Tim Charron - Songwriting

Cris: What is your songwriting process?

Tim Charron: I always write the guitar and vocal parts together. I usually don't have lyrics and then try to put them to music. I always try to do it at the same time.

Most of the time I will start with a title and build the story and the song around the title.

Cris: Wow. I don't think I have ever heard of a songwriter approaching it that way.

Tim: This way I know the end game, what the story and the song needs to lead to, the payoff. So I have the title, which will usually be in the chorus, and I go back to the beginning and I start building a song. I try to lay out a story. Why am I saying the title? What does it all lead to?

Cris: How does inspiration figure into that? Because that sounds very methodical.

Tim: In Nashville I am around a lot of professional songwriters who go to the office every day and from 10:00 to 1:00 they are writing songs. That's really methodical. I don't know how to do that.

A lot of times I will come up with a title and parts of songs when I am either going to sleep or waking up, kind of in that half-awake state. I'll come up with a title and maybe part of a chorus and I will scramble to write it down.

Sometimes ideas come when I am driving, when I am working out … and it is really important to grab it, write it down, hum it into your phone, just something so you capture it. Then the work begins when you have to actually sit down and follow up and address it.