While the decision to make a song is definitely the first big step in the songwriting process, it’s all the other steps that might seem a bit more daunting. Songwriters’ block is a real thing, and it’s important for musicians to approach creating tunes in different ways to see what works for them.

Last week the New York Times conducted interviews with The Chainsmokers and Flume – to better understand their creative process. Whether you’re a musician or not, it’s an interesting read to say the least. Here are our favourite little tidbits of info and advice from some of the industry’s most innovative:

The Chainsmokers’ Andrew Taggart:

“The easiest part of making a record is the first 90 percent of the song. The last 10 percent is when you sit there and you mix it and you add percussive fills and effects and make sure every piece enters and leaves perfectly. It takes forever. We actually changed the key, because it fit Daya’s range better if it was a step higher. And the third drop has this sax part that I wrote late in the process. I typically try to do three drops in a song. That one’s pretty epic.”

 

Flume:

“Often when I work with a vocalist, I like to focus on the melodies first. I sent [the Canadian singer Kai] an instrumental, but it wasn’t “Never Be Like You,” just some chords I had lying around, really open-ended and simple.. for me, it’s always hard to come in cold and make art without knowing someone. Neither of us were very inspired, so we ended up going out and getting food. We walked past this tarot card reading place, and we were like, “Why not?” When we got back, the ice had been broken. We picked a theme and started working on lyrics. I did more drums and fleshed out the structure. Once we had that laid down, we went our separate ways.”

 

Check out the full article here, which also goes into some technical detail for the gear and process for those fiending on the technics.