the "self made man". Nobody gets through alone.

self men believe

I think it's important to accept all the ways that we're absurdly lucky. I'm a white male from a safe city in a wealthy country.

cities country thinking

When you have a young kid you can't go out much at night, so I spent a lot of time at home, watching movies and cooking dinner with my wife. It felt like what most people experience. White picket fence stuff.So there was some enjoyment of that normalcy, but I have to admit that part of me missed the chaos of touring. I think it's about balance.

home night kids

You can't just look at the side of something that you want to see. You have to look at the whole round object and understand that there are parts of it that you don't like.

sides want looks

There's going to be ups and downs and that you have to be okay with the downs too and embrace them just as much because they will teach you something.

embrace teach okay