'Gatekeeper' was sort of my first attempt to put a little bit of a frame and boundaries around songwriting, and try to figure out a way to approach it that had a sort of end result in mind. I haven't written many like that.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Songwriting is something that's very daunting until you have your first successful song, I think.
My experience with songwriting is usually so confessional, it's so drawn from my own life and my own stories.
I always saw songwriting as the top of the heap. No matter what else you were going to do creatively - and there were a lot of choices - writing songs was king.
I found songwriting really hard at first, but after a while it was actually very easy. I wrote about everyday stuff.
I tend to write songs that are about something pretty specific. A lot of them tell some kind of little made-up story.
Songwriting is too mysterious and uncontrolled a process for me to direct it towards any one thing.
I've always loved both writing and songwriting. The journey is fascinating to me.
The key to songwriting is just to be able to observe, and put yourself in situations to be around people, and let those ideas come to you.
I've been really trying to hone the art of songwriting in a way that doesn't follow any sort of guideline.
I've always gravitated towards songwriting that happens easily and spontaneously, because those have always been my best songs.