“This American Life” Guide to Songwriting and Music Production
I like to listen to podcasts when I’m going about my day.
Not podcasts about music production or songwriting. No, I need something else to take my mind off things.
There’s this one podcast that’s absolutely terrific.
It’s called This American Life. It’s been going on forever and it’s one of the few apps I’ve actually paid money for.
They tell interesting stories about everything, and it’s just this cool radio show that I can’t get enough of. Their trick is that each show is unique. They just have this well of stories taken from daily life that’s both relatable, informative and above all, entertaining.
Like the show’s host, Ira Glass, says,
Every time we pick a different theme and we tell you stories on that theme.
One time they can be talking about American expats going on TV in China and the next week they’ll give you an hour-long show about card-counting in Las Vegas.
It’s successful because it’s never the same. Just like songwriting, or production.
Every song you write has a different story. An epic concept album might have the same story throughout, but the same theme. And your breakup album might have the same theme of crushed love, but all the songs have different stories.
It’s the variation that counts. It’s the spice of life. It’s what keeps you interested and entertained.
Think about doing something different whenever you’re working on a song. Standard techniques are just starting points for your creativity. It’s how you can make your song different that counts.
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Keeping Track
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