When I spoke to Shannon about lyrics and her strategy she had a very casual and optimistic approach. Rather than sitting down with a pen and paper, Shannon finds herself constantly writing songs when inspiration hits her. She says that every human is creative no matter what they choose to do in life. “ whether it's writing a song or choosing what to put your coffee in instead of a mug,  humans are creative and inventive,” she says. Every choice you make is a creative one because it's your own personal decisions and motivations.  Shannon spoke about how she thinks everybody should write songs,  and how the world would be a better place if more people share their experiences through lyrics.  Shannon feels the most  inspired when working with others,  she told me about how her and a couple other songwriters were talking about their experiences writing songs, and she later went home to write her own.  I asked her if she thought it was essential to listen to a lot of music in order to be a good songwriter.  She explained that every human has feelings and so anyone can be a songwriter, however it is important to have inspiration and artists that you look up to. She also spoke about important factors that make a good song. “Relatability is very important,” she said, “If you write about your personal Human Experience then you will connect with someone who you will have an impact on”. 

Leal began Finding inspiration for songwriting when she was a young girl reading poetry and listening to Joni Mitchell. She said that the girl like aesthetic of those songs and poems connected to her as a 13-year-old and she wanted to find a way to turn those poems into music. Leal said her favorite songs were sad ones,  because they seemed the most deep and made her appreciate the happy moments of life. She explained that listening to sad music makes you appreciate happy times more than you would otherwise. Her strategy for writing songs was very organized,  she wakes up in the morning and gets right to writing with a cup of coffee. She explained that having her dreams fresh in her mind kind of mixed the song with reality in a magical way. Her advice to someone trying to be a songwriter is to just keep going. She said it can be really hard to feel proud of something you've made but you can't stop because you're not satisfied with your work. 

When I interviewed Harlan about her thoughts on lyrics, she was very genuine about the way she takes her own personal experiences and translates them to music. Some of her Inspirations are Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, and Lana Del Rey. Harlan likes to hear genuine and vulnerable songs that don't seem performative. She says that music is the best when it is about something real and personal. Her advice to anyone trying to be a songwriter would be to just keep writing, and that any ideas ( even if you think they are bad)  our ideas worth keeping. 

Ed Perfect has written many broadway and movie tunes. He says that his favorite lyrics are rhymes that don’t use real words. In other words, making up a word so that it rhymes with the previous one. (Ex, Riddle, Biddle). I learned that songwriting is a very long process sometimes, and can be very discouraging. Perfect says that he often finds himself trying to write a song and can’t come up with anything for days. However, a smart way of getting around this “writer’s block” has been to walk around or go sit in a park while listening to the soundtrack. He says if he can hear the track play, the lyrics flow more easily. “Just sort of, walk around or find a quiet spot to focus,” he says. 

Thomas Mars is a singer/songwriter/producer and lead singer of the french, world reclaimed band, Phoenix. He began writing music when he was a child, singing and having a good time with his friends. Later, the hobby of having a band in his mom's basement became their full time job. Traveling the world touring, and collaborating with the latest pop stars, Mars and his friends are certainly living out their teenage dream. Mars says that good lyrics are sincere and original. "They can be abstract, or they can be something tangible that everyone can relate to," he says, "They just have to communicate the feeling, to me, it's easier when that feeling connects to the bond you have with the person singing it." Mars thinks that lyrics have the ability to connect the singer to the listener, especially when the lyrics feel personal. One of his biggest inspirations is Prince, because prince has a lot of imagery in his music. "You can almost see what he's saying," says Mars. Another inspiration of his is Bob Dylan, who he admires for his timeless lyrics, that never age. "Every age you hear his lyrics, they take on a diffrent meaning," he says. Mars continues to write songs for his band in downtown manhattan, NYC, where he lives with his two daughters, wife, and golden retreiver, Gnocchi.