I don't come from a especially musical family. My folks listen a lot to music, but none of them have ever played any instruments. My brother played the electric guitar and, I think he played little drums, as well.
I got my first guitar from my brother-in-law and sister for Christmas when I was 10, I think after I had been looking at it at a store. Nothing fancy, but it did one heck of a job for a young kid. Then I went on to get an electric guitar and an amp from my parents for the next Christmas. I started out learning some basic chords from my brother-in-law before getting a chord-book. Then I started to learn songs from YouTube and playing by ear and watching live-performances from other artists I admired. Everything I know I have just figured out on my own or been watching YouTube videos.
I got into songwriting at the age of 13, when I wrote my first song, which wasn't very good if I shall say so myself. And after that, I fell in love with the creation of music, and every song I have ever written I have kept in a notebook, and I have now written over 1000 songs over a period of 12-13 years, including all the songs I have written for other artists. I have been using songwriting for every occasion when I just need to get out of my mind for a while. I write down all my feelings, thoughts, and things I see and hear. I have used music as a defense mechanism to cope with all the shit that has been going on in my life, and it has been my way to get out my feelings.
In recent years, I have been playing a little bit of harmonica as well and have been playing the piano and starting to get more and more interested in the production of music. I have started reading up a little on music theory, and have been playing around with different chord shapes, and breaking down chords.