S.G. Goodman was raised a farmer's daughter and studied philosophy in college. This means that not only does she love to ponder, she has time do it during those long days in the field. The product of all the pondering: amazing lyrics.
It's not a surprise, then, that Goodman doesn't like to write on tour and doesn't like to be inside at all when she writes. In fact, when she's on tour, she can't wait to get back home, where she can be outside and work with her hands. "Whenever I can, I try to get outside and do some kind of manual labor. That's when I'm the most creative," Goodman told me.
In this interview, Goodman also talks about the effect that her diagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder has on her editing process. It used to mean that finishing songs was almost impossible because she always went back and tweaked over and over. Then one day a friend asked her a simple question: "Have you said everything you want to say?" And that's the litmus test she asks herself at the end of her songwriting process.
S.G. Goodman's latest album is called Teeth Marks.