Jason Isbell: Songwriting Is ‘Like Going to the Bathroom’

Jason Isbell has some unpredictable advice for artists looking to become singer-songwriters: Treat songwriting like you treat using the restroom.

"I'm in a lot of different situations, so sometimes I'm writing in the back of a bus, and sometimes I'm singing into my phone in an airplane ... You can never be comfortable, you know, sometimes you just have to do it," he told The Boot and other media members. "I hate to say it, but sometimes writing a song is like going to the bathroom: I don't want to go to the bathroom here, but I've got no choice. So, sometimes you just sit down and try to find as much privacy and as much quietude as you can, and then it might be on a bar napkin or it might be on a phone note or something like that."

Isbell adds, "The only thing that's the same from song to song is that when I get home and I'm in that moment of tranquility, I can actually reflect on the process that caused the song to be written in the first place, and sometimes that takes a month or two months or three months from the initial spark."

The award-winning artist also tells aspiring artists not to give up when the road gets rough, because struggling through the tough times is a huge part of the songwriting process.

"If you're going to be a singer-songwriter, you're always gonna be struggling in one way or another; you know, if you're not struggling, you're doing it wrong, I think. Because once you get all your personal issues sorted, if that ever happens, then you've got to figure out how to challenge yourself and not just try to write yourself a nicer life," Isbell says. "I think ... in the practice aspect and the work aspect, it's like writing anything else -- books or journalism or poems or anything -- if you write 1,000, 5,000, 10,000 [words], every time you get better and better, and eventually you know what you're doing."

Back in February, Isbell took home two trophies at the 2016 Grammy Awards, for Best American Roots Song and Best Americana Album. The recognition is something that he says he's always told himself wouldn't happen, but he's glad to see roots music making a larger impact in the industry.

"You spend a lot of time telling yourself that sort of thing's not going to happen, so you decide that you're legitimate for other reasons ... Because, you know, for most people, it doesn't ever happen, so you spend a lot of time thinking, 'You're gonna have to be okay with never winning a Grammy or never winning an Oscar or never, you know, selling out the Staples Center or Madison Square Garden; these things aren't going to happen to you because you're a songwriter, and you make the kind of music that might not be the most popular,'" he says. "And then certain people start working really hard ... and, you know, the type of music that we make starts to rise to the top a little bit, and they start recognizing folks like us. So, you know, I just feel really fortunate and really lucky."

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