Songwriting
Writing Well-Crafted Songs w/ Brooke Ligertwood
Brooke Ligertwood sat down with Loop Community Founder Matt McCoy to talk about songwriting and her new album EIGHT.
Matt: “What’s a worship song right now that you really love or that’s currently stirring your spirit?”
Brooke: “This sounds like I’m trying to plug something, but I’m just being truthful, there’s a song on my new album EIGHT called “Bless God”. We didn’t write that for this album, that was a song that Brandon Lake, Cody Carnes and I wrote for Cody’s project. He already had that chorus going into the day. This song came out and I have been flabbergasted at the mercy of God having me in the room that day. That song didn’t come out for a long time after we wrote it, but in the months after we wrote that song, my husband and our family went through some really intense stuff. Across the world move, health things, community things, etc. I found myself in this unexpected constellation of trauma. I had a Dropbox link to this really simple demo of Cody singing that song the day we wrote it. I would get in the car and put on that demo and scream and weep these words. It really helped me. I was grateful that Cody let me do a version as well.”
Advice for young worship leaders
Matt: “What is advice you would give for a young worship leader or songwriter?”
Brooke: “I would say lean so hard into community. Don’t underestimate the treasure of community and the ways that God will disciple you through community. I look at the richness of the relationships that a lot of us have that have been serving God together for 20 years, there’s real, actual community and relationships there. That is one of the greatest treasures of my life.”
Writing well-crafted songs
Matt: “Do you song write every day?”
Brooke: “No. For me, the actual act of putting pen to paper and melody to voice, is the last step. There are so many things that should happen before this actual act of articulation comes out. That has to be study, soaking in the Scripture. That has to be trying to serve my family better. It has to be surrender. A well-crafted song is a good sharp tip of the spear. The thing that is going to give it the power to penetrate is first, the anointing of God. But secondly, the weight of a surrendered life. A surrendered life carries weight and God can often place an anointing upon. That’s actually the power. So many people spend time sharpening the tips of their spears, but there’s nothing behind them and they’re trying to sharpen a toothpick. So much of our lives as songwriters has to be living it out. The Lord hears the song of our lives way louder than he hears the song of our lips. So, write the song of your life before you write the song that will go on someone’s lips.”
Click below to watch the full interview. You can get the Master Tracks for Brooke’s new album EIGHT on LoopCommunity.com.
