Powered by RND
PodcastsMusicSongwriters on Process
Listen to Songwriters on Process in the App
Listen to Songwriters on Process in the App
(524)(250,057)
Save favourites
Alarm
Sleep timer

Songwriters on Process

Podcast Songwriters on Process
Ben Opipari
In-depth interviews with songwriters about their songwriting process. Nothing else. No talk of band drama, band names, or tour stories. Treating songwriters as ...

Available Episodes

5 of 122
  • James McGovern (The Murder Capital)
    "I have no rituals when it comes to writing. I don't want to think something can go wrong if things aren't set up the right way," says James McGovern of The Murder Capital. Indeed, that's the downside of a ritual: a fixed routine can limit your productivity when that routine isn't available. But McGovern does have one tiny "ritual" that I wholeheartedly endorse: writing the bad stuff before he gets to the good stuff.And as an aside, any songwriter who references Yeats, Keats, and Heaney in one podcast is forever my hero.The Murder Capital's latest album is BlindnessSend us a text
    --------  
    50:09
  • Christian Lee Hutson
    “My biggest hurdle as a writer is trying to hack my brain to become less critical,” Christian Lee Hutson says. In other words, Hutson wants to get the hell out of his own way when he writes. I've heard this before from other songwriters: Matt Nathanson has a name for that annoyingly critical voice in his head that he's always trying to silence: "the assassin."Hutson and I talked at length about the process of discovery through mistakes. You can’t write the good stuff if you’re afraid of writing the bad stuff. Getting better as a writer is all about surprising yourself, and you can’t do that if you’re too self-critical as you write. Christian Lee Hutson’s latest album Paradise Pop. 10 is out now. Send us a text
    --------  
    54:55
  • Eli Hewson and Josh Jenkinson of Inhaler
    Eli Hewson of Inhaler usually stays up and writes all night. Come morning, he heads to bed and will sometimes pass his father Bono (yes, that Bono), who is just beginning his day and starting to write. (All of the band members live with their parents.) Hewson's admittedly "terrible sleeping habits" are nothing new; when he was five years old, his mother often found him watching tv in the middle of the night. Hewson's bandmate Josh Jenkinson wants no part of those late night writing sessions. "I just go to bed," he says. Jenkinson is a daytime writer; like Hewson, he's most productive when no one else is around. And in his case, that's when his mother is at work and the house is quiet. Aside from that difference, Hewson and Jenkinson mostly see eye-to-eye on the writing process. Both extol the benefits of the Rubik's Cube, of all things, on songwriting. Jenkinson says that the problem solving "becomes so mechanical that I can think about other things while I'm doing it." And both lament the "erosion of boredom" and how its loss impacts our ability to create.Inhaler’s latest album Open Wide is out now.Send us a text
    --------  
    54:58
  • Hamilton Leithauser of The Walkmen
    Ed Note: Here’s my 2013 interview with Leithauser and my 2022 interview with his bandmate Walter Martin from The Walkmen.Hamilton Leithauser keeps regular hours. And those hours can be early: on the day we talked, he had started writing at 5am. It’s a problem if he doesn’t write every day, he says. "If I don’t write every day, I feel anxious or like I’ve done something wrong."I don't think Leithauser ever rests. "I can't ever stop doing stuff," he says, saying that it may border on "maniacal." So when he's not writing, his other hobbies include, but are probably not limited to, woodworking, photography, racquetball, kitesurfing, and chess. (Even when he's playing chess, he admits to writing music.) Oh, and he has two young kids.Leithauser’s new solo album This Side of the Island is out March 7 on Glassnote Records.Send us a text
    --------  
    43:14
  • Cecilia Castleman
    If you see Cecilia Castleman browsing the paint aisle at Home Depot, she’s probably not looking for paint. She’s looking for song ideas. Castleman finds inspiration everywhere, but paint names, she says, are particularly rich sources for song ideas and lyrics. And as you’ll hear, baking cakes and looking at old houses are great sources too. It took me about ten seconds—the first notes of the opening guitar riff—of listening to the opening track “It’s Alright” to realize I was going nowhere for the next 48 minutes. This album is good. I mean really, really good. Cecilia Castleman’s self-titled debut is out on Glassnote Records.Send us a text
    --------  
    37:13

More Music podcasts

About Songwriters on Process

In-depth interviews with songwriters about their songwriting process. Nothing else. No talk of band drama, band names, or tour stories. Treating songwriters as writers, plain and simple. By Ben Opipari, English Lit Ph.D.
Podcast website

Listen to Songwriters on Process, Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app

Get the free radio.net app

  • Stations and podcasts to bookmark
  • Stream via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
  • Supports Carplay & Android Auto
  • Many other app features
Social
v7.11.0 | © 2007-2025 radio.de GmbH
Generated: 3/13/2025 - 6:17:59 PM