Joe Bennett is head of the Music Department at Bath Spa University and the organiser of the annual UK Songwriting Festival. He has written about 40 popular-music-related books, covering Music Theory, Guitar Effects and Altered Tunings, as well as over 300 articles and reviews for Total Guitar Magazine, Classic CD, the Roland Corporation, Music Tech magazine and Future Music magazine. Joe was also awarded the National Teaching Fellowship in 2004 in recognition of his work as a teacher of popular music.

- Interview conducted 16/11/06

How did you get into music and songwriting?

JB - I had a pretty traditional route into music generally – playing in bands at school, then A levels and a music degree – followed by a few years working in bands and doing sessions as a guitar player. For years I was much more interested in the guitar itself, which led to my time at Total Guitar magazine.
I’ve always written songs, but only really started to realise their importance when I got into teaching – it became clear that my students were being held back musically, not by their instrumental skills but by their songwriting.

How do you go about writing songs?

JB - Title first. A good title suggests ideas about the characters’ emotional state, or perhaps it throws up a good melodic hook. If the song needs a chorus I tend to do that early on, to summarise the song’s central idea. The last thing I do usually is fill in the chords – for me, choosing the chords too early in the process can restrict the emotional direction of the lyric and the scope of the melody. After the song’s finished I mentally scan the melody for unintentional copyright infringements!

Who or what has influenced you in your career?

JB - I love all popular music. There’s an amazing democratising factor in classic songs – that they have touched so many people emotionally. You can almost always trace the success of a song back to the craft of the songwriter. It’s a cliché for a teacher to say this, but I find working with songwriting students to be a continuing influence on me musically – they equally learn the rulebook and challenge it, and both approaches can turn out great music.

Are there any current artists you feel possess great songwriting talent?

JB - Many of the current British performers who are marketed as singer-songwriters are really just front-people. There are professional songwriters quietly ‘co-writing’ behind James Blunt, James Morrison, Norah Jones, Katie Melua et al – and it’s these backroom writers that I admire more; they’re part of the old jobbing songwriter tradition that gave us Motown and the Brill building and so on. As regards contemporary singer-songwriters, this week I am (mostly) listening to Rufus Wainwright - a great talent as a writer and a performer.

What elements do you think make a great song?

JB - It depends on the kind of listener the song is aimed at. But generally I’d say the most important thing is the idea – what’s the song about? Even if the idea is deliberately unspecific, the song can still be ‘about’ an overall feeling or mood, but I tend to gravitate towards writing songs where the central idea, lyrically and musically, is very clear. Anyone can achieve murky ambiguity; clarity is much more difficult! When the ‘Big Idea’ is in place, then it’s a question of whether all the other elements support it; so melodic construction, chord choices, tempo, groove, lyric imagery, vocal rhythm etc should all be pushing in the same emotional direction.

Tell us a bit about the UK Songwriting Festival?

JB - It’s a six-day summer school and event based at Bath Spa University every August. Visitors live on-site for the week and live & breathe songwriting 24/7! We have music industry guests, gigs, studio sessions and open mic shows, and everyone – even the beginners – writes one song every day. It’s intense and exhausting, but visitors tell us that it improves their writing enormously.

What are your thoughts about the UNSIGNED SONG CONTEST?

JB - It’s great that you’re raising the profile of unsigned writers. There’s so much talent out there, and a competition like this can be just right for getting undiscovered gems to a wider audience. In songwriting, competition is a good thing – it gets people thinking about ‘what makes a good song’. Many songwriters take a long time to work out that the song is only as good as the listener’s response to it.

Above: ABBA's Benny and Bjorn - under-rated?

What is your favourite song and songwriter of all time?

JB - It’s obvious to say Lennon & McCartney, but when you analyse their craft and technique it’s hard to deny just how inventive they were. Songwriters today still owe them a massive debt. Less fashionably, I think one of the most under-rated partnerships, in pop certainly, was Benny & Björn of ABBA. When you listen to an ABBA song your attention span is being guided through its structure – they were masters of form. Going back even further, I love the early 20th century writers who crafted the jazz standards – Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, George & Ira Gershwin etc.
As for a favourite song it would have to be ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’ because it is measurably the most popular song of all time; it’s had more radio airplay than any other recording. It’s also a fine example of craft, structurally, melodically and lyrically.

For more on Joe Bennett check out www.joebennett.co.uk

www.uksongwritingfestival.com

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