How to write a song, Song writing tips you need to know.

 

SONGWRITING TIPS YOU NEED TO KNOW. 

I think writer's block really comes from the concept. I think the only times people get writer's block is when they don't know what they're saying, and fix that's the case, don't write a song. 

Because the whole point of writing a song is you've got to have something to say. So there's no point in just going ''ok let's just write a song about this guy who wanders down the road... 

Ok fine, but is that really going to be it, there has to be a story. There has to be something for a song to hang off there has got to be depth, whatever that depth is, I'm not saying it's got to be a cancerto or it's got to be the deepest, weirdest lyric in the world, or trying to be clever for the sake of it. 

• What does it hang off? 
• Why are you doing it? 
• Why are you writing the song in the first place?

You're writing it because ultimately you are trying to say something, that's really what songs should be about, and I think the great songs have always got a story behind them. The great songs that stands the test of time, will have a story behind them. 

• What are they saying?
• How are they communicating it? 

Those creative ideas will hit you in the middle of the night, first thing in the morning, someone says something to you, jot it down, make a not of it. 

I've got a lyric book, I write things in there all the time, I draw in there, I've just got ideas in there. I've got my phone, with technology now it's so easy, voice notes. 

I was walking round the other day singing on my phone In the train station with people looking at me like I'm a bit odd, but at the same time I don't really care because it's an idea and I don't want to lose it. 

So you just need to make sure that your creative ideas are not lost, and when you don't have them, you can sort of go back to them and go Actually that was really cool, so I'm going to flesh it out now, I'm going to work on that idea'' until you get a song at the end of it. 

You're not always going to write a great song, so just move on. I think collaboration is a really good thing. I can write a song on my own, but I find it a lot harder and a lot more challenge when it's just myself, and I'm sure if you are a songwriter on your own, just working on your own in your own space, wherever that maybe, you don't have that other voice apart from that own voice in your head to say it it good? 

• Is this cool?
• Does that work? 
• Is it long enough?
• Are people going to like it?
• Do I sound OK on it? 

It's the demons, I call them, that fight with you when you're writing a song, and knowing that is something that you're forever working out. 

You've got to sometimes just draw a line under it. I studied art, I did art a lot, and painted and stuff, and I always found that I use that in the same reference with music. 

Well when is the painting  finished? How many layers of paints can you put on, or how many things can you stick on it for it to be whatever? what texture is it? When do you go''I've done it, there you go. Finished. 

That's one of the hardest parts, I think knowing that you can sort of put it to bed is a good thing, and I think maybe undercook it. I always will try and undercook it a tiny bit, I will try to push it too far, and I've been so guilty sometimes. 

When I first started producing you put everything into it, and you get to the point where you're like ''hold on I've got cowbells, and kicks, and hi-hats, and tambourines, and shakers, and this and that and that. 

Before you know it, the whole arrangement is like full brim with all this stuff and you go I've put too much init, I've overcooked it, I've gone too far!. 

Because I'm excited and I want all these things to go on'' But when I've undercooked it a bit more, and underplayed it and not put in as much as maybe I want to, then there's something quite nice about that. 

I think with the writing process, to keep it moving forward you've got to keep referencing what it's about. That's why I do this two day thing because you can sometimes deviate a bit off there and you want to try and keep bringing it back, 

So when you have that headspace after day one, and you've recorded it roughly, or the main bits of it are in place, like the main statements are in there, then you know where you are going and you've got that headspace that night to get wasted.. and then you can come back to it the next day and go.

This we all agree now that we've lived with it a little bit, and we've lived with it a little bit, and we're not in the studio and we're not in the room. 

Cool that is right here, or we really don't like this part lets rework it. There's nothing wrong with reworking it, nothing wrong with that at all and I think that it's important to make sure that the lyric are really strong. 

• Is that really the word you want to use?
• Is that as good as it can be? 

I would say the main thing you've got to be careful of is not belike anybody else, I mean I think we are all influenced by people and I think that is really important, but I think don't make the mistake of just being 

''The Next Thing'' because what's the point? I think you've got to try and experiment with it, have fun with it. 

The more fun and the more experimenting and the more things you do, you going to fall onto things that haven't been done that way before. It'll make you happy, that's what I'm trying to say, I think it will make you happy if you're doing things that feel right.

Don't just go for the ''oh yeah I'm going to make loads of money cos that's gonna be really great'' ok well is that really in the long term, are you doing to be that happy a few years down the line.  

Think about it we all need to pay the bills but try and balance it out, because it's a life, and it's your life and you want to make sure that you're making the right decisions.