Pop songwriting with Amir Brandon

Pop music singer-songwriter Amir Brandon joined us to talk about two of his upcoming songs, working with producer Thomas McKay, and the stories behind his songs.

We also talked about:

• Collaborating with other songwriters
• Battle Royale: grammar vs. lyric vs. meaning vs. melody
• How to write a really long chorus
• Chord choices and mixing up major, minor, and 7th chords
• Last week’s show on non-verbal hooks
• Doing cover songs on youTube
• The competitive nature between Eddie Murphy’s and Freddie Mercury’s music careers (aka Phil’s faux-pas)
• Narrative and longing through the seasons in Waiting for Summer

Download the lyrics for Amir’s songs Diamonds-Rain-Lyrics and Waiting-for-Summer-Lyrics.

Listen to the show