Category: Songs I Love
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What I’m listening to and why.
I got a phone call from my friend Benny the other night (Benny, who I make videos with on all things songwriting). He was very excited: “Kep! You have got to listen to the new Sam Smith song! It’s in…Phrygian!” What the hell is Phrygian, and why is this so exciting? Well, music nerds, Phrygian…
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Writing better lyrics with metaphor magic
In this video, I show you how to write songs—and specifically lyrics—like Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, and John Mayer. There is a particular type of song and songwriting that these three songwriters have in common—it’s a way to write songs that lots of songwriters use: metaphor songs. I start by defining metaphor, and share the…
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6 Songs That Taught Us How to Write Songs
One of the best ways to learn how to write great songs is to learn from great songs and songwriters. In this video, songwriter Ben Romalis and I take 6 songs that each taught us a crucial principle or technique about writing great songs. Drawing from a range of inspirations from Radiohead, Tom Waits, to…
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The Secret Life of ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen.
The song ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen is now thought of as a glittering jewel of genius. But the story of its rise to recognition reveals that it was the thinnest thread of circumstance that brought the song to the attention of the public imagination at all. Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of the song in his wonderful…
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Student Profile – Sister Ursuline
SISTER URSULINE is a Sydney-based cello-wielding songwriter with a soft spot for pigeons, bloomers, and hidden historical stories of woe-begone women and confounding men. The first song she brought to me became the name-sake of her alter ego, Sister Ursuline. Sister Ursuline was a real person—a well-meaning former nun who somehow mistakenly ended up interned…
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Songs I Love: ‘One Way Ticket’ by Busbee
My friend showed me Busbee’s album last night, and I listened to it on repeat while driving from San Diego back to LA. There are a lot of songs from this beautiful album that are both poetry and extraordinary songwriting craft. I couldn’t help myself but keep coming back to this one though. As far…