Writing Lyrics with Liz Stokes (The Beths) | Top Tips with To The Front

[Music] I have a notebook going usually.  I try to write a lot, and I will   then go back and look for phrases that  are interesting or rhymes that I like. I'm looking for something that  feels like a lyrical kind of hook. I guess my lyrics are finished when I  feel like I am getting my point across,   or like I will be understood in a way,  or they are... I guess finished when   I am not embarrassed to sing them  in front of a room full of people. If I've got a chorus that I've written  and it's kind of stuck in my head and it's   swimming around in there, I feel like I want  to complete the song so that it has a home. I try to get at least the first draft of lyrics  written in a shortish period of time, because I   think it's good to be in the world of the song in  the same kind of head space while you're working   on it. But sometimes I'll go back and have  to write a second verse that I haven't done. My favourite lyrical convention is probably  rhyme, I really like it when songs rhyme or   if they don't rhyme when you expect them  to rhyme or something like that. It's   it's a really fun thing to play with, and I  think sometimes things that are limiting are   useful. When you can use any possible word it's  sometimes hard to think of something to write,   but then if you're like well I need to find  something that's going to express my idea but   rhyme with the previous line, sometimes it just  comes to you in a way because you have parameters. I like to write lyrics using uh my favourite kind  of pen, which is a kind of pen that whenever I see   it's on sale, I buy like a bunch of them and um  using my favourite kind of notebook as well. But   also increasingly I have been using my notes app  on my phone um just because it's there. If you   have an idea you should get it down because you  think you will remember it later but you won't. When you write a song I think your perspective  of what the song is about is really clear to you,   it's not necessarily clear to someone listening to  it for the first time. So I try to always imagine   what my lyrics will sound like for someone who  doesn't know at all what they're about. Often it   will mean that the song means something different  to them, but I kind of like that as well,   I think it's just good to imagine that you don't  know what the song is about and listen to the...   read the lyrics as they are and see if you're  getting across the point that you want to make.

Channel: Girls Rock Aotearoa

Views: 610

Keywords: Liz Stokes, Liz Stokes interview, the beths interview, top tip with to the front, girl rock camp nz, writing lyrics, how to write lyrics

Id: uyFKFDd2L5Y

Length: 2min 50sec (170 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 03 2024