Member Highlight: Thomas Lyng Poulsen

Here is one of our many members who have brought life to our community. We are grateful to see the process and progress our members share with us, and we are honored to give them the spotlight! Their story is our story. Read on to be inspired by our latest Member Highlight interview...


Meet Thomas

Thomas is from Ringsted, Denmark.

What do you do during the day?
I teach classroom music 6 lessons a week, conduct a string ensemble, coach a band and have a large number of guitar students. On weekends, I perform as a sideman in a covers band, sub in other bands, and do the occasional solo performance here and there, either on classical guitar, or in my singer/ songwriter capacity. I am also available for remote session work - mostly on guitar - from my home studio that has steadily grown into quite a capable little operation, and where I have a LOT of fun creating.

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In short, I am living the dream. I get to make music every single day.

I also get to be a husband and a father of two boys, which is endlessly rewarding and challenging.

Is there anything surprising about your musical tastes?
I usually say - and I mean it - that my favourite piece/ song, is whatever I am working on at any given time. This means, that one week, I can be completely immersed in a simple, bordering on corny polka and love it dearly for its simplicity, relatability and earworm qualities, and the next day feel like some avant-garde postmodern piece of atonal music is the best thing since sliced bread, and breathtakingly beautiful in all of its dissonant glory and break-neck technical difficulty.

What does your songwriting habit look like?
In the current 100 days, I have created a very gentle songwriting habit. If I do anything songwriting related during a day, it counts as keeping the habit alive. I don't have a set time of day or a number of lines to hit. I just try to let the muse in every day. In the previous period, I had a more ambitious rule, and it was clearly more productive, but I have to be realistic in my goals, and with in-person teaching and regular gigs resuming, I knew that my availiable time would be much more limited. The more gentle rule means no feeling guilty, and I have still managed to write a few songs, that I am happy with.

Who are your influences? How have they shaped you?
Most weeks, one of my guitar students will say something, that makes me think differently about something. My wife and two sons also have a tendency to spark my creativity in one way or the other.

What challenge are you facing with songwriting?
Accepting less than stellar songs in between the ones that get me all fired up. Especially now, that I don't write as much. But I'm getting better at it all the time!

Tell us an early memory about a song that woke something up inside you.
I don't remember the title of the song - but on a Friday night prime time family entertainment show, Billy Cross, who used to play with Bob Dylan for a while, was playing with his band. I must have been 7 years old at most, and immediately decided, that I wanted to play guitar. I still want to play guitar - every day, and I do. I even make a living doing it; most through teaching and a solid portion through performing.

What Day of 100 is your piece from?
On and off from 50/100 to 73/100 on the spring 2021 100 DOS

About the song:
This song was written in the previous - my first - 100 days, around halfway in. I was frustrated with the muse not presenting itself, and out of my frustration grew the first few lines, and the rest more or less wrote itself.

Listen here:
Click here to listen

Official music page:
https://thomaslyngpoulsen.bandcamp.com/

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