#ourscatteredwords

[fuckyeahmackenziescott]

Interviewer: Do you have a critical relationship with your surroundings?

Mackenzie Scott: If I’m not in tune with my surroundings, what do I have? I have nothing.

*

Interviewer: You’re from the South originally. Does that have an impact on your writing?

Mackenzie Scott: Sure it does. It’s my home. It impacts me, and anything that impacts me finds its way into my writing.

—Interview #1 source, Interview #2 source

[fuckyeahmackenziescott]

What is your favorite songwriting lyric?

I have too many to pick a favorite. One that always feels poignant is a Brandi Carlile lyric from a song called “What Can I Say”.

Oh, Lord, what can I say I am so sad since you went away Time, time, ticking on me Alone is the last place I wanted to be.

[fuckyeahmackenziescott]

“I’m… writing now and will try to continue to write as much as I can while I’m on the road. That’s something I’ve never tried, so we’ll see how it turns out.”

*

“I’m not so good at writing on the road, but I’ve been trying.”

*

Interviewer: Are you comfortable writing on the road now?

Mackenzie Scott: Not at all. I don’t really have time for writing on the road, at least not at this point in my touring career.

*

“I pick up bits and pieces from things that happen on the road. I’ll jot down little lines here and there that stick out to me, and then I’ll piece them together when I get home. But for the most part, I don’t really write on the road. As of right now, I’m not really good at it.”

—Interview #1 source, Interview #2 source, Interview #3 source, Interview #4 source

[fuckyeahmackenziescott]

“Every time I return to Brooklyn I’m just zapped, and all I want to do is lay on my couch and watch Netflix. I do want to write and I like being creative and inspired, but when I get back from the road I’m usually absolutely exhausted. And I don’t jump right back into writing as quickly as I wish. I tend to take a lot of down time, not doing anything. Literally, I let my brain scramble for a few days.”

*

Interviewer: What is your songwriting/composing process?

Mackenzie Scott: … The process for me is about 10 percent writing and 90 percent waiting. That period of waiting (generally anywhere from 6 months to a year) is the time I allow my subconscious to formulate and brew the concepts that will eventually become songs; the writing process itself is sporadic and quick.

*

“I’ve really been in the process [of writing the new record] since before the last record was released, actually. Writing an entire body of work is a sporadic, spaced out thing for me.”

—Interview #1 source, Interview #2 source, Interview #3 source

[fuckyeahmackenziescott]

“Generally I’ll begin a song with the hook and then write around it. I’m not so good at other methods. For example, I wrote ‘Jealousy and I’ around the lines, ‘Jealousy gets me sometimes / but I don’t mind, no I don’t mind’”.

*

“I’ll usually build a song around an idea or phrase.”

—Quote #1 source, Quote #2 source

[fuckyeahmackenziescott]

Mackenzie Scott: I didn’t know the first thing about even what went into making a record, so I just sort of was writing these songs just for myself, you know, some for just myself, I did, that I never shared.

Interviewer: Stuff that you’ve never recorded or never shared.

Mackenzie Scott: Oh, totally. I mean, I’ve got stockpiles of that stuff. More so than complete songs. You know, for. . . every one good song, I have about fifteen terrible ones that I never even finished, I mean seriously. At least.

*

Interviewer: You have a degree in Songwriting from Belmont. What did you learn via the degree that you think more writers should know?

Mackenzie Scott: . . . Most of what you write will be bad; nine out of every ten songs should probably be scrapped. Keep writing anyway. . . .

—Interview #1 source, Interview #2 source

[fuckyeahmackenziescott]

“Writing in metaphor is my trick, and I hate to call it a trick, but it’s what I do.”

*

Interviewer: You have a degree in Songwriting from Belmont. What did you learn via the degree that you think more writers should know?

Mackenzie Scott: . . . METAPHOR. . . .

—Interview #1 source, Interview #2 source

[fuckyeahmackenziescott]

I guess I’d probably be pretty interested in a songwriting discussion with someone like Steve Albini or David Byrne. Stephin Merritt would be a dream, too. Oh God, I love him. These are all artists that take a drastically different songwriting approach than I, and I’m inclined to explore those different facets of the art form that are so unlike myself.

http://ourscatteredwords.com/2013/09/05/torres-songwriting-interview/