I Know Places (Voice Memo)

So over the years, a lot of people have asked me
To sort of describe my songwriting process from beginning to end
"How long does it take?"
"Where do you write?"
"What are the circumstances?"
"Do you start with music?"
"Do you start with lyrics?"
Um, and, you know my answer is always that it happens differently every time
And that's why I'm still so in love with songwriting

So what I've done here is shown you three different examples of, um
The beginning stages of these songs, and how they each started, uh, different ways
So, um, I'll explain them to you, and maybe that will help you understand kind of
How I put songs together

I sent this voice memo to Ryan Tedder because I'd always wanted to work with him
And finally we, we scheduled some studio time
So I always wanna be prepared
I wanted to send him the idea that I was working on, before we went into the studio
Just in case he wrote back and said
"I can't stand that, I wanna work on something else, think of something else"

So, um, I just sat down with the piano, put my phone on top of the piano
And just kind of explained to him where I wanted to go with the song
How I saw the melody sitting in

And, um, we ended up recording the song the next day
And it ended up being on the record called, uh, "I Know Places"
So this was the voice memo I sent to him
The night before we ended up finishing the song

Okay so this is kind of this rough idea thing

Uh-uh-uh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-I
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-I

Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-I-I-I
Na na na na, waitin' at the back door
They're around, and the vultures come around
And you know that they, what they want us

Say what they want 'bout, say what they want 'bout us
And you come and sing and listen
I would not think about it, but I'm not done
Ever know that a thing or two about it, thing or two about it, I
'Cause they got the cages, they got the boxes
And guns
They are the hunters, we are the foxes
And we run
Baby, I know some places we won't be found
And they'll be chasin' their tails trying to track us down
Cause I, I know places we can hide
I know places, I know places

Uh-uh-uh-uh
Uh-uh-uh-I
Uh-uh-uh-I
Uh-uh-uh-I
Know places

Or whatever, I don't know, but that's basically
Just like a dark, really dark, like, um, lyric, like bridge thing and it's about like, uh
Everybody's like, trying to get into, and like, ruin a love or whatever and it's like, you just
Whatever, you know
Um, and then the chorus would just go to that major and just like, be like ohh, chorus
Um, so I hope you like it
It wouldn't be a piano thing, it would be like
Nnn, ss, nn nnn, ss, nn
Like very, like, beat
Now I'm just making weird sounds
Hope you like it