Songwriters on Process Ben Opipari

Aaron Lee Tasjan has a pretty simple writing process: he gets up around 8am, has a glass of water, and pets his cat. Then he writes. But not every day. "I only write when my body tells me to, when I can go off yesterday's fumes," he told me. And in one of the best rituals I've ever heard, Tasjan always writes with a pencil--but never uses the eraser. "I hate erasers," he says.

Tasjan lives in Nashville, where the Frist Art Museum serves as a tremendous source of inspiration for his songs. His new album Stellar Evolution is out now on Blue Elan Records.

Jane Penny, co-founder of  TOPS,  makes her solo debut with her fantastic EP Surfacing, out now on Luminelle Recordings.  Penny stops by the podcast to talk about how Barry White has influenced her songwriting; why she has to write her lyrics in cursive; and why when you see her in the audience at a show and she's looking at her phone, she's actually deeply engaged in the creative process. She promises!

I'm a big fan of TOPS, so this was a lot of of fun. 

On this episode of the podcast, Grace Cummings talks about why her phone has been such a drain on her creativity and why she's making a conscious effort to stay away from it. But sometimes that phone can be pretty useful. For one, it allows Cummings to create her alter ego Cheryl. (You'll understand once you listen.) And it also allows her to create a fantastic filing system for her song ideas with labels like "excellent" and "very excellent" that we both agreed are pretty good mini pep-talks.  

Cummings's new album Ramona is out April 5 on ATO Records.

Will Taylor and Charlie Martin of Hovvdy take a deep dive into their songwriting processes on the podcast. We delve into, among other things, the nuts and bolts of the revision process and whether distance is important when writing about an event.

Hovvdy's new (double!) album Hovvdy is out April 26 on Arts & Crafts Records.

Evan Lewis and Tom McGreevy of Ducks Ltd seem to be at opposite ends of the creative  spectrum when it comes to organization. Lewis likes chaos: "The process should be a disaster," he says.

McGreevy, on the other hand, needs order. His writing process involves emailing lyrics to himself, editing them, then sending the edited version to himself. Over and over.  This allows McGreevy to see the version history of the lyrics in one giant email thread.

The new Ducks Ltd. album Harm's Way  is out now on Carpark Records.  I'm very proud that not once in this podcast will you hear the term "jangle pop."

Future Islands stops by today to talk about their individual and collective processes, which sometimes involves folding laundry and listening to trains. They've also earned the title of Most Well-Read Band I've Ever Interviewed: just listen to the dizzying number of favorite authors and literary influences they all have. That discussion alone could've been an entire episode. 

The new album by Future Islands is called People Who Aren't There Anymore, out now on 4AD Records.