In this video, singer-songwriter Nat Johnson talks to us about her approach to songwriting; from recording ideas using programmes like GarageBand to how just sitting in a different chair can influence her creative ideas.
Nat has released two albums apiece with Sheffield bands Monkey Swallows the Universe and Nat Johnson and the Figureheads before releasing her first solo album in 2014. A veteran of the festival scene, Nat has also toured with Camera Obscurer, Richard Hawley and fellow #FLsong contributor Kate Jackson. An emotive acoustic musician, Nat has performed live sessions for BBC 6Music and Radio 4 and most recently orchestrated the Connie Converse event Roving Women.
Here are some key things to take away from this video:
- You don’t have to fully understand musical concepts before you can start to use them. In songwriting, playing around and experimenting can be just as important as understanding the theory.
- You don’t have to work on a song from start to finish
- you might just have an idea for a riff or for a chorus. Once you start to form your ideas you can move bits around to make a complete song.
- Keep writing. The more you write, the more ideas you’ll have. Nat talks about taking ideas from other songs that she has written in the past to make new ones.
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