Jonathan Tyler – HuffPost 4.9.10

[Note: This is taken from my interview with Jonathan Tyler and perhaps contains inspirational information for new artists.]

Mike Ragogna: In “Ladybird,” you’re talking about your creative muse. But what is your creative muse, what’s your process when writing music?

Jonathan Tyler: It’s always different depending on what we’re going through or what I’m feeling at the time. If you take a song like “Young Love” or “Young And Free,” they weren’t inspired by a specific person or a specific thing. As far as “Ladybird,” if you read poetry, a lot of the poets would evoke a muse in their mind. Some people say James Joyce’s muse was his daughter when she was really young, during an innocent phase of her life. The muse situation is where, as a writer, you get this idea, and if you dwell on it enough, it evokes feelings for songs. I’d written the song “Ladybird” on acoustic and it was a full song. We went into the studio and I wanted to try and do something different, so we took one verse and did it a cappella which was better than if we had recorded the full song. It makes it feel dreamy and better.

MR: Generally, what is behind your inspiration?

JT: I try to digest new music all the time. I have to be listening to new music or music that inspires me on a regular basis, to kind of feel fresh and feel like there are new things to try.