"I'm a crap guitarist and I find it really hard writing on my own"
About this Quote
Self-deprecation can be a dodge, a dare, and a thesis statement all at once. When Siobhan Fahey shrugs, "I'm a crap guitarist", she’s not just lowering expectations; she’s naming the quiet hierarchy inside pop music, where “real” artistry is too often equated with technical prowess and solitary authorship. By admitting she finds it hard to write on her own, she punctures the romantic myth of the lone genius and replaces it with something closer to how hits actually get made: collaboration, synthesis, friction, and a willingness to be a curator of other people’s sparks.
The intent feels disarmingly practical. Fahey’s career has lived in group dynamics and pop machinery (from Bananarama to Shakespears Sister), spaces where voice, persona, and taste can matter as much as chord changes. The subtext is almost a rebuttal to rock’s moralizing: you don’t have to be a virtuoso to be an author of culture. “Crap guitarist” is also code for a kind of freedom. If your value isn’t tethered to instrumental mastery, you can build songs from mood, hook instinct, lyrical bite, and arrangement choices - the invisible architecture that listeners remember even when they can’t name it.
There’s vulnerability here, too: the loneliness of the blank page when the room isn’t full of bandmates, producers, or co-writers to bounce against. Pop has always been a team sport; Fahey simply refuses to pretend otherwise. In an industry that sells authenticity as isolation, her candor reads like a small act of resistance.
The intent feels disarmingly practical. Fahey’s career has lived in group dynamics and pop machinery (from Bananarama to Shakespears Sister), spaces where voice, persona, and taste can matter as much as chord changes. The subtext is almost a rebuttal to rock’s moralizing: you don’t have to be a virtuoso to be an author of culture. “Crap guitarist” is also code for a kind of freedom. If your value isn’t tethered to instrumental mastery, you can build songs from mood, hook instinct, lyrical bite, and arrangement choices - the invisible architecture that listeners remember even when they can’t name it.
There’s vulnerability here, too: the loneliness of the blank page when the room isn’t full of bandmates, producers, or co-writers to bounce against. Pop has always been a team sport; Fahey simply refuses to pretend otherwise. In an industry that sells authenticity as isolation, her candor reads like a small act of resistance.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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