Guest Post: Great Songs Write Themselves

Songwriting and composing is something that has always fascinated me, and I was keen to understand more about the process that goes into it. My friend, Ahmer is among many things, also a songwriter and musician, and I asked if he'd like to talk about how he approaches the process. Here's what he had to say. Enjoy!

When monsieur Varun Jog suggested that I write a piece for his blog, and in it, I talk about my songwriting process and how I approach music writing, I knew the bar had been set very high knowing how ardent a fan he is of songwriting legends Lennon and McCartney. As a humble small artist, not anywhere close yet to what icons like Jimi Hendrix, James Hetfield or Dave Gilmour gave to the world, I’ll do my best to let you into what I’ve learnt over the years of writing songs and making music.

A song for me is more than just the words – it is pure emotion arranged on a timeline, which uses words to communicate what is expressible, and then music to express the hidden. Do words alone make a song? No, and it’s an important distinction for me to make.

Songwriting has often taken one of two forms for me. The first is a methodical and intentional approach that uses the tricks of rhyme and well-tested techniques to create that tasty hook to grab the listener. Max Martin, the pop-song Swiss-knife, is a genius at this. The second form of songwriting might come from a place that is unadulterated by conscious thought, where the artist gives up judgement and allows the organic flow to take over. There are numerous examples of Rock legends who find it hard to recall, albeit in a haze of drug-smoke and bad lighting, as to how that famous track of theirs came to be.

But how does one write great songs, you may ask? Something I passionately believe is that good songs write themselves. There shouldn’t be any rules in writing songs. I’ve had lyrical ideas appear out of nowhere on paper, for instance, my song “Pulsate” was written while in the depths of depression, scribbling on a tattered notepad. At other times, words get intentionally written for the sole purpose of complementing a new synth patch that I created or to lay on a chord progression that I wrote while noodling on the guitar one afternoon. Case in point my other song “Throw Caution to the Wind”. Art should never have boundaries, and I feel the most ground-breaking art is created across the line that separates the known from the unknown. Good songs are no different.

To hone my craft further, after a decade of playing in bands and writing songs, at 26 I enrolled in a songwriting course delivered by the legendary Pat Pattison, who is widely regarded as one of the most sought after teachers of songwriting. Among his famous alumni, we have Mr. John Mayer, who in his own right is now regarded as a very important figure in songwriting and guitar-based pop music. I then started analyzing every song I listened to, and could finally see why certain songs click and why certain don’t. Why some make you cry and why others get you dancing. There’s magic in how songs are written, and analyzing the “greats” is the perfect way to understand the art of songwriting.

Over my sporadic songwriting “career”, I feel I have chased organic inspiration the most. One of the most significant sets of songs that I wrote culminated into an EP that I released in 2016 called “Black to White”. This compilation of five songs depicted the five stages of depression and grief. Each song set a mood, a lyrical temperament and projected an emotion out to the listener. Did I plan it? Heck no! I just wrote music and lyrics through the two years that I was in the dark, and it was only when I got out of that hole that I could see what I ended up creating. It brought me great joy to receive the odd message from listeners of how the songs connected with them. The article that told my story in The Hindu was not a bad outcome either! What this experience taught me was that you can’t always reverse engineer a good song or piece of music. Emotions and inspiration itself should drive the outcome. And this is what I chase in my pursuit to write good music.

My approach to songwriting, as you can tell by now, is not linear. I don’t always sit down with an intention unless I do… and if I do I might change that midway… or I may not. You see, vastly different from a math problem, writing a song is not about the answer, it’s about the journey that you’re taking the listener on.

You can listen to Ahmer's music here . In addition to being a songwriter, he and his wife Shenaz, are also passionate about cooking, and have recently started a YouTube channel, Naz It Up, which features them exploring the joy of cooking through food from cuisines around the world! Be sure to give them a follow for some mouth-watering recipes!