Ben Ottewell, vocalist and guitarist for Gomez, released his solo album Shapes and Shadows this month. It obviously offered Ottewell much more freedom in his creative process: as you'll read, everything went "a lot faster" since the buck stopped with him. Read my interview with Ottewell about his songwriting process after the video.
Read MorePedals is the new release (out March 8) from the recently reformed post-hardcore supergroup Rival Schools. It’s their first since the critically acclaimed United by Fate in 2001, and it shows that the band has not lost its knack for aggressive yet melodic music. Pedals is also a reflection of where the quartet are in life: it's filled with songs about shedding the bad elements in life and ushering in positive change.
I'm reviewing the album for the Washington Post next week, so I've been listening to it a lot. I recently spoke to singer/songwriter Walter Schreifels about his songwriting process, including how songwriting is like bowling
Read MoreOf the many songwriters I've interviewed for Songwriters on Process, they are divided into two camps when it comes to discipline in writing. Most believe that carving time out of their day to write is not the "organic" way to do things and thus leads to subpar creative output. They prefer to rely more on the inspiration of the muse. The other camp, a smaller one, believes in the importance of discipline in writing. They write on a regular basis. This routine, they feel, will make them stronger writers and will boost their creativity. So perhaps we can say that the former group is more reactive, waiting for inspiration to strike, while the latter is more proactive, actively seeking out creativity. Both groups have offered persuasive explanations for their method.
But for Ben Knox Miller of The Low Anthem, this discussion of discipline in writing is irrelevant. Sure, he writes every day. Usually upon waking, for reasons he explains below. But Miller doesn't write because he needs to or because it's part of being a songwriter or because it's a cathartic release. He does it because he likes to. He looks forward to writing. So his songwriting process really requires no discipline at all.
Read MoreAnd now for a lesson in music history.
It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Wire has had a considerable influence on rock music. I say "rock," because as songwriter Colin Newman told me, their music "takes the axe to 'rock n roll' and leaves the 'n roll' part out." Wire has been cited by bands like U2, The Cure, R.E.M., Guided By Voices, Minor Threat, and Black Flag (among countless others) as an influence. They are one of the innovators of the punk scene of the 70s and 80s, be it punk rock, art punk, post-punk, whatever. With releases like their 1977 debut Pink Flag and later Chairs Missing, Wire were era-defining; if you listen to indie rock in some form today, chances are there's a Wire influence somewhere.
Read MoreThe Get Up Kids formed in 1995 in Kansas and were a major player in the second wave of emo. They enjoyed considerable success, both in worldwide touring and record sales, before disbanding in 2005. Relatively speaking, back then life was pretty uncomplicated for singer and guitarist Matt Pryor. Sure, he was busy touring the world and writing music. But at least he didn’t have kids.
The Get Up Kids have reunited for a new tour and record. And now, Pryor is the married father of three kids ages eight and under. His family informs—in a good way—everything he does now as a songwriter. He is a devoted family man. He takes the kids to school in the morning and writes when they are gone. He puts them to bed and writes when they are asleep. His band schedule revolves around his wife's graduate school schedule. He’s even written two children’s records. As the father of three kids ages seven and under, I can appreciate Pryor's life. But as Pryor told me, people ask him, “Well why can’t you just find time to write?” To which he responds, "Unless you have kids, you just don’t understand.”
Read MoreDave Davison doesn't really understand the label “math rock” that some people have given his band Maps and Atlases. Math rock the music, like mathematics the subject, after all, requires “coldness and calculation,” according to Davison. But the four members of Maps and Atlases met at Columbia College in Chicago—an art school. Davison majored in cultural studies, Erin Elders and Chris Hainey were film majors, and Shiraz Dada majored in sound engineering. As a band, they’ve been called math rock because of their complex rhythmic structures and unconventional time signatures. But with their debut release Perch Patchwork (Barsuk Records), they've written what critics have called a more accessible sound. Regardless, Maps & Atlases plays some wonderfully unique and creative music. But that's what you get when four guys from art school start a band.
Read MoreIn Macbeth, Shakespeare writes, "Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak/Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break." Faced with loss, we must give voice to our feelings so that we can begin some semblance of recovery. For Alain Johannes, there was no other option. In 2008, Natasha Shneider, his partner in every sense of the word--in romance, in friendship, and in music--died of cancer at the age of 42. They had been together for 25 years.
Out of this grief came Jonannes' solo release Spark (Rekords Rekords). On display are all of the emotions Johannes felt after Shneider's death, from grief to anger to celebration. The album was completed in only four days; in his words, Johannnes was "pregnant" with the inspiration and ideas for it. It just had to be made, because the lyrics were ready to burst forth. He made Spark much for his own benefit: to heal, and to pay tribute to Shneider. But while the inspiration part of the process was easy, it came from a very raw state. As Dante wrote, "No greater grief than to remember joy when misery is at hand."
Read MoreSure, Best Coast is bikini beach lo-fi pop, and Bethany Cosentino says that she doesn't think too much about her lyrics. But she is a huge fan of David Foster Wallace, arguably one of the most influential and creative writers of the past twenty years, and that gives her instant street cred in the literary world.
Best Coast is one of the hottest indie bands of the summer, and their album Crazy For You dropped at the end of July. You can read any one of the endless interviews with Cosentino on the internet, but this may be the only one without a mention of her cat. I chatted with Cosentino for a few minutes this week about California, creative non-fiction writing, David Foster Wallace, and how the weather affects her creative process.
Read MoreSteve Bays, the singer and songwriter for Hot Hot Heat, grew up on the water, and he lives only feet from it now in Vancouver. But don’t expect him to take his guitar down to the water’s edge on a whim and start strumming, like some free-spirited songwriter with his toes in the sand and the wind in his hair (even though Bays and I did discover that we both share a love of the great guitar strummin’ songwriter Jim Croce). Like most professional writers, Bays needs structure to his writing process, and in that aspect he is unique among the songwriters I have talked to, who rely more on the inspiration of their muse. In fact, if you didn’t know better, you might think Bays dutifully goes to his office every day to write.
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