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
March 4, 2026
Tyler Ballgame
Procrastinators unite! Thank you, Tyler Ballgame , you are a kindred spirit. Finally someone who admits that procrastination is a great tool for writing. So much has been written on the evils of procrastination, yet some peop...
Feb. 25, 2026
Buck Meek (Big Thief)
“When I go to the grocery store, that’s part of the songwriting process. When I work on my truck, that’s part of my songwriting process. Every aspect of our life feeds into our creativity. The more present I can be, the bette...
Feb. 22, 2026
Hotel Fiction
Jade Long and Jess Thompson of Athens, Georgia based Hotel Fiction have a simple routine for their songwriting sessions: make some brownies, pour some wine. And they like to be outside. It's not complicated. But while food, d...
Feb. 12, 2026
Nat and Alex Wolff
Nat and Alex Wolff had me at Sam Shepard . The playwright/writer/actor was one of my dissertation topics and the brothers acted in his plays, so we agreed early on that he's one of our favorite writers. (After you listen, pl...
Feb. 5, 2026
Patton Magee (The Nude Party)
Patton Magee of The Nude Party has the best reason why reading makes you a better songwriter: it gives you a stronger and more wide-ranging vocabulary, which in turn gives you more ways to express yourself. "Words that you ra...
Jan. 20, 2026
Courtney Marie Andrews
"I am a taskmaster," Courtney Marie Andrews told me. When we talked back in 2018 , I marveled at Andrews' discipline. She calls it "chunk writing": Andrews doesn't write on tour but instead collects notes and ideas while she'...
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