Why I love the Beatles

I used to listen to Beatles songs in the car with my dad on Saturdays and Sundays when we ran errands and visited my grandparents! Songs like “Yesterday” and “A Hard Day’s Night” were some of my favorites. My dad and I would belt them out until it was time to flip the cassette tape to play the other side. I liked lyrics like “Yesterday/ All my troubles seemed so far away/ Now it looks as though they are here to stay/ Oh I believe in yesterday” because then (and now) that feels true. One moment, things can be going really well, and then the next moment everything seems terrible, but you can always believe that the good times are possible again. Many of the Beatles songs are sad, but I feel a sense of optimism and courage bursting at their seams.

At the time when the Beatles were making music, people weren’t quite sure about it. It seemed strange and somewhat unrelated to what had come before. Often times the same work that I create can be seen as “strange” and “unique” by two different people, so I can relate to how the Beatles were seen at the beginning!

I also really liked watching the Beatles documentary The Beatles: Get Back. You could see their process, which seemed at times kind of unstructured! Sometimes they seemed to be sitting around, doing their own thing! Paul McCartney said in an interview that sometimes songs came to him in dreams!

I’m excited to continue rekindling my love of the Beatles in my project The Diblings. The Beatles toured internationally including in Japan, so I liked the idea of having my characters form a Beatles-inspired band and perform in Japan.

I’ve hung a bathmat of the Beatles Yellow Submarine album cover behind me in my office to inspire me. This website, too, was inspired by the Beatles Yellow Submarine album. I love the idea of portholes (like the ones on the Yellow Submarine album). Like writing and art, portholes on submarines let you see out into another world. When I look outside of myself, I always get a better understanding of what’s inside me, too.