A Unique Conversation with Mike Errico

Photo Credit: Sally Errico

Mike Errico is a recording artist, author, and songwriting professor at Yale, the New School, and NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. In addition to his performing and teaching careers, Errico’s opinions and insights have appeared in publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and CNN. His new book Music, Lyrics, and Life: A Field Guide for the Advancing Songwriter is available at: Books Are Magic | Amazon | Bandcamp (personally signed copies)

I had the pleasure and honor to ask Mike about his creative process in writing songs, who are some of his favorite songwriters, and so much more.

UZOMAH: Can you name a moment in your career when you knew music would be forever in it?

MIKE: Ha, I’m still not sure I’ll be forever in it! I was just talking to a student about this. Music is the kind of career that stress-tests you all the time. It doesn’t guarantee tomorrow. Sometimes I joke that it shares many traits with marriage, but there’s some truth there: It’s something that must continue to be renewed in order to be fulfilling.

U: Can you describe the creative process that you use in writing songs?

M: It really is like fishing. You put a line in the water, and maybe you get a piece of a lyric, or a melody, or a dream that has something musical about it. Sometimes you sit for hours, and nothing happens. Sometimes you get something so big you can barely drag over the side of the boat. All you can do is be prepared, and show up.

U: Who are some of your favorite songwriters, and why?

M: I’ve loved Stevie Wonder for a long time. On a classic like Songs in the Key of Life, every song is very different, but it all works, because the songs orbit his singular vision. Other artists like that include Joni Mitchell, and, weirdly, Tchaikovsky. His melodies inspire me to keep my bar high—maybe unattainably so. But that keeps me busy.

U: What was the inspiration beyond making your book Music, Lyrics, and Life: A Field Guide for the Advancing Songwriter?

M: The inspiration for so much of my recent life has been my students. I began teaching a couple of years ago and saw that the way I was able to communicate ideas to them really resonated. I also realized that I was teaching in small classrooms at expensive universities, and thought that I could give others access to the best parts of what I have to offer. It’s been a wonderful experience to see people being inspired, and with the book, I feel like I can reach more people than I ever would have in classes.

U: What are some similarities between writing songs and writing poetry or prose? What are some differences?

M: I feel like they are very different, and it has to do with one’s own internal voice. Finding the medium that best suits what it is you’re trying to say is a lifelong process. For instance, when I was a kid, I took trumpet lessons, and even though I loved music, that particular instrument was so loud and brash—it was like wanting to whisper, but being given an airhorn. When I found voice and guitar, I found I was better able to express the musical parts of myself. After a while, songwriting began to feel limited, and my daily journaling naturally turned into the book. I think this happens to people a lot, and it’s really important to just give in to that internal voice and let it express itself in its most natural state.

U: What is the important lesson you teach your students that provides the foundation to find what they are after as a songwriter or musician?

M: Journaling. I’m kind of obsessed with them finding a steady regimen that they can incorporate into their lives. I tell them, “Writing is a muscle, and journaling is going to the gym,” and I believe that. There are many ways to journal, but as long as they are engaged in taking the abstractions of their minds and translating them to a fixed medium—music, words, baking, painting, anything, really—they’re practicing an essential skill.

U: What would you be doing if you were not involved in music?

M: Teaching more. Writing more. Speaking at live events more. I’d be pretty happy, actually, and that’s no shade on music. I just get a lot of enjoyment from other art forms.

U: What are the most crucial elements of what makes a great song?

M: I pose this question to students: “Your listener is being generous by giving you their time: are you returning that generosity by making the most of that time?” I think a question like that encompasses the initial act of writing, the grueling process of revision, and the polish of performance. It’s an exchange of generosities.

U: What song and what artist made you want to be a songwriter?

M: A question like this always has a different answer, but today it’s that I found my parents’ copy of Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon, and when I heard “Woodstock,” I realized that life had dimensionality I hadn’t witnessed in the material world. I’ve always been drawn to that ethereal vibe, and can trace it through Miles Davis, Soul II Soul, Portishead, Erik Satie, Radiohead, Low, Four Tet, Daniel Rossen, Angel Olsen…and so on. It’s their ability to change the atoms in the room that made me want to write music, too.

For more information about Mike and his new work, please visit his site. Also, you can find him on Bandcamp,  iTunes ,  Spotify. Please give Mike a follow and a like on YouTube, Instagram   Facebook and Twitter.