I started writing songs when I was nineteen years old. They came from nowhere, as they often do, and my reasons for writing were more biological than methodical. You go to the bathroom, you get a better six, you write a song. Since that day, I have very carefully been attempting to sort out what makes a songwriter and what unmakes them, which conventions bind and limit, and which to use over and over again, and how, more than anything else, to keep writing, even when it feels like the last thing you want to do. My theory at the beginning of this journey, is: write about what you love, and you'll never get tired of it. We're going to find out if I'm right.
If you haven't yet, you should watch "Under Great White Northern Lights", the tour movie of The White Stripes. Near the end of the movie, Jack White gives some deep insight (in my opinion) on how he writes music, particularly when he doesn't feel like it. What is inspiration vs. plain hard work (or both)?
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