Songwriters on Process

"I'll put my demos and finished songs on playlists alongside artists and songs I really admire. It's a great test to determine if a song is done. And it's usually pretty brutal because it's not really fair to play my demo right after a classic U2 song. But it gets me motivated," says Ted Sablay, the touring guitarist and musical director for The Killers. And how does Sablay know when a song is done? "When it no longer annoys me," he says.
Like most songwriters I interview, Sablay gets many song ideas through movement. But unlike most of them, his ideas come when he's lifting weights. "I think of a lot concepts on rep two of chest day. And if I don't watch it, my breaks become too long." Sablay's songwriting process parallels his lifting routine: he believes in the reps. He has little time for the idea of the muse and instead fashions his writing process like a prose writer's process: you need to do it every day.
Ted Sablay's solo album is called State & Motion.

"My ideas are the most plentiful when I just put something out into the world," says Claud. "I immediately start thinking about all the stuff I want to do next time." Some of that stuff comes from consistent journal writing, where their big picture ideas and creative world emerge. But the hard part, as we all can attest, is how to minimize distractions to let those ideas happen in the first place. The secret for Claud is two-fold: never use in flight wi-fi, and always take the new puppy for a walk first thing in the morning without a phone.
Claud's latest album is Me and the Music on Dead Oceans Records.

"It's trash that evokes emotion," says Chelsea Rifkin of Wilt referring to her junk journal. The singer for the LA-based band uses this journal as an important part of her songwriting process. The title is literal: "It's a scrapbook of trash that I get throughout the day." 
Rifkin showed me one of the journals. It was filled with napkins, stickers, cards, menus, wrappers--literally anything that might evoke a memory later on. This makes perfect sense because touching and seeing a concrete object from a past event would seem to evoke a more powerful memory than re-reading just your thoughts about that past event in a more traditional journal. It absolutely works for Rifkin. "The junk really unlocks a memory for me and exactly how I was feeling at that time." And it's often those memories that start the songwriting process for her.
Wilt's debut album "When No One's Watching"  (produced by Carlos de la Garza) is out now.

"I get a prebiotic soda and some popcorn, then head upstairs to write. And if I'm not feeling it, I leave." Joy Oladokun is nothing if not brutally efficient in her songwriting process. There's no room for wasted time. "I work fast but never in a rush," she says. Oladokun writes most of her songs in a matter of minutes, but that's because she's methodical, not haphazard.
Oladokun likes to write in the morning, ideally among birds. "I love the morning because I get to see the world change," she says. Oladokun sits on the porch in the morning with her coffee and engages in "mandatory bird watching," keeping a guitar by the door in case she gets inspired. "A lot of songs come from the moment of living the first part of my day."
Oladokun's latest album is Hope is a Heavy Thing on Concord Records.

“I love to sing out loud there. No one can hear me because everyone is, well, underground,” says Julia Jacklin. And if that’s not the best reason for singing in a cemetery, I don’t know what is. 
Walking is a daily and essential part of Jacklin’s process. “I’m obsessed with walking,” she says. There are two kinds of walks to Jacklin’s process. The first is when she goes with nothing on her mind; this is for filling the well with inspiration. The second is what she calls “intentional walking to get the lyrics right. I always get stuck on the second verse when I write, so walking helps me."
Now back to the cemetery, which Jacklin says was a “huge part” of the songwriting process of the new album. There’s one not far from where she lives, so she goes every day. There’s the flowers, the serenity, and of course the existential thoughts that accompany a walk through a cemetery. Quite simply, it brings her peace. “I’m always drawn to cemeteries when I’m feeling overwhelmed,” Jacklin says.
Julia Jacklin’s latest album is The Gem, out now on 4AD Records.