Songwriters on Process
In-depth interviews with songwriters about their songwriting process. That's it. Nothing else. No talk of band drama, band names, or tour stories. Treating songwriters as writers, plain and simple. By Ben Opipari, English Lit Ph.D.
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"Writing is a form of contemplation," says Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney on the podcast. And while it"s true that the actual act of putting pen to paper involves contemplating, Brownstein and I agree that the writing process is happening 24/7, not just during the act of transcription. You may not realize it, but
"When I write songs, I put on a miner"s light and try to make it around the next corner." Josh Radnor found fame playing Ted Mosby on "How I Met Your Mother," but he"s also a terrific songwriter (and stage actor) with a new album Eulogy: Volume 1. Radnor stops by the podcast as we take a deep dive into his songwriting
I was already a Jaime Wyatt fan before we talked, but our shared affinity for the poet E.E. Cummings made this episode even more fun. I also knew this would be a good convo after reading an Instagram post where Wyatt declared, "I love words. And language. Always been a word nerd and love phrases that have dual meaning
"The times when I"m writing the most are when I"m reading a lot," Carl "Buffalo" Nichols says on today"s podcast. And wow is this true: you cannot be a writer of any stripe unless you read. Nichols likes to read voices that he cannot relate to. He mentions writers like Flannery O" Connor and H.L. Mencken, as well as bo
Duff McKagan"s latest solo album Lighthouse is dedicated to Cormac McCarthy, which is no surprise given the importance McKagan places on reading. The Guns N" Roses bassist reads without fail every day, so you get some great book recommendations in this episode of the podcast. McKagan doesn"t just read for pleasure; h
Jonny Pierce says that The Drums’ new album Jonny is “a little less practice, a little more mess.” That messiness finally made songwriting enjoyable for him because for a long time, it wasn’t. “I never loved songwriting. I was never the type of songwriter who couldn’t wait to get to the studio,” Pierce says on the podc