Win the Week

The best part about running a storytelling publication is that people share with us their top secrets for leading a successful creative career — and we steal them! In this newsletter, we pass on some actionable insights from our interview subjects to ramp up your productivity, make your ideas happen, and tackle the workweek with a focused mindset.?

This week, music producer Andrew Petroff teaches us the process of what it's like to write a song. "I work with such a wide variety of artists in different genres," he says. "No starting point for a song is the same, but there are a few general patterns." Here’s a peak into his process:

What came first: the lyrics or the music?

“On the two opposite ends of the spectrum you’re starting with lyrics idea first or a musical idea first. Most songs are some kind of combination of those two elements.?

I’m usually starting off by driving the musical side of the song. I’ll hop in on lyrics too and then keep a perspective on how the lyrics, music melodies, and overall vibe come together. In the room, there is typically the artist and myself and then usually another co-writer or bandmate depending on the day.”

Lyric themes

“Country music is such a lyric-driven genre that most of the time the initial song idea is sparked from a title or phrase. We’ll sit together and kick around a few lyric themes and see what catches the excitement of everyone. From there we can create a musical idea to match the lyric theme. The focus is the songs itself, what the lyrics mean, and how they translate to the listener.”?

Music ideas

“Completely opposite, there are also writes where we kick things off with a musical idea. These tend to be genres where the overall vibe and feeling is the primary focus rather than just the lyrics. There’s more room for creative musicality and interesting textures. The music idea is the initial spark and then we’ll work out a rough melody or phrase and fit lyrics to that.”

When is it all finished?

“A song is only done when it’s on a record and released. While most of the writing may happen during that initial session it’s not uncommon to see edits and tweaks up until the proper recording of the song. Sometimes you nail it on the first try and sometimes it takes a bit of refinement and perspective before it’s finished.”

Read our full interview with Petroff here, where he shares how he works. It includes starting his day in the dad zone and why a converted church is his dream studio...