“Songwriters on Songwriting” by Paul Zollo: Alanis Morissette
Today on the book list, we’re digging into another detail from the excellent Songwriters on Songwriting by Paul Zollo, this time in his interview with Alanis Morissette and producer Glen Ballard.
Morissette and Ballard co-wrote and produced Jagged Little Pill, a breakout album for Morissette and one of the best-selling albums of all time, winning her not only an Album of the Year Grammy, but a total of 5 Grammys out of 9 nominations.
While this interview goes in a lot of different directions, for this highlight I’d like to focus on the importance of finding the right collaborators, and having the willingness to understand the rules before intentionally trying to break them.
That’s part of the magic of this particular breakout record: the combination of an artist who knew what she wanted to do, along with a producer who was willing to have more flexible boundaries. As we'll see, having flexible boundaries is different than having no boundaries at all.
Moving to LA
When Alanis first moved to LA from Canada, she initially had trouble finding a collaborator, as many of her co-writers were a bit too rigid in their approach.
But, here’s where she really got smart: instead of swinging all the way around to the other side of the spectrum and going for a “no-rules-at-all” approach to songwriting, Alanis was able to find a middle ground working with Glen Ballard. Ballard had a strong foundation of musical training and wrote to specific types of pop song structure, but was also willing to be more flexible and bend those structures in a more spontaneous fashion than other co-writers:
“But first, she had to find a collaborator. Which was no easy task, as previous collaborators objected to her desire to be fluid with songform, to change the lyrics of the chorus every time if need be, and to be spontaneously unbound in the pursuit of words and music. She met with “a huge handful” of writers before finding her ideal partner, capable of providing her with a firm foundation for the profuse freedom and frankness of her lyrics.”
Finding a balance between structure and looseness
I love this quote, because it matches with my own experiences of how writing and producing albums works when it’s done right. People tend to view the concept of “boundaries” in music production as something very black and white: either boundaries must be something incredibly restricted and oppressive, or they shouldn’t exist at all.
In my experience, neither of these approaches usually leads to the best work. The best production teams know how to find a middle ground between these extremes; providing enough gentle yet firm boundaries to insure a high quality end result that sounds intentional rather than random, while also providing an open sandbox that artists can feel free to play within.
This can be tricky to achieve, because every individual artist has an individual preference for this type of thing, and it can vary from record to record. But, here’s some general ideas on how to achieve this, if you’re feeling stuck in your own process:
Collaborate with others often, as many others as possible.
Understand that certain types of boundaries can be focusing rather than restrictive, it just depends on exactly how you set them up.
Solutions in the studio
Here's an example: an artist might feel overly restricted by working to studio deadlines, and is looking for a solution to achieve more freedom in the recording process.
One over-reaction to this feeling would be to eschew paying for any studio time entirely, and to only write music in your bedroom. Another would be to book studio time and go in without any rehearsal or advance planning of any kind.
You'll discover pretty quickly that having endless options and the endless ability to revise your work forever can easily turn into indecision, and never finishing anything!
A better idea might be to aim for the middle to come up with a multifaceted solution: demo a little bit in your bedroom, and when it comes time to go into the studio, go in with a plan. But, also intentionally build in a few extra studio days where you’re just planning on improvising without a plan at all.
I would build those loose, no-plan improvisation days into the middle of your session dates. That way, they’ll work as a kind of creative break between the days of more structured recording.
You might get some gems during those no-plan days, you might not get anything at all, but either way you’ve hit a middle ground: allowing some extra time for complete freedom and loose work inside the studio, all while still giving yourself enough of a deadline to make sure you complete the work that you’ve intended to start.
Deadlines and boundaries in the studio don’t have to be restrictive; they can be freeing if applied in the right way.
I encourage you to experiment with different types of collaborators in your studio work, to see if you can’t find a good match for a specific project, particularly when it comes to this kind of thing.
