Songwriters Work in Many Different Ways: Matthew West and a Very Unique One
Successful songwriters use many different techniques to come up with what works for them, often different methods at different times. But Matthew West did a very unusual trick when he totally isolated himself to write his latest album for Sparrow Records.
He talks about it in an interview with Evan Shlansky for American Songwriter.
I didn’t know what to expect when I asked people to send me their stories. I thought maybe I’d receive a few hundred. All in, I received over ten thousand stories from all over the country and twenty different countries around the world. So, knowing I had a ton of reading to do, I decided to get away for a while. I spent two months, March and April, in a cabin in Tennessee. I moved my guitars, piano and some recording equipment into this little place in the woods. I spent most of the time in solitude. I would read story after story with a highlighter in hand, occasionally writing down title ideas or highlighting stories that really moved me. Some days, all I would have to show for my time was a stack of stories I had read, no songs. Other days, I would write three songs in a day.
More via Writer Of The Week: Matthew West | American Songwriter.
