B.J. Barham of American Aquarium has a writing process like no songwriter I’ve ever interviewed. Plenty have told me that for them it’s as simple as scribbling lyrics on a sheet of paper. But not Barham. His songwriting process is akin to the research routine of a graduate student.
Read MoreElizabeth Cook and Lydia Loveless have some great advice for writers of any stripe in this interview. Like Cook, I’ve always told people that good writers understand that the actual pen-to-paper part of the writing process is only a small part of it. And like Loveless, I don’t think an idea for writing has ever come after sitting down to think about what to write.
We talk about how Pilot Pens (black), hot toddies, and voodoo deities played an important role in the creative process behind their last albums. Watch our Zoom interview to find out which one of them ate corndogs on Christmas day as part of that process!
Read MoreShooter Jennings is not one for rest. While you’re reading this, he’s somewhere creating something. You may know Jennings for his career as a singer/songwriter, and that career alone should keep him busy. But this does not satisfy the man. He also creates video games just for fun: he’s on his third now and has written tens of thousands of lines of code for these science fiction role playing games.
Read MoreI know no better demonstration of the link between reading and songwriting than the advice Ray Wylie Hubbard gives songwriters: "Don't just listen to 'The Ghost of Tom Joad.' Read The Grapes of Wrath. That’s a classic song, but Springsteen wouldn't have written it if he hadn’t read Steinbeck." Of course, Steinbeck is probably a beach read for Hubbard. His staples are writers like Baudelaire, Verlaine, and Rimbaud. And before he goes to bed each night, he'll often pull down Dante's Divine Comedy from the bookshelf to see how that text might inspire his songwriting.
Read More
