Tag: Keppie Coutts

  • Can you really teach someone to write better songs?

    I so often get asked whether it’s really possible to teach someone how to write a song. There still seems to be a mysterious veil of magic and witchcraft about it, that is very fuelled by interviews with songwriters talking about channeling the muse. It turns out that songwriting is really like anything else. You…

  • The Secrets of Successful Collaboration

    Reposting here a short article I wrote for ASCAP a while ago, with some thoughts and musings about successful collaborations, and some of the transformations that can happen in the process… SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATIONS Creative collaboration is very much like dating. I can’t think of any other experience that comes close to the strange…

  • Listen to What People are Listening to

    In 2008, I had a extraordinary experience of spending a week with John Mayer, working on tunes and at the end of the week taking a song into the studio and having Mayer produce it. I made a point of absorbing as much as I could during that week. It was visceral and obvious that…