Matt Nathanson has a new album out, and speaks briefly with American Songwriter Magazine about his songwriting workflow:

Most of the time, melodies and chords come first- then the words. and the words are usually a combination of a few key ones I have in notebooks (I try to write everyday) and ones I make out of the sounds/place holder words from the melody. it’s been a long time since i have, like, set my words to a tune. These days, the words that end up sticking seem to come only after everything else is in place.
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On the “industry” side of songwriting there has been (and probably always will be) a debate about whether to hand over all ownership of a song to an established artist. In this case, Ke$ha could not be happier with the choice she made.

The 24-year-old singer told New York Magazine, “I’ve never been more proud of anything in my career… It really solidifies me as a songwriter in the pop music world, which is what I consider myself first and foremost. So it actually is really, really exciting for me when I hear [Britney] sing it. Like, when I hear my own songs on the radio I have to kind of turn it down or change the radio or whatever. When I hear that, I fucking blow the speakers out and I order everybody to dance.”
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Elbow’s Guy Garvey Gets Tea-Time Songwriting Pointers From Peter Gabriel:

“He told me that train journeys were good for lyrics,” Garvey says. “I was at his place specifically focusing on lyrics. Peter popped in for a cup of tea, which is very flattering. We talked about writing and he told me how he loves to write lyrics on train journeys.”
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