Saving the Setlist has a four-part interview with Andrew, and the fourth bit covers the songwriting process:
These days I find I write best when I have something in mind, some sort of project. Where the song is going to be heard helps me know what I’m trying to write. Is it a song for me? I’ve got four records I’d love to make soon, which one is it for? Does it belong in a story arc, is there some scene this needs to fit? Stuff like that. Once I know what I’m writing I can sit down at 9 am, answer my email, make my phone calls, turn off my phone and write til lunch. Also, deadlines don’t hurt!
I wish my process was more romantic, sexier, but it’s really just working. I find I’m rarely inspired when I’m watching TV, but daily inspired when I sit down and just start writing.
It sounds to me like Andy has hit the groove that Elliott Smith had—constantly writing, constantly recording, constantly improving; I remember reading the 33 1/3 series on Elliott’s XO and coming across so many people talking about how he just worked and worked at his craft. To quote Alexander Pope:
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance.
‘Tis not enough no harshness gives offense;
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
– An Essay on Criticism, II, l. 162
We’ve seen this in multiple versions of the same song, how songs have had verses change over time.
[Parts 1, 2, and 3 of this interview set are on StSL as well. And yes, I did pull out my copy of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations while writing this post.]
