Lessons from the road: Clay Cook of Zac Brown Band encourages students to persist in their songwriting
Published: 09-25-2024 9:51 AM |
Students studying music history and production at Laconia Middle School had the opportunity to hear from a local songwriter Tuesday morning. That songwriter wasn’t just any local, however. Renowned touring musician Clay Cook visited the class.
Cook, who’s been performing professionally for years and is most well-known as a member of the Zac Brown Band, spoke with students about songwriting, production and the music industry and fielded their questions about his life and work.
Cook isn’t unfamiliar with the Lakes Region — he met his wife, Brooke, backstage at Meadowbrook, now known as BankNH Pavilion, years ago. Brooke formerly worked as a labor and delivery nurse at the hospital where she delivered babies, including the oldest daughter of middle school language arts and social studies teacher Amanda Youssef.
Just a couple of weeks before the school year began, and with over 100 students interested in taking chorus, Youssef found out there was no teacher lined up for the role. She pointed toward an ongoing shortage of teachers in New Hampshire. So teachers and administrators got creative, turning that class into a “genius hour,” time for students to engage in independent research projects related to music. Youssef stepped up to teach the class along with a math teacher.
There were a handful of students who chose to study songwriting, so Youssef asked friends on Facebook if they knew any songwriters who would speak with her students. Cook’s wife Brooke was tagged in the post and responded, indicating Cook would accept the assignment.
“We have a large group of students who wanted to study songwriting,” Youssef said Monday afternoon.
Other students chose to study topics including The Beatles, music production or the DJ profession.
Cook on Tuesday recounted his history within the music industry, starting with a burgeoning obsession as a youth which guided him to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he met another renowned songwriter, John Mayer. He said his initial goal was to become the on-set guitar player for “The Tonight Show” or “Saturday Night Live,” but songwriting soon captured his attention and provided his path forward.
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“I’ve been absolutely obsessed with music since I was, like, 7 years old,” he said.
Cook, originally hailing from Atlanta, joined the Zac Brown Band in 2009, hot off the heels of their smash hit “Chicken Fried,” and has been a band member ever since, he said.
Among the students in the classroom on Tuesday morning, 11 said they’re interested specifically in songwriting and nine of those said they’d written their own songs. Cook told those students to keep after it, and he’s written great songs and bad songs through his career.
“You’re most creative right as you wake up,” Cook said, encouraging students to write down or record their thoughts and musical ideas when they strike. “You can’t turn it on and off like a faucet — it just comes to you.”
Students were particularly interested to know if Cook had ever run across Taylor Swift or Bob Dylan, and Cook told them he hadn’t, but knew others who had. When asked what his favorite song he’d ever written was, he pointed to “No Such Thing” and “Comfortable,” released by John Mayer, which he said he and Mayer had written on the subway in Boston together, noting it’s probably the fastest he’d ever written a tune.
“I probably skipped too many classes during that time, but I got back on track,” he said.
But sometimes, songwriting doesn’t come as easy. At times, he’ll start out with an idea he likes but will set it aside, returning to it much later when the muse strikes.
“You put it on the back burner or maybe you put it back in the fridge,” Cook said, explaining to students that forced creativity is obvious and should be avoided.
When asked by students how he generates ideas for a song, Cook said it’s important for a songwriter to come to the table with a message.
“Write what you want to say, even if it doesn’t rhyme,” he said. “Figure out what you’re writing about before you sit down.”
Other students were interested in the details of music production and Cook described scenarios where hit songs on the radio are meticulously recorded and perfected in the studio. He noted his friend, Jack Antonoff, is a frequent collaborator with Swift, and some of their songs were produced quickly while others took a year to reach completion. With the Zac Brown Band, most of their recordings are done together live in the studio, where members record layer upon layer until a final product is complete.
“The song has to be ready before you go in the studio,” he said, noting the musical arrangement can come afterward. “Production is how it makes you feel.”