Mark Morton (Lamb of God) and Alain Johannes

Mark Morton (Lamb of God) and Alain Johannes talk about their creative process and what inspires them to write.

ED NOTE: This is a new interview format. It’s a video conversation between two songwriters in which I ask the occasional question and stay the heck out of the way as the two artists talk. With this format, you’ll probably not see a written transcription. For all the artist interviews, check out the Songwriters on Process YouTube page.

For Mark Morton (Lamb of God) and Alain Johannes , inspiration for songs often comes from the ordinary, everyday life. The environment is an especially fertile place: Morton says songs come to him while gardening and cutting the grass, while for Johannes it can be the sounds throughout the day from ordinary objects.

This is the second time I’ve interviewed Morton and Johannes; I interviewed Morton in 2014 and Johannes in 2010. I’ve kept in touch with both since then, so it was easy to get these two guys together to talk about their creative process, especially since there’s mutual admiration between the two. In fact, they collaborated on the recent Mark Lanegan solo album Straight Songs of Sorrow: Johannes produced and played on it, while Morton co-wrote and also played on it.

Morton is best known as the guitarist and songwriter for Lamb of God. Johannes co-founded the band Eleven and has a fantastic career as a solo artist. His list of credits is endlessly impressive: Them Crooked Vultures, Queens of the Stone Age, Chris Cornell, Mark Lanegan, PJ Harvey, Eagles of Death Metal, Jimmy Eat World. (There’s not enough space here to list them all.) So watch as these two guys talk all about their creative process, from beginning to end.