The New York Times has a series of blogs out there by various songwriters where they talk about…. (wait for it…)… songwriting.

I’ve only read the one by Andrew Bird, but it’s pretty interesting. Like me, he too has a head swimming with melodies for all occasions, but when it comes down to words, the writing gets tough. Though, this is slightly surprising to me, because I’ve always liked what I could make out of Andrew Bird’s lyrics. But the stuff he says about how the meaning is only truly apparent to him after the song is done rings true for me too. Which is why I often don’t like to talk about the lyrics or print them on the CD/website, etc., or even with bandmates I might be playing with at the time.

I kinda got that from way back when (like 1992) I listened to R.E.M. almost exclusively (along with They Might Be Giants, who always publish their lyrics)… I always liked that you could hear what you wanted and interpret it in the way you wanted. It was always somewhat disappointing when I read the lyrics (and people’s interpretations of them, usually on a Usenet R.E.M. fan group, where I also traded bootlegs) and they no longer fit what I wanted the song to be about.

Anyway, I have gotten off track here, but basically you should read this blog if you’re a songwriter and/or Andrew Bird fan. The insight into his process is fascinating and you can probably relate if you write songs anything like the way I do. I haven’t gotten a chance to read the rest of them (they are by artists I am not really a fan of, but I don’t doubt they have some interesting insight as well)…

Words Will Tell, by Andrew Bird