One of the Green Olive Yuks favorite songwriters, Josh Ritter, was interviewed recently. Here is some of what he had to say regarding writing.
“My parents are scientists and they always talk about the idea that science doesn’t come from nowhere, it comes from definite needs in a society; people start studying questions based on what the society needs, and I feel that’s the same way with songs.
Not everything, I mean, ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears is a great song and maybe it doesn’t answer a biting social need, but I do think if you go back from a song like that and look at what was going on in the world and in America at the time, that you’d find something interesting that you could put in your back pocket.”