Sting Explains How He Writes Song Lyrics

Posted on September 25, 2011

Sting talks about how he writes song lyrics in this clip from an interview with The Guardian's Observer. Sting says song lyrics are difficult to write, so he has to resort to psychological tricks.

One of the tricks Sting likes is free association. He says, "You just start mouthing any rubbish and stuff kind of comes to you. Sometimes it doesn't make any sense at all and sometimes it does. You get little fragments of meaning."

Sting says, "You have to be brave in a sense and just start riffing. My theory being that if you structure music correctly it already has a narrative. It is telling you a story. It's an abstract story. My job as a songwriter then is to take that abstract narrative and make it into something people can understand. A character. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gains girl story. That's my job and sometimes it's surprising what turns up." Take a look: