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SIMON JOYNER
Nebraska songwriter on writer’s block and the complexity of grief
UNSURPRISINGLY, Simon Joyner’s grief over the death of his son was for some time too devastating to admit creativity – in fact, it took him over a year to reignite it. “At first I preferred to retire from music becauseI didn’t want to face writing about it,” he explains. “I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to write about anything else until I did. One morning I started playing guitar again, in a circular pattern, and sang Owen’s name for over an hour – somewhere between religious chant and primal scream. It unlocked me; I sat down and started writing and it all came very quickly.”