This month we held our very first songwriting workshop!
As part of the Northword Showcase held at Flowerfield Arts Centre, we led a class of both experienced and beginner songwriters in the art of writing a song from a Source Material.
Since most of our works are rooted in folklore stories, we often use articles, poems, books, prose, even sound bytes, to draw out inspiration and map it into our songs. This is what we refer to as our Source Material (weaving our dark synth pop vibes is simply the final magical flourish to an otherwise lengthy research process).
As a teaser into our workshop here are 3 of our -
Top Songwriting tips:
1. Environment
Creating your 'song world' by deciding on your full surrounding environment. Use this to guide all your senses and help make lyrics more visceral. (Sometimes we even use things like incense and scented candles to trigger our senses while we're writing.)
2. Structure
Mapping out a desired structure ahead of time. For example; 'Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Double Chorus' or 'Verse, Verse, Verse, Verse'. You don't need to feel tied down by this, but instead use it as a guide to keep you motivated and map a beginning, middle and end to your song.
3. Research+
Study the Source Material and then some. If a flower is mentioned, research if that flower goes by any other name, or what they were used for at the time. You might find they were important ingredients in herbal remedies or thought to bring rain if plucked - and suddenly treasured lore unfolds itself for you to work with. If an area of a map is mentioned, find what that map was like the year of the story - maybe it used to be filled with rivers that you can't see on the current map, but that would totally change how a character would have travelled from A to B. This has unlocked some really invaluable perspectives for us in the past.
We delve much deeper into these techniques and more within our workshop, but we wanted to share a teaser of some of our process tips with you here in case you find it helpful!
Finally, to close the showcase event, we performed an excerpt from our latest body of work 'The Song of the Bones'; a compassionate retelling of the Islandmagee Witch Trials.
We are now offering Songwriting Workshop Packages to Arts Centres, Festivals, Conventions and the like.
~ So if you're interested in having us as part of your programme or event, Get in touch!
Big love,
Beccy & Claire
VOKXEN
