What has worked for us is to write the music first and then the  lyrics. This involves Mick creating chord patterns and improvising melodies and bass lines from them. We listen to the melodies and discuss the images evoked by the music. From here we decide what the song will be about and then Ros writes the lyrics. We then adjust both the music and the lyrics, making our songwriting a truly collaborative process. An example of our process is described below:

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The Development of 'Evening Sky'

The stimulus for writing 'Evening Sky' came from Mick studying the guitar for a grade exam, which involved him writing a guitar piece. Some time later, he posted the piece on social media, inviting friends to write some lyrics for the melody. On hearing the tune, Ros found that she couldn't stop singing it and was inspired to write some lyrics. This was unusual as Ros hadn't ever written lyrics for anyone else's melody and  Mick had never asked anyone to write lyrics to his melodies before. This collaborative approach worked for both of us.

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Mick felt that Ros' original lyrics for Evening Sky worked well with the melody, but they didn't tell the story he wanted to write. Reflecting on this, Ros used her playwriting/research techniques to elicit the depth of Mick's experience and used these descriptions to write lyrics that were not about her. We agreed the lyrics and 'Evening Sky' was born.

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If  you have enjoyed reading about our songwritng process and would like to know about other songs on this website,  or share your thoughts about songwriting please email us (see contact details) 

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