When I was in grade two, I was in a Christmas concert. Just before the concert, I was practicing on stage, with my parents and brother in the audience waiting behind the curtains. My teacher came to me and said, “Mouth the words, Pamela.”
I don’t sing.
I love listening to singers where I can hear the words, and the words can touch places through sound that words alone can’t do.
Meeting Songwriting Duo Jill and Kate
Jill Pickering and Kate Rapier were singing “Behind These Hazel Eyes” at a Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles when Kelly Clarkson walked in. They ended up singing as backup singers for her for six years until they stepped out from the back of the stage to the front of the stage, singing their own songs.
Together they became Jill and Kate, a songwriting and harmonizing duo from Nashville, Tennessee. A few weeks ago, they sang at the Tribe Conference in Franklin, Tennessee. I met them when they were setting up their table to sell their music before the event.
The lyrics Jill and Kate write talk about pain, healing, joy, and sorrow. They sing with voices my grade two teacher would have liked.
I love their sound and their original lyrics.
I was so curious to know how they wrote their songs—how they do what they do, how they create their music.
Singers are writers. Writers who sing their words.
I want to introduce Jill and Kate to you and to share their writing process. It might be helpful to you if you write songs or would like to write songs.
Jill and Kate Talk Songwriting
Jill and Kate are getting ready to leave on tour in a few days. They were gracious and agreed to answer questions in the midst of packing up their guitars and getting ready to go on the road.
On Getting Started With Songwriting
How did you meet?
We met at a tiny music school on Martha’s Vineyard. We were each going to college (Jill was attending Gordon College in Massachusetts and Kate was attending Biola University in California) and decided to go to a study “abroad” semester to learn more about the music industry. We say “abroad” because Martha’s Vineyard is not technically abroad, but we like the way it sounds and you have to take a ferry to get there! Haha.
So anyway, we were roommates at this music school and became fast friends. We decided to work together just a few weeks into the semester.
When did you start writing songs? (Were you were little did you want to grow up and be a singer and songwriter?)
Jill has been writing songs since she was 11 years old and learned to play guitar. Kate started writing when she was 19 or 20.
We have both been singing since we could talk and both dreamed of doing music someday, but didn’t necessarily know how that would look.
On How to Write a Song
Will you please explain how you approach writing a song? Does the music come first or the words?
We’ve been writing songs together for 13 years and very few have been written exactly the same way.
Most of the time the words will come first. One of us will have a line or a title idea and we will bring it to the other one. Jill will grab the guitar and start playing until we find a melody or chord progression that works with the lyric.
But sometimes we will have a musical idea and try to write lyrics to that. It all just depends on the day. There are so many ways to write a song . . . which is partly what keeps it interesting.
On Song Structure
In a story, there is a beginning, a middle and an end. Your songs sound like stories, with conflict and resolution. How do you structure your songs? I found this structure on the internet: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, ending.
That is the most common structure for the songs we write. It’s sort of the natural flow of a “pop” song.
We like to always bring some sort of resolution if we can. We believe there is hope in everything . . . that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, even in the darkest of places. So, resolution is definitely something we try to tie in to our songs.
Every once in a while it’s fun to break the typical mold and write a different structured song too. We have a song called “From Somewhere In The Bottle” that is basically just 3 different verse sections and no chorus.
On Their Songwriting Process
Will you please pick one of your songs from Heart of Stone and tell us how you wrote it? What were you thinking?
One of our most popular songs on Heart Of Stone is “My Love.”
When we wrote it, we were both going through some hard times. Being a duo, we can generally balance each other out pretty well . . . if one of us is down, the other is up. But at this particular time, we were both feeling pretty down . . . both of us fighting a bit of depression.
We wrote this song from the perspective of what we thought God would say to us during this time. It was a way to get out of our own heads . . . silence the voices inside that were just destroying us, and trying to listen from another perspective.
Whatever that unconditional love is in everyone’s life that propels them forward . . . that is the voice that is speaking in this song. Kate had the idea of the first line: “I won’t ever change my mind, I won’t ever change my mind about you” and from there the song came quickly.
My Love
I won’t ever change my mind
I won’t ever change my mind about you
I’ve been crazy bout you yeah
I’ve been crazy bout you since I found youSo you can fall right to pieces on the floor tonight
You can break down if you need to cry
But I won’t ever change my mind
I won’t ever change my mind about youSo come on take a walk with me
Take my hand
You can scream into the darkness and tell me your plans
You can cry all night til you understand my loveCause I’ll be here in the morning when the sun is bright
And when you see it there shining
You will come to find
That it’s always gonna be here til the end of time
My loveI am never gonna leave
I am never gonna leave you stranded
Life is never gonna go
It will never go like you planned itSo you can wear yourself down trying to figure me out
You can love me later if you hate me now
But I am never gonna leave
I am never gonna leave you stranded
Advice for Songwriters
What advice can you give to someone who wants to write songs? Or what do you wish you had known when you first started out?
The best advice that we ever got when we were starting out with songwriting was to not be afraid to write a lot of really crappy songs before you get a good one.
We probably write 20 or 30 songs and get one good one out of the group. It’s just the reality of writing.
You have to do a lot of it to get to something good.
So, don’t be afraid. Write, write, write. When you get a good song, awesome.
Don’t be surprised if you write a bunch of crappy ones after that. It’s all a part of honing your craft . . . and don’t be too hard on yourself.
On Next Steps
What is next?
We are busy writing new music right now and working with some different writers in Nashville which has been really fun!
We have shows this fall in Chicago, New York, Wisconsin, and Philadelphia which we are excited about. We’ll also be in Los Angeles writing this fall.
Another thing we are really excited about is a trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe to visit the kids at Houses Of Hope Africa (Kate’s dad’s non-profit which cares for orphans in southern Africa). There’s a lot going on right now and we are excited about all of it!
Humanizing Stars
When someone is singing on a stage, singing the songs they wrote, and making original music, sometimes I forget they are real people, real people with hearts and dreams.
Jill and Kate are real people, real people who write and then sing their words. Singing in harmony, their voices blending together like butter and oil when you grill a chicken.
You can follow Jill and Kate on their blog or check out their latest tour. Their next tour starts September 28 at the Schubas Tavern in Chicago, Illinois. I have tickets to see them when they are near me.
Have you ever tried to write a song? Please let me know in the comments.
PRACTICE
Write a song using the structure verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, ending.
Write as long as you need to. Usually, we suggest you write for fifteen minutes, but please don’t limit yourself with this exercise.
Take your time to hum a tune and write down your lyrics. As Jill and Kate said, there are many different ways to approach writing a song.
Please post your song in the comments section, and please read someone else’s comments as you write your own. I love this community and how kind everyone is.
xo
Pamela
The post How to Write a Song With Jill and Kate appeared first on The Write Practice.
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