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‘Push through the feelings of: I’m worthless, this sucks’: can anyone learn to be a top songwriter?
Songwriting courses are exploding in popularity, with everyone from Mark Ronson to Alicia Keys as teachers. On a retreat in north Wales, our folk music critic tries to write her first song
Located high above the sea on the Llŷn peninsula, Ty Newydd is an inspirational setting, though it starts to feel a bit inauspicious when I learn that David Lloyd George died in the library where we meet for evening sessions. With Briggs, we analyse snippets of music by different artists (such as Bruce Springsteen, Nina Simone and, deliciously, Kylie Minogue) and talk about how songs are intricate jigsaw puzzles of words, sounds, atmospheres and arrangements. It sounds like Lankum, Josh says, and later I notice how my melody and singing are heavily influenced by (and highly inferior to, plus less in tune than) the Irish band’s singer, Radie Peat, and how its lyrics are inspired by a conversation with another classmate about Penelope Farmer’s Cure-inspiring 1969 novel, Charlotte Sometimes.
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