Widespread Panic’s John Bell – 5.17.10

Mike Ragogna: What is your advice for new bands?

John Bell: Well, there are a few aspects to being a band. One of them is kind of the social, friendship aspect which, if you’re involved in a collaborative environment, it’s good to work in that realm of forgiveness and trusting the other guy’s inspirations and to be willing to do a lot of give and take. That helps build a song way beyond where you might take it all on your own. When the social part comes in, it’s like keep checking yourself for your own amount of BS that you’re adding to the mix. It’s like I remember an English course I had where the professor had us keep a daily journal, which we were supposed to turn in at the end of the term. So you go back to the thing and you start reading what you’re writing, and you could see, “Hey, I was really writing spontaneously and I was off in a creative receptive mode.” And then other times you’d say, “Oh look, this is pretty much full. I’m not just trying to write to impress someone who’s going to be reading it, namely the teacher.” So that’s what I have to say about songwriting.