Part II: A sit-down with Sivers, founder of CDBaby

Continuing his conversation with Derek Sivers, founder of CDBaby, WordPlay T. Jay asked him about things like his inspiration for writing his blog and books, as well as inspiration for songwriting and making hits.
T. Jay started by asking if Sivers was inspired to write his blog and books because his focus on music had waned. For Sivers, the answer was anything but that.
“I started writing 12 years ago when I left CDBaby,” he said. “I had told myself my writing was a hobby, and only like a year ago or so I started admitting to myself, ‘No, this is my real thing now, my real calling.’ Life throws us things like that, things that seep in and it may take a long while to admit it’s given you a shift in values.”
When T. Jay followed up with asking what he thinks his best writing is, Sivers said, obviously, it is his upcoming book.
“I feel like it’s cliche, but my best writing is my next book — ‘How to Live,’” he said. “Other books I felt good about, but this time when I’m writing I actually scream in joy and appreciate what I’m writing as I’m writing it. The title makes it seem like I’m a know-it-all, but really each chapter has a strong opinion on how you should live, then all the chapters disagree with one another.
“That’s how life advice works. It’s all very conflicting.”
T. Jay then shifted the conversation to music, asking Sivers if he thinks musicians should be viewing work as play.
“There’s this idea that whatever you do should be fun, or you shouldn’t do it,” Sivers said. “That’s dangerous and harmful to believe you think you need to wait to be inspired to do something. I like the metaphor of the muse as a beautiful woman who will never make the first move. You have to make the first move and go to the muse.
“Once you sit down and start creating, as you work, inspiration will come.”
Sivers said this has manifested in his own projects.
“I would sit down and deliberately come up with something,” he said. “And, don’t underestimate the power of imitating. If you like a melody or beat, copy it and make it your own. We are all imperfect mirrors of one another, and you can get inspiration from doing your own version of something else.”
Sivers said he wrote 100 songs from the age of 14-29, and many were deliberate exercised based on one thing.
“I would write a song based on a technique I liked,” he said. “I wouldn’t wait for inspiration. It’s like I was giving myself an assignment to craft something.”
This conversation led to another about hit songwriters. What do they do that makes them so successful?
“I used to read every interview I could find with hit songwriters because I wanted to be like them, right,” Sivers said. “What I fond is they often admit their most successful song was something they thought was stupid and not even worth recording. As musicians, we feel proud of certain little things we do with instruments or a melody, but people don’t care. It’s the stupid, fun, dumb stuff that ends up the most memorable. I don’t know if it’s true, but I always think of ‘Who Let the Dogs Out.’ Like, no one ‘crafted’ that song.”
Sivers said instead of overthinking writing, think of songwriting as play and write what amuses you while you do it.
“if you do that, it prevents you from taking yourself too seriously,” he said.
T. Jay closed by asking Sivers if he ever recorded something he thought would be a hit.
“On my website, at the top is a link word, ‘musician,’ that takes you to a page with everything I’ve ever recorded,” Sivers said. “On that page, there is a song called ‘Kiss Me Here.’ I loved that song and thought it could be a hit. I tried to imitate ‘Low Rider’ by War and get this really janky, junkyard sound, but I never recorded it how I wanted.
“The version in my head should’ve been a hit, but oh well.”
For more of the second part of the Sivers interview check out the video below.