Why, hello there. We are beyond thrilled to learn you have chosen to spend a few minutes of your day with us. Today’s post is a guest blog from the one and only Emily Katter, an up and coming songwriters with talent needed to be the next big thing. The subject is songwriting, and we hope those of you currently learning how to write hooks join the conversation.
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Songwriting is so much more than just creating a song. It’s an outlet (for the writer, performer AND the listener), it’s therapy, a de-stressor, it’s a tool to help make sense of a situation or something going on emotionally or physically, it’s a release.
As a songwriter myself, I have had many different experiences with the art form. I find that sometimes thoughts pour out of me so easily that I can’t keep up. Sometimes melodies just come into my head out of nowhere, or I come up with a concept when I’m in the middle of a yoga class and can’t write it down. Other times it’s a complete struggle to think of ideas, as if my mind goes blank. I can’t seem to find the words that I want to express or I struggle for a melody that fits. It’s not always easy, but I can confidently say that every time I write a song it is a completely new adventure, which is what brings me back.
In my experience, songwriting is most helpful to my life when I’m going through something personal that I want to work out. This is also when the ideas flow the most. For instance, my recently released single stemmed from a personal situation. ‘Comfortable’ is about being in a long-term relationship and getting to a point where you don’t really know if you are still “in love,” or if it is just being comfortable that keeps you together. It’s about trying to keep that spark alive when it’s covered up by familiarity. This is a topic that I had struggled with in my own my relationship with my boyfriend, and the co-writer of the song had also been through the exact same situation. Needless to say, this song kind of wrote itself since we were both so connected to the topic and the emotion behind it. I think writing the song helped us to both realize that this is something that everyone deals with at some point in their relationship. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence that we both got engaged to the person we had been writing this about within three months of writing this song, or if this song helped us to move forward and make changes that we needed to make in our relationship.
I find that like “Comfortable,” my best songs come from being personally connected to a concept. I’ve even used songwriting to deal with struggles in my music career, getting rejected or feeling insufficient or like an outsider. These songs have always turned into powerful, uplifting ballads that are about rising above whatever is trying to push me down. Songwriting helps me to get my feelings out in a positive way, and then share them with people so that it will help them to overcome negative situations in their life.
This is still the beginning of my songwriting journey and I hope that it continues to be a therapeutic and rewarding outlet for me. I hope that I will continue to relate to my fans through my songs and empower them.
Emily Katter is fast becoming one of the most talked about female songwriters in the country. We believe in her music, and something tell us you will too. If you would like to learn more about her efforts in total music domination, please follow Emily on Twitter.
