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How expert songwriters find the right lyrics | Think Like A Musician - Video học tiếng Anh

How expert songwriters find the right lyrics | Think Like A Musician

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0:01My lyric process is, first and foremost, to overthink,

0:06and then say, now how do we say that like we’re not nerds?

0:11Hey, you! Yes, you. Is there music inside of you?

0:15We’ve recruited working musicians from throughout the industry

0:19to help you hear it, hold it, and share it with this wild and wonderful world.

0:26I think a great lyric, it does two things:

0:29one, I think it helps if your lyric is unique,

0:34its really important where someone can listen to it and be like,

0:37okay, this is a lyric that I have not heard before,

0:39or a take on something that I have not considered in this way.

0:43But then I also think a great lyric is honest.

0:46When it comes to lyric writing I really love, I love a noun,

0:50I love a picture.

0:52I feel like people really hold on to nouns and they can be really sticky.

0:57I like colors and textures and smells,

0:59and I like to feel like when you see the title, you can imagine the music video.

1:03That being said, you can also write something that’s a little headier,

1:08that’s a little more just emotional or internal.

1:10And that can also be super, super powerful.

1:12So there’s not only one way to do it.

1:14To make the personal universal is so good.

1:19I would say my favorite example of that is a Stevie reference—

1:26“Living For The City.”

1:27He says, “to find a job is like a haystack needle.”

1:32They took that colloquialism, crunched it up, flipped it over:

1:37“To find a job is like a haystack needle.”

1:40But it makes perfect sense, and it makes universal sense,

1:45though it's a really quirky way of doing it.

1:47I do feel like I have to tell the truth.

1:50So if there’s something that feels really resonant,

1:53it’s really hard not to write about it.

1:56I find it really cathartic and therapeutic

1:59to write about what it is that I’m going through,

2:01because there’s always something I learn about my own inner experience

2:06by writing about it.

2:07It depends on the genre, and it depends on the topic.

2:11Party time songs, for example, usually are going to be more rhythmic,

2:15and you want it to be something that everyone

2:18can kind of like pump their fists to and sing along to.

2:21And then when it comes to love songs, sad songs, whatever,

2:25I think when it’s more introspective, I like to have more emotional detail.

2:32Olivia Rodrigo’s ”Driver’s License” is a great example of a heartbreak song

2:37that has really specific little things.

2:39The details of the things that you miss about someone

2:42or the things that remind you of someone.

2:44When you’re talking about heartbreak or something more introspective,

2:47it's nice to kind of find the everyday things

2:49and think back to a time in your life when you were feeling that way.

2:53I try to stay away from being overly cryptic.

2:55You can be poetic and and vague even,

2:59but I think it has to be something that anyone could listen to

3:03and be like, I know what that means.

3:04There’s not an original feeling under the sun, you know,

3:09if you felt it, there’s billions of other people

3:12who have felt that same exact thing.

3:14But what does become original is your way of expressing that feeling.

3:19How one person says I love you is very different than the next person.

3:23Experience, sincerity, imagination

3:27are what make lyrics great, as far as I’m concerned.

3:31I’ve got to be genuine in the emotion that I’m trying to communicate,

3:37if not transmit.

3:38I think I know I’m onto something when it strikes a chord in me emotionally,

3:42when the song is something I’m excited to share with the world.

3:46However, the ultimate test is the 24 hour test—

3:50because I’ve had that feeling, relisten the next day,

3:53and I question what on Earth I was thinking to have imagined this being good.

3:59But that works on the opposite end.

4:01There has been work that I’ve questioned—

4:04the entire time I’m questioning, and I’m writing, I’m playing going—back and forth.

4:08I put it away, I listen the next day, and I’m shocked at how connected I am to it.

4:12That cuts both ways— so it’s a matter of trusting the process.

4:16And know that no one is going to say what you have to say,

4:21the way you have to say it.

4:22And lean into that with everything you’ve got.

4:25When I’m evaluating a song,

4:27the first thing that I’m looking for is authenticity.

4:30Most humans can feel when something is not real,

4:34and that could be based off of whether a lyric feels real,

4:38or whether it feels like three songwriters got together

4:40and tried to write the most poetic thing.

4:43I think lyrics are great when they feel like natural poetry;

4:48when they feel like you didn’t craft them, they just were.

4:54I've always felt that life was as much being lived as being inscribed.

5:01That recognition means that the song’s always being written.

5:05It's just whether or not I'm paying attention.

5:07I try to be ready and worthy of whatever sound

5:11is attempting to come through me.

5:14I always use Bob Dylan, “Make You Feel My Love,” as an example,

5:19because it doesn't sound like a genius wrote it.

5:22It sounds like anybody would just be like,

5:24“when the rain is blowing in your face and the whole world is on your case,

5:29I could offer you a warm embrace to make you feel my love.”

5:31It just feels like a thing that existed, right?

5:35It doesn’t feel like Bob Dylan wrote it, except he did.

5:40And if you try to do it again, it’s impossible— it’s so perfect.

5:46So that’s always one of my pinnacles of lyrical perfection

5:50is see how natural that feels.

5:57I would say that I have a lot of different processes to write a song.

6:01One of my go-to tools is I have a word bank,

6:04so I always have phrases and words that I'm thinking about.

6:10In life, someone says something and suddenly it’ll make me think of a lyric

6:15or think of a song idea and I’ll write it down.

6:17And then when we actually go to the studio and go to sit down and write a song,

6:22I have this bank of phrases and ideas and titles.

6:26My process is funny because I start with collecting ideas.

6:30Whenever I'm on an airplane,

6:32I think of it as, I’m locked in in this little missile shooting across the sky.

6:37Nothing else I can do.

6:38So I start listening to records and I start writing down thoughts and ideas.

6:43I write things in the notes in my phone, I am constantly writing down titles.

6:48And there was a moment I remember

6:49when I first was really getting in the trenches of the songwriting world,

6:53where I had an aha moment.

6:54And I realized that there were song titles everywhere

6:57if you’re looking for them.

6:59So, billboards, the covers of magazines, headlines,

7:03listening to people talking in line at the grocery store, eavesdropping,

7:07listening to your friends talk about their breakups, whatever it is.

7:10And also one title can go so many different ways.

7:13If you think about, “Since You’ve Been Gone,“ right?

7:16So that’s female empowerment, I’m over you,

7:20sort of like an angry revenge, sort of celebratory anthem, right?

7:26But it could have been a heartbreaking ballad.

7:28It could have been a party song

7:31where it’s like, I just want to forget my troubles.

7:34There’s so many different ways to spin the same title.

7:36I have never sat down to try to write a song in my life.

7:40I don’t go, you know what? I’m going to write a pop hit.

7:43I’m going to write a record— it just is.

7:45It’s just always being written, always.

7:48That’s what makes songwriting so fun and so interesting

7:51is there is no real formula.

7:55And sometimes the songs that you think are going to be big— don’t land.

8:01And sometimes these songs that you really don’t think are going to be big

8:05end up landing for some reason.

8:09And it’s really fun to just make music and then see what happens.