Songwriters on Process

56:54

Julia Jacklin

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/10/05

“I love to sing out loud there. No one can hear me because everyone is, well, underground,” says Julia Jacklin. And if that’s not the best reason for singing in a cemetery, I don’t know what is. Walking is a daily and essential part of Jacklin’s process. “I’m obsessed with walking,” she says. There are two kinds of walks to Jacklin’s process. The first is when she goes with nothing on her mind; this is for filling the well with inspiration. The second is what she calls “intentional walk...

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46:48

Brennan Wedl

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/10/01

"I like to write at my desk," says Brennan Wedl. It makes me feel like a professor, so it's correlated with discipline in my brain. It's like a writing altar." This tracks with Wedl's penchant for adhering to a writing ritual and its attendant discipline. She's a big fan of Post-it notes, loves to get up early and feel the sun on a morning walk, and believes in the power of a schedule. But as you'll hear, when she really wants to "lock it in," she turns to the power of chewing gum. Brennan We...

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48:10

L'Rain (Taja Cheek)

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/09/27

"I have my best thoughts in total comfort and complete boredom," Taja Cheek (known professionally as L'Rain) says. After all, who doesn't prefer a good couch or bed when they write? But when it comes to pure inspiration, Cheek likes to be "alone together": around people but deep in her own thoughts. That's why she loves the New York City subway and what she calls "intentional walking" on the city streets amidst all its distractions. But as you'll hear, nothing beats a good cab ride. L'R...

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52:23

Margaret Glaspy

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/09/21

"I like to do things that make me feel integrated with the environment," says Margaret Glaspy. Broadly, Glaspy's process involves a general resistance to technology, which is why we had a great discussion about the benefits of cursive. It should also come as no surprise that Glaspy believes in pen and paper (and very specific kinds) for her lyrics. This resistance to technology is borne out the correct belief that it destroys our ability to focus, so Glaspy writes in fifteen minute incr...

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42:59

Ketch Secor (Old Crow Medicine Show)

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/09/16

Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show is the first person I’ve interviewed to compare the songwriting process to feline copulation. But this unique metaphor actually reflects Secor’s deep introspection: only someone who reads all the time would even consider how these two events are related. And Secor reads. All. The. Time. Old Crow Medicine Show’s latest album is Union Made.

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50:25

Lucius

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/09/08

"You need to be somewhere where you allow yourself to be totally stupid," say Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius. Not great life advice, but it's fantastic advice for the creative process. In other words, the initial stage of any creative process means getting out of your own way and releasing all inhibitions. It's about putting everything down on paper, no matter how stupid, and deciding later whether it belongs. Wolfe and Laessig's initial stage involves fantastic word games. One ...

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51:02

Kyle Grim (Dogwood Tales)

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/08/31

Kyle Grim of Dogwood Tales was born in the wrong century. He really belonged among the Romantic poets, who saw the purity of nature as a source of renewal. I mentioned this to Grim after he told me that a large part of his process revolves around the wonderment of nature. He loves to walk, and in those moments he finds beauty in water, the shadows of trees, and even the ducks. Then again, Grim counts William Faulkner and Breece D'J Pancake among his favorite writers, so his actual influences ...

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49:58

Jim James (My Morning Jacket)

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/08/27

Jim James needs a bigger head. How else to accommodate all the bursts of creativity he has throughout the day? They happen all the time. The My Morning Jacket frontman finds art galleries to be a particularly rich source of inspiration, but he also loves a good walk. Even the middle of the night is productive for James, though he admits that’s because of his insomnia. Who needs to force the process when your day is filled with ideas? Jim James’s latest album is Wowed Out

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56:29

Alicia Witt

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/08/24

You have seen Alicia Witt. Of that I can be sure since she's appeared in so many movies and tv shows. (She starred most recently opposite Nicolas Cage in Longlegs.) But Witt is also an accomplished piano player and singer/songwriter; it's not something she does in her spare time as a hobby. Her upcoming album is her fifth release, and her experience as an actor informs her songwriting process in the attention she pays to her lyrics. Alicia Witt's latest album is Between Heaven and Earth. The ...

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46:03

hey, nothing

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/08/20

Tyler Mabry and Harlow Phillips of Athens-based hey, nothing have been friends since middle school. And when you've grown up with your songwriting partner, you have a good idea of what makes for an efficient writing process. Both have a clear idea of how to set up for success when they write, down to where and when they're the most productive. This includes the secret to editing: try to do it when you're sick. hey, nothing's major label debut Hound is out on on Music Soup/Interscope Records.

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39:40

David Shaw (The Revivalists)

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/08/18

Took a wonderfully deep dive into the songwriting process with David Shaw of The Revivalists. We discuss middle of the night epiphanies, how mishearing a lyric can make for a better lyric, and how reading great literature makes for better songwriting. The latest album by The Revivalists is Get It Honest.

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47:33

Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Band)

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/08/12

Lenny Kaye's tenure as Patti Smith's guitarist and collaborator extends from 1971 to the present, but the 79 year old is only now releasing his debut solo album. The punk icon and pioneer is also the author of three books, so this episode is a deep dive into the writing process across a few genres. As you can imagine, Kaye doesn't believe in creating when the mood strikes; instead, it's a constant in his life. Lenny Kaye's debut solo album is Goin' Local

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61:32

Alex Cameron

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/08/04

"I don't like closing a book on words, not even my laptop," says Alex Cameron. This is no metaphor. Cameron means this literally because he always wants to be able to see his words. He keeps a giant piece of butcher paper spread out on his table 24/7. This butcher paper contains all of his writing, and I mean all: text message drafts, lists, lyrics, journal writing. Anything that gets written down goes here as opposed to a notebook or laptop or phone, and since he's always walking by the tabl...

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53:51

Bedouine (Azniv Korkejian)

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/07/27

"You don't have to be a tortured artist to write a song, but it's important to write about what you're feeling and not run away from it," Azniv Korkejian (aka Bedouine) says about her songwriting process. As proof, she tells a story about how she sobbed the first time she played one of her new songs for her husband. As you'll hear, there's no better place to write those songs than the local public library, and Bedouine provides some pretty powerful reasons why. Bedouine's latest album i...

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55:21

Dragos Chiriac (Men I Trust)

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/07/20

It's not often (ever?) that I get to talk Hegel, Jung, and Goethe with songwriters. But Dragos Chiriac of Men I Trust and I go deep into philosophy in this episode. I am a huge fan of the band and enjoyed our discussion immensely as we talk about the impact these writers have on Chiriac and why he returns to them over and over. Lest you think this episode was all about existential angst, we also discussed the relatively simple reason why the band wrote my favorite Men I Trust song "Billie Top...

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52:27

Keenan O'Meara

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/07/14

"The failure is not in writing a bad song. The failure is in writing no song." Keenan O'Meara has always honored the value of work. Maybe it's because he's also a carpenter by trade, but discipline is his asset even though it's not something that comes naturally. "You have to teach yourself how to work. We've been tricked by the idea of divine inspiration for far too long," he told me. Carpentry has been a boon to his process. "It's great for songwriting. If you ever find yourself out o...

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38:08

Jason Newsted

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/07/09

Jason Newsted blends words and acrylics. Literally. The former Metallica bassist and leader of Jason Newsted and the Chophouse Band is also an accomplished painter, and to get started he'll often write song lyrics (not his own) on a blank canvas, then paint over them. The lyrics serve as a way to stimulate his creative process as his brush strokes move over the words and mix. Newsted gives me a great example of how he recently did this with a Jim Croce song. This episode is a deep discu...

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41:24

Molly Hamilton (Widowspeak)

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/07/02

I'd like to call myself an OG Widowspeak fan, as I told Molly Hamilton. I saw them when they opened for 2:54 back in 2011 or 2012 on their first tour, and I became an instant fan. Hamilton and I go deep into the songwriting process, including how jobs outside of songwriting can be a boon for creativity--in Hamilton's case it's the food industry, and in her husband Robert Earl Thomas's case it's carpentry--and how becoming a new parent changes, well, everything when you're a two-person b...

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47:19

Nick Allbrook (Pond)

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/06/24

"Hard work is important, and it feels good. My family put a lot of stake into working hard, so it's been ingrained in me," Nick Allbrook of Pond told me. We did this interview at 6:30am his time, so that's all you need to know about his discipline. But hard work means nothing if you're not attuned to your environment. Allbrook has that covered too: "You miss out on all of life's beautiful moments and forget that you're a writer if you're always staring at your phone. Once you put it dow...

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50:34

Futurebirds

Songwriters on Process ·

2026/06/19

Go Dawgs! Loved having the Athens-bred Futurebirds on the pod. They're no longer college students at the University of Georgia, of course, but as longtime friends and bandmates they've evolved from students to family men. As you'll hear, their songwriting processes have evolved accordingly. The latest album by Futurebirds is Far Out Country.

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