Professional Songwriting Techniques: A Range of Views from the Sodajerker Interviews

This research presents a range of views about the art and craft of songwriting provided by internationally renowned songwriters. In order to achieve a synthesis of different voices and experiences, the various testimonies are organized around the following themes: the generation of ideas, songwriting routines, the construction of melodies and lyrics, and strategies for co-writing and collaboration. The interviews derive from the Sodajerker podcast, an audio series co-founded in late 2011 by the author. The work finds that professional songwriters employ a wide variety of techniques in order to create material, with the most obvious consensus being the consistent application of these methods in order to achieve productivity.