The songwriter gets all the credit, but in the background the other band members add their own parts, working the melodies, finding the counter melodies, and building the song with each new take. Dino, Ron, and Church take five cracks at Sorry About Ev...

Emerging from a coal mine of singsonging, Jenny O tells Dino about a nightmare of writing, seasons of melodic ideas, the process of writing her song ‘Lazy Jane,’ and more and more. Now, remember: it’s all about the vowel.

Sometimes all you need is a beach chair in your backyard and the sun, shining down like the light of God, and the song writes itself. Psychedelic Cumbia Punks, Thee Commons bring a guitar riff, then a melody, and away they go.

Find their music here: ht...

Every now and then Dino has a question about rhyming… Leslie Stevens has answers. The constraint of having to rhyme improves her poetry, she says. “Things will emerge…” Try a different chord or - even - instrument if you get stuck. “Every instrument ca...

Egocentric and self-hating? Is that what makes a good songwriter? Polish something up and take a shit on it, says Tim Kasher. Find the right way and put in the ugly chord. Dino and Tim consider the right and the rough and whether one knows what’s a hit...

“...what comes out of that mental state is - twisted.” Richard Edwards talks about working through illness and coming out creative on the other side. What else does he want to be asked about? Rhyming?! His daughter joins to sing a song of her own. A fa...

“Writing is planning out a conversation.” John ‘Jughead’ Pierson and Dino get frustrated with words, but push through. That’s why we’re here. Mix up your strumming, use your other writing projects to help your songwriting, and a good chorus can be toug...

Let the open chords control the song. Jesse Hughes and Jorma Vik from Eagles Of Death Metal join Dino to talk writing collaboratively (benevolent dictators), staying horny (jacking on), writing for others and more and more. Feel the audience out, folks...

Writing drunk, Dino can relate. Writing backward too. Conspiracies, other podcasts, starting his own label, getting emotional, improvisation, Dino and Church get into it all and more with Rikky.

Writing about your kids may not always be interesting, but they do affect your songs. Eleni Mandell sits down with Dino to talk about writing after having kids, music that just falls out, her favorite writers, and whether Dino should be working harder ...