When and why did you begin writing songs and singing?
I picked up the guitar at age… I’d say somewhere around age ten, started to realise that the ladies in grade school would pay a little more attention to me if I was walking around with a guitar case. They might get a little more curious about me, so you know it was always about the girls from day one. (laughing) So it started with the guitar, then started singing in high school, realised I could do both at the same time…
Sing and attract girls?
Do all three at the same time, sing and play the guitar and attract girls. I wrote my first song the summer before I left for college. It was a song to, hopefully, hold the attention of the high school sweetheart, and to give her something to remember me by. The songwriting process, I wouldn’t say came easily. I would say it’s something that definitely I struggled with. Even to this day you’re always trying to get better and what not. You have your times when it doesn’t come as easy as other times. I wouldn’t say the songwriting process felt natural, I would say it just felt good to perform something that was from me and that’s what I love. There’s a quote that says “I hate writing but I love having written”, I can say I definitely relate to that.
Do you write all the music as well?
Yeah. I do, I write basically the skeleton of the song, the rough chord progressions and the lyrics. I do co-write on some of the lyrics and melodies. There are four songs on the new album that are co-written. Two with a woman named Janice Fitzgerald and two with John Lardiere, my producer. John actually wrote the song “Blanket” himself, so track five is John’s. It was kind of like, doin’ John a favour, he was producing the album for me. He had this song that hadn’t been recorded, that I loved.
Article comments