Songwriters on Process

Aaron Lee Tasjan has a pretty simple writing process: he gets up around 8am, has a glass of water, and pets his cat. Then he writes. But not every day. "I only write when my body tells me to, when I can go off yesterday's fumes," he told me. And in one of the best rituals I've ever heard, Tasjan always writes with a pencil--but never uses the eraser. "I hate erasers," he says. Tasjan lives in Nashville, where the Frist Art Museum serves as a tremendous source of inspiration for his songs. His new album Stellar Evolution is out now on Blue Elan Records.

Jane Penny, co-founder of TOPS, makes her solo debut with her fantastic EP Surfacing, out now on Luminelle Recordings. Penny stops by the podcast to talk about how Barry White has influenced her songwriting; why she has to write her lyrics in cursive; and why when you see her in the audience at a show and she's looking at her phone, she's actually deeply engaged in the creative process. She promises! I'm a big fan of TOPS, so this was a lot of of fun.

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.

I was already a Jaime Wyatt fan before we talked, but our shared affinity for the poet E.E. Cummings made this episode even more fun. I also knew this would be a good convo after reading an Instagram post where Wyatt declared, "I love words. And language. Always been a word nerd and love phrases that have dual meanings." Amazing! Wyatt's latest album Feel Good is out now on New West Records.

"The times when I'm writing the most are when I'm reading a lot," Carl "Buffalo" Nichols says on today's podcast. And wow is this true: you cannot be a writer of any stripe unless you read. Nichols likes to read voices that he cannot relate to. He mentions writers like Flannery O' Connor and H.L. Mencken, as well as books like A Clockwork Orange and A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He didn't even like them all, but he still felt that hearing those voices makes him a better writer. So on this episode we talk about how reading makes him a better songwriter, why being tired and cranky makes him a good editor, and why he likes to stop writing when he knows he still has something left in the tank. Nichols' latest album The Fatalist is out now on Fat Possum Records.

Duff McKagan's latest solo album Lighthouse is dedicated to Cormac McCarthy, which is no surprise given the importance McKagan places on reading. The Guns N' Roses bassist reads without fail every day, so you get some great book recommendations in this episode of the podcast. McKagan doesn't just read for pleasure; he reads to make himself a better person. There's a great post on his Insta page of McKagan in the stacks at the Library of Congress, and he is one happy man in that photo. You'll also learn in this episode why McKagan still has to write lyrics on a Blackberry, how he wrote one song in his head while carrying his dog, and why the New York Times crossword is a part of his daily ritual.

Jonny Pierce says that The Drums’ new album Jonny is “a little less practice, a little more mess.” That messiness finally made songwriting enjoyable for him because for a long time, it wasn’t. “I never loved songwriting. I was never the type of songwriter who couldn’t wait to get to the studio,” Pierce says on the podcast. It was always something stressful, he said, because he equated it with literal survival. But now Pierce is trying something different: the mess. Which includes, as you’ll hear, slithering down walls. And he’s much happier for it. Jonny is out on ANTI- records.

“I’m allergic to routine. I wake up and follow all my whims and desires. But inspiration strikes every couple of days, and when it does you don’t want to be around me because I have a one track mind,” Clem Creevy of Cherry Glazerr says. That applies even when Creevy’s on a date: she once rolled over in bed and starting singing a beat into her phone, much to the confusion of her bedmate. But when she’s not getting inspired in bed, many of Creevy’s songs start on the bass. She likes windowless rooms and prefers a messy ball point pen for her lyrics. Creevy also finds inspiration while driving, but unlike most songwriters it’s not the solitude that does it. In fact, horrible LA traffic puts her in state of zen. “I love that kind of energy when I’m in a situation that seems scary and hard.” Cherry Glazerr’s latest album "I Don’t Want You Anymore" is out now on Secretly Canadian.

Genesis Owusu is the first songwriter to cite Samuel Beckett’s "Waiting for Godot" and Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" as influences. Owusu stops by the podcast to talk about why he's such a huge fan of Beckett and Kafka, what it means to be a "selfish" songwriter, and why he never trusts lyrics that take too long to write. I saw Owusu this summer when he opened for Paramore. What a live show. And his music blows me away; I'm a huge fan. Owusu’s latest album Struggler is out now.

"If you're writing alone, you're still collaborating," Devendra Banhart says on this episode of the podcast. I love that idea: even in solitary writing, you're always running ideas by yourself. Is it the unconscious against the conscious? Reminds me of the time Matt Nathanson told me that he calls his writing partner "The Assassin." What you can't see in the podcast is that behind Banhart was an entire wall of floor to ceiling books as we talked. You can't be a good (song)writer unless you read. No exceptions. And I loved our discussion of why poetry is so important. Banhart's latest album Flying Wig is out September 22.

“Surprising yourself is the only way to stay inspired,” M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger says in this episode of the podcast. This is the second time I've interviewed Taylor, and here are three things I love about him: HGM's latest album Jump for Joy is out now on Merge Records.