(camera film rolling) (seagulls squawking)
(kid shouting) (light guitar music)
- Guitar's my instrument, it affords me incredible scope.
The guitar is literally the tool
to obtain sort of the harmonic voicing
of what underpins the track.
I'm Iain Archer, I'm a songwriter,
producer and artist based in Brighton.
- I do like writing with other people.
What always gets me is that the result
is always really different.
I try hard to, to make it sound more like something
that I would do on my own, or at least I used to do that.
The best thing to do is to let go of that,
and to not be worried if it doesn't sound like something
that you would normally write.
My name is Rory Butler and I am a singer-songwriter
from Edinburgh.
(rhythmic guitar music)
(laughing)
- This is cool man, I love that.
- You could fart about with that all day, couldn't you?
- I first met Rory when he was a toddler (laughs)
effectively and I was making my first record.
So, Rory was the son of Steve Butler, who is a fantastic
record producer in Scotland.
I collaborated with him on some recordings.
They had this great studio in their house.
We'd eat breakfast together, we'd hang out, had a great time
with these guys.
Later realizing that Rory was going to become equally
as guitar obsessed (laughing) as I had been, you know.
- I really like working with Iain.
The long time that we've known each other
makes these things easier.
Because it's a bit like sitting down with a friend.
I think one of Iain's great skills is that you feel relaxed
enough in his presence to allow yourself
to not be self-conscious and do something.
And I don't know how he does it but it always gets something
out of you somehow.
(lighthearted guitar music)
(humming melody)
- It always starts with the guitar.
I know some people that write songs that already
have a vocal, you know, melody in their mind
before they get started
and then they just play the chords along to that.
Because my songs are always really guitary songs for me
normally start with the guitar part.
- Because I have a kinda sorta intimate relationship
with the instrument for many, many years, ideas spill out.
Cause you're always in interplay with whatever instrument
you're writing on.
It's like there's a relationship happening.
Isn't it?
There's a conversation between you and the instrument
and you're responding to the opportunities it gives you
to go somewhere new.
You know, so, guitar is, I'm inseparable.
It's a limb.
(laughing)
If not, all of them, sometimes.
(melancholy guitar music)
(humming melody)
And you were like
(humming melody)
Ahhh.
(laughing)
(waves crashing)
(seagulls squawking)
(light guitar music)
(humming melody)
(fast guitar music)
- I like that first bit of melody.
I'm happy with that, it goes
(hums melody)
And then - Can we go
(hums melody)
And then we go
(hums melody)
straight to that after the two chord.
(hums melody)
Yeah.
- Lyrics are just very random.
I'll be playing the guitar and whatever melody I
end up singing over it.
Certain words or lines would fit into that melody well
and key words would come out and then before you know it
there's a sentence there.
It's quite gradual, like, the next line will be relating
something to the one before it.
And so, it will go on until there's some kind
of sensical song.
- I'm trying to bed that
Alright.
- From the top of the chorus.
(guitar music)
(humming melody)
What you can hear when you're hearing a really good piece
of music, even if you don't like the music that you're
listening to, if you can hear a performance in it,
a meant performance, that will move you in some way.
(guitar music)
(humming melody)
- I'm a big believer in the fact that, if you've
got a certain short time and space, there is an impetus
to complete something.
- Testing.
- [Iain] Alright, here we go.
- Yeah.
♪ He had his head in his hands ♪
♪ He cannot understand ♪
♪ He had the world in his hands ♪
With me, normally songs happen very gradually.
So, when you've finished it and you record it,
there's a positive feeling.
♪ And there's sadness in the light ♪
♪ And miracle of life ♪
♪ Sing oooo ♪
♪ Never oooo ♪
- We wrote words in about 25 minutes.
I feel like that's actually a really positive thing
to be impulsive.
But, I feel like we've created something
that's a whole picture.
♪ I want it all the time ♪
♪ The miracle of lives ♪
- I'm really genuinely like a fortunate person.
I get to work in rooms with people like Rory Butler
overly talented people who are happy enough
to come in and go on a sonic and lyrical excursion with me.
- I got a nylon string guitar when I was five, four or five,
and I do remember being embarrassed for getting told off
for strumming strings and who knows what tune they were in
and something horrible all day and kind of wailing
over the top of it.
I suppose, in some sort of way, that is songwriting.
It's not unlike what we're doing for some of the day.
(pulsing music)