By Elizabeth Haynes
Mary Gauthier has a new podcast called Reckoning with Mary Gauthier. The first episode, “Magic and Heartbox Hits,” features Beth Nielsen Chapman, one of the cowriters from her recently released album, Reckoning. In this podcast, they discuss different approaches to cowriting, and the ways in which their songs have come to life. When they cowrite, Beth and Mary both approach it in a non-commercial way. Instead of trying to move through songwriting quickly like more commercial writers would, they find their best work is a product of sitting with it for hours until the song comes to fruition.
Both of them talk about songs as though they are living beings, with minds of their own. This personification of the songs they write shows just how much of their hearts they pour into the music in each and every songwriting session. They refer to it as “serving the song,” and it is your job as the songwriter to follow the song to wherever it takes you.
At one point in the podcast, Beth makes the comment that, “The song already knows what it wants to be when it grows up.” This is great advice for any songwriter; a song cannot be forced. It takes time and patience to wait and let it develop into what it is supposed to be. They even say that many times when they are writing, they are not even certain as to what the song is supposed to communicate until the end of the process of writing it. This ties to something Mary discusses later in the podcast, which is that it can feel as though the song writes itself and she is just the one writing the words down.
She uses two of her songs, “Worthy” and “Gone” from her new record, to talk about the ways in which her music is aimed to move people. She says the objective of every song she writes is to “move the needle of someone’s heart.” That is what will make her music stand the test of time.
I am also a songwriter, and Beth Nielsen Chapman has specifically inspired me for years because of the way she approaches songwriting. In 2020, I got the opportunity to attend a songwriting workshop that she was a part of called Lyrics and Lore at Dolly’s Dreammore Resort. In this workshop, she gave me feedback on one of my songs, and the advice she gave me truly transformed the way I approached songwriting in general. She was so kind to me and her passion for music just poured out of her. Hearing this conversation with Mary left me feeling inspired yet again. Here is the picture of us from 2020!
Mary Gauthier talking about her songwriting in this podcast episode really just shows how much she is writing from the heart, and for the heart.
Go check out the full podcast here!
