Ben Bridwell, Band of Horses
Ben Bridwell, Band of Horses

Oh, to be a young and single songwriter.  There are no limits to your creative process: without family commitments, you can write anywhere, anytime.  And that's what Ben Bridwell, singer and songwriter for Band of Horses, did.  He went to cabins and cabooses, from mountains to ocean shores.  Bridwell craves that isolation to write, and he thought it was a necessary component to his process. And that isolation, he believed, couldn't be a quiet room in the house. It had to be far away. (Not all songwriters need solitude, though; many have told me that they prefer to be around at least a little bit of action.  There's Cory Branan, who wrote his first two albums in a mall food court.  And there's Rhett Miller, who likes venue stairwells, where it's quiet but he not too far from the hustle and bustle of load in.)

Three daughters and a wife later, Bridwell can no longer pack up his notebooks and head to the hills to write like he used to.  He's got a family now.  But he's found the perfect space: his garage-cum-studio.  No one bothers him there, though admittedly they stay away for more practical reasons: according to Bridwell, "it's dark and there are lots of bugs."  Having this space made Bridwell realize that it's solitude that matters, not where the solitude is.

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Alternative, Indie Rock, Folk Rock, Pop, Sub Pop Records, Fat Possum RecordsBen Opipari Comments
Carl Newman, The New Pornographers
Carl Newman, The New Pornographers

At the beginning of our interview, Carl Newman of The New Pornographers said that he didn’t think he had a process. He insisted that he was “absolutely not a disciplined writer.” But as he discovered by the time we finished talking, he does have a process. In fact, it’s happening all the time, probably as you read this. 

Newman may not sit down to write every day or may not have structured writing time, but according to him, “There’s an obsession in the back of my head that always makes me think about writing. I’m distracted by the idea of songwriting.”  I get the sense that Newman is never not thinking about music. He’s always picking up words or turns of a phrase, and he’s always got melodies in his head. So it’s a nonstop process, even though it’s not a deliberate and conscious one. But the act of actually sitting down to write is “painful,” says Newman.

Read my interview with Carl Newman after the video.  We get to the bottom of his creative process, but we also talk about Infinite Jest, his obsession with 10cc, and why lyrics are such a punishing part of his songwriting process.  And course, we talk about the role that turn signals and windshield wipers play in his creative process.

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Matador Records, Indie Rock, Indie, Power PopBen OpipariComment
Cory Branan
Cory Branan

Next time you pass through a food court at your local mall, look around for the guy in the video below.  He's probably got his head down, scrawling on a piece of paper or maybe even a sketch pad.  He likes the energy of the people there, as long as it doesn't distract him.  Don't be surprised if it's Cory Branan; after all, the food court at the Oak Court Mall in Memphis is where he wrote his first two albums.

Rolling Stone named Branan one of the "10 New Artists You Need to Know in 2014" for his terrific new release The No Hit Wonder on Bloodshot Records.  Branan's music has been described by critics as a mixture of country, punk, and rock n roll.  But he's also a fantastic storyteller who takes great care to craft his lyrics.  He's one of the few songwriters I've interviewed who starts with the lyrics rather than the music, and by his own admission his process involves "tons of overwriting coupled with merciless editing." What's important to Branan more than the content of the words is the cadence and the rhythm of the lyrics.  It's something he's always thinking about: in fact, the voice memo on his phone is so filled with lines and lyrics that he can no longer use it to play music at parties.  If he does, and it's on shuffle, you're liable to hear a voice memo of Cory reciting song ideas in between songs.

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Bloodshot Records, Alt Country, Folk Rock, RockBen OpipariComment
Kevn Kinney, Drivin' N Cryin'
Kevn Kinney, Drivin' N Cryin'

It is a testament to Kevn Kinney's stature among songwriters that other artists like Matt Nathanson and David Bazan tweeted their enthusiasm when I announced that Kinney would be featured here.  Kinney has fronted Drivin' N Cryin' for close to 30 years now, and I've been a fan for most of those years.  Kinney is a native of Milwaukee but the band started in Atlanta, so naturally they've been pegged as a Southern rock band, whatever THAT designation is.  I prefer to see them as a rock band, plain and simple, with early staples like "Fly Me Courageous," "Honeysuckle Blue,"  and "Can't Promise You the World." The band is still active in both recording and touring, releasing one LP and four EPs since 2009. 

 

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Influencers, Alt Country, Rock, Hard Rock, Americana, Southern RockBen Opiparikevin kinney, kevn kinney, drivin n cryin, singer songwriter, Americana Comments