And just like that it's April and we have just 4 weeks to go until #AlbumWritingClub 2023 kicks off! This week I wanted to talk about songwriting. This whole challenge is about songwriting of course, but specifically I wanted to share a couple of thoughts on how I approached songwriting at last years #AlbumWritingClub. I could write a book on Songwriting. In fact I started one which I may finish one day. Humans have used songs to pass stories and knowledge down through the generations for thousands of years. In fact making music is one of the most innately human things you can do. And the whole process of bringing something personal into a creative environment, and then perhaps even releasing it into the wild is fascinating to me. But actually, rather than write you an essay I'm going to keep this post really short because I'm super keen for everyone to share YOUR best tips and tricks for Songwriting - especially under the pressure of time! Last year I set myself 3 rules. I had about 8 days in total across May to write and record my EP for various reasons, so I thought the structure would help. Here's what I came up with: No more than 3 takes for anything. If it can't be done in 3 takes it's probably no good anyway. Don't linger on an idea for ages that isn't developing. Sometimes great songs come to you over time, but more often than not it's the ones that come out of nowhere that are better. And anyway I didn't have time! Take inspiration from what's around you and see what comes out. This became quite interesting as sometimes just reciting lists of things in my eyeline would help me come up with rhythmic patterns for lyrics, occasionally I'd stumble across a good metaphor or memory that stuck and became a song, even just noodling on different guitars yielded some unexpected results. I never released my EP - that was never the intention (although you can listen to it here if you want to) - but I learned a lot along the way and these self imposed boundaries were super helpful in terms of getting it done! So now for the good bit... What songwriting tips and tricks can you share? Are there any techniques, tools, places or spaces that have helped you write songs in the past?

Another week whooshes past and we're only 5 weeks away from #AlbumWritingClub 2023 kicking off this May! This week I wanted to talk about collaborations. One of the interesting things about working through the challenge together is that the opportunities to collaborate are right in front of us. If you think about it, there are 50+ people in this group (and we hope to get more on board between now and May) who will all be spending at least some of their time in May writing and recording music - so why not do some of it together? collaboration noun - [kuh·la·buh·ray·shn] the action of working with someone to produce something. "she wrote a book in collaboration with her son" Now I know that time is a huge factor here. It's kind of a key part of the whole thing! But the way I think about it is that this is all about doing something different, so why not see if there are others that want to work together, even if it's just for a song or 2. There's loads of reasons to consider collaborating, not least when you actually release something there's the potential to tap into multiple audiences and 'cross-pollinate' with other people's fan bases. But even before that, I think it can have a massive positive effect on songwriting - which is ultimately what this challenge is all about. So here are my top 3 reasons that collaboration can lead to better songwriting: You'll probably learn something Whether you are asking others to record parts for your track, the other way around, or both, you will almost certainly learn something by collaborating with someone else. Everyone approaches writing differently, hears different things in the music, and can add things from their own personal experience and unique creative capability to a song. You can learn something from everyone, and learning things is ultimately what makes us better at what we do. I co-wrote an EP a couple of years ago with 8 other people and every single one of them brought something completely different and interesting to the table. I learned things through that process that have improved my songwriting since in ways I can't even describe - it made me think about things in a completely different way. It helps to focus on something different Writing an album in a month is a difficult and daunting task. We've made no effort to try and hide that - it's a fact and better that we all acknowledge it! Sometimes when things are hard it's easy to panic, stress out, and even give up completely. I've always been a fan of the 'Big Breakfast' concept. I know that doesn't mean anything to most people so I'll explain. I had a manager once who's Dad managed a team of prison guards. He said that whenever something went really wrong in the prison - a riot, a fight etc - rather than stress out about it too much afterwards he would take himself off and have a big breakfast. By sitting down, focusing on something else for a while, and distancing himself from the situation, he was able to gain enough clarity to come back and deal with the aftermath in an appropriate and fair way. At some point during this process we may all need that clarity. Spending a few hours working on a part for someone else could be the big breakfast you need to get it. It makes things interesting There's an argument to say that when you're writing and recording an album in a month things are already interesting... and that is a valid point. But what I mean here is that collaborations can help spice things up a bit. You're already going to have to make choices as part of this process. Whether that's about setting yourself rules or boundaries, or doing exactly the opposite and just letting things flow - you will probably have to make quick decisions in May. I'll talk more about this on a separate post - but the point here is that most people will naturally innovate their approach to achieve the goal, and probably surprise themselves and other along the way. If you can find some time to collaborate with someone that can naturally expedite this process - and the results can be fantastic! Imagine you're a folk singer and a drum and bass artist asks you if you want to do a vocal on one of their tracks. How amazing could that track be if it lands! Or perhaps you've written a song that's just missing that special 'something' - maybe someone else can do something interesting that you would never have thought of that elevates it. Maybe it goes in a completely different direction, maybe it just adds a richness you never knew was there. We saw some fantastic collaborations last year, including guest appearances from inside and outside of the #AlbumWritingClub from Saxophone players, Drummers, Singers and more. @kiffiethedreamer even formed Super-Group just for this event made of friends from across the world - the project brought together elements of synthwave, electronic music, rock, rap, and jazz into an amazing 6 track EP! I'd love to hear about collaborations you've been involved with. What worked? What didn't? What did you learn? Would you do it again? And any thoughts on collaborations for #AlbumWritingClub 2023, what are your plans? We also have a Collaborations space on the Forum here: https://www.headlightsandwhitelines.com/albumwritingclub/collaborations. Feel free to use that space to find others in the group who might be up for working together. And as always with these posts, these are just my thoughts. If you don't want to collaborate you don't have to!