{"id":198530,"date":"2024-04-10T20:00:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T19:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=198530"},"modified":"2024-04-11T11:25:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T10:25:27","slug":"im-not-going-to-get-embarrassed-or-feel-awkward-if-someone-begins-weeping-when-they-start-talking-about-a-story-that-becomes-a-song-if-they-start-to-cry-i-dont-try-to-stop-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/im-not-going-to-get-embarrassed-or-feel-awkward-if-someone-begins-weeping-when-they-start-talking-about-a-story-that-becomes-a-song-if-they-start-to-cry-i-dont-try-to-stop-that\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I\u2019m not going to get embarrassed or feel awkward if someone begins weeping when they start talking about a story that becomes a song. If they start to cry, I don’t try to stop that.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MBW\u2019s World\u2019s Greatest Songwriters series celebrates the composers behind the globe\u2019s biggest hits. Here we meet the multi-Grammy-winning, genre-hopping Dan Wilson, co-writer of Adele’s global smash who has also written with Taylor Swift, Chris Stapleton, Jason Mraz, Pink and many more. World\u2019s Greatest Songwriters is supported by AMRA<\/a> \u2013 the global digital music collection society which strives to maximize value for songwriters and publishers in the digital age.<\/p>\n

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Sometimes less is more. Reflecting on the music he listened to as a kid, Dan Wilson says that his parents owned precisely 10 albums. He doesn\u2019t list them all, but he does mention Carole King\u2019s Tapestry<\/em>, The Beatles\u2019 Abbey Road<\/em> and Sgt Pepper<\/em> as well as Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme<\/em> and Bookends<\/em> by Simon and Garfunkel.<\/p>\n

He absorbed and learned from each of them. Many years later he would go on to co-write with one of them, the one who had first helped him understand that there was such a thing as a songwriter, and who would then, face-to-face over a Casio keyboard, provide him with one more very specific and valuable lesson.<\/p>\n

By then, Wilson was known as the lead singer and main writer for Semisonic who, in turn, were known mainly as the band that had enjoyed a sizeable (and, it turned out, extremely enduring) hit with Closing Time<\/em> in 1998 (Wilson had previously enjoyed smaller scale success as part of Minneapolis psych-band, Trip Shakespeare).<\/p>\n

As well as becoming a radio staple, Closing Time<\/em> also earned Walsh his first Grammy nomination. He has subsequently been nominated for his work with Taylor Swift (on Red<\/em>) and for Butterfly<\/em> (up for Song of the Year in 2023), which he co-wrote with Jon Batiste.<\/p>\n

He has won three times, most recently this year with White Horse<\/em>, co-written with Chris Stapleton, in the Best Country Song category. Prior to that he had taken home the prize for his work with Adele (he co-wrote Someone Like You<\/em> and Don’t You Remember<\/em> on 21<\/em>, released in 2011) and The Chicks\u2019 Not Ready To Make Nice<\/em>, Song of the Year in 2007.<\/p>\n

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That hattrick of triumphs were, significantly, for songs recorded by other artists, part of Wilson’s second (and very much ongoing) career as a more behind-the-scenes songwriter which has also seen him work with Celine Dion, Florence + The Machine, Mitski, My Morning Jacket, Leon Bridges, Tom Morello, Pink, Halsey, Weezer, Panic! at the Disco, John Legend and many others.<\/p>\n

Here, he discusses the transition from center stage to writers\u2019 room, the personal and professional impact of mega-hits, being \u2018old-school\u2019 and the curse of social media\u2026<\/p>\n

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When did you first start writing songs and what do you remember about those early efforts?<\/h6>\n

My parents gifted my brother and me an acoustic guitar to share when I was 13 and he was 11. The first thing we did was he wrote a song and played it to me, then I wrote a song and played it for him.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny, whenever I went to restaurants with my family, I always would look at everyone else’s food and think that what they ordered must taste so much nicer. It was the same with songs; I remember thinking his song was awesome \u2013 and mine sounded like a lame George Harrison knock-off. But I guess the good thing was it made me want to get better.<\/p>\n

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How do you look back on the peak of Semisonic\u2019s success? Was it something you were able to enjoy at the time?<\/h6>\n

The beginnings of Semisonic were kind of idyllic. John [Munson] and Jake [Slichter] and I would go to each other’s houses and I would play them songs I was writing for this trio we were planning to become, and it seemed like no one was wondering about what we did. No one was like, \u2018What are Dan and John from Trip Shakespeare going to do next?\u2019<\/p>\n

There was no pressure or anxiety, internally or externally \u2013 not just about what music we would make, but just whether we\u2019d make music or not. No one really cared!<\/p>\n

It was almost dreamlike. I would write a song, I would play it to the guys and they would say whether they liked it or not, but in a really no-big-deal way. Then, when we became medium successful, I was full of a kind of ambitious, frustrated rage a lot of the time. I didn’t take it on my guys, but I was very intense. I was trying to bend the course of events to my will.<\/p>\n

And then later, when we got really successful, it was just\u2026\u00a0 it was fun!<\/p>\n

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I have to ask you about writing Closing Time<\/em>. What was the process and can you remember how you felt about it after you\u2019d written it but before it had been released?<\/h6>\n

John, Jake and I were getting together to make demos of songs that I was writing, really simple demos; we would cook up the band arrangements later.<\/p>\n

I was coming up with a lot of ideas, but I had also been given this mission from John and Jake to write a new closer for our shows. They were bored with the one that I always put at the end of the set.<\/p>\n