When Martin Sexton is in a rut, he drives his internal editor crazy through utter chaos: two radios playing two different songs simultaneously.
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Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse (FKA Mandolin Orange) gets his best writing done between midnight and 4am.
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Morgan Wade’s songwriting process doesn’t involve a lot of sitting around. But it does involve some really early mornings. And I mean early.
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Steve Gunn’s songwriting process never stops. Even when he’s not writing, his receptors cast a long throw over his environment as he mines for ideas.
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Julien Baker and Matt Nathanson make music not just because they want to, but because they have to. For both songwriters, it’s a vital form of self-expression that’s not always easy.
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There are days when the songs just won’t stop coming, says Bartees Strange. His job as an artist is to stand there and try to catch all those ideas. “It’s like holding a bucket outside in the rain,” he says.
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Journaling is not just an important part of the songwriting process for Paula Cole, it’s an important part of her life. Yet it’s just one piece of the Grammy winning songwriter’s very kinesthetic process. “I feel it in my body, like there are songs burgeoning,” she says.
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“I do a dream journal in the morning on an old IBM Selectric typewriter, then an evening journal on a 1983 Apple IIe computer. ”
Mike Doughty believes that old-school discipline is a necessary component of the songwriting process.
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“I get on with work no matter what emotions I’m going through. I show up to the studio every day and get something done,” says Daniel Lanois. The legendary producer brings the discipline he uses in the control room to his songwriting process on his new album Heavy Sun.
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For both Sarah Jarosz and Margaret Glaspy, the creative process doesn’t allow for much off time. Jarosz doesn’t write on tour: it’s where she collects her ideas. And when she gets home, that’s when she sifts through all those ideas. “Even if I’m not working on a song, I’m always checking into the creative process every day,” Jarosz told me. Glaspy’s process involves using improvisation as a part of her songwriting process, “acting like I know how the song is supposed to go,” she says.
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Most artists need external stimulation, some interaction with their environment, to create. That’s why the pandemic has made it difficult for songwriters: while some have taken advantage of the lull in touring to write, many others have found the isolation debilitating to their creative process. The two Nashville-based songwriters I interviewed in this video, Langhorne Slim and Jillette Johnson, have struggled at times to write songs during quarantine.
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