Interview: Gretchen Lieberum Looks At Songwriting

In my conversations with Gretchen it became obvious that first and foremost she is a songwriter. Her passion for the art was not only evident from the interviews, and in her bio, but in the incredible details in the songs themselves. I was curious whether she was a methodical writer, who focuses on the art in a ritualistic way, or was the type who had to wait for the muse to strike. Her response,

If I have some kind of a deadline to fulfill then I’ll write every day, usually at a coffee shop, always by hand. Otherwise, inspiration really has to strike. I’ll often come up with lines in my car. There have been times when I’ve written a line on a gum wrapper with eye-liner while in the car.

Almost as obvious as her passion for the art is her obsession for perfection. When I asked her if this perfectionism was something that only applied to songwriting, she replied,

I am a perfectionist all around, and particularly about my music. When I was younger, I used to cry every time I walked off stage after singing. And I mean every time! I’ve certainly gotten better about letting things go and not trying to be perfect all the time, but I’m still pretty hard on myself. If I describe something I’ve done as ”pretty good”, then my friends and family think that it must be really amazing!

Both the passion for the art itself and her striving to get everything just right, comes out clearly in the music - one song in particular, "You Closer" from Gretchen's recent release Siren Songs. The song, and the entire album on a different level, is her cathartic process of dealing with the death of her close friend.

"You Closer" is a song I wrote for my friend who passed away. I had written a few songs that were literally and directly about her, but they were all so sad and depressing! She was such a lovely person, and I wanted to write a song that reflected her light. The music of the song is upbeat for that reason.

As was discussed in the review that appeared here earlier this month, the music and instrumentation to this song is incredibly light and upbeat, to the point of being even uplifting. It is only when you listen deeper, take in the lyrics and absorb the meaning, that you realize how profound and mournful the song really is.

I don’t play an instrument, so I usually work with a musician to help me compose the chords behind the melodies and lyrics I write. In this case, I wrote the lyrics and the melody first. The first few lines reflect how I was feeling about life and the world after she died, that the world is heartless, and has no meaning or spirit. “This world’s nothing but…objects colliding” means that I was seeing the world as violent and primitive, and also seeing the physical world on purely a molecular, biological level. Basically, I was feeling pretty nihilistic! The rest of the song is just me speaking to my friend directly. In one line I ask her to “invade the waves of my radio”.

Gretchen went on to relate how important and relevant that one line was. It was really a testament to how the answers and even the consolation for our grief could be right there in front of us, or how they could come to us in the slightest and strangest ways.

Article Author: Connie Phillips

Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she's not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. …

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