Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten of Momma return! Momma is my favorite band and their new album Welcome to My Blue Sky is my favorite album of 2025. At least I'm consistent since I said the same thing about them when they were on the pod in 2023. (Their live show is absolutely killer too.)

Friedman and Weingarten have been writing together since their teens, and one thing hasn't changed over the years: they still write most of their songs in Etta's bedroom. But as you'll hear, there are exceptions. Weingarten wrote the riff to "Medicine" in the shower, and the title track to the new album got its start in a green room.

"I'm a professional daydreamer," Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes told me. That's the catch-22: are you really daydreaming if you're aware that you're doing it? Daydreaming leads to eureka moments, but only when you don't sit down and say, "I'm going to daydream." As with most people, the eureka moments for Oberst involve mundane activities for a practical reason: no one interrupts him when he's doing the dishes or cleaning a room. 

The perfect daydream for Oberst involves looking out a window when he's in motion and things are going by. When Oberst writes, he uses both sides of the notebook: the right side is the final version of the lyrics, and the left side is filled with the unpolished, rougher versions.

The latest release from Bright Eyes is Kids Table. 

I cannot imagine a world where Scott McCaughey is not writing. But first, some background. He was an auxiliary member of R.E.M. from 1994 to 2011, working with them in the studio and playing with them live. He founded The Baseball Project and The Minus Five, among other bands, both with members of R.E.M. He also founded The Young Fresh Fellows. 

McCaughey doesn't feel pressure to create every day because he's already doing it. It's a daily part of his routine. Many songwriters book studio time, then write the songs. McCaughey is the opposite: he books the studio time then "grabs songs off the shelf." Was there a hardest song to write on the new album? Nope. "It was my most effortless record," he said. McCaughey suffered a stroke in 2017 and lost all verbal ability for time, but after three days in the ICU he began writing songs. 

The latest album by The Minus Five is called Oar On, Penelope! on Yep Roc Records. 

"A washing machine with a clumpy pair of shoes can be a beautiful thing."

Legendary drummer Dave Lombardo, a founding member of Slayer, finds beauty in the mundane. And also in the annoying: "Even the rhythm of a jackhammer and the bumps in a road can be inspiring," he says in the latest Songwriters on Process podcast.

Lombardo's debut solo album Rites of Percussion (Ipecac Recordings) is an instrumental effort consisting entirely of percussive instruments. What kind? Here's the list: two drum sets (single and double bass kits), a large concert bass drum, a timpani, a grand piano, and a flock of shakers, maracas, Chinese and symphonic gongs, Native American drums, congas, timbales, bongos, batás, wood blocks, djembes, ibos, darbukas, octobans, cajóns, and cymbals.

Sisters Natalie, Allison, and Meegan from Joseph talk about their individual and collective songwriting processes in this episode.  And in that discussion, they each learn something about the others that they didn't know!

Joseph's new album The Sun is out April 28 on ATO Records.

"I'm a wrong hallway person. I like to make wrong turns."

Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats and Bonny Light Horseman makes a lot of mistakes. And that's a good thing, he says, because that's when the good stuff happens. "The excitement is in the mistakes," he says. "The song is a house, and sometimes you walk into the wrong room."

Johnson's talking in metaphors, of course, but his literal rooms need to be a place of chaos too. The room where he writes starts off clean, but by the end there's stuff everywhere: cables, papers, notebooks, assorted musical accessories strewn all about. "The room has to be neat to start, but the good stuff happens when the room is a disaster."

The Fruit Bats' new album A River Running to Your Heart is out April 14 on Merge Records. Listen now to my latest episode with Eric D. Johnson!

"I've written whole songs on dog walks," says Amy Ray of The Indigo Girls.  "I write a lot when I'm on the lawnmower, says H.C. McEntire. 

What a great time this was listening to these two friends and fantastic songwriters go deep into their songwriting processes. For Ray, it involves writing five times a week for no more than two hours a day. For McEntire, it involves cork boards. We also discuss our shared love for Anne Lamott and Sharon Olds.  

Catch them on on tour together this May. 

(NOTE: This interview is from December 2020. I've converted the video to podcast form. You can watch the interview here.)

It's like opening a time capsule now when I listen to songwriters talk in 2020 about how they were navigating the pandemic as artists. For some, it was a bane: the isolation paralyzed their creativity. For Alex Skolnick of Testament, it was a boon. Quite simply, he says, "Not having to travel has opened me up to different ways to be creative that I didn’t have before."  But on those rare occasions when he's in a rut (and they are very rare), Skolnick knows what to do: "If I’m stuck, I know what to do to get inspired. I know which films to watch, which books to read, which tv shows to watch."

"All the time in the world is too much pressure."

Shana Cleveland of La Luz prefers a good deadline when she writes songs. And with a toddler in the house, her day is nothing but deadlines, which are also known as When Your Child Wakes From Their Nap.

If you're an artist like Cleveland, the best time to write is nap time. (We have four kids, so I know the feeling.) She discovered her knack for writing in those precious moments once she became a parent. "I can write just as many songs now in a much shorter period," Cleveland told me. And when she writes, she likes to sit outside in an office chair.

Cleveland's new solo album is called Manzanita, out March 10 on Hardly Art Records. It is amazing. Really. And I'm a big fan of La Luz, so this was a lot of fun. 

I first interviewed Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek in 2013, and this latest conversation reminded me why she is one one of my favorite interviews. The thoughtfulness and introspection she brings to this discussion are wonderful.

No matter the art you create, this episode is for you. We didn't focus on the practical aspects of the songwriting process nearly as much as we talked about Creativity (with a capital C): why we create and what it does to us when we do. Where does the urge come from? When is the drive the strongest? For Watkins, the ideal place to write from is curiosity. "The end goal is not to write songs. The end goal is to figure out my stuff, how to be me, how to work through stuff," she told me.

Nickel Creek's first album in nine years, Celebrants, comes out March 24. 

Philip Selway, Radiohead's drummer, says that his best writing happens when "I'm looking the other way. My songs come along when they choose." But while Selway may prefer to wait for the muse, there are a few things he does to stimulate the songwriting process:

• Selway likes to write on his drum stool, not a traditional chair. "It grounds me in my wider life," he told me.
• Selway draws a mind map using a blue pen, a black pen, and a pencil. His lyrics are spread all over the paper with little sense of order. He likes pens and pencils because, he says, "I feel more connected to what's going down on the paper." When the ideas start running dry, Selway switches to one of the other utensils.
• He finds dance a boon to his creative process. Watching, not doing, that is. "I get profoundly affected by watching interpretive dance," Selways says.

Philip Selway's latest solo album Strange Dance (Bella Union) is out February 24.

I love The Beths! So talking to Liz Stokes was a blast. The band's new album Expert in a Dying Field was on almost every 2022 year-end  "best of" list. Listen to Stokes talk about the importance of journaling to her songwriting process, why distance is so important for revision, and the best headspace to write in.  Of course, we talk about why walking around outside is so important to Stokes's process. Again: I love The Beths! 

On this week's episode, I talk to all three members of The Lone Bellow! Zach Williams,  Kanene Pipkin, and Brian Elmquist go deep into their songwriting processes and even learn a few things about each other that they didn't know before! In this episode, we discuss the impact that leaf blowing, linguistics, and literature have on their songwriting process. 

Dev Hynes had me at the bookshelves.

All those bookshelves behind him on our Zoom interview, rising to the ceiling and stuffed with books. Small wonder, then, that Hynes works best in daily consumption mode rather than creation mode. He's adamant about not writing every day.

The creative process is all about keeping it fun for Hynes. He likes to write in the afternoon for the simple reason that he likes his mornings, and who wants to write at night? Hynes isn't big on fancy equipment: he bought his third and fourth guitars only a couple of months ago. "Nothing matters to me as far as equipment," Hynes says. And when he hits a wall in the songwriting process, he doesn't push things too far if it looks like things aren't working. "I won't fold, but I'll see how hollow the wall is," he explains. 

The new Blood Orange album is called Essex Honey.

Aly and AJ Michalka have been writing and recording songs together since they were teenagers. It’s  easy to see why: their processes are remarkably in sync.  Listen to the sisters talk about this smooth creative relationship, as well as the important role that both reading and exercise play in their songwriting processes. Book recommendations included in this episode! 

"I'm so much more prolific when I exercise."

Tim Burgess of The Charlatans admitted to me during episode 55 of the podcast that "rock stars aren't supposed to exercise, but we all have our secrets, don't we?" Well, the cat's out of the bag. Burgess loves to exercise, and it's an important part of his songwriting process. Many of his song ideas come to him at the gym as he's listening to music and watching whatever is playing on the television there. But physical activity as way to stimulate creativity underscores a bigger theme in his process: "When I'm preoccupied, that's when the ideas come," he told me. His best ideas happen when he's not thinking about writing songs.

In this episode, you'll also learn why Burgess needs a white room when he writes (no, it has nothing to do with Cream) and what  Van Gogh painting he saw more than 20 years ago inspired him to write a song that, to this day, he still hasn't been able to finish. 

"When I sit down to write, the house has to be clean. Also, the dogs have to be walked because they need to fuck off and leave me alone," Kathleen Edwards told me. Now in podcast form, my 2020 joint interview with Edwards and Dave Hause! Listen now!

S.G. Goodman was raised a farmer's daughter and studied philosophy in college. This means that not only does she love to ponder, she has time do it during those long days in the field. The product of all the pondering: amazing lyrics.

It's not a surprise, then, that Goodman doesn't like to write on tour and doesn't like to be inside at all when she writes. In fact, when she's on tour, she can't wait to get back home, where she can be outside and work with her hands. "Whenever I can, I try to get outside and do some kind of manual labor. That's when I'm the most creative," Goodman told me.

In this interview, Goodman also talks about the effect that her diagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder has on her editing process. It used to mean that finishing songs was almost impossible because she always went back and tweaked over and over. Then one day a friend asked her a simple question: "Have you said everything you want to say?" And that's the litmus test she asks herself at the end of her songwriting process. 

S.G. Goodman's latest album is called Teeth Marks.

Julian Lage has been hailed as one of the "most prodigious guitarists of his generation," so this was a new one for me: an interview with a songwriter who doesn't write lyrics, only instrumentals. As someone steeped in improvisation, Lage isn't one for specific rituals. And that's why I loved this conversation: it's a deep dive into the abstract elements of creativity as we try to figure out where it all comes from. Lage is on the faculty at The New School, so we talked teaching philosophy too. (I'm a former academic.)

Lage's latest album is called A View With a Room, out now on Blue Note Records. 

“A good song has fragmented fireworks. It needs to pull people in with interesting turns of phrases, word combinations that no one has heard before.”

Hear Gavin Rossdale of Bush explain why the painters Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud are far and away the biggest inspirations to his creative process. We also discuss why great writers are so important to his songwriting and how he gets so many ideas while walking. 

(Audio note: I interviewed Rossdale while he was on his tour bus, so audio is a bit muffled.)

"I write all day, every day.  When I'm in the thick of it, it's a struggle to focus on anything else."

For Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C. , there’s no such thing as a writing ritual if you never stop writing.  He calls his writing process  his "constant annoying companion. I have writing on speed dial 24/7."  But Chatten says that he's always had a healthy relationship with writing because he's never forcing it. The key, he says, is to not take it too seriously or to make it appear to precious. "I treat it with as little importance as possible." 

"When you have a regimen, it's ok to let up on yourself. Because you know that tomorrow, you'll be doing it again."

Madison Cunningham firmly believes in the writer's regimen. You have to put in the work every day. None of this "waiting for inspiration" stuff.  "Words on a page every day, even if it's not songwriting," she says.  So she starts each day by writing for ten minutes because everyone can make time for ten minutes. No excuses.

Cunningham also reads voraciously. "Books are one of my favorite wells to draw from," she says in this episode. She draws inspiration from iconic writers like Mary Oliver, Sylvia Plath, Flannery  O'Connor, and Kurt Vonnegut.  But books are not her only source of inspiration: dishes are too. Cunningham is yet another in the line of songwriters I've interviewed who gets song ideas while washing dishes. "Every time I've put down the guitar and picked up a dish, I've never regretted it," she says. 

Of course, it's not that the act of scrubbing food that gives us song ideas; instead, writing happens subconsciously.  Writers of any stripe need to understand that the writing process happens when we're eating, sleeping, walking, talking, sitting, staring, whatever--even doing dishes, because the mundane activities allow our minds to wander.

Cunningham is a two-time Grammy nominee (2019, 2022). Her third and latest album is Revealer. 

"If I have one piece of advice to give, it would be to write something the moment you wake up." Will Sheff of Okkervil River likes a good writing ritual. He believes in writing every day, just as a professional athlete needs to practice every day.  But as you'll hear in this episode, he's also a firm believer in loafing. Sheff's first proper solo album, out October 7, is called Nothing Special. 

In most workplaces, falling asleep on the job is not a good thing. But if you’re in Metric, Emily Haines says it's a great thing.  In fact, she and her bandmates love it when they catch each other napping in the studio.  Because that means they're being productive. Listen to the latest episode now!

There's a difference between wanting to write and needing to write. For Will Taylor of Flyte, it's usually a need. Taylor says that he doesn't write every day, but instead writes after an accumulation of experiences. "I know it's time because a sadness comes over me. It's a quite noticeable funk, and the clouds need to break," says Taylor. 

But for Taylor and his bandmate Nicolas Hill, that need to write doesn't mean inefficiency. As you'll hear, they have little patience for those songs that take too long to finish. "We have no problem throwing songs away immediately if they aren't working. We don't keep them lying around to work on them later."

Flyte's latest album is Between You and Me. 

"I still have your cutlery, by the way," Butch Walker tells Matt Nathanson in this episode. Nathanson's latest album Boston Accent  was produced by Walker.  And while the two may have shared kitchen space and maybe even a utensil or two, their relationship in the studio worked because their creative processes were symbiotic: the limitation in one was offset by the complementary strength in the other. 

People tell John Moreland that he writes "bummer songs," which we both agreed is ironic gives that he cannot be in a bummer mood when he writes. "If I'm doing anything creative, my mind needs to be in a good space," Moreland told me. "I need a measure of self-acceptance when I write."

And when Moreland writes, he has a ritual. He likes to write between midnight and 4am. It has to be dark, and it has to be cool/cold, so he sets the thermostat to around 66 F.  And here's my favorite part: Tokyo walking videos.   When Moreland is stuck, he turns to YouTube and watches these videos for about 20 minutes. Sometimes it might be white noise when he's creating. Moreland loves the soothing element of a camera capturing the downtown streets of Tokyo at night with only the sound of the city as its soundtrack. 

Moreland has one of my favorite voices in all of music. It hits me like no other. His latest album is called Birds in the Ceiling.

Kelsey Waldon finds the beginnings of spring and fall to especially conducive to songwriting. A good yellow legal pad helps as well. Her latest album is called No Regular Dog on Oh Boy Records.

Ready for some light summer reading? Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes isn't. He's currently reading Homer's The Iliad.

This is the second time I've interviewed Goldsmith, and I remain in awe of his reading habits. He reads all the time. My PhD in English Literature ensures that I've always done a fair amount of reading, yet I feel silly around Goldsmith. What I love about Goldsmith is that he reads not just for fun but to be enveloped by the artist. "I get caught up in the story of the artist," he says. "That's a big part of what inspires me. I want to see how the works of artist talk to each other." He'll do this whether it's a songwriter or a prose writer. 

Dawes's latest album is Misadventure of Doomscroller.

"This is gonna sound gross, but I'm a 34 year old adult and I've just started flossing for the first time in my life."

Come for the process, stay for the hygiene! Yes, there is a connection between Kevin Morby's songwriting process and his dental health: it all has to do with organization.

But while Morby may not floss and write at the same time, he does have a few rituals. He likes a cheap Bic pen and a yellow legal pad for lyrics because the unfussiness of them allows him get messy. He likes to pace with a guitar on a hardwood floor when he creates music. And he uses running as a way to work through lyrical or musical conundrums. Many songwriters tell me that they use exercise to clear the brain, and it functions that way for Morby too. He's somewhat unique, though, in also using it to help him create in the moment. 

Kevin Morby's excellent new album is called This is a  Photograph (Dead Oceans). 

Martin Courtney of Real  Estate says that songwriting can be a "painstaking" process, so he's trying something new. "I'm trying to plow through it, take a step back, then chip away at it," he told me. He's also found fulfillment in writing about the small details of everyday life, trying to work those ideas into his songs.

But he always has Strega Nona to fall back on.

Courtney's new solo album is called Magic Sign. 

For Laura Veirs, the songwriting process involves giving the muse a good, long side eye. That's when she's not painting, surfing, reading, or exercising--all while being a  single parent. "I try to do several things at once so nothing becomes too precious or too obsessive," Veirs told me in our interview. 

Six-time GRAMMY nominees The Black Pumas are not a found sound band. But Adrian Quesada loves nothing more than a good turn signal. "I’m always superimposing a 6/4 rhythm on them whenever I’m at an intersection," he said. So much so that that his wife often has to remind him when the light turns green. 

This interview with Quesada and Eric Burton is from December 2020.

BJ Barham of American Aquarium & I were reading S.A. Cosby long before it was cool! But seriously, now that Cosby has received universal acclaim for his books RAZORBLADE TEARS and BLACKTOP WASTELAND, the secret's out. Listen to my conversation with these two master storytellers as we discussed the writing process!  

(This interview is from April 2021).

"If the next record is about whaling, you'll know where that came from."

Craig Finn takes it all in. He's the kind of songwriter who absorbs everything he sees and hears, and right now that involves reading "Moby Dick." Finn is a voracious reader, demonstrating something I've always maintained: the best lyricists read a lot. So when he sits down to write, he's efficient in his ritual: he writes quickly, usually giving himself 90 minutes to write four or five verses. Then he sets aside for a week, using fresh eyes in the revision process. 

This is the second time I've interviewed Finn; the first time was in 2011. As runners, we talked both times about how exercise helps our creative process. In fact, I wrote an article in the Washington Post about the link between aerobic exercise and higher order thinking, and in that article I quoted Finn.

Craig Finn's latest solo release is called a Legacy of Rentals.

"I write the most when I'm supposed to be doing something else because it tricks me into thinking that songwriting is rebellious," Meg Duffy (aka Hand Habits) told me. "It feels like I get to choose to do it." I love this quote so much. It illustrates how we sometimes have to trick ourselves into being creative. 

Duffy used the word "summon" a few times in our conversation regarding their songwriting process, which implies actively calling on something to be present rather than passively receiving it. This is the eternal question for the songwriter: do you wait for the muse or try to summon it?

Summoning can happen everywhere for Duffy: they even did some summoning during a recent oil change. Duffy also uses walking as a way to summon. In this episode, we dig into all our collective methods of summoning. But stay for the hilarious story of how, when Duffy lived below Kyle Thomas (aka King Tuff), summoning became very, very difficult.

The latest album by Hand Habits is Blue Reminder. It's incredible. 

Fresh off their new release Headful of Sugar, Julia Cumming (bass, vocals) and Nick Kivlen (guitar, vocals) of Sunflower Bean discuss how their sometimes divergent creative processes coalesce into an efficient whole. 

“If I’m drawing a lot, I’m writing a lot. Those two processes are closely connected.” Bardo Martinez of Chicano Batman is, in his words, the “supreme doodler.” Whether he’s longboarding or reading to his kids or drawing, he's always thinking about his next song. This interview is from July 2021.

"I like to have structure in my songwriting process in order to let chaos rule."

Jonathan Russell of The Head and the Heart loves structure. It helps him in his domestic life: he often finds missing bridges in his songs when he’s cleaning the house, for example. “I love order,” Russell told me. “Clean kitchen, happy brain.” And he loves using lists to make his day easier. When I asked Russell what kind of writing he does outside of songwriting, his immediate response was simple: “I’m a listmaker."

Russell likes structure in his songwriting process too, but not for reasons you might expect. It lets him be chaotic. “Structure lets the chaos loose,” he told me. “As long as I have boundaries set up, I will allow myself to play like a five year old.”  And Russell often gets his best writing done, he says, “When I become aware that I’m anxious.”

The Head and the Heart's latest album, out April 29, is called "Every Shade of Blue." 

"With the stuff I've been through, I would just go outside and immediately start to feel better." 

S. Carey's (Sean Carey) new solo album Break Me Open was written during a time of tremendous domestic change: the dissolution of his marriage, the death of his father, and the growth of his children. Any three of these events, much less all three,  would be time for introspection.

On the deeply personal lyrics of Break Me Open, Carey channels this introspection. And these periods of reflection were made easier by time spent outdoors: under the occasional tree, of course, but usually fly fishing. "It's my church," Carey told me. The gentle sounds of water moving past him, the scent of the foliage, the sight of fish breaking the plane of the river: all provided him with a contemplative self-examination that produced such a beautiful album. 

Tim Kasher's latest solo album is called MIDDLING AGE. The Cursive frontman explains why he's a "militant reader" and why he doesn't subscribe to the Hemingway credo of "write first, read later." But does he believe that you should always write when you're hungry? Listen for the answer to that, and hear why he thinks songwriters always sing about "walkin' down the street."

“I’m better at writing songs after I’ve processed an emotion. I have to let myself feel an emotion before I can write about it.”—Katie Pruitt.

"I write the best when I’m not putting pressure on myself to write about what’s happening around me.”—Molly Tuttle.

For Pruitt and Tuttle, dreams are an especially fruitful time for song ideas: both women have been awoken in the middle of the night by incredible melodies running through their head. (And as you’ll also hear, one of those daytime melodies actually caused a car crash.)

Katie Pruitt's debut album Expectations (Rounder Records) came out in 2020, and it's one of my favorite albums of that year. Molly Tuttle released her debut When You’re Ready (Compass Records) in 2019. In 2017, Tuttle was the first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Association's Guitar Player of the Year award. She won the award in 2018 too, when she was also named the Americana Music Association's Instrumentalist of the Year.

"The more evolved periods of my life are when I’m journaling. My journal is a backbone to my life, a conversation with my subconscious. It makes for a healthy mind and spirit.” For Grammy winner Paula Cole, the songwriting process is deeply contemplative and kinesthetic.

But journaling is just one part of Cole’s very kinesthetic writing process. “I feel it in my body,” she told me. “It’s like feeling creatively pregnant.” Cole uses movement to bear those songs. They come from walking, swimming, gardening, and dancing (to Donna Summer, natch). Even the keyboard plays a role: the deeper the key travel, the better. And then there’s this advice she gives to songwriters: “Drink drink drink, pee pee pee.” (This interview is from April 2021.)

Eric Pulido of Midlake takes a deep dive into his songwriting process on today's episode. Pulido is an avid runner, and we talk a lot about how that four mile loop in the local park is a great way to both get out of a rut and conjure up new ideas. Midlake's latest album is called For the Sake of Bethel Woods (ATO Records).

(This interview is from February 2021.) 

Listen to old friends Sarah Jarosz and Margaret Glaspy talk about their songwriting process! Four-time GRAMMY winner Jarosz and Glaspy have known each other since they were teenagers, so this was a fun conversation. But we did this in the middle of the first COVID winter, so it's a stark reminder that songwriters are only now beginning to emerge from a long spell of unemployment. You'll hear phrases like "when you lose your job, it's stressful" and "the reality of losing my job really got me down."

This interview is from January 2021.

You think you're prolific? Stu Mackenzie and his bandmates put out five albums in one year, and sixteen over the course of ten years. Not surprisingly, Mackenzie is always creating and gets anxious when he's not. He gets song ideas from everywhere: one song even came from the time signature of the alarm his car makes when he leaves the lights on.   

The theme of today's podcast is nourishment.

It dawned on me a few minutes into my conversation with Hannah Cohen that when she said proper nourishment was critical to her writing process, she was being literal.  It was no metaphor. If Cohen's not hydrated and fed, the creative process becomes much more arduous. She's the first songwriter to ever tell me that. 

But when Cohen also told me that "the body keeps score," she was now talking nourishment as metaphor. She expressed a view that every writer knows: your writing process is always taking place. It's happening when you're eating, sleeping, working, talking, moving, whatever. Pen hitting paper is only a small part of that process. 

Cohen tells a great story in this episode of how her new song "Rag" came about. Back to the literal: it started with an actual rag on the side of the road. 

Cohen's latest album is Earthstar Mountain,

“My receptors are always on because I don’t want to miss anything I see or hear. I try to collect everything," says Steve Gunn. The songwriting process is 24/7 for Gunn. Even when he’s not putting pencil to paper, he’s creating.  This interview is from August of 2021.

"If I have anything to give the world as a songwriter, I'm trying to explore the middle ground. That's not the most effective for songwriters because the most provocative things are clear statements of good and evil," says Anand Wilder, formerly of Yeasayer.

In this podcast, you'll come for the process and stay for the impressions! Sure we take a deep dive into Wilder's songwriting process, but where else can you find impressions of John, Paul, and George (no Ringo). And Paul Simon?

Impressions aside, Wilder is a fantastic interview and a great storyteller. But back to the process: it's about weed and windsprints. Listen to find out how he incorporates these elements into his songwriting process!

Wilder's first solo album is called I Don't Know My Words.

“There are days when the songs won’t stop coming. It’s like I’m holding a bucket in the rain and just trying to catch all the ideas.” Bartees Strange has a lot of song ideas. So how does he get them all down when all he does is think about creating?