The Importance of Having a Vehicle to Write Music

I started writing in high school and some of my little beginnings and starts in high school followed me up until we've released the first total album. I finally had a vehicle to which to write compose not only the music for the band to play, but also the melody and the lyrics. It was like a total sounding board for myself. And I opened it up and said, if anybody else has songs or wants to try something, please feel free because it's a band. We made it fairly democratic and equal.