10 Questions: Tommy Siegel on Creativity & Songwriting

"These days, I wanna shake my butt first. Then ask questions."

Tommy Siegel is one of those people whose creative outlets seem to know no bounds. He plays guitar and writes the catchiest damn pop songs for his piano-pop band, Jukebox the Ghost. He has another awesome band called Narc Twain, which we would describe as Phish meets Talking Heads meets Rage Against the Machine. He lives a double life as a cartoonist where his sharp wit and bizarro humor meld into some truthful and hilarious takes on our strange little world. 

Clearly, Tommy is someone who is in touch with his creative self. He’s spent his life honing it, feeding it and allowing it to go wherever he wants it to go and we admire that about him so much. 

We’re honored that he took the time to answer our questions so thoughtfully, and we hope you find his answers as insightful as we do!

1. When you sit down to write a song, which elements tend to come first (melody, concept, title, lyrics, chords, beat, etc.)?

For a long time, I was one of those weirdos who thought of song titles first (seriously, what is up with that?). The first couple of Jukebox the Ghost records happened that way for me. I would think of a ludicrous song title like "Beady Eyes on the Horizon" or "Ms. Templeton's 7000th Dream" and then write a song around what I *thought* it should sound like. I have no idea where I got that particular habit, but I still do it today from time to time (Even now, I've got a couple of great song titles that I haven't written songs for yet, for this Jukebox the Ghost record cycle). Then I became more of a typical chords/melody-first writer. But in the last few years, I've become a groove-first guy. Since I started digging more deeply into Afrobeat in the last few years, most of my favorite songs have come from writing a groove and a bass line first. I find it so inspiring and fun to try to make a groove that's interesting enough that the vocals and lyrics are just icing on the cake. I figure if you want to sit in an instrumental 8-bar loop indefinitely, the song you write on top of it is bound to be good. These days, I wanna shake my butt first. Then ask questions.

2. How often do you write? Do you have a regular routine, or do you do it only when you’re feeling inspired?

I used to be a write-every-day kind of guy, but eventually I just found that it gave me too much material to even release (not that it's all *worth* releasing, anyway!). I started to find it frustrating, since I loathe the 'releasing' and 'promoting' part of the process. It's part of what drew me to Patreon, as it felt like a way to release music that I was proud of without having the stressful drain of record promotion. Currently, on top of Jukebox albums, I've got another three solo records sitting in the pipeline. It's getting a bit ridiculous. My rediscovery of cartooning has brought me down to a more reasonable level of output, so these days I tend to write only when I have *some* kind of idea to start with . . . which is probably for the best.

3. Do you have any practices that help you find inspiration and collect ideas?

Having a notebook everywhere, at all times. That, and iPhone voice memos.

"Creativity, from my experience, will come out from whatever faucet you turn on. The important thing for me is to constantly switch up the faucets so I don't feel stale."

4. Have you ever felt creatively blocked and what did/do you do to overcome it?

That's kind of how I started writing from grooves. I felt like I was always coming up dry or repeating myself when I sat down at a guitar. I found it really, really refreshing to try and write for bass and drums. It's a totally different mindset, and one where the chords take a back seat. With this method I also find that the melodies tend to gravitate towards being modal and kinda write themselves because they have so much room to breathe. It leads towards a totally different kind of songwriting entirely. My new solo record (coming in 2020) follows that regiment pretty aggressively . . . most of the songs don't even have chords at all. They just have implied chord movement from the bass line and single-note guitar parts that tease what the chord voicing would be, if someone were actually playing a chord. I learned that concept from Dan Romer, a brilliant film composer/songwriter and dear friend who produced two Jukebox the Ghost albums. Any time one of us wanted to play a full, ham-handed chord voicing in a recording session, he'd make us take a step back and give the other instruments room to breathe. In the end, the full chords are implied without anyone actually playing them.

5. Do you like to collaborate with other artists and in what capacity does collaboration work best for you?

I love collaborating. I wish I did more of it, to be honest! I find that a lot of modern music writing and production (outside of the Nashville/LA co-write scene) tends to be a lot of solitary computer activity. I thrive off of collaboration—I am always looking for ways to get more of it.

6. Are there any non-musical things you do that affect your art?

I find that a lot of my best musical ideas end to come when I'm away from music, so yes. Hiking, running, meditating, showering. Any time I can turn off the normal ADD static of my brain and drift into a more surreal state, an idea tends to come through.

7. How do you know when a song is done?

Now that I produce and engineer my own material, I get a sense of how good something is by whether or not I want to listen to it on my phone speaker. If I don't, it's probably no good. If I want to listen to it on my way to the grocery store, it's a sign for me that it's either *done* or the essence of it is strong enough to easily carry it to the finish line later.

8. What do you think your strengths are as a songwriter and how do you play to those strengths?

I think I'm really hard on myself. Which is a weakness, in a way, but it also keeps me from drinking my own Kool-Aid and devolving. When I write songs for a record, I tend to write four times as much as I end up using. The ones that I discard tend to educate and inform the ones that do make it.

9. What do you think your weaknesses are as a songwriter and how have you worked around them or worked to improve them?

I think my biggest weakness is a tactile one: I'm not a naturally gifted singer. My voice is kind of nasally and thin and wears out easily. It's been a problem for me my whole music career. But the plus side is I do think it's made me more aware of how strong the song *really* is. I don't have a pretty voice to hide behind, so the song or the song concept had better be good or have some imagination. With what I've been given vocally, I can't make a good sales pitch for a normal song.

10. What is one important lesson you have learned through your experiences as a songwriter?

That creativity, from my experience, will come out from whatever faucet you turn on. The important thing for me is to constantly switch up the faucets so I don't feel stale. If I kept writing songs the same way I did when I was 21, I think I would be having unsatisfying results.

Favorite song to dance to: Tom Ze - "Ma"
Favorite song to make out to: Music and making out has always seemed like a distracting idea to me. So let me just kill the mood completely and say Limp Bizkit - "Nookie." If it's a good make out session, it'll survive that experience.
Favorite song to cry to: "Heart Beat" by Chris Cohen. 
Favorite song to work out to: Anything by Fela Kuti. Literally anything.
Favorite song to drive to: I find that live Grateful Dead is my spiritual home base behind the wheel. I can't help it. It just keeps rolling and rolling and rolling.

Follow Tommy online:

twitter.com/tommysiegel
instagram.com/tommysiegel
patreon.com/tommysiegel

photo by Cortney Armitage.