Darryl Tookes – HuffPost 8.26.14

Mike Ragogna: What’s your advice to new artists?

Darryl Tookes: If you are an artist, you are doing something new. Something individual. It’s like a teaching physician who is a friend recently told me that he tells his students. If you don’t show up, the rest of us miss what you might have brought to class that day. This is how I feel about true artistry. We are forever children. Growing, learning, each day looking around us in awe. Listening to the sounds that nature sings. Feelings running deeply. Unafraid to share our truth. Someone said to me the other day that this world is in pretty bad shape. People are suffering. At a time like no other before in history, we are able to instantly witness the world on our smart phones. We see global disasters while they are happening. People are overwhelmed with a sense of helplessness. We see the effects of greed in the ever-widening gap between socioeconomic strata. 

Artists must not give up. We must never quit. Governments waging war on every kind of domestic problem while waging wars on each other will not work. In the heart of an artist is the seed. We are trying to shine a little sunshine while we can. Look at the great message of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” or Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Look at the positive impact of James Brown’s “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.” Listen to Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim when they promise us, “Somewhere, There’s a Place For Us.” Or Burt Bacharach and Hal David who in “Alfie” bare their souls about “something even nonbelievers can believe in.” 

I ask myself if I’m still this guy, a guy who feels the way they did when they wrote those songs. When I wrote “Lifeguard.” Yes, I am. I would be most happy if I am able to inspire young artists to find themselves, and share with the rest of us. To work at becoming the best versions of themselves. We need to hear them.