#songwriting

#songwriting

I'm listening to the latest Stephen Spencer song when suddenly I burst into tears. Was it the falsetto vocals? The swirling harmonies? No, it was the lyrics: What did Apple-the-Stoola say? He said I love you' twenty-sixty times. Spencer, you see, has a unique lyrical collaborator: his three-year-old daughter. Over the last four months, he has been posting short songs online based on her stream-of-consciousness stories.

Originally from Illinois and now based in Maine, where he has lived for the past four years, Pokey LaFarge brings a lived-in perspective to American roots music. Drawing from early jazz, blues, swing and folk traditions, his songwriting balances warmth, rhythm and emotional clarity without slipping into nostalgia for its own sake. Over the years, LaFarge has grown into a confident bandleader, known for performances that feel loose but intentional, with space for both musicianship and connection.

Rut took piano lessons in grade school, but they didn't stick. He asked his parents for a guitar because he wanted to be Ace Frehley of KISS. When his guitar teacher told him the members of KISS "weren't real musicians," he stopped playing-until high school. "I found a friend who knew all the classic rock riffs. That's when I started hearing songs in my head," he said.

Right now I have some writing sessions [in Monterrey] for Fuerza Regida's new album, two days from now I start Carin León's new album, then I go to L.A. for the Grammy Week,

"I feel like we were a different band than we were pre-pandemic," says Ryan Jarman, who along with his brothers Gary and Ross lead long-running UK band The Cribs, who just released their ninth album, Selling a Vibe. "It's been like six years since we recorded a record. We weren't sure what we were going to do. We weren't entirely sure how the band was going to move forward.

Def Leppard have released the new single "Rejoice" ahead of their Las Vegas residency beginning February 3rd. The track is a joyous slab of tried-and-true arena rock, throwing it back to the sound of the band's seminal album Hysteria. Somewhat unconventionally, singer Joe Elliott's lyrics were the initial inspiration for the song, with guitarist Phil Collen putting together the musical arrangement to match.

"Oh, gosh, I've got tons of stuff," he responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth)."Since we finished the last Sabbath show [at 'Back to the Beginning' in July], I've just been going through all the stuff that I've written since the '80s onwards and updating everything. And what held me back before, I didn't have a singer when I'm at home, but AI came along. [laughs] So all my songs now, I've updated them all and I'm using an AI singer to bring all the lyrics out."

The song, in which a young woman confesses to being simply "a little much" for the people around her, is built around a steady, descending piano part that sounds more like the skeletal framework musicians use to teach each other chord changes than a fully fleshed-out song. Listening to it feels almost like sitting next to the singer as she's coming up with the song in real time, noodling away at the piano in the early morning hours,

Mayne was a very honest, straightforward guy, sometimes to a fault, said his longtime music partner, guitarist Mitch Greenhill. He was very loyal and devoted to traditional music but ready to take it to new places.

Our family saw Wicked together last Thanksgiving. This year, we saw it again-together, yet separately, different cities, different schedules, the same emotional landing place. At the final chords, Sara's six-year-old blurted, "It's over? Is it really over?" He captured something adults often try to hide: the uneasy truth that we don't know what comes next, but we do know we've been changed.

When songwriter Patrick Irwin moved to Nashville last year, he was entering a lottery. Each day hundreds of sessions take place where writers create a song demo to pitch to a publisher. Publishers then share those songs with labels and managers, who may share those songs with the artists. Even if a major country star records ("cuts") the song, it still takes a stroke of luck for that song to become a No. 1 hit.

"I had been sitting on all of this music long enough that there was like a tiny man in my soul beating down the door of my soul," Hobert, 26, said on a recent rainy morning at Swingers Diner in Hollywood. This week, the L.A. native sets out on her Staircase to Stardom tour across North America, Europe and Australia. Intimate venues will see her perform from her debut album, "Who's the Clown?," released via RCA Records in August.

They said they'd just written this film whose lead character was a guy called Marty McFly, and whose favourite band would be Huey Lewis and the News. They asked: How about writing a song for the film? I said: I'm flattered but I don't know how to write for film necessarily. And frankly, I don't fancy writing a song called Back to the Future.

I didn't think anything of it, he says. And then two years later, we heard some quite bizarre whispers that Rosalia had somehow heard it. It was true: six months ago, Maltese was sent the Spanish pop star's demo of the song. He tried not to get too excited, even when, a few weeks back, a blurred-out photo of a Rosalia album tracklisting appeared online. On the WhatsApp group we were like: I think that says Magnolias!

In September 1974, when they were hopeful teenage unknowns in Deptford, Squeeze created a concept album, Trixies, set in a fictional south London nightclub. Believing they had come up with a substantial work, they recorded the 10 tracks on a borrowed Revox tape machine and expected the world to fall at their feet. But nothing happened. All our friends liked it, says singer and lead guitarist Glenn Tilbrook, who turned 17 just before the recording.

See the full lineup of 40+ speakers, including Grammy-winning producers, chart-topping songwriters, A&R leaders, mastering engineers, music technologists, and industry insiders ready to help you level up your craft, share your demos, and get feedback from the pros. Music Expo 25 November 14-15, 2025 - Friday 1-6p - Songwriting Workshop Day - Saturday 11a-6p - Full Conference & Expo + Raffle/Mixer The Midway, 900 Marin St., San Francisco

Ed Sheeran is one of the most prolific musicians of the 21st century, with eight top-five albums on the Billboard 200, nine top-10 songs, the second-highest-streamed song on Spotify ever, and four Grammy wins from 17 nominations. But did you know that, in addition to his own hits, he's also worked with many artists on their own music? He's worked with everyone from Bon Jovi to Justin Bieber.

The week before, after surviving bouts of bronchitis, then COVID, then a cold, she'd performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in New York, alongside Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami. In between her bicoastal appearances, she flew to Korea and said on a radio show that she's been so busy that she's only had time to sleep for three to four hours a night.

I was still learning about songwriting and by the time I got to Something/Anything? [1972, featuring I Saw the Light] I was slipping into formula verse, chorus, bridge and so on, always about the girl or boy who broke your heart. I moved my hands about the keyboard and 20 minutes later that song was done. It's partly why I went completely off the grid for my next album, A Wizard, a True Star [1973]

The constant oscillation between tenors over the album's 12 tracks creates a battle to maintain lyrical focus and intensity, which Nokia handles to mixed success. She's at her best when she locks into the understated flow rooted in the tradition of her city's boom-bap rap that barely rises above the whisper: "I'm drinking blood in the mountain, I got the fountain of youth/I'm scaring men off with rumors, can't tell the lies from the truth," she raps along ghostly shrieks

Hannah Frances's exhilarating sixth album is an unruly ecosystem: nature sprawls, resurfaced family trauma unearths unrevealed roots, an unexpected rupture creates fertile ground for new understandings to blossom. The deep steadiness of the Vermont songwriter's previous album, last year's Keeper of the Shepherd, is replaced by ramshackle clusters of kindling-snap drums, nervy woodwind, jabbing brass, all swarming together like a cloud of bees. Her awkwardly beautiful chord changes evoke ornate wood carvings; her tempos are always wayward.

"I said, 'I'm sorry, but I can't give you the publishing.' I wanted to hear Elvis sing it, and it broke my heart-I cried all night," Parton told W Magazine in 2021.

remembers the magazines, hidden under the bed like other boys his age. But the feeling was different. They weren't looking at the women with desire but with longing: quiet, unspoken. A yearning that had no name then, one that would later take shape in " Playboy 1973 ," a song from their forthcoming album "Running with Scissors." Acoustic and electric guitars intertwine with strings that seem to hold their breath.

It's easy to appreciate his way with a hook, and his vocal range remains impressive beneath all the effects. You might wonder if a Tobias Jesso Jr.-style future writing for other artists is in the cards. Plus, he's surrounded by talented people: An album with Prince's guitarist Wendy Melvoin on several songs and Shawn Everett on the mix is guaranteed to groove and sparkle in all the right ways.