Monthly Archives: January 2014

Isle of Noises: Conversations with great British songwriters By Daniel Rachel

I loved “Songwriters on songwriting” by Paul Zollo but it was practically all American writers. Daniel Rachel has filled this gap. It’s amazing how many great people were willing to talk to him. 26 writers including Noel Gallagher, Ray Davies, Paul Weller, Jarvis Cocker, Billy Bragg, Johnny Marr, Damon Albarn and Laura Marling. 
For each subject there is an overview of their career followed by a long interview. Daniel must have spent ages researching before talking to each person as he really knows the detail of their work. It’s exciting to see the original written version of many songs.
If funds are tight I recommend reading it on a kindle (£3.20) as the hardback version (£16.25)  is a lot more expensive.
Best Bit: Sting explaining how he writes his songs backwards. It makes total sense that if you know where you are going you can build towards it but I hadn’t thought like this before.

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