Songwriters on Process

On this episode of the podcast, Grace Cummings talks about why her phone has been such a drain on her creativity and why she's making a conscious effort to stay away from it. But sometimes that phone can be pretty useful. For one, it allows Cummings to create her alter ego Cheryl. (You'll understand once you listen.) And it also allows her to create a fantastic filing system for her song ideas with labels like "excellent" and "very excellent" that we both agreed are pretty good mini pep-talks.  Cummings's new album Ramona is out April 5 on ATO Records.

Will Taylor and Charlie Martin of Hovvdy take a deep dive into their songwriting processes on the podcast. We delve into, among other things, the nuts and bolts of the revision process and whether distance is important when writing about an event.Hovvdy's new (double!) album Hovvdy is out April 26 on Arts & Crafts Records.

Evan Lewis and Tom McGreevy of Ducks Ltd seem to be at opposite ends of the creative  spectrum when it comes to organization. Lewis likes chaos: "The process should be a disaster," he says. McGreevy, on the other hand, needs order. His writing process involves emailing lyrics to himself, editing them, then sending the edited version to himself. Over and over.  This allows McGreevy to see the version history of the lyrics in one giant email thread. The new Ducks Ltd. album Harm's Way  is out now on Carpark Records.  I'm very proud that not once in this podcast will you hear the term "jangle pop."

Future Islands stops by today to talk about their individual and collective processes, which sometimes involves folding laundry and listening to trains. They've also earned the title of Most Well-Read Band I've Ever Interviewed: just listen to the dizzying number of favorite authors and literary influences they all have. That discussion alone could've been an entire episode. The new album by Future Islands is called People Who Aren't There Anymore, out now on 4AD Records. 

I had such a good time interviewing Martin Courtney of Real Estate back in 2022 for his solo album that we're doing it again! This time, Real Estate has a great new album out called Daniel on Domino Records. Courtney and I once again go deep into his songwriting process, including how it's changed since his solo album. And of course we talk children's literature too. 

Johnny Marr (The Smiths, The Cribs, Modest Mouse, The The, so many more) is arguably one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of the last 50 years.  So don't waste any time reading this intro. Just listen to the podcast. It's one of my favorites. Lots of talk about our favorite authors and some great stories too!Marr's latest album Spirit Power: The Best of Johnny Marr is out now. His book Marr's Guitars is out too. 

Untame the Tiger (Merge Records) is Mary Timony's first solo album in 15 years, and it's so good, from start to finish. For the uninitiated: Timony's bands have included Helium, Autoclave, Wild Flag, and Ex-Hex.  All fantastic. Last year Rolling Stone named her #95 on the top 200 greatest guitarists of all time.  To get to this stage of excellence, Timony's process involves writing garbage.  "The only thing that works for me is writing a lot of bad stuff I really don't like," she says. Timony writes in the morning then sets it aside. "The most important part of my process is that I have to forget everything I just did, then go about my day. If the song comes back to me, maybe three hours later, then I can judge it. That new person that I am who hasn’t written the song has to judge it.  And 99 percent of the time, I don’t like it." All the garbage just gave us one hell of an album. *Here's my recent interview with Carrie Brownstein

You get two for one in this episode with Eliza McLamb and Sarah Tudzin! Both are songwriters: McLamb's debut album Going Through It  is out now, and Tudzin is the founder and frontperson for Illuminati Hotties. We're here this week because Tudzin also produced McLamb's album. But you may also know McLamb as the co-host of the Binchtopia podcast, and I have a feeling you'll be hearing Tudzin's name a couple of times on February 4 because she has three GRAMMY nominations for her work on the boygenius album.  

"Writing is a form of contemplation," says Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney on the podcast.  And while it's true that the actual act of putting pen to paper involves contemplating, Brownstein and I agree that the writing process is happening 24/7, not just during the act of transcription. You may not realize it, but you're writing and contemplating as you walk, talk, listen, sleep, eat, watch tv, whatever.But when it comes time for Brownstein to actually put pen to paper, nothing beats a good old cheap couch she found on Craigslist. As you'll hear, it's the cheapness that makes it such an important part of her ritual.Sleater-Kinney's latest album Little Rope is fantastic.*Here's my 2010 interview with Corin Tucker.

"When I write songs, I put on a miner's light and try to make it around the next corner."Josh Radnor found fame playing Ted Mosby on "How I Met Your Mother," but he's also a terrific songwriter (and stage actor) with a new album Eulogy: Volume 1. Radnor stops by the podcast as we take a deep dive into his songwriting process. We talk about how his creative process as an actor intersects with his songwriting process, why he often starts with a lyrical idea  and not a melody, and why procrastination can be a very good thing. Oh, and how food poisoning can give rise to a great song.