Janis Ian

Songwriting & Survivals

by Fred Koller
July 26, 2000

Janis Ian burst onto the national scene when she was only 14 years old. Her song "Society's Child," recorded in 1965, became a hit, even though it dealt with a topic -- interracial love -- that might still raise eyebrows in some of today's record company boardrooms. While she's most often thought of as a folk musician, something reinforced by her 1975 hit, "At Seventeen," her recordings and songs have spanned jazz, disco, rock, and country genres, and have been covered by the likes of Stan Getz, Cher, and Hugh Masakela.

Ian is a frequent contributor to Performing Songwriter magazine, and you can find many of her past articles online at www.janisian.com. Harmony Central met with her recently at Bodacious Books in Nashville, Tennessee -- where she has lived for more than a decade -- to discuss her songs, learning to collaborate, her favorite guitars, and the recording process that resulted in god and the fbi, her latest CD.

Pleasures & Risks of Co-Writing

How long did you write by yourself?

I wrote by myself until I was 28, and then I wrote a song with Albert Hammond and he was very kind. I had always been paralyzed with fear of co-writing. He came in with a title and a first line and then took me to breakfast. I felt comfortable enough to be open but I really didn't do that much co-writing until I started coming to Nashville in 1986. I was lucky enough my first week here to work with Russell Smith [Amazing Rhythm Aces] and Tom Schuyler and Kye Fleming. Tom was just great. He would talk to himself while he was writing. His lips would move and he would spit out ideas and laugh at himself and say "I'm sorry, that was stupid." I had no idea that all writers babble. The thing that you want when you are co-writing is somebody who is free with their ideas.

The hardest part is getting past our inhibitions.

Yeah, you've got to strip down and be willing to say things without editing yourself, like you would do when you are writing on your own. I think that's always hard. It's still hard for me to some extent, but it's one of the most valuable things that someone can teach you. I was writing a song called "Memphis" off my new album with Deana Carter before her album came out, and I would pop out with lines and then say, "Well, that's kind of weird." But she would say, "No, that's a great line." If I'd been editing then, my part of the song would never have been written. By myself I get ... harsh. I'm much too critical of myself. I've been writing since I was 12 and I'm 49 now, and since I was 14 I have taken it really seriously. That's a long time to live in your own head, and I find that if I don't do some co-writing I start cannibalizing my own work and I wind up not just being picky but being redundant.

I always like to try to write with people who are coming from opposite of where I am coming from. I don't want to write with another Fred Koller.

When people say, "Oh, this writer is so sensitive," I don't need that. One of the pleasures of working with Kye is that she's so strong with the chorus and I was so weak with the chorus. It was great for me just the experience of working with someone who looked at a song that way and built it from the chorus out. I would always start at the beginning and blindly press ahead, and consequently maybe one in 20 songs was decent.

Next Page: To Bridge or Not to Bridge; Melodies & Bad Manners....

Fred Koller has written or co-written hit songs for Nanci Griffith, Lacy J. Dalton, John Hiatt, the Jeff Healey Band, Kathy Mattea, and other artists. He is the author of How to Pitch and Promote Your Songs. Koller's own albums include Songs From the Night Before, Where the Fast Lane Ends, and Night of the Living Fred.