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Lesson time: (2min 36sec)
This lesson is part of the course Song Studies: The Songwriting Secrets of Guy Chambers
Watch a preview of the full course below.
Lesson transcript:
For Rob, he just moved to Los Angeles, and I think he was quite lonely. He was actually scared of this music because I wrote the music first.
We recorded the whole track, and I gave him the track, saying,
"Can you try and put something on this?"
He didn't like it at first. He said it scared him because it was so gloomy, so somber in some ways.
But luckily, he dug into a really dark side of his character.
You know, lines like:
"I scare myself to death. That's why I keep on running. Before I've arrived, I can see myself coming."
I think that's one of my favorite lyrics that he's ever written.
Another powerful line is:
"My head speaks a language I don't understand."
He really opened himself up in this song.
As an artist, for anyone trying to write lyrics, it's very important to open yourself up. Even if you are feeling really depressed, hurt, or like crying, you might think the most difficult thing in the world would be to write about that emotion.
But that's probably the very time you should write about it. Often, when I least feel like writing a song, that's when I actually should try and write a song.
When you push through a pain barrier, something different will come out of you. And Rob definitely pushed through a pain barrier when he wrote these lyrics.
It's authentic, because he's been very open about his struggles with addiction and depression. You can sense all of that in this song. It describes the world inside his head, the confusion, and the troubles he was going through.
But luckily, it becomes universal because the chorus lyric is just so very, very simple:
"I just want to feel real love. Feel the home that I live in. Because I've got too much life running through my veins going to waste."
At that time, he was single and really lonely, which is a universal feeling. We all have stages when we feel lonely.
He voiced that emotion beautifully.
Guy Chambers is one of the UK's most successful living songwriters. He is the writer behind songs we know from the radio, from the movies, and from the dance floor. Songs we know from our parties and our weddings. Songs that half the world can sing along to note for note. Songs that take us back in time to where we used to be. Songs that carry us forward beyond the everyday to where we wish we were; 'Angels'; 'Let Me Entertain You'; 'Strong'; 'No Regrets'; 'Millennium'; 'Rock DJ'; 'Feel' - to name but a few. "Guy was the first person in the business who ever took me seriously" says long-standing writing partner Robbie Williams. "The first person who could see the artist that I knew I could become". The list of other collaborators reads like pop music royalty. Over the years Guy has written and produced for Diana Ross, Tom Jones, Tina Turner (whose scorching take on 'Feel' really has to be heard to be believed), Kylie Minogue, James Blunt, Scissor Sisters, Rufus Wainwright and Mark Ronson, among many others. He is consistently pushing himself, seeking new, creative endeavours, one of which was creating a children's folk opera based on the Oscar Wilde short story 'The Selfish Giant' - which he dedicated to his late mother, Pat. The show premiered at The Vaudeville Theatre in London's West End in 2018. In 2019 Guy released his debut solo piano album, 'Go Gentle Into the Light' - a collection of some of the best-loved songs that he and Robbie Williams have written together, with the single 'The Road To Mandalay' reaching over 6 million streams. He produced the BBC Children in Need official album 'Got it Covered', featuring stars such as Olivia Colman, Jodie Whittaker and Helena Bonham Carter, which reached Number 1 in the UK Charts. Guy and Robbie Williams teamed up with Chris Heath to compose the music and lyrics for the RSC musical adaptation of David Walliams' best-selling book 'The Boy in the Dress', which opened to five-star reviews (The Independent, What's On Stage) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon. Guy has produced Robbie Williams' most recent UK Number 1 album 'The Christmas Present' and co-wrote the single 'Time for Change'. He lives with his wife Emma and their four children in Camden and in Sussex, where he enjoys "good wine, good food, cinema and pretty much everything French". "And writing songs, of course". read more
