Songwriting is an art form, but there’s also a delicate art to breaking up with a co-writer. On the latest episode of the Songwriter Soup podcast presented by American Songwriter, hit songwriter Laura Veltz, financial advisor Tracy Hackney and host Kevin Sokolnicki dig into the reasons why co-writers break up with each other, and how to do it.
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“I think that the main squeeze of breaking up with a co-writer would be best started with what it feels like to have someone break up with you,” Veltz describes.
She reveals that during the early days of co-writing in Nashville, someone would suddenly stop writing with her without any explanation that left her “super butthurt.” But even when that person would continuously suggest that they should write again, there was never any follow-through on their part. “
That felt like high school rejection, which is pretty awful,” she reflects. “But I do find that the way that it was being done most times was really the only way to do it.”
Veltz cites creative differences as one important reason to break up with a co-writer. “In my opinion, songs are magic, and you’re making magic with your friends, you can’t really decide that you’re going to write a great song with someone,” she explains. “You might have written your best song with that person, but they may have written their worst song with you. Pop the bubble that you know how it’s going to go down.”
Comparing writing with someone for the first time to going on a “first date,” Veltz says that incompatibility with writers can happen at all stages in one’s career and that it’s no one’s fault if a write doesn’t work out. Veltz shares that she’s at a point in her career where if another top-tier songwriter says they’re a fan of her work, but they don’t write well together there would be “not even a knick to my ego.” She also acknowledges that at the beginning of a songwriter’s career, it can be “really painful” to get rejected.
“It is really tough in the beginning and I think the only way to really make that happen in your heart is just making the song what’s important,” she concludes.
Songwriter Soup airs weekly on Mondays on various streaming platforms.
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