Rox On Songwriting

For Levi's Craft Of Music

Rox recently performed at the first Levi’s Craft Of Music session of 2011 alongside Welsh rockers The Joy Formidable.

Clash grabbed five minutes with the London based songbird to talk about the last twelve months and the key to writing the perfect song.

The last time we spoke was about a year ago. What’s been going on with you for the last twelve months?
Rox: Well, since I saw you, I released the album and played loads of festivals, which was wicked. I did loads that I really wanted to do, like Latitude Festival. That’s my favourite, because I love everything that it stands for. It’s a proper hippy-ish festival. I love the painted sheep! But I’ve had a few ups and downs along the way, as many artists do. It’s a hard job. But I’m in such a great place at the moment. I’m writing new stuff. And as happy as I am with the last album, and all the opportunities it gave me, I don’t really feel it showed the all sides of me as an artist. So this second album I’m going all out.

How do you go about doing that? Is there a method for getting the perfect song?
Rox: I don’t think there is. I think it just happens when it happens and it feels right. And I don’t think I ever really got to that point with the last album. I thought it felt right, but it never really did. I was overthinking the process too much in the past, but now when songs are right and I feel them, it’s like, ‘Okay, cool.’

Why were you overthinking?
Rox: It was a combination of things. There were a lot of opinions, I co-wrote a lot, there were lots of people. But recently I’ve been a bit of a recluse. I’ve locked myself away in my new apartment, got back to basics again, just playing keys and the guitar like I used to, just writing songs.

Is it easy to lose sight of the songwriting process because of everything else that’s happening?
Rox: You don’t really have a chance to focus on it, because you’re always out doing something else and it just gets in the way a bit. But it’s helped me realise that this is about me being me. I think a lot of people will be shocked when they hear the new album. It’s going to be different. It’s going to be rawer. And I’m going to have more fun. I think I was a bit serious on the first one. It was a good album, and I’m happy with it, but now I’ve started to move on.

Words by Mischa Pearlman
Photo by Tom Bunning

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