Rule of Grammer: Find the gem in songwriting
Andy Grammer is doing double duty on the road.
The feel-good pop star — try not to smile along with his songs “Honey, I’m Good,” “Good to be Alive” and new single “Fresh Eyes” — is touring with Gavin DeGraw and recording new music. They pull in Wednesday to Revention Music Center.
“I have a studio in the back of my bus. I’ve been writing during the day and playing shows at night,” Grammer says. “It’s pretty intense. I’ve never done that before.”
Between soundchecks and demos, Grammer talked about the pitfalls of songwriting and what’s left of his ballroom days from competing last year on “Dancing With the Stars.” Q: Has writing on the road changed anything about the process?
A: Writing is, I feel like I don’t hear writers talk about this enough, but it can get discouraging because a lot of it’s not very good. And then you come across the gem, and that’s the thing you show everybody. If you have a couple of discouraging days in a row, but then you go play an incredible show at night, it kind of equals it out. It’s just good for the morale, that’s what I’m finding. If you’re home and you write two weeks’ worth of bad songs, then you kind of get bummed out.
Q: Is that a common experience as a songwriter?
A:
It’s not that I don’t like what I’m writing. I think a lot of times you just need that outside perspective. I started as a street performer. Most songs, in the beginning, no one would stop. Then you’d play one, and they do stop. I liked all the ones I was playing, but there is something to be said for people being like, “Oh, man, we love that.” Sometimes you just need to write a bunch of songs, love them all and then have the public or your manager or a general consensus of, “That makes the hair on my arm stand up.” People don’t care about good. The only thing that anybody cares is about is, “Oh my God, you have to hear this.” It’s hard to get that. Q: How is the new album shaping up?
A: The hardest part is really chasing quality songs with the words and things that you need to say. I’m still at that stage. Once you have that, then you can go dress it up in a way that feels interesting. That being said, I’m playing a lot of electric guitar, which is different. Q: You’ve become a go-to guy for feel-good anthems. What’s one that always makes you smile? A: “Piano Man” is pretty solid, which is funny because it’s kind of a somber song if you listen to the lyrics. But it still makes me feel like home. I’m from New York. Q: Have you kept up with any of your “Dancing With the Stars” routines? A: I mean, 100 percent of the ballroom dancing is gone. There’s no trace of that. But being comfortable moving around a little bit more, that’s stuck around. I am a singer-songwriter, but it’s not a thing at my shows where everybody is seated. We move around a lot. We try to get everybody up and dancing and just having a good time.