Songwriters on Process

Courtney Marie Andrews, a talented singer-songwriter and poet, shares her powerful creative process. She details her unique 'chunk writing' discipline, collecting ideas on tour and dedicating time at home for intense writing sessions. Andrews discusses the balance between her poetry and songwriting, emphasizing how different art forms influence her work. She also challenges the myth of writer's block, advocating for steady practice and embracing the unexpected inspiration that arises during solitary walks in nature.

"To write about something sad and dark, I need to feel content, to feel a sense of well being. I can't write when I'm depressed," Lucinda Williams told me. Much of my discussion with Williams focused on how we prepare to write. By her own admission, she's obsessed with paper. "I could spend hours in an office supply store," says Williams. A comfortable chair is necessary too, but not too comfortable because, well, it's easy to fall asleep in a deep chair. And coffee is important, not necessarily because of the caffeine but because of the nostalgic element. We also did some close reading of her father's poetry. I've been a big fan of Miller Williams for many years and taught his poems when I was in academia. We discussed his ability to take decidedly unpoetic images and phrases like radar detector and cellular phone and make them beautiful. Lucinda Williams' latest album is called World's Gone Wrong.

"I've been very happy lately, and that's worrying," KT Tunstall told me. "It's much easier to write sad songs than happy songs. Happiness makes you want to be present, but pain makes you want to escape. And music has always been a way for me to get out."Tunstall is adamant about not writing every day. "I love doing nothing, so mindless puttering is especially effective. When she finally sits down, she has rules: no blue pens, and the paper has to be unlined. Why unlined? Because she hates being told what to do, and lined paper represents a means of control. Tunstall is celebrating the 20th anniversary of her debut album Eye to the Telescope with a deluxe edition out now. 

Melody Prochet, the French singer-songwriter behind Melody's Echo Chamber, dives into her creative process and the rituals that shape it. She shares the importance of a clean workspace and daily seaside walks for clarity and inspiration. Balancing discipline with creative flow, she explores how ordinary routines and journaling inform her melodies. Melody reveals the soothing power of nature on her songwriting and discusses how past challenges transform into luminous tracks, like 'Broken Roses' from her latest album, Unclouded.

"Pants delivery was my eureka moment," Julien Ehrlich of Whitney says on the pod, and with that we have my favorite out-of-context pull quote. Ehrlich was not speaking metaphorically: when he and bandmate Max Kakacek were writing Whitney's first album, he drove a clothing delivery van that had no working radio. The monotonous drives were great sources of inspiration. Kakacek, on the other hand, was a competitive swimmer until he turned 18. Swimming endless laps staring at the bottom of the pool was a boon to his creative process. Kakacek runs now, where the monotony takes on a new shape: he listens to the same song over and over for his entire run."Lyrics don't come naturally to our brain," they said. "Our North Star is the melody." One big change to their process is learning how to tweak less.Whitney's latest album is Small Talk.

“I’m a ‘go in phases’ type of gal. It took me a year and a half to write this record, but it came in blocks,” Gatlin says. It’s how she manages her routine in those blocks that makes her songwriting process so fascinating. Gatlin is most effective between 3pm and 5pm, and thanks to a typing class she took as a child, she can type those lyrics at 95 words per minute. She finds walks to be particularly inspiring for lyrics, but when she’s with her guitar, Gatlin sits cross-legged and gently rocks back and forth as a way to focus. And just like many songwriters have told me, bathrooms are especially productive. Gatlin’s latest album is Eldest Daughter on Dualtone Records. 

"I made a conscious effort on this album to be more disciplined in my writing because my ideas were getting stale and I was writing from the same place," Mariel Buckley told me. "I realized that my material was becoming repetitive when I was waiting for inspiration to strike." Buckley's new process involved writing every day and writing from a more joyful place. The result is her fantastic new album Strange Trip Ahead. 

Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten of Momma return! Momma is my favorite band and their new album Welcome to My Blue Sky is my favorite album of 2025. At least I'm consistent since I said the same thing about them when they were on the pod in 2023. (Their live show is absolutely killer too.)Friedman and Weingarten have been writing together since their teens, and one thing hasn't changed over the years: they still write most of their songs in Etta's bedroom. But as you'll hear, there are exceptions. Weingarten wrote the riff to "Medicine" in the shower, and the title track to the new album got its start in a green room.

Conor Oberst, the talented singer-songwriter behind Bright Eyes, shares insights into his creative process. He humorously calls himself a 'professional daydreamer,' revealing how mundane tasks spark his best ideas. He uses a unique two-column notebook method for drafting lyrics, blending polished lines with rough concepts. Oberst discusses the importance of solitude for reflection and how forgetting many ideas helps filter the gems worth pursuing. He also highlights how experiences from literature and art shape his songwriting, emphasizing the beauty in embracing self-doubt.

"I get a physical tingling sensation. It's beyond my control, an impulsive feeling where I have to sit and wait for it," Billie Marten says about that moment before a wave of inspiration strikes. The problem, Marten told me, is that it's been a while since she's written anything.But as we soon realized, Marten has been writing a lot: she pulled out her Notes app and scrolled through all the freewriting and thoughts she's written over the past year. "Look at this," she says. "I haven't written anything, but I've written something every day." Good writers know that pen to paper is only a small part of the writing process. And as you'll hear, when Marten writes songs, she loves to write diagonally.Billie Marten's latest album is called Dog Eared.