The seven truths of songwriting | Tom McRae | TEDxWhitehall

As you may have heard my name Crane, I am a singer and songwriter. I'm here to break up the conversation with some music to ease you into the second half of the day. I'll play three of my songs if I can include it. I'm also going to talk a little bit about my

seven

fundamental

truths

about

songwriting

. It could have been a 127, but I'm going to try to include

seven

and I'm also going to try to lighten it up and lift your spirits with my songs of misery, despair and ultimately death. 14 minutes to turn the sky black with the rain.

Weekend away standing at your door. I will call your name. I'll call again. He had been gone some time ago. Lately. Lately. So line. Lately. I drove for miles my eyes on fire not knowing how to say cord in my head details left on set finding you that way lately lately ladies of the Zhou line all I know white sky with snow day trip van uh borrowed singh borrowed shoe la life goes on it's true I miss you lately, I blame these, all I know lately is all I know, thank you, so like I said, I'm here to lighten the mood.

I'm a singer-songwriter, what that means is that for the last 20 years I've been making a living. I wrote songs predominantly for myself, mainly about misery, despair and death, but I also wrote for other artists. I've written for X Factor winners and losers. I have written for rock legends. I've written for people on their way up. People on their way down don't ask me who I am. I also wrote for film and television. Unsurprisingly, my music was used in grim Norwegian independent films. I also wrote for children. Television programs in Belgium. I've had my music used to sell you everything from perfumes to cars and the other year I wrote a song for a mattress advert which I'm especially proud of and have a stated ambition for whoever I'm working with, whether it's for myself or another artist. like me.

I'm trying to write a song I'm trying to find a pain I'm trying to find a moment I'm trying to break your heart in three and a half minutes and put it back together, that's what I'm looking for sometimes. you end up selling mattresses, but I'm also going to quickly try to adapt a lot of my

songwriting

principles, my fundamental

truths

of songwriting, the first fundamental truth of songwriting is that writing songs is really easy, there are days when it takes time. singing a song can be the time it takes you to write that song those are the good days those are the days when this fully formed thing is handed to you like it's an angel and you feel like you had nothing to do with it and you can't claim any ownership or authorship of that song, but that doesn't stop you from doing it because obviously your name has to be on the royalty check, so you say yeah, I wrote that song, those are the good days, so bottom line first. .

The truth about writing songs is that it is very easy. The second fundamental truth about writing songs is very difficult. There are days when you work with other people and it feels like you're climbing Mount Everest instead of having oxygen tanks strapped to your back. I have two very average starlets, those are the hard days, but there are rewards on those hard days just as much as there are on the easy days, as long as you finish, because that's the third fundamental truth of songwriting: you gotta finish, that's what Same with any creative endeavor. Whatever you're doing you have to finish it because if you don't finish it it will remain forever in your imagination in a state of flux and it's all full of coiled potential this song that no one has heard yet could be the song that fuels The World That Ends All wars and that makes humanity finally love and appreciate each other can equally be a song that sells mattresses, but unless you finish it you won't know it and the first rule I have with anyone who comes into the studio with me while you finish your song if it's for me if it's for you we finish that song sometimes I get three artists in a day you have two hours with them you've finished the song because until you finish that song it will always be here floating in a state of flux and if you don't finish you'll never learn and you'll never You'll be able to move on with that song.

I'm trying to fit another one in now. It's about being afraid of growing old, dying, and losing your loved one. I have exchanged every cell in my body turned into someone new but I still see through the same eyes when I close them I see that there is nothing like donating in the morning so because of the parts you are you are an injury I am going to carry tea for the law so let me grow let me grow old with you I slept and I miss the board sliding into the gray be angry and sad and afraid tired of living love me bad decisions sober worse when I'm drunk think about the decisions dear one good in them so let me let me grow from now From now on we draw a lot Steve what will decide the lines in our hands wait until sunset dodge the rays dodge the rays so thank you fast forward to a song about misery, death and despair, the next fundamental rule of writing songs is that all composers are murderers.

You can tell by looking at me. The thing about being a killer is that you have to kill all the other potential songs in order to finish one when you write a song. creative effort carries with it all the ghosts of all the other things that could be, but you have to make a decision and you have to finish that song and that means killing all the other fantastic permutations, you have to make a decision and there are Your colors to the mast and it's scary and that's why when you play sometimes you get a haunted look because you're remembering all the other ghosts in the song that might have been quickly moving on to the next fundamental truth of the experience of taste in songwriting. and create all those things that you have gathered over the years, experienced taste in art, they are your fundamental enemy when it comes to writing songs, they are the things that will sit on your shoulder and tell you not to start the song, You can never be Joni.

Mitchell or Bob Dylan, any of your heroes, why bother? Why the stars? The taste for art and experience. your worst enemies. the following fundamental truth about composition. The taste for art and experience are your best friends when you have started a song, when you have had the courage to immerse yourself. make a fool of yourself and feel vulnerable when you have that first pain of an idea, try the art and the experience will be the midwives that will hold your hand through the process and help you deliver that song to the world and it may not be the best one. song in the world ending or wars feed the hungry makes people love each other may be a song that only sells mattresses but you need your taste and craftsmanship experience to overcome them, they are both your worst enemy and your best friend.

I'm going to try to fit one last song into the photograph. I still see the long gone spa now gutted by fire. It's time to face the fact that there isn't a second we're down with the dead now forgotten and cold while I'm still the captain, but. The sinking ship will sink, Sonali boy, yeah, look, it's homey vs. homey, which brings me to the final fundamental truth about songwriting. You have to start the process with hope. You have to continue the process with hope. You have to finish the song thinking about that why. It won't change the world but it might sell some mattresses but you might get lucky and it might change the world but without hope you'll never start without hope you'll never finish even Paul McCartney wakes up thinking today is the day I write a song better than everything yesterday it will be fine everything will be fine everything will be fine schooner vir fine you have 20 seconds to help me sing this schooner will be fine everything will be fine thank you