2022 Playlists
Here are our two end-of-year playlists with songs from our students:
1) songs from workshops (SOS '22)
2) sos community songs (SOS '22)
Below, we have notes from students about the origins of their songs for the first playlist. Enjoy listening (and reading)! <3
Daniel Mayfield
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
Micha Gilad
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
The assignment for the song was about ‘elaboration’. I tried creating a simple melody/theme that as the song progresses, it evolves to a longer, more complicated thing. Kinda like a game of snake. Had the melody dictate where the song goes (harmony/form) which I don't normally do. Lyrically this song was sort of an attempt at glimpsing into the confusing/amusing claustrophobic world inside our own heads, which resulted in a surreal foggy set with cats and yellow blinking lights. Maybe it’s just my head...
Cooper Kenward
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Meg Duffy (Hand Habits)
New Balance
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Dave Longstreth
This was a song that was in process before the SOS class, and Dave encouraged us to finish an older song using the concepts he presented in class (Mayor/Hildegard/etc). I’m really happy with how the lyrics came out, and love the guitar solos that ended up in this final version.
SaltpeterG
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
Finnish Postcard
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
Joshua Loing
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
Ayla Loon
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Dave Longstreth
N. Sherman
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
This song is about longing to return to the “golden days”, even though the memories of those days may be more romantic than they actually were.
Ryan Hicks
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
“I wish I dated a painter.” That was the prompt a colleague suggested, as part of a songwriting class. I think they were imagining how romantic it must be to date a painter and be their muse. I took it in another direction. Does the painter approach everything in their life as premeditated, each action anticipating a reaction to manipulate the partner? That idea of a ‘perfect’ life is No Life For Me.
How Strange It Is
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Hannah Read (Lomelda)
This song was born from a riff I had been tinkering with the months leading up to Hannah Reed’s workshop. For the last prompt of the class I thought it would be a fun challenge to take everything I had learned and impose it on an existing idea I had with my band in mind. What came out was something whimsical and meandering, and after releasing my circle of pals on it to add their flavor, turned out even better than I could have ever imagined.
Hiding Places
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
"I remember writing the lyrics in one evening with low lights and playing the chords on repeat, sometimes on a recorded loop and other times manually. I sang what came to mind, and tried to rewrite the previous line in a new way. I believe this was an assignment from Robin, to rename things either visual or verbal or memory. Actin' Ugly is about a semester of graduate school where I struggled staying positive; writing the chords and lyrics was a turning point for me mentally where I decided to stand tall instead of running from discomfort. The band recorded all the parts remotely; Henry did drums in Wilmington, Audrey did vocals in Chapel Hill, Anthony did bass in Asheville, and I did guitar and vocals in Brooklyn."
Maya Elise
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Courtney Marie Andrews
One of my biggest takeaways from Courtney’s class was that songwriting is your best friend, and it’s always there for you, and I feel like I really got to explore how songwriting could help me process something going on in my life, by taking the story outside of body, and putting it into the perspective of a different character.
Ben Kamen
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
Miles Before Sleep
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
This song was born out of a prompt from Robin Pecknold’s class called The Translator. The exercise was to take a universal feeling and translate it into defamiliarized language. My inspiration for this was my 4 year old daughter’s bedtime routine. She had been having a rough go of getting to sleep, and I looked at the nightly routine and played with the wording so that it had an uneasy feeling, almost ominous, which is what I would imagine she was feeling being wary of shadows and simply the prospect of getting to sleep each night. The guitar part was actually born out of a riff I was noodling on as she was getting ready to go to bed and I had turned it into an impromptu lullaby!
Georgia Lee Johnson
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
For the last few years, I have been finding small but deep ways to connect with my music practice. Amidst a busy teaching schedule earlier this year, I found refuge in my weekly songwriting workshop and enjoyed waking up early to journal and strum guitar. I sang to myself during my 1-hour commute. The song Slow Line was written from a place of burnout. I was so depleted and did not know which direction to look next. The song is minimalistic, but the strands are contrasting. There’s whispering and shouting. There’s guitar harmonics and fuzz pedal. I don’t know who will connect with the song or if anyone will like it, but when I listen to it and sing it, it calls me back to that time when I wrote it and what that felt like.
The Royal Firecrackers
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Buck Meek
This song was written in the early days of the pandemic in Buck Meek’s class. The exercise involved cutting up and reassembling words from a magazine article; I used a fashion magazine of my wife’s because I liked some of the words and the subject matter they were talking about. I cut them out and started reassembling them, and it was mind blowing to me to have this selection of words to put together and flow with that weren’t just floating around in my brain. It was really freeing and helped me to create something so much more abstract than I would normally write about, and as I was trying to shape the flow of these words together, I realized that I had subconsciously written a narrative about what those early days of the pandemic were like; the world had slowed down and gotten so quiet and distant from the little bubble of our house and my wife and son, and I was reflecting on last time and longing to be free to roam the world again, as well as hoping for the chance for some old habits to die and to start fresh again in the world.
Otracami
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Buck Meek
The song was born out of an assignment to play w a rhythm from another song, to learn it then speed it up or slow it down and make it the basis for a new song.
ghost orange
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Hannah Read (Lomelda)
This song came out of the assignment for the practice of 'jamming'. Hannah required that we take a song through the orbit method, but change parts of the song towards the end in order to create a sense of spontaneity and alteration in the song. I feel that the assignment helped in creating a sense of dynamism in the song that it wouldn't have got otherwise. I am most proud of the structure of this song, as I feel the structure allows it to have a life beyond the finish of the song.
The Wormdogs
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Buck Meek
Sophie Kazis
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Meg Duffy (Hand Habits)
Hot Moms Club
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Steven van Betten
I remember Steven had some mathematical equation for choosing the chords lol okay pick 5 chords then subtract two and then add another one. It was so cool! And something he said that has stuck with me since is for the writing of the lyrics - pretend you are a fly on the wall in a room and write down what you hear. Those are your lyrics !! my song DD was written from that assignment ◡̈ forever grateful.
Elison
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Ellen Kempner (Palehound)
I had only written one song prior to signing up for the SoS class taught by Ellen Kempner. It felt life changing to stretch myself in new ways, in ways I didn’t believe I could, while simultaneously finding a community of really beautiful and supportive humans. Ellen was a gem, down-to-earth and relatable. I took so much inspiration away from each class. ‘Little Lies’ was the 3rd homework assignment (& in turn my 4th song ever written). The prompt for this assignment was to find a new process to begin writing. Since I was new, all processes were fairly unfamiliar, but I went straight to my daw on this one, as I had never done that before. Each time I would immerse myself in the process and 24 hrs later come up for air with a sloppier version of what eventually went live. I loved everything about this class and the songs that came from it. The following song is also a song created in Ellen’s class. I’ll be working towards releasing more songs from Robin & Phil’s class in the near future!
Golden Repair
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Chris Cohen
All I remember is starting this song at like 7am the day it was due and finishing it mere minutes before the deadline later that day. Vibe and lyrics were influenced by a Better Homes and Gardens Encyclopedia of Cooking from 1970. I had it open on the music stand to the page containing a picture and description of Cherries Jubilee. The original recording did not have a dance beat underneath it, but this version DOES!
Meridian
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
Robin's class a game changer for me! This song stemmed from the exercise where we were told to create a sacred, quiet space (population: 0!) to wrote and just channel. I also used his technique of making two totally different parts/sections and combining them.
wistful life
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Xenia Rubinos
Josh Jensen
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
I took the songwriter's workshop with Robin Pecknold who offered so many fun prompts throughout the course. This song was born from the prompt "The Archaeologist" that encouraged us to ask a question and answer it with a song. I don't think I followed the directions very clearly on this as my question was simply "What if I wrote a song for the show Yellowstone?" This song was born by writing down several words that I thought would be fitting in a country song and incorporating those words into the lyrical content.
OrangeG
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Ellen Kempner (Palehound)
The song was from Ellen's assignment on process - trying to mix up how one writes songs. I started by trying to find a vocal melody to align with the chord structure. The theme of the song came from one of Meg Duffy's lectures. They shared how much they worry about the universe having no more good songs for them. The song represents the universe giving me one last song as I walked through the streets of my neighborhood on a cold winter evening.
Hallie Stotler
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Courtney Marie Andrews
Drew A. Will
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
This song, ‘Fore The Fall, actually started as the 20-minute in-class song during Robin’s first lecture. It was called Golden Hour At The Falls and it basically opened the floodgates to helping me finish my debut LP. Half of the LP songs fell out like lead balloons during Robin’s incredibly special class. I left in one line that came from the zoom chat: “There is no failure” which became my mantra finishing the LP and is one of my favorite moments on the album. Thank you!
Those Looks
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Ellen Kempner (Palehound)
Emily Irving
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Courtney Marie Andrews
I wrote this song just after Courtney's course wrapped -- literally that same night. Our last assignment was to write a song through recording stream of consciousness sessions and playing them back to find inspiration. This was an approach that I loved playing with, especially as a songwriter who loves to compulsively parse lyrics to the point where the song can end up getting lost in the process. I'm most proud of my attempt to write about loneliness in a way that feels compelling and honest, as well as in a way that (I hope) honors Courtney's writing style that I admire so much.
Tom Hogan
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Luke Temple
Luke's prompt was to record a conversation with a friend, and document the discussion conscientiously, to avoid overwriting or overly poetic language. The example prompt was "why do you want to go to space?" and I very much did want to go to space.
Luc Ostroff
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Dave Longstreth
Lilli Joon
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Erin Birgy (Megabog)
Tiny Portals', written and recorded as a voice memo while my dad was sick with cancer and just prior to his passing, seeks to crystalize a raw and painful facet of the human experience. As the assignment was centered around creating a physical writing space equipped with meaningful items, it got me thinking about sentimentality and tangibles as tiny portals through time and space. I decided to release the song as is after my dad's passing, as the recording itself served as such a portal. In this way, my dad lives on through the song. I love you and I miss you, dad.
Carlos Sison
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
Ruby Pettit
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Jolie Holland
Y.C. Liu
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Ellen Kempner (Palehound)
I remember Ellen saying in the lecture that she never rushes the writing of a song, and her advising us to "Take the time a song deserves to be written." That influenced the writing of this (and many songs since then). This was the first one I'd written in a long time in which I did not pressure myself to be in a stressful state while writing, and this gave way to more sustained sessions of deep listening.
Rob Dobson
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
soft streak
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Meg Duffy (Hand Habits)
Lemonglow
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Dave Longstreth
This song came out of the very first song writing in-class exercise where we were shown a series of images and prompted to write the first words that popped into our heads for each. Many of the final lyrics are taken directly from my own and others' streams of consciousness. The initial melody I recorded in the 20 minute time constraint is also very close to the final production version, with the exception of the strumming pattern, speed, and addition of the violins & bass.
Yvonne Hunter
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie, The Microphones)
Weary Valley
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie, The Microphones)
"Cave In" was the result of Phil's homework assignment which asked us to write a song about the place where we hurt someone, and the feelings surrounding that incident and physical location. I used the meditation and journaling technique Phil discussed in class to first create the lyrics. Once I had the incident, the physical locations and specific phrases/lyrics I wanted to use I worked on the main musical structure of the song. This was a challenging assignment for me (and it seems like most of the class). But that challenge pushed me to create my favorite song out of all of our assignments!
Sharell Bryant
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Buck Meek
I wrote Turn Me into a Diamond as a part of a homework assignment in Buck Meek's workshop. After cutting up words from my medication and using lines from my group chat with my childhood best friends, I had written a song I loved so much I made it the single for my debut EP. It's helped me connect with more folk musicians and fans after winning a grand prize in John Lennon Songwriting Contest for the song and I can't beat the feeling of when I play it live and people sing along now.
CLR theory
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
This song was inspired by a moment in the Q+A. Julz asked Robin what flow state was for him and where he thought his ideas came from. He answered that in his family music is their spirituality and flow state is like “communing with the spirits, or touching the embers of the universe.” That resonated with me. This song was about missing that sense of belonging and of community that we find in live music during a time when the world felt small and quiet.
Jacks Willie
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
One of the things I love the most about Fleet Foxes is their emphasis on track order as a way transition the listener smoothly into a new environment. My song, "Sailing in Late Summer / Dusty Night Dance," is rooted in a discussion of relationships, rent, and remembering. This will be released as two separate songs on the upcoming album, but stitched together, they create a story while in a dream, then a drive.
Louis B Burrows
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie, The Microphones)
A song bourne of the meditative practices that Phil touched on his first lecture. This song also incorporates the awe and wonder that I'm currently experiencing while expecting my first baby. My wife has been carrying our child for 7 months now and we are almost to term. After writing the song in the workshops I've been singing it to our baby whilst its still in the womb, I hope it will become a meditative lullaby once it is born.
Brian Blickenstaff
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Eric D. Johnson
Peter Stone
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Molly Sarlé
This song was based off a prompt Molly Sarlé provided that was something along the lines of "write a love song to your own life". I loved the way that the chord-writing prompt mirrored the lyric writing prompt. As in - we wrote several sections that all had different chord changes so the entire thing was through composed. Similarly, we wrote lyrics that tracked our lives from childhood through to the future. This song really poured out of me based on that, and has gotten great feedback through my live performances. I'm proud to have released this just recently on Nov 29th, a recording that was produced by Noah Weinmn (Runnner). I'm proud of the arrangement we came up with. I'm proud of the way that people have emotionally resonated with the tune when I've performed it for them. Part of what's so great about music is that emotional affinity between performer and audience, and I feel that this song has already allowed for many powerful connections. I'm excited for it to be out in the world in the recorded version and for more people to connect with it.
m.pitrolo
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie, The Microphones)
I wrote this song for the first homework in Phil Elverum's course where we were challenged to write a song in the style of a haibun poem. I didn't quite stick the landing on the haibun form, but through the exercise I ended up with a story and structure that was quite different compared to songs I had written previously. The prompt opened my eyes to a whole new way to approach storytelling, and I ended up with a song I am very proud of.
Sand Reckoner
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
This was homework #2 from Robin’s class after learning about contrary motion and extensions. I used contrary motion in the pre-chorus between the bass line and the vocal melody, and then I used an extension in the chorus which I think helped to make the simple melody more interesting, or at least added more of a “surprise” element to it. The extension conveyed a feeling of longing to me, and that’s kind of what prompted the words to come. This is an instance of where I’m using the exact random words I sang when I first figured out the melody (“I should have tried to see”). Then I needed to rhyme something with “see” to resolve the melody, so I came up with Joanie Lee. I wrote the rest of the lyrics based off of that. Long story short, thanks for the extension idea, Robin! The whole song wrote itself after that.
Nica
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Meg Duffy (Hand Habits)
This song is the first I ever made made that felt like it's a whole, own thing, and that I felt excited to share. The song came from Meg's "harvesting seeds" assignment - specifically the prompt to " figure out how you can connect two ideas and put them in the same world." Future Anything's world ended up being a place where a dream I had of my great grandmother could relate to a seeking drive that links across time. Here is the song in the same demo form I uploaded for class. Big thanks to the SOS teachers and facilitators for creating a space for songs to come alive :)
Janky Blindfish
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Dave Longstreth
The session on patterns and repetition that Dave taught really had an impact on me. We focused on the Dirty Projector’s song Break-Thru (one of my favs) and had to analyze it for its patterns and repetition. There had been some elements of my song that had sat with me for years but this session gave me so much to think about and I recorded it in a couple days. It may have also been one of the first times I really thought about how to deliberately structure a song (beyond a standard pop structure).
CJ Nash
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
"First World" was created for the "unofficial" homework prompt 4 from Robin's class, where he asked us to collaborate with a fellow songwriter from the course. This song was originally made by Abe P who sent me his stems to which I added my own music and lyrics. We're both really proud of it! It's our first song on Spotify :) And shoutout to Robin for letting us use these awesome Shore stems!!
aurelius xo
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Luke Temple
This song was written in response to the first homework prompt during the Luke Temple class. The verse prompt was about choosing a small mundane task or activity that you do almost everyday, the more mundane and uninteresting the better. The prompt around the chorus was for it to be just one word. The word I chose for the chorus was "television" and hence the mundane activity I chose was watching television. The simplicity of this prompt was liberating. The track consists of acoustic guitar and the main vocal as well as background harmony vocals. This is the original homework recording.
Jordan Smith Reynolds (fka Jordan Pratt)
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
I wrote this song with a different guitar tuning and asked the question, could I write a compelling song while only changing the bass note throughout the song?
Water Weight
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Steven van Betten
Although I should also cite my time in Buck Meek's songwriting workshop as a major influence (!), I primarily wrote this song during (and immediately following) Steven van Betten's fretboard workshop. Working through the different modes of the pentatonic scale had me fired up and feeling adventurous where I had previously felt quite limited, and I enjoyed reaching for things that I wouldn't have reached for previously. Really, I think the class's biggest influence on this song is rooted in the time I spent singing the notes I was playing on the guitar while grasping for the different modes. Something about that process kind of unlocked the melody of this tune, and it opened a floodgate of lyricism for me, too -- one that no doubt had begun to accumulate during my earlier songwriting workshop with Buck Meek. That one had me fired up, too! Thanks, y'all.
Andy Wakeman
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Eric D. Johnson
hemlock
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Meg Duffy (Hand Habits)
this phone recorded song was the result of a reharmonization practice from megs class where v2 is a reharmonized version of v1. I’d never sat down and intentionally reharmonized a song before and it was a fruitful brain mend to hear how different melodies mold to different chords and totally change the emotion. proud of the bit at the end that switches between the original and reharmonized chords with a build of “those big blues, both the two of them….” in a total harmony swirl. a confession of my love for Lake Michigan and floating on her surface blanketed by the big sky. between air and water. big blue.
Erika Levy
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
When I wrote Chicken and Rice I had more questions about production and it was so beneficial to learn a little bit more of that through School of Song. Not only that, but I was connected to some very talented sos people who produced and became my band for the recording. I am forever grateful for the experience.
Sun Bear Hum
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
Robin’s discussion on vocal processing and experimenting with lyric delivery helped me get the vocal tone sounding just right
Gabe Grabovac
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Buck Meek
using the groove of another song
sleepybug
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Ellen Kempner (Palehound)
I wrote this song in Ellen Kempner’s workshop from an assignment that asked us to switch up our songwriting process. I usually write lyrics first, but for this song I wrote the bass line first and built everything up from there in my DAW.
Damon Smith
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
Annie Oaksong
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Molly Sarlé
A film scene dialogue - I approached this from the perspective of the landscape
Earthware
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
This song was written largely drawing from my experience in Robin's class, but was made following the conclusion of the course. Specifically, I intentionally used appoggiatura in creating my verse melodies, tried to play into and subvert listener expectation in melodic structure (Robin guessing/attempting to guess the trajectory of the Weeknd song is burned into my brain), and in the lyrics switched back and forth from a personal "I" perspective to a more objective look on a more macro scale. Although it was not directly tied to one homework prompt, the questions posed in those informed the creation of the song. I also enlisted the help of two people I connected with from Robin's class! Claire Ozmun provides additional vocals and Nicolette Yarbrough wrote and recorded a beautiful string arrangement on violin and viola. I'm most proud of loosening the grip of self criticism and finishing a full song for once (vocals, production and all) and Robin's course and SOS was essential in making that a reality.
The Bluegill
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Eric D. Johnson
Sabine Colleen
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold
This song was born out of week two of Robin’s workshop after he lectured on different song writing techniques. I was inspired by the notion of appoggiatura and in media res which I used. I am most proud of how this song stretched me outside of the comfort of rigid meter and rhyme. The result is very flowing and watery.
Philip Labes
written in the Songwriting Workshop with Robin Pecknold