honest answers please!

have you ever felt you might be a bit addicted to songwriting / writing lyrics etc?

 

Not addicted exactly... I think it's possible to be addicted to anything, but I prefer to call my own response to songwriting a compulsion

Do you need help, Dutchbeat?!

ha, thanks Tone!
help is not needed right away

because, i still like this habit too much,

I have been doing it (songwriting) since I was eight years old (i have a tape with something that must have been my first song)

but I can't stop now!

oh no, I need more!!!!!!

Addiction? Not sure but It's something I couldn't live without. If I go away, even for a few days without a guitar, I get withdrawal symptoms, I yearn to play and write. I go through all my current songs every day just to remember them and I can't imagine playing guitar without writing my own songs, I really cannot understand how cover bands sleep at night! If I couldn't write my own stuff then there's no point in me playing an instrument.

Hofnerite,

sounds a bit like an addiction, doesn't it..?

well, let just say, you have some firts signs and symptoms of musicmaking addiction

i confess, i have taken my 16 track recorder with me on a holiday...so that I could finish mixing a song

It seems the other songwriters don't recognize my point
whatsoever

or are you all in a state of full denial? 

hi Dutchbeat... Andy here this time, not Liam! I think I am addicted to music in general, not necessarily just songwriting. And to be absolutely honest, I would have to think seriously if I wanted to go on living if I went deaf, it means that much to me. I don't have to compose music all the time, but I do need to hear and enjoy music every single day.

Hi Andy!

you at least seem to recognize some form of songwriting / music addiction
Here is a a test for further diagnosis of your condition :

Q1 when you are going on a holiday for week or longer, do you feel an urge to take an instrument of some kind with you?
O Yes   O No   O Luckily I never go on a holiday

Q2 Have you ever thought I really had to go to bed becauseyou had to get to work early next day, but thought, let me just finish the recording of this one track....and went on and on?
O yes    O no, never happened to me   O happens to me at least once a week

Q3 Have you ever cancelled an appointment or social engagment, making an excuse you had to work, but in fact all you wanted was to make music?

O Yes   O no, I would never do that   O I do that all the time

Q4 Have you ever entered a music store, thinking that you were just going to have a little look at the instruments / equipment, but came home with something expensive?

O yes      O no    O don't want to talk about this

Q5: open question: doe you have given  any of your instruments or equipment  a (pet) name? And if so, what is it .........
 

Hi Dutchbeat,

That's a well designed questionnaire that I dare not fill in, for fear of what it might reveal.  What I wil say, is that I really should have been helping my wife this morning doing some household chores. I said that I'd be recording first, for an hour, that turned out to be three! I guess I got a little too excited about a new song that I had written. It demanded to be recorded! 

Best,
Paul

Thanks Pablo!

for sharing this 
acknowledging the problem is the first step 

meanwhile i am happy to see there seems to be a new song posted by you!

(Pablo)
I see it is not there yet, but let us know when the new recording is ready for review

For me its like my mind comes up with a beat and i have to fill the beat with words, other wisei forget that beat with in a couple of mintues and it could have been a good song or a rubbish one.

for sure - but music is BY FAR the best thing I have EVER been addicted to... it's like therapy!!

Have you ever woken up in the morning and thought F I can't get through the day without writing a song first. I can't go to work without first writing a song?

However, I have found that if I'm lying in bed and a lyric or melody line comes to me I have to get up and write it down.

Not addicted, but ever since I was a kid I always wished to have my name on the label in the middle of 12 inches of black plastic with a hole in the middle.
Never though it would happen though. But through the years I've slowly accumulated enough skills to at least give it a shot. Even if there are no LP's any more.
So addiction no, but undying desire, yes.