Songwriting

People often ask me how I get inspiration for my songs. I used to write short stories and did not think I could write songs. It dawned on me one day, they are one and the same - only songs are VERY short stories, lol! Songwriting comes in many forms or approaches. I can be anywhere and a song will start in my head. It may only be lyrics or an idea, or it may only be a tune, or both. And yes, I reach for a napkin to write it down. I have notebooks of lyrics/song ideas. Sometimes there are very specific things that inspire my songwriting such as with Utter Love; I wrote that for my children, or Big City Girl; I wrote for my daughter. Other times, silly things can inspire, such as my two very bad Siamese cats that had me singing "Naughty, Naughty" to them one day in the kitchen and the song grew from there (it has nothing to do with cats now, lol!). Python Boots was inspired by a beautiful pair of red python boots that I own. I loved them so much - I felt like they had a power over me, which sprouted the idea...what if they DID have powers, even evil powers! So songs can come from anywhere and they seem to take on a life of their own as I start writing, they seem to write themselves. It's such a neat process, sometimes it is very fast then other times, I keep revisiting and improving because the song just isn't "there" yet. It always feels incredible whenever a new song is completed. Then the songs take on a second life as I perform them with the band. They mature and change, sometimes quite substantially. Even better than writing is performing my songs and connecting with the audience. I love it when I see a song causing some type of an emotional reaction in an audience member. I think, "job well done, Jill!" It all starts with a song!