my songwriting process

i’m a big journal-er.

I always have two journals going: one is a day-to-day journal, and one is a songwriting journal. The above are all my songwriting journals to date.

I used to get them at Pangea, a really cool shop in Hillsboro Village, but Pangea closed a couple years ago to make way for shops that bachelorettes prefer, or something like that. Now I try to pick them up when I travel, at local bookstores.

The one on the bottom row in the middle has most of the “Throw Down My Heart” EP in it. The yellow one, top right, has “Step Back Bro” on the last pages. Most of “Things We’d Rather Not Say” is bottom right, in “Joie du Jour” (that means “joy of the day” in French). Much of “Wild and Sweet” is in the bottom left one, with the yellow flowers.

Top left is my very first dedicated songwriting journal. Here’s the very first page, just for fun. I frequently do “ART” writing exercises, which is a free-write where you write as quickly as possible, no self-editing allowed.

It’s true what they say about chasing down inspiration with a stick. I have my share of creative lightning bolts, but more often I’m leading my pen to the page like a lost sheep. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, by any means; I think it’s just how I work.

When I’m out and about, I’m constantly writing notes in my phone. I’m aware this a perfect way to ask the universe to delete everything I’m working on (I am not an organized human by default - I have to work really hard to be a semblance of organized), but I keep doing it, for some reason. Bits of songs are sandwiched between to-do lists and grocery lists. At least now I back everything up to my Gmail account.