The trio settles on a Steve Jobs-ish strategy of starting with the finished product, and working their way backwards. The end goal in this case? A love song, but a different kind of love song. The objective prompts interesting discussions: What’s a typical love song, and therefore what will make for an atypical love song? Romantic ballads are usually filled with rose-colored reflections and sweet sentiment, and this one isn’t too different, but there’s one key thing missing: a love interest.
That doesn’t stop the song’s protagonist, whose hunt for love unspools over a verse that eventually slows to a speak-singing 6/8 sway, and a radio-ready power-pop chorus. If you’ve ever wondered how to write a classic love song, well… look elsewhere. But if you’re keen on figuring out how to write a memorable, distinct one, this is your episode.
Visit BOL.education for a free sample lesson, or use code “Song” for a 10% discount on your first non-degree course.
Mississippi-born, Los Angeles-based musician and songwriter Garrison Starr has been recording and releasing music since the early ’90s. The veteran rocker is an expert on creative expression—but also on navigating the “ballsack of an industry” that is the professional music world.
That includes the alienating experience of having to engage in a narrative—whether in song or in the press—that isn’t real or true for you, maybe even one that cheapens your personhood. “How many times have I done that to myself?” Starr wonders. These are the things the commercial music industry foists upon its would-be stars.
Along with Before Your Very Ears hosts Sean Watkins and Peter Harper, Starr hits on the key to writing great songs: Being honest creates more, and better, success. “The vulnerability is where the power is,” says Starr. Fueled by the experience of being outed in college, and then exiled from her evangelical community for being gay, Starr leads the trio on a songwriting expedition to examine the damage of having our stories ripped from us—and the potential of reclamation through song.
Visit BOL.education for a free sample lesson, or use code “Song” for a 10% discount on your first non-degree course.
While plenty of songwriters are happy to give a post-mortem review of how they write a song, the actual process happens behind closed doors. What goes through their heads while they decide on a specific word choice? Who hasn’t wished to be a fly on the wall while professional musicians hack together the pieces that make our favorite songs?
That’s the experience of Before Your Very Ears, a new podcast hosted by guitarists Sean Watkins and Peter Harper. On each episode, Watkins and Harper are joined by a different guest musician, and together, the three of them have one goal before the mics stop rolling: They have to write an original song. Before Your Very Ears is a fun, insightful exploration of the mysterious, ever-elusive “Songwriting Process,” and a real-time demonstration of the twists and turns that result in the music we love.
This debut episode features Vulfpeck founder and guitarist Theo Katzman. The trio starts with a gentle acoustic idea, envisioned as a sleepy-time lullaby. But as each player introduces their perspective on the concept, it soon turns into a profound, heart-felt meditation on death and grief, and what it means to lose someone.
Step right up, and witness the creative brain in motion Before Your Very Ears!