Avoiding the dreaded "girl/world" rhyme, and other songwriting tips.

Question: What mistakes
or clichés do you try to avoid when writing songs?

Josh Ritter:
Well, I think—I have lots of like, tics, that I think that—or lots of
things
that bug me.  I sort of think about
it, it's kind of like fashion.  A
song has to feel good when you're singing it.  It
has to feel like somebody will put on a suit.  You
have people that you know that put
on clothes and they look effortlessly good in them and it's like, there
was no
work.  And whether or not that's
the case, the fact is that you have to feel comfortable singing what
you're
singing and so some things that make me feel uncomfortable are rhymes
that seem
a little too obvious.  Rhymes that
seem a little too—rhymes that are overused: "girl/world," girl/world
syndrome,
"knife/strife," "shelf/myself," you know, I stay away from all of those.  I don't like autobiographical
songs.  I don't think that
they're—and I don't like autobiographical singing.  I
don't want to think about the person singing the song on
stage.  Like I feel like the song
is your chance to like—like a short story, or anything is a chance to
live
inside a character that's been given to you.  You
are being given this character and then you can live
inside it, not a chance to see inside somebody else's private life.  You know, I don't like that, and I
don't think it leads to very original songwriting.  You
know?  Those are some things that bug me.  And
good songs, they're just things that
you can sing in the car, on the way home without a guitar, that you can
play
yourself and learn how to do.Recorded April 5, 2010Interviewed by Austin
Allen

Question: What mistakes
or clichés do you try to avoid when writing songs?

Josh Ritter:
Well, I think—I have lots of like, tics, that I think that—or lots of
things
that bug me.  I sort of think about
it, it's kind of like fashion.  A
song has to feel good when you're singing it.  It
has to feel like somebody will put on a suit.  You
have people that you know that put
on clothes and they look effortlessly good in them and it's like, there
was no
work.  And whether or not that's
the case, the fact is that you have to feel comfortable singing what
you're
singing and so some things that make me feel uncomfortable are rhymes
that seem
a little too obvious.  Rhymes that
seem a little too—rhymes that are overused: "girl/world," girl/world
syndrome,
"knife/strife," "shelf/myself," you know, I stay away from all of those.  I don't like autobiographical
songs.  I don't think that
they're—and I don't like autobiographical singing.  I
don't want to think about the person singing the song on
stage.  Like I feel like the song
is your chance to like—like a short story, or anything is a chance to
live
inside a character that's been given to you.  You
are being given this character and then you can live
inside it, not a chance to see inside somebody else's private life.  You know, I don't like that, and I
don't think it leads to very original songwriting.  You
know?  Those are some things that bug me.  And
good songs, they're just things that
you can sing in the car, on the way home without a guitar, that you can
play
yourself and learn how to do.Recorded April 5, 2010Interviewed by Austin
Allen