Ideas and Advice for Real Songwriters (formerly songwright.co.uk)
Category
interviews
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01.19.10Moth – A songwriting interviewToday I interviewed a lovely songwriting duo, Cubinoid (AKA Ben) and Tixia who go by the name of 'Moth'. I came across their stuff because of my own interest in all things steampunk (I have a steampunk inspired album you know...) 1. When did you start writing songs? What kind of musical education have you had? Cubinoid: I started writing songs when I was a kid - I had piano lessons when I was really young, then drum lessons, sax lessons, a few guitar lessons...weird thing was loads of musicians used to use the loft of our Victorian house in Clevedon for ...
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11.14.09A songwriting interview – Shannon HurleyThis week I exchanged a few emails with a singer-songwriter named Shannon Hurley. She recently moved from LA to Nashville, and as a consequence her songwriting became less country. I know, that sounds counterintuitive. I'll let her explain: Shannon: My songwriting changed in the most unexpected way. Instead of wanting to fit into the country genre, I went further out of the realm. I find that I quite like being the "indie-pop" songwriter in a city of country music. I am enjoying the experimentation of electronica, downtempo, chill-pop, etc. and blending them into my singer-songwriter world. Tom: When and how ...
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08.07.09Ultraviolet Eye – A Songwriting InterviewIn my last newsletter (which you can recieve by entering your email into the 'join the mailing list' box on the right of the screen) I asked if anyone else on my mailing list was taking part in the 50/90 songwriting challenge. One of the people who emailed in reply was Jeff Charreaux of the band Ultraviolet Eye. I took the opportunity to interview Jeff about his songwriting: Tom: How did your songwriting career begin? Jeff: As a teenager, when the main songwriter of my first punk band didn't show up to a recording session for a compilation that was going to ...
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01.21.09Are you ready for FAWM 2009?It's that time of year again - we're coming up to February. If you haven't tried it yet, I urge you to have a go at February Album Writing Month, or Fawm. What's that? The Fawm challenge is to write 14 songs during the month of February, and (if you want to) post your lyrics and recordings on the Fawm website. Fawm.org also allows you to hear what other people have been writing, and the forums and comments are an amazingly constructive and encouraging experience. In short, Fawm does wonders for your songwriting, whether you manage to complete all 14 songs or not. It's a ...
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12.29.08Erik Didriksen – The Final Post 50/90 interviewErik Didriksen's FAWM profile begins thus: Erik Didriksen originally began his songwriting career writing awful minute-long compositions in a demo version of Fruity Loops. The first song he wrote worth listening to was written about a year later about a girl who, to this day, can't stand him. (If she ever heard it, her opinion might change.) You might think from this humorous intro that he doesn't take songwriting seriously. You'd be wrong to think so however, as he's a great songwriter with a particular talent for loop-based arranging. His is the final 50/90 interview I'll be doing this year: 1. 50 songs - ...
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12.19.08A post 50/90 interview – Evin WolvertonVery possibly the last interview this, what with Christmas coming up to steal my time away. Heres an interesting interview with a chap named Evin. He also has a website, here. 1. 50 songs - did you have a system for finishing? I sure didn't, and it shows. I finished [drumroll!] 4 songs in 90 days. Compare that to this year's FAWM (February is Album Writing Month), where I wrote 14 in 28 days. It's a tough pace to keep, and I just didn't have the lifestyle stability during these months to even set it. For the upcoming FAWM, and for the next ...
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12.16.08Helen’s Evil Twin – a post 50/90 interviewThis interview was conducted a few weeks back with Helen's Evil Twin, a songwriter who completed the 50/90 challenge with room to spare. You can find her on myspace here. 1. 50 songs - did you have a system for finishing? Not really. Originally, I intended to do an album in a day early on, and then another one together with my friend Andy Dwyer (levitator), but neither of those happened. Then when Tim did his second pigfeast, and Nancy did her adventures in jazz, that encouraged me to try the same, hence "Lentilfeast". In the meantime, various other challenges had ...
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11.26.08Rose Deschamps – A post 50/90 interviewThis interview is with Rose Deschamps, a singer-songwriter from New Zealand. You can find her website here and her myspace here. 1. 50 songs - did you have a system for finishing? To be honest, I really didn't. At the beginning of the challenge, I had my doubts I was going to make it to 50 songs at all. But after awhile, I found myself getting into a rhythm. Then I saw people crossing the finish line and my competitive nature kicked in. The biggest trick for me was "feasting" - sitting down and writing several songs at a time. It also ...
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11.23.08Mike Skliar- A post 50/90 interviewThere are a few more post 50/90 songwriting interviews to publish, after which I'm going to draw some conclusions and compile a big list of ideas to steal. This one is with the lovely Mike Skliar 1. 50 songs - did you have a system for finishing? Not exactly. I had completed two FAWM challenges (14 songs in 28 days) the last two years, and started 50/90 (my first!) with the idea that I doubted I would get to 50, but I’d try to write as often as I could. I had a few songs arrive in the first week, and then decided ...
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11.16.08Meg – A post 50/90 interviewAnother post 50/90 interview. This one is with Meg who has a website here. 1. 50 songs - did you have a system for finishing? My system was pretty simple: work, work, work. I took any and every experience I possibly could and turned it into lyrics during every spare moment - some of my best ideas happened during my time in the hospital for iron transfusions. That illness actually helped me a lot - I couldn't work at a summer job, so I had a lot of spare time, and plenty of anguish to work with. While one can definitely write ...
