Songwriting & The Number 38 Bus

I have been that busy with getting stuff together for the new album I had lost focus on writing new songs. I was aware that I hadn’t come up with anything constructive since 2008 which being last year was far to long.

So over the last week or so i made a concerted effort to open my songwriting book and to get creative. Initially this resulted in me staring at a blank page on my songwriting book for a while (See 21st January photo)

Songwriting is a black art. There is no guaranteed way in allowing it to happen. It’s not a case setting aside 15mins to write a song, although in some times that’s all it takes. I wrote ‘Sway’ in about 15mins at around 11.30pm but other songs such as ‘Skin’ come together over a number of months.

It is important for me not to force the process. I have to be ready with pen and paper and in my case guitar as well in order to catch the song as it happens. If anything is missing it could be gone for ever.

Reading about other writers techniques and struggles helps to reassure me that I am not the only one that finds the process very difficult. David Bowie famously cuts out words from newspapers and magazines and then mixes them all up in a bowl, which could be quite amusing depending which section of the paper you use. Obituaries? Lonely Hearts? Pets?

Recently, I have been using my phone for capturing song titles and even snippets of guitar ideas – the problem being I got absolutely soaked at the weekend and the pocket my phone was in filled up with water rendering my phone useless. Hopefully these ideas can be salvaged and all is not lost. That’ll teach me for abandoning my notebook.

My favourite place for writing songs at the moment is in my kitchen. This has several advantages –it has close access to the fridge and the kettle, and it also helps with enclosing the sound so as not to disturb the neighbours too much. So the other night I set myself up in the kitchen with coffee, guitar, pen and paper and stared at 1 verse I had scribbled down earlier in the week. After playing the riff and going over the same verse again and again for about an hour, all of a sudden a flood of lyrics came to me and I finished the song. I then turned the page and got a good way through another new song. Whether these songs will see the light of day is another issue but it felt like a great achievement and i set off on my 2009 songwriting journey.

Songwriting seems to be much like public transport - you can spend all day waiting on the number 38 Bus and then 2 come along at once.

If anyone has any interesting songwriting tips or thoughts on how the process can be improved please leave me a comments.

Some good ideas can be found on the bbc web site www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/guide/