So over the years,
a lot of people have asked me to sort of describe my songwriting process
from beginning to end.
How long does it take?
Where do you write?
What are the circumstances?
Do you start with music?
Do you start with lyrics?
And you know, my answer is always that it happens differently every time,
and that's why I'm still so in love with songwriting.
So what I've done here is shown you three different examples of the beginning stages
of these songs and how they each started different ways.
So I'll explain them to you and maybe that will help you understand how I put songs together.
I sent this voice memo to Ryan Tedder because I'd always wanted to work with him.
And finally we scheduled some studio time.
So I always want to be prepared.
I wanted to send him the idea that I was working on before we went into the studio,
just in case he wrote back and said,
I can't stand that.
I want to work on something else.
Think of something else.
So I just sat down at the piano,
put my phone on top of the piano,
and just kind of explained
to him where I wanted to go with the song,
how I saw the melody sitting in.
We ended up recording the song the next day and it ended up being on the record called
I Know Places.
So this was the voice memo that I sent to him the night before we ended up finishing the song.
So this is kind of this rough idea thing.
They would learn what they want us,
say what they want about us,
say what they want about us
And you come on and I sing, now listen
I would not think about it,
but I'm not ten
Ever know that I think or two about it,
think or two about it
I,
cause they got the cages,
they got the boxes
And guns, they are the hunters,
we are the foxes
And we run,
baby I know some places we won't be found And they'll
be
chasing their tails trying to track us down Cause I,
I, I know places we can hide
I know places,
I know places
Or whatever, I don't know.
But that's basically just like a dark,
really dark lyric bridge thing.
And it's about everybody's trying to get in and ruin a love or whatever.
And it's like you just,
whatever, you know.
And then the chorus would just go to that major and just be like, ah, chorus.
So I hope you like it.
It wouldn't be a piano thing.
It would be like,
mm,
mm,
mm, mm, like very like beat.
Now I'm just making weird sounds.
Hope you like it.