Vance Joy Explains How He Wrote 'Riptide' | The Howie Games

I was scared of dentists in the dark in 2019 that was the last time I could get any information so you said it was twice in six months so in 2019 that song had been streamed Apparently one billion times hmm 120 weeks in the charts and then Taylor Swift did a cover of it yeah so firstly what's the song about in your mind oh that song it's the most stream of Consciousness song you know I've written it really was so does it just come out of you yeah well the first two lines I wrote in like 2009 and I was music wasn't even like a dis it was like not even a dream at that point it was just something uh I was scared of dentists in the dark right and it was like maybe I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations maybe that line but at that point I just had that first line and I was like playing this three chords and I was like this is too simple like this is why I can play with my daughter yeah that's beautifully simple it's yeah simple one and but since then I've realized that a lot of the good songs are simple and easy to play and Pops pop music's pretty simple but you know it might sound like it's complicated but when you boil it down it might just be a couple of chords and but um at that point I totally dismissed it and then it wasn't until three years later I picked up a ukulele played a different Melody and then I was like oh I got that start of a song surely that won't work but I I started gluing the pieces together lyrically those lyrics the rest of the lyrics Just honestly it's like not you know I say a stream of Consciousness but it was just like I don't know channeling something or just being like okay what what's the next word like kind of mumbling but then the words started like kind of falling into place really kind of kind of effortlessly um and that I feel like all my you know the better songs that I've written would I would say there's a fairly big element of just things just coming to you like ideas coming to you and you just receive like an idea and you go bang and there might be a bit of nitty-gritty where you you try and hash it out and you know connect the dots and try and force some some things into place but the best stuff is really stuff that you know it's not like you're sitting there going I need to write a song about this or this um and that's why when I went into songwriting sessions after you know writing a few songs they'd be like what do you want to write about and I'll be like I don't know like I'll just see what we say and then like what comes out that's not how we do things here in you know Nashville or something like we write a song and it's it makes sense we know where we're headed so did you start to do that or did you stick with your original process well I mostly I stayed in my original process uh see what words come out and then and then kind of see where it's heading but um I definitely have come to understand a little bit more about the crafter songwriting because um the writing group titles like getting hit by lightning a bit and it's like you know it's like I might write that song but then next day I just you know I didn't have like a uh like uh one of those kind of um approaches where there's like a planned approach you know people who are hit makers like Max Martin or something they're they've got something that I don't have which is some kind of awareness of like how things should be to be catchy and to get to really stick to people um and so I've come to understand the craft a bit more and I've worked with people who have a better idea of The Craft but I think my best thing is just come out with like a guitar riff and then kind of you know Finding you know I mean maybe it's a chorus but just seeing what falls out and then you know taking that into a session as opposed to engineering it from the start hey guys how are you here thank you so much for watching the Howie games YouTube channel we appreciate your support now if you want to hear the full podcast you can just click on the link directly below if you want to subscribe to the YouTube channel which would be fantastic bang click right there and if you want to see more Clips highlights and updates from the Howie games just go that way thanks so much as always take it easy and peace and love

Channel: The Howie Games

Views: 704

Keywords: Vance Joy, Riptide, Podcast, Australia

Id: Ccw4vitHfCs

Length: 3min 57sec (237 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 26 2022