EXPLORING THE SONGWRITING PROCESS WITH THOMAS DUNLEAVY
Thomas Dunleavy finds inspiration for his music everywhere. Music reporter Molly Woodthorpe spoke to him about what the songwriting process looks like for him, and about his experiences when writing songs.
When writing, he used to start on a guitar or piano, but has turned to a more lyric focused approach, then trying to fit the lyrics into a melody, pushing them together to see what works.
Lyrically, things have also changed over time, saying “when you’re more innocent you make up scenarios and write about them“, now, he is able to write more from real life experiences.
He makes time for writing every day, sometimes aided by other musicians. Recently, this has been early Paul McCartney. Finding enjoyment in how spacious and airy it feels, especially when it is just the bare bones of the song.
Artists like Queen also inspire him- where you have songs written by John, Freddie, Roger and Brian, so when they performed live, it really was just putting on a show. A big consideration seems to be how the songs will play live- putting the audience first in his writing and considering their reception.
Going back to finding inspiration everywhere, Thomas recently wrote a song about his love of winter- simply because he doesn't have to deal with hayfever. Another bit of inspiration was found as a result of Cameron Diaz- but who can really blame him on that one.
Thomas has had a lot of different experiences when it comes to writing- both writing solo and co-writing, being in a band. When writing with his band, Mousse, he often takes songs to the others, who ‘whip them into shape’. In their rehearsal room they all chip in ideas, putting songs together that way.
Regardless of who songs were written with, he knows they are done when he can add it to a set and play it live. Mostly, he will take a song to an audience, 90-100% complete, but added that he has had times where he has wanted to play a song live, and had ideas so will ‘wing the next verse’ or whatever comes to mind.
When inspiration strikes, Thomas turns to voice notes- sometimes even walking down the street, recording himself humming. Now exploring putting these into songs, pairing the original with the finished product.
You can find more about Thomas and his music:
This was written to be assessed as part of my Journalism course. This was in Semester 2 of Level 6 and was for the Undergraduate Major Project, where I created a (primarily) music magazine, aimed at Gen Z. Below is the page design for this article.
