Interviews

Posts in Singer/Songwriter

Joy Williams

In February 2011 I interviewed a new group called The Civil Wars, ten days after the release of their debut Barton Hollow. The rest was, of course, history, as Joy Williams and John Paul White went on to huge success, including four Grammys and worldwide critical adulation. The group broke up in 2014.

Williams released her solo debut Venus this year. In the 160 or so interviews I've done for this site, one pattern has emerged among the truly creative souls here: they are always songwriters, and they are always thinking about creating. John Oates, for example, told me about his songwriting antennae that are always up. Melissa Etheridge, whom I just interviewed yesterday and as you'll read soon, told me that she's always carrying her "idea bucket" around. And so it is with Williams: the creative process is always at the forefront in some form. She writes every day, she's reading five books at any given time, she loves cooking and the creativity inherent in that process.

Singer/Songwriter, Folk Rock, Dine Alone Records, Pop, Grammy WinnerBen OpipariJuly 25, 2015Comment

Johnathan Rice

By his own admission, Johnathan Rice has a "mysterious" writing process. He doesn't think he's ever written the same way twice. Yet his best songs have always come fully formed; that is, they don't even appear until he sits down to play, when they pour out of him all at once. Of course, this doesn't happen very often: he's been working on a song about the race horse Barbaro for a few years now, and despite all of his tinkering, Rice still hasn't released it because he's not happy with it yet.

Rice is a "voracious" reader, and I love his answer below about how all that reading has made him a better songwriter. Rice has also learned a great deal about himself through his many collaborations, including with Elvis Costello and of course Jenny Lewis with Jenny and Johnny.

Indie, Singer/SongwriterBen OpipariJanuary 12, 2014johnathan rice, jenny lewis, singer songwriter, jenny and johnnyComment

Sara Watkins, Nickel Creek

Much of Sara Watkins' songwriting process involves not writing songs. Her routine is filled with creative exercises that don't produce lyrics but still make her a better songwriter. Some of these exercises are, in her words, "silly and pointless," like when she creates Christmas cards or arts and crafts projects. Sometimes she sketches. Other times, her song lyrics start as long journal entries, and it's not until the last line of the entry that she hits on a lyric or the focus of the song.

All these activities make her a better songwriter because they strengthen the creative side of her brain. This idea holds true for most of the songwriters I've interviewed for this site: the most prolific, by far, are those who engage in other creative outlets or who read voraciously. By contrast, the worldview of a one-dimensional artist is pretty limited. I was intrigued by one exercise Watkins gives herself that has nothing to do with songwriting: she takes a few items lying around the house (maybe a piece of paper, a bobby pin, and a rubber band) and creates something with it. The fewer items she uses, the better the product.

Nonesuch Records, Singer/Songwriter, Folk Rock, CountryBen OpipariJuly 25, 2013midnight sun, nickel creek, sara watkinsComment

Hayes Carll (2013)

Hayes Carll was a writer before he was ever a songwriter. In fact, before he even knew how to play the guitar, he loved to write. True story: his favorite part of junior high and high school was when his teacher told the students to freewrite for 20 minutes. Let that sink in for a minute. He loved to be told to write. And Carll's goal was not just to write a great story in those 20 minutes; instead, he wanted to write more pages than any of his classmates. He still has those junior high and high school writing journals, even mining them for ideas on occasion.

With that history, it's no wonder he's been called one of the best storytellers in the singer/songwriter and country western world today. If you're a fan of Carll, you'll obviously love this interview. But if you're not too familiar with his music and just happen to be a songwriter, you'll still love it. Just as Carll explains that he's a fan of this site because he wants to learn about the creative processes of other songwriters, you'll find this interview to be its own lesson in songwriting.

Country, Americana, Country Folk, Dualtone Records, Lost Highway Records, Singer/SongwriterBen OpipariJune 20, 2013hayes carll Comments

Richard Buckner (Part Two)

Here's the second part of my interview with Richard Buckner. You can read part one here.

Merge Records, Singer/Songwriter, Alt CountryBen OpipariAugust 10, 2011our blood, richard bucknerComment

Richard Buckner (Part One)

There's something wrong when Ke$ha is filthy rich and Richard Buckner had to drive a forklift to make ends meet. It's proof that talent isn't a great equalizer. But herein lies my ethical dilemma: I think I want Buckner to have those crazy jobs (besides driving a forklift, he's held road signs and worked for the U.S. Census), because it's those experiences and the characters he encounters there that make him a storyteller. You can't be a writer if you don't have authentic experiences. It's why megastars like Ke$ha and Katy Perry are no longer individuals: they've become corporations who are so insulated from people like you and me that all they can do is sing about overwrought and cliched topics.

Buckner lives in Kingston, New York, not far from Woodstock in the Hudson Valley. Our conversation went far longer than I had expected, so I'm posting the first part today and the second part next week. Buckner is a joy to talk to; he's got a wonderful, hearty laugh and an intensity that reflects the dedication to his craft. It's a cheerful intensity, though; he talks with a smile on his face at a pace that suggests that he has so much to say but only a limited time to get it out.

Alt Country, Merge Records, Singer/SongwriterBen OpipariAugust 3, 2011merge records, our blood, richard buckner Comments

David Bazan

David Bazan had me at "Galway Kinnell." You see, Kinnell is one of my favorite poets, one of the best around. Before my interview with Bazan, I interviewed Jeremy Messersmith and had mentioned that songwriters should read more poetry and that they should start with Kinnell. After talking to Messersmith, I had some time to kill, so I opened one of my Galway Kinnell books and read. So when Bazan told me later that day, unprompted, that he was a Kinnell fan, I swooned all the way out of my chair.

There's so much to Bazan's songwriting process. He's one of those songwriters who sees himself as a writer, not just a songwriter. Had he seen me on the other end of the phone when he told me about his creative process, I would have been nodding my head vigorously, because so much of what he said is what I tell other writers:

Barsuk Records, Indie, Singer/SongwriterBen OpipariJuly 18, 2011david bazan, pedro the lion, strange negotiations Comments

Laura Stevenson, Laura Stevenson and the Cans

After close to 100 interviews for this site, artists have given me a variety of answers as to why they write songs. Some just enjoy playing music, a pleasurable experience as an end in itself. For others, it was probably rooted in those Suzuki method piano lessons that their parents made them take. And, of course, for still others music is an emotional outlet, as it is for Laura Stevenson, of Laura Stevenson and the Cans. Music has helped Stevenson through some dark times, times so dark that she did nothing: her phone went unanswered, her bills went unpaid. But songwriting is a cathartic process for her; she expresses topics that she hasn't even told her therapist. I don't think writer's block will ever be an issue for Stevenson, since, in her words, she has "decades" of material from which to draw.

Folk Rock, Indie Rock, Don Giovanni Records, Singer/SongwriterBen OpipariJune 15, 2011laura stevenson, laura stevenson and the cans, sit resist Comment

Taylor Goldsmith, Dawes

In at least one high school English class this year, Taylor Goldsmith's writing has been taught alongside the classics. It's a tribute to Goldsmith's songwriting and storytelling that one English teacher discovered that the themes of Dawes' debut North Hills mirror the themes in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. After talking to Goldsmith, none of this really surprises me. He's ridiculously well-read, devouring the classics (I have a PhD in English, and I admit that I haven't touched some of the authors he's read). His method of songwriting is unorthodox, at least among the 90+ songwriters I've interviewed: he often starts the songwriting process with the title, he doesn't like to use nonsense syllables as placeholders when he starts crafting the lyrics, and he writes each song with a fixed topic in mind. All of this is what makes him a great storyteller and what draws comparisons to the Laurel Canyon scene.

Folk Rock, Singer/Songwriter, ATO Records, Indie FolkBen OpipariJune 2, 2011dawes, north hills, nothing is wrong, taylor goldsmith Comments

James Vincent McMorrow

James Vincent McMorrow is nothing if not patient and methodical. A lesser songwriter might be driven crazy by the snail's pace of his writing process: it took McMorrow nearly six months to write his debut Early in the Morning (Vagrant Records). Some days he wrote only a few sentences; on others, just a few words. It would be easy to call this writer's block; after all, if you sit for a whole day and only write five or six sentences, surely your creative spigot is closed.

But this is all part of McMorrow's process, and here's the difference. Any good writer will tell you that their writing process never stops. It's happening when they eat, sleep, talk, stare, read, whatever. The actual pen-to-paper part, the end product, is only a small part of that process. Sure, it's the most gratifying, but it's only one part of many. So it's not that McMorrow writes slowly. (Well, he might, since I've haven't seen the speed of his penmanship.) Instead, he writes deliberately. And he's fine with that.

Singer/Songwriter, Folk, Alternative, Vagrant RecordsBen OpipariApril 26, 2011early in the morning, james vincent mcmorrowComment

Joe Michelini, River City Extension

Joe Michelini of River City Extension isn't the first songwriter to tell me that he uses cooking as part of his songwriting process. But he might be the first one to tell me that he uses it almost as a source of self-flagellation: when he gets writer's block, he eats and eats. Just gorges himself. Then, when he feels sufficiently terrible about doing nothing but staying inside and eating all day, he ventures out. And when he does, he sees the world in an entirely new way. Everything looks fresh, like seeing the world for the first time.

Americana, Singer/SongwriterBen OpipariApril 5, 2011joe michelini, river city extension, the unmistakeable manComment

Dave Hause

It's not often that I get to exchange bedtime routines with a songwriter. But that's what Dave Hause and I did at the end of our interview. We had been talking for about 50 minutes and established that we had a great deal in common, so it's probably little surprise that it came to this point. We both read a lot of magazines. Too many, really, to keep up with. So they just pile up next to our beds, waiting to be read. The second we finish one, two more arrive.

Hause's songwriting process and reading material reflect his high level of engagement with his environment. And this level of engagement makes for one thing: Hause is a smart and introspective man. He doesn't just give me answers, he tells me why he does what he does. And he's able to do this because he's constantly thinking about his place in the world. He reads Rolling Stone for the political articles and GQ for the non-fiction. He's constantly picking up auditory and visual cues for song ideas, and he has an endless supply of notebooks and Blackberry files to show for it.

Punk, Americana, Folk Rock, Singer/SongwriterBen OpipariMarch 21, 2011dave hause, resolutions- build and burn, the loved onesComment

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