Why Co-Writing Makes You A Better Songwriter
I’ve noticed that a lot of artists on the local level are not writing with each other. Which is funny to me because if you look at some of the biggest artists in the world every release has more than one songwriter on board. I believe that cowriting is the key to becoming a great songwriter. Some of my favorite songs that I have written would not have been made if I had not written with others in the past and learnt how they approach creating music. Not only does cowriting help you approach writing in a different way, it also helps with writers-block. This happens because someone else's ideas can reinspire your creative brain. Perhaps at a time when you’ve felt out of touch with writing. Which is something that all songwriters face.
It seems like songwriters at the local level feel as if they need to prove something. I was the same, I wanted everyone to notice how good I was without writing with others. My music was my “baby” and I didn’t want anyone else to touch it. But by thinking like this I didn’t actually realize it was holding me back from growing. It wasn’t until I started looking at writing credits for some of my favorite songs that I realized the majority of these songs are written by several people. So I started reaching out to other locals asking them if they would like to write with me. These song’s weren’t for any project in particular. I just wanted to write and see how others do it. At first I found it difficult to convince other local artist to write with me. A lot of us musicians have ego and as mentioned earlier they don’t realize it actually helps. I was on a mission, I wanted to write with as many people as possible. I must’ve reached out to over 40 different artists across Canada that are independent and not signed to publishers. Granted I did write with artists that are signed to publishing deals and honestly I found them to be on the other end of the spectrum in terms of them offering too many ideas to one song as well as getting to the nitty gritty of royalties and credits. Which is very important and I understand this is how people make a living but these conversations should not happen BEFORE writing a song.
Regardless, after I started writing with others I realized how much it helped me grow as a writer. When I’m writing a song by myself I still think back to how other people would write. It’s the same as recording with other engineers or working with other producers, etc. The best way to learn is by creating a community for learning. We shouldn’t be gate keeping art. Especially not in a world where people can make music with prompts now.
With a voice that feels both familiar and fresh, London, ON-born, Windsor, ON-based singer-songwriter Addi John steps confidently into a new chapter with his single “These Walls,” out now.