Songwriters on Process

Dev Hynes had me at the bookshelves.All those bookshelves behind him our Zoom interview, rising to the ceiling and stuffed with books. Small wonder, then, that Hynes works best in daily consumption mode rather than creation mode. He's adamant about not writing every day.The creative process is all about keeping it fun for Hynes. He likes to write in the afternoon for the simple reason that he likes his mornings, and who wants to write at night? Hynes isn't big on fancy equipment: he bought his third and fourth guitars only a couple of months ago. "Nothing matters to me as far as equipment," Hynes says. And when he hits a wall in the songwriting process, he doesn't push things too far if it looks like things aren't working. "I won't fold, but I'll see how hollow the wall is," he explains. The new Blood Orange album is called Essex Honey.

There's a difference between wanting to write and needing to write. For Will Taylor of Flyte, it's usually a need. Taylor says that he doesn't write every day, but instead writes after an accumulation of experiences. "I know it's time because a sadness comes over me. It's a quite noticeable funk, and the clouds need to break," says Taylor. But for Taylor and his bandmate Nicolas Hill, that need to write doesn't mean inefficiency. As you'll hear, they have little patience for those songs that take too long to finish. "We have no problem throwing songs away immediately if they aren't working. We don't keep them lying around to work on them later."Flyte's latest album is Between You and Me. 

Meg Duffy, the talented musician behind Hand Habits and creator of the album Blue Reminder, shares her unique approach to songwriting. She highlights how inspiration can strike in unexpected moments, even during mundane tasks like oil changes. Duffy emphasizes 'summoning' creativity, balancing routine with spontaneity, and reveals the emotional challenges of songwriting. With anecdotes about her life below fellow artist Kyle Thomas, this conversation offers insight into the quirks that drive her artistic process.

The theme of today's podcast is nourishment.It dawned on me a few minutes into my conversation with Hannah Cohen that when she said proper nourishment was critical to her writing process, she was being literal.  It was no metaphor. If Cohen's not hydrated and fed, the creative process becomes much more arduous. She's the first songwriter to ever tell me that. But when Cohen also told me that "the body keeps score," she was now talking nourishment as metaphor. She expressed a view that every writer knows: your writing process is always taking place. It's happening when you're eating, sleeping, working, talking, moving, whatever. Pen hitting paper is only a small part of that process. Cohen tells a great story in this episode of how her new song "Rag" came about. Back to the literal: it started with an actual rag on the side of the road. Cohen's latest album is Earthstar Mountain,

Ed Note: Lzzy Hale has collaborated with Mark Morton (Lamb of God) in the past. I co-authored Mark's new book Desolation: A Heavy Metal Memoir, hence the occasional reference to Mark and our book in this episode.Many songwriters I interview have a journal. Very few have two. Lzzy Hale of Halestorm is the only one who has three. She has a five-year journal, a freewrite journal, and a pocket field note journal "for when the mood strikes." Which, judging by our conversation, happens every waking moment for Hale. And probably a lot of sleeping moments too. Even a cursory listen to this episode will reveal Hale's enthusiasm for the creative process. She loves talking about it. Her passion for writing flows literally: she uses a fountain pen! Hale calls herself "a serial eavesdropper" as she's always listening for song ideas. And most importantly: she's not afraid to write the bad stuff to get to the good. "Every good songwriter has songs under their bed that suck," Hale says. Halestorm's new album Everest is out now. 

You think you're busy? You're not busy. Sophie Payten (known professionally as Gordi) is busy. She's a songwriter AND a physician. On this episode, we discuss how she finds time to do anything. We also explore how she so beautifully weaves themes from the world of patient care into her songwriting.Gordi's latest album, Like Plasticine, is out now. 

"I see no point in being bored. I just don't understand the concept.  So I'm always looking for things to occupy my time and get me excited," Peter Berkman of Anamanaguchi told me. Berkman actually told me this in 2011, when he was one of my first interviews for this site. And let me tell you: he hasn't changed one bit. Talking to Berkman and Ary Warnaar, it's obvious that music plays only a tiny role in their inspiration and creative process. In fact, Warnaar says that the only people he even talks music with are the members of the band.  Both men are inspired by music, visual art, movies, video games, and German philosophers. If it invades their senses, it's inspiring.Anamanaguchi's latest album is Anyway on Polyvinyl Records.

Cody Jinks had me at "I could talk about books forever." He estimates that he reads 80-100 books a year. All that reading leads to a lot of writing: songs, poetry, a journal, and an almost completed memoir. Oh and he paints. That's a great example of the through line between reading and writing: if you want to write well, you have to read. (Shameless plug: one of the books he read last year was my book)Jinks's latest album is In My Blood.

"Songwriting is about being awake to something you've never thought of or a way of thinking about something you've never experienced before," Mary Chapin Carpenter says on the pod. The five-time GRAMMY winner has a poet's way of thinking about songwriting. And on those rare occasions when she's stuck, she goes songwalking.I've always been a fan of Carpenter's music, but when she mentioned David Grann and S.A. Cosby as two of her favorite writers, I swooned.Carpenter's new album, her 17th, is Personal History. 

I'm a huge Indigo De Souza fan, so I had a great time on this episode! We went deep into her songwriting process and discussed, among other things, how moving from western North Carolina to Los Angeles changed her songwriting process, how television plays a role in her writing routine, and what part of the day she's most effective as a writer.De Souza's latest album is Precipice.