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Simon Wright
improve the song, but also encourage the musician to provide feedback on your lyrics. This
two-way open communication is the life-blood of good collaborations.
• Don’t be afraid to share your personality and backstory. Talk about your influences, your
ambitions, what excites you about working on songs. Opening up a bit about yourself will help the
musician to consider whether they’ve found a like-minded person that they are going to have fun
collaborating with.
How to suggest further collaborations
It’s great when you’ve worked with a musician, or a bunch of musicians, and have ended up with a
brilliant song. Too often though, that ends up being the extent of that partnership. It may be that
you and the other person (or people) are hoping to collaborate again but if no-one strikes up the
courage to suggest it then it won’t happen.
So here are some ways that you can suggest doing further collaborations together:
• Make a suggestion of another lyric that is similar to the one you’ve just turned into a song.
• Ask if they have a piece of music that needs lyrics and say that you’d love to help with it
• Comment that you think that your partnership would make for a great songwriting team or
band. If they agree, then this may prompt them to come back and suggest making that a reality.
I hope this has been useful. As well as having the potential to open doors to bigger and better
things, establishing and nurturing connections is fun. You will hopefully have fun making lots of
great songs, and maybe end up with some lasting friendships.
About Simon Wright
Simon is an Irish lyric writer who lives in Scotland. He collaborates with musicians across the
world to turn his lyrics into songs. Check out his website www.LyricSlinger.co.uk and follow him @
TheLyricSlinger on Twitter, and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheLyricSlinger/
www.writeawaymag.co.uk 09