I get depressed if I’m not making music. For the duration of my break from music, I was mildly depressed. I felt that there was “no time” for anything but work and duty, and I had a despairing attitude about it. However, it’s amazing how much energy a creative endeavor can bring. It can often give more than it takes. I squeeze practicing in between dinner and bedtime. My daughter and my husband play games and read books while I belt it out in the basement. It’s roughly an hour a day of rehearsing, but it’s enough to see a gradual improvement, and I come upstairs energized and happy. Music is self-centered in a healthy way for me because it’s introspective and meditative. It has to happen alone and at the expense of other duties. But it brings more vitality to my life and home than, for instance, a clean kitchen could bring. One notable difference for me now is that I have a partner who picks up the slack and with whom I share this experience. That makes it more communal– in fact, that makes it possible. I wouldn’t be doing this without Seth. I agree with you in the sense that the life of a solo artist can be very unhealthy and isolating. You’re holed up in a messy house with empty pizza boxes and tangled-up cables, and you don’t want anyone to come over and see the mess.

Shannon Stevens on music making in an interview with Sufjan Stephens