Songwriting as craft with Marlon Chaplin

The extraordinarily talented singer-songwriter and producer Marlon Chaplin joined us to talk about his crafty approach to songwriting, and share two songs. Dave Miner also joined us to fill in for Bruce as co-host. Thanks a million, Dave, you were great!

Download the lyrics for Marlon’s songs to follow along as you listen.

We talked about:

different approaches to co-writing
how to tell if a song was written by a drummer
the “one little thing” to mess up your chord progression (in a good way)
sure, it’s a country song, but there are elements of rap too
how letting ideas simmer for a while affords you some objective perspective before you start writing
why the world needs more bad songs
songwriting as craft
Gary Wood’s episodes to see more interesting capo setups
how to develop different guitar parts from verse to chorus
going from a Major I to a Minor V when you’re feeling a bit of melancholy