Benoit

Elliott Smith, John Lennon, Frank Zappa; anyone with enough brains to write great stuff and enough vision to convey it meaningfully

usually i take the phrase and try to see how it rolls off the tongue. see what phrasing/pace best conveys the words. play around with it switch words/syntax and see what has the best flow. from there come up with similarily metered stuff and a melody that goes nicely with it. This is all pretty intuitive but it is learned with practise. write write write!

the first element really has to be a spontaneity that comes to me and is worth getting down. after that, flow and some kind of narrative continuity are what i prize the most. Lyrics and melodies can be dome a dozen and of course there's going to be small things in there you're proud of, but what i look for most is a way to make the song cohesive and fluid. being memorable just means it worked well! it's hard to write something and make it memorable from the start, that's an aspect that goes with a really good riff. if the song is cohesive then the memorableness of your hooks and the ways you string them together combine to make a great song!