Tag: songwriters society

Welcome to the first in a series of weekly blog posts about songwriting, which will include interviews with composers and artists about their views and experiences in this field. This weeks interview is with singer-songwriter Ilaina Lowe, former President of the Falmouth University Songwriter’s Society.

Matt:

What is your background in songwriting and performing?

Ilaina:

My family are all performers of some kind or another, musicians and artists, most of them aren’t professional or anything but we’ve always had a family-wide love of singing, music and theatre and so in a way, at home, I’ve been performing my whole life. I always imagined myself as a performer, but most of my performing was always done at home, usually in front of a mirror haha. When I was a bit older I started busking in my hometown but I didn’t touch songwriting until I was at least 17/18. Since coming to Uni I‘ve really branched out, I joined the musical theatre society and am a committee member for the songwriters society for a second year. To sum up – I don’t think I really have a background in songwriting? I think I’m living my background right now because I’m still quite new at it and I’ve never had any formal lessons

Matt:

Everyone has different reasons for writing songs, sometimes to express themselves, to tell a story etc. What drives you to write a song and where do you get your inspiration from?

Ilaina:

As a kid if I was upset – I’ve been told that I didn’t cry much, I used to just go make up songs to make myself feel better. Fast forward to when I started songwriting, I find that I write best when I’m sad, maybe because I don’t really feel the need to write when I’m not but that’s why all of my songs are kind of depressing- I’d say they’re kind of like a diary, though these days I tend to push the writing a bit further away from myself since I do record them and share them with people- they don’t all need to know what I’m thinking when I’m sad ahha

Matt:

It’s really interesting that you use songs and songwriting to help express feelings and emotions, I’ve often felt that is a massive benefit of being an artist. You’re currently studying at Falmouth University for a degree in animation and visual effects, which is also a really creative artform. Do you feel that both your animation and musical sides influence each other?

Ilaina:

I’ve often felt like I can explain things much more easily with visuals than words, and I think that does apply to my writing, just in the way that I like describing things? I wouldn’t say they influence each other massively but if I directed and animated a music video for myself then definitely they would affect each other

Matt:

There are often differing views about songs, both on what the most important aspect is and what the most difficult element of a song to compose is. What do you think is the most important part of a song and do you struggle with a particular stage of composing?

Ilaina:

I think all the components are important- but honestly, I struggle with all of them haha. But what I find most hard is not knowing enough finger-picking patterns and chords, I want to be inventive but I find it difficult. I think melody is the part that is easiest for me, even then, I find that the melody is often held back by not having great chords.

Matt:

Well most Pop songs are written with the same four chords, so anything additional that you learn and use in your songs can expand the possible music you can make in an amazing way. I think when you’re a musician you are always trying to learn new things and it’s really exciting when you are able to bring that into a new piece. You’ve been president of the Falmouth University Songwriting Society last year and are involved in the committee this year. How has this impacted your songwriting and what other projects are you working on at the moment?

Ilaina:

I think being part of the committee has really improved my songwriting, just because I was part of a team that had to come up with the prompts and ideas to bring the best out of our society members, it made me think more deeply about what you can do with songwriting and brought me out of my box in terms of theme and style. Of course with every year at Uni I become less prolific just because of coursework, but even with that it means that what I do come out with is usually a bit higher in quality, in my own humble opinion haha. I’m not working on much at the moment, just because I don’t usually set out to write a song, like I said earlier, it’s a bit like a diary so I only do it when I feel the urge to – but I do plan to use songwriters society as a chance to give myself a space for being creative musically every week – even when my course gets busy

You can learn more about Ilaina and her music by visiting her SoundCloud and Instagram (@planet_slons) pages. You can learn more about the Falmouth University Songwriter’s Society by visiting their Facebook page