Songwriting Mystery: Pattinson, Freimann, Gefecht

Actor Michael Welch (Mike Newton in "Twilight") talked to celebuzz recently, revealing what Robert Pattinson allegedly said about his songwriting. 

Quite interesting...

Robert Pattinson 

& songwriting 

(quoting M. Welsh)

"He (Robert) said the way that he does it which really freed him up to write some really interesting stuff is that he sort of picks a chord or just starts playing a melody of some kind, sees how it makes him feel emotionally, and then just kinda starts singing—not lyrics—but just kinda the foundation of what the lyrics would be (...) Which is why his songs have that very specific feel where he’s kinda like, 'Nyaah, moooaah, woooah,' you know what I mean? That’s how he writes the songs. He just sort of feels, picks a chord, sees how he feels emotionally, just starts singing in gibberish, and then writes the lyrics on top of that, and I think it’s a really interesting way of going about it. I’ve never heard of somebody doing it that way before. But, you know, I thought it was cool."

Witnessing the 

birth of a song

What is described above - howsoever astonishing it might appear to Michael Welch - is a quite common way to "write" a song. I never really noticed that I did it this way often myself, until I watched my husband Freimann for the first time doing this. At first I was bewildered about the strange language of his singing... it sounded like it was English, but was completely inarticulately and made no sense at all. I was wondering whether he had got a tooth ache or something. But every once in a while there would be a single word or phrase in it, and though it all remained cloudy, this song-to-be was already touching me emotionally and I already could feel what it was to be about.

Songwriting & me

I realized that I was a witness of the first encounter of the artist and a piece of music that soon will be "his song". And that this is very close to the way I use to "meet" my new songs. I am more the humming type though, no "gibberish" with me. I am humming while words may flash through my mind...

Like I always say: I didn't get into music, music rather got into me. It is the same with songwriting. I like to refer to unwritten songs as something that already exists and is just looking for a home. Like a straying dog... first it seems odd, you don't know its name or where it comes from, it might be hard to handle too. But once the dog (song) has decided to be yours, it is like it's always been there, very familiar, very natural. And you can hardly remember whether it was different once.

Over The Rim

I wrote a song about writing a song, called "Over the Rim"*. (in a time when had almost lost my love for music and my ability to let it flow, due to the harshness of showbiz). It is somewhat introvert, just like the process of finding an new song itself. Enjoy...

*(from the album "Betti Gefecht: Do The Right Thing")

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