Songwriting advice (in just 6 words) from Polaris nominees
Shad, Charlotte Day Wilson, Ouri and more share short-but-sweet songwriting tips
CBC Music challenged the 2022 Polaris Music Prize nominees to share some underrated songwriting advice using only six words. Here's what they had to share.
Interviews conducted by Yoav Lai and Ashley Catania from the CBC Music social media team. Responses have been edited for clarity and length.
'Trust your gut, tell the truth.' — Shad
"The 'trust your gut' part is what music is all about. It's all about feeling. All you have as a compass is your feeling, and then maybe a couple other people you trust. But your sense of the thing and the feelings within you, you cannot turn that off if you want to have a song that connects.
"And then, tell the truth. My friend Justin, who does all my artwork and my videos, said that the truth is always interesting, and I think that's true. Truth is always either poignant or funny or something worth hearing."
'Let people inside your world.' — Ouri
"Let people inside your world. Just dig a hole in your wall and let people peek and see whatever you are up to."
'Just stand up and walk away.' — Charlotte Day Wilson
"My advice for songwriters is, if you're ever hitting a wall, just walk away. Just stand up and walk away. Continue singing and writing in your head if you need to, but just walk away and then come back."
'Sit down and do it, babe.' — Lisa LeBlanc
"To me, you just have to do it. If you don't, there's no songs that are going to come out. You just have to sit down, do it, and then eventually something is going to come up.
"Find ways that make it easier to do. This album, for me, was really hard to do by myself. I hated writing by myself. This time, I decided to collaborate with other people, which was a first for me. To be able to write with other people all of a sudden made songwriting so much more fun."
'Remember why you are doing this.' — Kelly McMichael
'Don't use computer, work in your head.' — Hubert Lenoir
"I'm going to say seven, and I would say, 'Don't use computer, work in your head.' And you can change 'computer' to 'paper,' 'guitar,' whatever device you're working from.
"My head is my favourite workplace. It's like my favourite studio, because ideas always come from the head, from my brain, and I force myself to keep them there for maybe months before I talk to anybody about them. You don't have any limitation of money or technical limitation. It's just this thing where you can imagine tons of different arrangements and then it goes so fast. I'm rarely out of ideas because of that, because it's been living so long in my head."
'Sala kaka ndenge o lingi ti o ko koma.' — Pierre Kwenders
"I'm basically saying [in Lingala], 'Do as you please until you make it, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise.'"
'Just have fun, speak your mind.' — Young D, Snotty Nose Rez Kids
"For us to write songs, that was our place of refuge, because we were constantly being judged and stereotyped just for the simple fact of where we come from and who we are. So songwriting has helped us speak our mind."
'Stay true to yourself.' — Yung Trybez, Snotty Nose Rez Kids
"At the end of the day you can only tell your own story. A lot of my family have been my biggest influences and kind of shaped me into who I am, and those are the stories that I can tell. I can't tell another man's story, another women's story, I can only tell mine."