Deep Talk About the Songwriting Process.
In-depth interviews with songwriters about their songwriting process. That's All. No talk of band drama, band names, or tour stories. Treating songwriters as writers, plain and simple. By Ben Opipari, English Lit Ph.D.
Recent Episodes
Sept. 1, 2025
Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5)
I cannot imagine a world where Scott McCaughey is not writing. But first, some background. He was an auxiliary member of R.E.M. from 1994 to 2011, working with them in the studio and playing with them live. He founded The Bas...
Aug. 27, 2025
Dev Hynes (Blood Orange)
Dev Hynes had me at the bookshelves. All those bookshelves behind him our Zoom interview, rising to the ceiling and stuffed with books. Small wonder, then, that Hynes works best in daily consumption mode rather than creation ...
Aug. 25, 2025
Will Taylor (Flyte)
There's a difference between wanting to write and needing to write. For Will Taylor of Flyte , it's usually a need. Taylor says that he doesn't write every day, but instead writes after an accumulation of experiences. "I know...
Aug. 21, 2025
Meg Duffy (Hand Habits)
"I write the most when I'm supposed to be doing something else because it tricks me into thinking that songwriting is rebellious," Meg Duffy (aka Hand Habits ) told me. "It feels like I get to choose to do it." I love this qu...
Aug. 18, 2025
Hannah Cohen
The theme of today's podcast is nourishment. It dawned on me a few minutes into my conversation with Hannah Cohen that when she said proper nourishment was critical to her writing process, she was being literal. It was no me...
Aug. 14, 2025
Lzzy Hale (Halestorm)
Ed Note: Lzzy Hale has collaborated with Mark Morton (Lamb of God) in the past. I co-authored Mark's new book Desolation: A Heavy Metal Memoir , hence the occasional reference to Mark and our book in this episode. Many songwr...
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