Matt Moran is a songwriter and performer based in Southern California. He performs solo in house concerts around the country as well as with his band. Their musical genre is Roots Rock/Modern Americana – a true melodic rock/country crossover sound. Learn more here.

1. What is your favorite tool for songwriting?

My guitar and a pad of paper. I have written a few songs – lyrically and even melody while driving. I don’t recommend this. Several years ago I purchased a digital recorder and need to get a new one. This made my driving and writing safer for everyone. But in the end, I tend to tinker on the guitar, finding chord patterns. Other times I come to the guitar with a specific theme or story in mind.

2. What is your musical guilty pleasure?

I don’t think I have one… I have a man-crush on Ray LaMontagne’s voice and his lyrics.

3. How has your career changed from what you thought it would? Or, where are you now compared to where you thought you would be?

I have been writing for many years… starting when I was probably 8 or 9 but I didn’t do anything musically with a professional focus until a couple years ago. I’m not satisfied with where I am but I am happy with the strides I’ve taken.

4. What has been hard for you (or, frustrating), as a songwriter?

I haven’t been frustrated as a songwriter but as a performer.. yes. Maintaining an effective schedule of performing and promoting the performance is a struggle. I don’t really experience writer’s block and I am pretty happy with the words I’m putting down. Making time to contact venues and then promote those shows is more my challenge.

5. If you could talk to your teenager-self, what would you tell yourself to prepare yourself for this career?

Don’t wait! And build a team as quickly as you can. You don’t need to own it all.

6. How do you (or have you) break through writing slumps?

I don’t really have them. If I sit down to write, I can write pretty effectively on queue. I am a professional (published) author and wrote columns for a few years. You had to be “creative on demand”. In Stephen King’s book, “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” he boo hoos the whole idea of waiting on your muse. Instead, he recommends you show up at the same time, same place, every day and do the heavy lifting. Then, your muse knows where to find you. And if she does not show up (your muse is a fickle bitch), at least you’ve done the heavy lifting.

7. What characteristics does your idea cowriter have?

Co-writer? I’ve only tried it a few times – from a distance. Sent words and ideas back and forth. I liked it well-enough but never completed the songs.

8. Who would you LOVE to cowrite with (specific person)?

Shawn Mullins.

9. What’s one of your favorite songs that you’ve written, and why is it one of your favorites?

Oh.. so many. they are all so good! Everyday Lies. I wrote it a few years before my separation and divorce but it captures the pain of “the breakup” and third party, so nicely in my opinion. An economy of words that say a LOT!

10. What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?

Use fewer words. Use shorter sentences. It is good advice and I seldom heed it.

11. What’s the worst advice you’ve gotten, as a songwriter?

To attend a songwriting critique group. They are the same as writing (author) critique groups. Mostly frustrated writers who just don’t write that well (sorry). Instead, I strongly suggest that you find songwriters you like and create relationships with them. If you want someone to critique your songs, send them to a select few – your brain trust. And understand that if you send your song to 5 songwriters you respect, you might get 5 different feedbacks… Don’t change your song just because they felt you should.

Thanks Matt!

“…my true passion: REAL, awesome, inspiring, upbeat, modern music. I have my own studio now, with a good collection of amps, and some premium level equipment, and offer services to lots lof local and global musicians who need producing, sound engineering, or backing instrumentation for live performances.”

You can learn more about him on his band page. And now, the interview!

1. What was your early inspiration that led you to become a songwriter? (not a musician or singer, but specifically songwriting)

Early inspiration…hmmmm…that’s a tough one because I came to songwriting rather late in the game (at least compared to many, who claim to have written their first song in the delivery room).

I did write one song at 15 (it was horrible), about a year after I had started to teach myself guitar, using some battered Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Simon and Garfunkel songbooks. I guess I felt compelled to try and imitate dylanesque combinations of poetry and melody at that time, but it was actually the americana band Counting Crows that really got me thinking about how to put poetry to music.

A little later I got hooked on Boingo (Danny Elfman), and that was what really made me want to write songs that could make people feel something, although I’ve wandered in and out of many genres since then.

2. What is your favorite tool for songwriting?

I’d have to say it’s a combination, I really have to have three things: paper, a digital recorder, and a guitar. I like using the piano or mandolin too, they all elicit different feelings from me when I write.

3. What is your musical guilty pleasure?

Delamitri, a Scottish band from the early nineties. The sound engineering was seriously amazing stuff, but the songs are all about ruined relationships, or bad love, or cheating and being cheated on, so it’s really not that great of an influence.

I’ve still got some of those songwriting tendencies in me that I’m trying really hard to get rid of. Lol.

4. How has your career changed from what you thought it would? Or, where are you now compared to where you thought you would be?

Honestly, about 12 years ago, I gave up on a potential career in music because I felt like it was so canned, so controlled by cold, calculating industry henchmen, and decided to be a linguist instead, leaving open the vague possibility of being a writer. I was pretty sure that was gonna be my career for life.

But, if you ask my wife, she’ll tell you that I haven’t been able to go a week without writing a song, or at least a fragment, or a new chord progression or lyrics, basically since we started hanging out in Buenos Aires ten years ago.

At some point I realized that I had been misguided to do something that makes money as opposed to something I love. I guess my intentions were probably good, I wanted to be a contributing member of society, but I really believe that what you want in life also wants you, so I eventually came back to music and know it’s just what I am: a music creator. It’s been an interesting experiment in starting all over.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Lol.

5. What has been hard for you (or, frustrating), as a songwriter?

What has been most frustrating has been finding the courage to write songs that are real, especially when they say something or are based on an experience that most people try to hide or cover up because they’re just too ashamed to admit that they’re not perfect.

The part of Utah where I grew up is mostly white, conservative, very religious, and people tend to try to convince you to make spiritual music, or religious music that’s aligned with their own religious philosophy, and criticize anything that isn’t kosher in “Utah pop culture”.

That’s a shame because without daring to be real, a songwriter’s music will never be authentic, experience-based art, like art should be. Let me clarify that I’m a big fan of positive or inspirational music, but it can been a challenge to find one’s own definition of “positive music”, and not just accept someone else’s.

6. How do you (or have you) break through writing slumps?

Travel. Get up and go, with nothing but your voice and some kind of instrument to tinker on. Bring a pen and paper and your favorite CDs to listen to.

7. Who is your ideal cowriter, and why? (could be a person, or characteristics of a person)

Lol. Well, I have to preface this answer by saying that I’ve had some bad cowriting experiences and I need to overcome those and find others who I work well with.

Having said that, I really like cowriting with somebody who has good lyrical ideas, and understands the Hemingway concept of writing (i.e. the iceberg).

I have really enjoyed cowriting with other musicians who play an instrument that I don’t excel at, and who have an easy going personality. I’m very anti-authoritarian, so I have a hard time collaborating with really dominant personalities.

8. What characteristics does your ideal cowriter have?

Again, an easygoing personality, but not at all afraid to share ideas, not afraid to be a little “out there” sometimes. An easygoing multi-instrumental risk taker with unconventional rhythm ideas. Lol.

9. What’s one of your favorite songs that you’ve written, and why is it one of your favorites?

Right now it’s “Joe”. It’s based on some experiences I had on one horrible day in Indianapolis, that were pretty much completely unrelated, but at that moment they all had a common element to them that just tied them all together.

The song was literally written and finished in a few days, it just happened that way, the ideas all came together. I also feel like I achieved a level of prosody that I haven’t reached before, and the song elicits a feeling that I can call up on demand whenever I want to remember it, but it still makes me feel like grooving.

I also like that it’s catchy enough that even my wife digs it. That rarely happens.

10. Tell us about one of your best cowrites. Why was it so awesome?

Definitely “Karma Comes”. We (the band members of Aileesuncle) were all just feeling the song so intensely, the guitar parts came together, Andrea’s harmonies fit the song perfectly from the get-go, and Mark (my brother, an amazing songwriter, may he rest in peace) knew exactly where the song wanted to go and he took it there.

We also recorded a scratch version at the same time, and that’s pretty much the only surviving performance that Mark did of that song.

11. How did you pick your genre?

Actually, I think it picked me. I just don’t fit into mainstream music, it’s not who I am.

There is a whole alternative universe out there that is underrepresented, the underdogs, so to speak, or “the other” in literary terms.

I feel like it’s my mission to give that alternative universe a voice, but through pleasing soundscapes, something that encourages people to embrace differences and not dwell on them, whether it’s through my music or just being an authentic person and being real with my music.

Pure awesome. Thank you David Higbee!

Capture and display what they create.

Get a recorder for your budding musicians, video your dancers and thespians, frame the art, bind their latest story….get it captured even in it’s early stages, for these are glimpses of their future, parts of their soul albeit infant and rough.

We are so used to seeing all the finished, professional products that we overlook the beginnings of those works in our friends and families.

Capture the beginning!

I am doing a webinar this afternoon.. 5PM Pacific/8PM Eastern.

The Musician’s KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) Guide To Rocking Your Music

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2832984533

It is loosely the same workshop I gave at The Independent Music Conference in October.

This one is FREE – literally on the whim of a music writer in Atlanta.

Certainly, share it with others.

Matt Moran: Songwriting – Roots Rock/Modern Americana

http://www.MatthewMoranOnline.com

I know you’ll love this interview – it is RICH.  You can learn more about Trina Harmon at her website (her blog, and on Twitter).

1. What has been frustrating for you, as a songwriter?

I would say the first 4 years of my professional songwriting career were the most frustrating because I wasn’t allowing myself to be fully authentic. I was practically born being able to channel my emotions through playing the piano, and everyone would affirm to me how powerful my melodies were. But I didn’t have the natural ability to translate that into lyrics, so I wouldn’t. I made that someone else’s job.

Then, I worked with a publisher that reflected my belief back to me daily by saying, “You shouldn’t write lyrics.” During that time, I think I felt relieved that I didn’t have to learn or grow into something that didn’t come easy for me. In every writing appointment, I would just give my music away, usually to strangers, that would write the words.

So when my publishers or the labels weren’t moved by my songs, I felt powerless, and truly thought without the perfect lyricist, I would never have a career. The moment I found my own voice, and began trusting myself to write only what moved me, I began having success.

Today, people come to me for my lyrics, and it didn’t take years and years of practice to get good at it. I simply just gave myself permission to say what I would say. Once I changed, my publisher changed.

That was the biggest lesson for me.

2. What do your songwriting clients tend to have the hardest time
with?

I think the other part of the process where most Artists are challenged, happens after the song is written. The ability to sell your work and market yourself is essential to being successful. When I approach getting my song recorded or on an album, as a means to get money, recognition, or proof that I am good enough, it’s more than frustrating, it’s painful.

This is where all of us must shift our perspective to the Truth, which is, “They need us more than we need them.”

We are the creators. If we treat our Artistry with the respect, responsibility, honesty and authenticity it requires, then it’s going to hold the power to impact people, to  document moments in time that want to be remembered, or to lift people’s spirits, or to even heal them in a moment of crisis. Isn’t this why most of us were inspired to be
Artists in the first place?

When you have a song that you know holds that power, you WANT to share it. It’s an honor. You are grateful to be able to give the gifts you’ve been given to anyone who is needing it. It changes the whole ‘marketing yourself’ equation completely, and honestly, it becomes fun. Why wouldn’t sharing our work be the most rewarding part of all?

3. You have a lot of experience working with many successful
songwriters – How do you (or have you) break through writing
slumps?

I guess I don’t look at the writing ‘slumps’ as something to break through. I’ve accepted that it’s an essential part of being a truly prolific Artist, so I lean into it. I ask myself, “What is this uninspired moment wanting to show me?” Maybe it’s a call to center and balance my life more. Maybe I want to open myself up to receiving more joy in my life at this time. How is my meditation and prayer practice, and do I feel connected to my Source?

The uninspired moments are always a call to refuel, to realign. I always tell my clients, “Your Spiritual life is never separate from your Artist life. They will always mirror each other.”

A healthy life in any area is a constant flow of giving and receiving. As Artists, we’re not wired to only give, give, give all the time, or vice versa. We must balance our lives, to give AND receive inspiration as well. Our society has trained us to believe that we must be working and doing something all the time, or we are ‘lazy’, or deserve the
struggle we’re in.

But when we’re called to be Artists, we must honor the full process that it takes to create the cure for the one who is stuck in the ‘doing’ part of their own lives. Where do most people turn to for a break from their minds, or to process their own stress and emotions? Music. Movies. Television. Books. Our responsibility as Artists is a great one.

Release the judgment of being in a ‘slump,’ and allow yourself to complete the process. You’ll be amazed at how your writing abilities will expand by just doing that.

4. Who is your ideal cowriter, and why? (could be a person, or
characteristics of a person)

When I was in my early 20’s I got the chance to spend a week writing with the legend, Hal David. (What the World Needs Now, Close to You, Always Something There to Remind Me, I Say A Little Prayer). I asked him why he only wrote with Burt Bacharach all those years of his career. He revealed to me the secret to co-writing, that changed my life. He said, “You have to be able to TRUST your co-writer.”

I told him that all my co-writers had become good friends, so I had no problem with that. Then he cut me off, and re-explained. He said, “I know my strength is writing a great lyric. So if I had a question whether the music was right, I could always trust Burt to make the best decision for the song, not his ego. He could question my lyric, but he always trusted me to make the best choice as well.”

I went home that night, and listed all of my 128 active co-writers. I put a check mark by the ones that I trusted in that way, and there were 2. I still write with those two people today.

In the end, I feel confident in my abilities, I know what I’m bringing to the table, and I’ve finally released the need to prove that I deserve to be in that writing room. If I’m feeling blocked one day, it doesn’t mean I’m a bad writer.

If you’re in the room, then you have attracted it because of who you are, not who you should be.

I’m willing to be challenged and grow, I want to be inspired and I enjoy not knowing the answers all the time. That’s why I co-write. So when I’m around someone like that, I write with them because it works. When both of us care deeply, but neither of us have anything to prove. That’s when we can have fun, and the song pretty much writes itself.

5. Share some of your favorite lyrics, and why you love those lyrics.

There are hundreds of songs I wish I would have written. There are several I feel like I could have written, and sound like I did. There are even a couple of well known songs out there where I was in the room and had the chance to write on them, and I chose not too! I cringe when they come on the radio. Haha…

So picking my favorite lyric is impossible. But I will say there is an Artist who is currently transcending all my original standard of a great lyric right now, and that is Bon Iver. I was talking to my bodyworker about this awhile ago, as his music was playing during one of our sessions. We were amazed by how you can’t really hear what he’s saying, but you always tend to hear what you need to hear at that moment. It’s beyond the mind, and I don’t know how he does that, but I’m on a mission to know.

6. What’s one of your favorite songs that you’ve written, and why is
it one of your favorites?

I’ve always despised this question. I think for most Artists, our favorite song is usually the last one we just completed. If I didn’t think I could beat what I’ve already done, I’m not sure I’d have a reason to keep going through what it takes to birth a really great song.

The songs that I’ve written that have received hundreds of thousands of emails, letters, or comments as to the impact it’s had in someone’s life…how could I not love those? That’s why I write.

So songs like “Everything is Beautiful”, or “I Would Die for That”, ‘When You Lie Next to Me”, “Something More”, “Beautiful” and of course, the last song I wrote, “Amenjena”. Those would probably be my best attempts at
getting out of my own way.

7. What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?

“The process is part of the plan.” – A good friend wrote this on a post it note and gave to me when I was on my way to Nashville to begin my songwriting career. I carried that note around for years, until I understood what it really meant.

8. What’s the worst advice you’ve gotten, as a songwriter?

“If you’re willing to change the way you write, and everything about how you do it, then I will spend the money to sign you.” I’m sad to say I did torture myself and gave it some thought, but thankfully I came to my senses, and politely declined this publishers offer a week later. He then sent me an email that said, “I’m sorry to hear that. I still think you’re the best songwriter in this city, and the only writer to make me care this much in a long time.” There are no words to describe how messed up that was.

There’s nothing inspiring about an executive trying to clone the success of others, so he can keep his job. Today I’m grateful for that man. I love that man for what he made me question, and the true courage and love for myself that I was forced to discover through that time. From that day forward, my career has never suffered, and the only thing I’ve changed is what I believe about myself….and that changed everything.

So maybe that was the best advice I’d ever gotten. Hmmm.

I love it – thank you Trina Harmon!

Want more of Trina Harmon?  Get it here.

Just had to share that with ya’ll so now I’ll be held a little more accountable.

Jhonny K joins us in the songwriter interview series.  You can learn more about him at on his Facebook page.

1. What was your early musical inspiration?
   

   I grew up playing trumpet and I loved all the big band music. My dad loved ACDC, Led Zeppelin, and Neil Diamond. My mom loved ABBA and Neil so I loved all of that and had that mixed with all my big band stuff.

2. What prompted you to get into this business?
   

   Honestly, I wanted to create a difference. I love pop music and upbeat stuff to groove to. I worked with troubled kids and have life coached a ton of people for several years and wanted to reach out and help them change and become better through music.

3. What inspires you now?
   

   Musically and lyrically I get inspiration from all over the place!  I try to take what happens to me and what is affecting everyone as a whole and write about it. Whether its the economy, everyone freaking out about 2012, whatever it may be… big or small I write about it

4. What is your “guilty pleasure” as far as music goes?
   

   I love love hip hop and pop music…. yes the annoying teenie bopper kind… I love it!

5. What are some of your favorite lyrics, and why?
   

   I love the song “Shine” by Collective Soul. I can relate to that. I have a yearning to have more from heaven: more love, more light, more life.. That is usually what I write towards and about.

6. What’s the best advice you’ve gotten (in this industry)?
   

   One thing that I love came recently from Richard Parkinson when he said people could care less about what they hear, they really care about how they feel. That has truly changed how I write and perform.

   The other thing I was advised was to be patient and be persistent in making music, Youtube Videos and study my craft.

   The other thing I got was from Alex Boye (on Twitter), when he told me that if I want this to be my life, I can’t be good every other show. I have to be on my A-game every time I get on stage. I take that very seriously.

7. How did you pick your genre?
   

   My soul yearns for and loves loves rock. So honestly I feel it picked me. Blues rock pop is something I can relate to and naturally sing and write towards.

8. Tell us about your best cowrite, and why was it so awesome?
   

   I have not ever had a bad cowrite yet. I enjoy every time I get to sit down with someone else and create something together. Synergy is something I truly enjoy. So any time I can sit down with someone, I enjoy it. So cliche, but I love every cowrite I have had so far.

Kaisie and I went to Jhonny K’s friend’s house and watched him put this composition together from scratch… it was amazing to see the talent put this together in less than two hours:

Thanks for sharing Jhonny K (on Facebook)!

Thanks to Mary Beth Maziarz for encouraging her to take this step, which came years before Kaisie ever imagined it would come.

This was our first time doing anything like this, and I was delighted to be able to go and watch and learn and enjoy the process.

When we all got there it took a while to get all the cords and instruments set up.  Then Randy spent at least an hour in the recording booth playing guitar.  It is awesome to watch an expert in his realm, and this was no exception.

Here’s Randy, in his element.  This is a really cranial exercise, and I could tell Kaisie, Randy and Richard did a lot of thinking during the entire process.  (guess how much the green microphone cost?)

While Randy was playing, Kaisie sang the song.  I think she sang it no less than 30 times.  She was most comfortable standing while she sang.  The mic she held was usually piped over the speakers in the room, as well as into Randy’s headphones.  She sounded really good, and had a blast.

Rich sat at his desk the entire time, where he could control the equipment, levels, and the keyboard.

It was really cool to see Rich plunk on the keyboard spontaneously.  He listened to Kaisie sing, and Randy play, and just played around with some ideas for background piano/keyboard.  Towards the end of the morning he had horn sounds on the keyboard and was playing around with background horn ideas.  It was AMAZING to watch this creative process and the talent Rich has.

The whole process took about 2 or 3 hours.  It was the first step… one of the next steps is to get three horns into the studio to record.  How’s that for cool?

Hopefully in a few weeks we’ll have the final product, and see where it goes from there.  Hopefully Mary Beth was right, and there is a specific show that will be interested in this song, and Kaisie’s voice!

… yet another step in the songwriting journey!

It will happen this year.

It’s not much, but the laptop she uses has… issues.  And I’m not excited about buying it with a half-broken laptop.

Check out this highly endorsed songwriter tool here.

And my answer is… I’m in ANDY GRAMMER LAND! Wow! I took my 14yog, 10yob and 7yog to see Andy Grammer at the ‘In the Venue’ in SLC last week. He is awesome!! Great, positive music and super crazy talented. He is so, so good at what he does.

I love his style, melodies and lyrics!

Thank you, Andy, for doing the hard stuff so we could hear your music! Congrats on being globally recognized for it!

You fit in my pocket!