Songwriters go online to craft the next hit remotely
During a recent songwriting session, singer-songwriters Sarah Loethen and Christoffer Wadensten pieced together the lyrics and melody of a song they were writing about the global pandemic.
Loethen played the first verse and Wadensten, who performs under the artist name Meadows, came up with a melody for the chorus on his acoustic guitar.
But as Wadensten started to play, he realized that Loethen couldn’t see his fingers playing the chords. His guitar had fallen below the frame of his video screen, so he raised his guitar and tried again. “Yes, that’s tasty!” Loethen responded after playing the melody herself many thousands of miles away.
This songwriting session spans two continents. Loethen
lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, while Wadensten is in Örebro, Sweden. But like many songwriters and artists confined to their homes during the pandemic, they are still collaborating with each other as technology allows.
Remote songwriting during the pandemic gives a creative outlet for many writers and performers who can’t tour or record right now, but still need to exercise their craft. Writers and artists are relying on technology to co-write and record songs remotely while many recording studios were shuttered because of the spread of the new coronavirus around the world. But many say co-writing songs online requires a learning curve that can be technically challenging and also difficult to do long term.
“The only thing I really struggle with is the timing difference, not really being able to play together,” said Loethen, of the slight audio and video delay that comes with most video conference call software. “There’s sound cutting in from time to time and there might be some lag. It’s not too bad.”
Luckily the two actually met in person to co-write months before the pandemic through the songwriting residency program called House of Songs in Bentonville, Arkansas. And House of Songs has been helping to set up more remote cowriting sessions with artists living in different locations during the pandemic.