Is anything more inspired than an original song? Is anyone more inspiring than a singer-songwriter, that icon of American storytelling? But in the age of auto-tune and TikTok, what inspires a young artist to add their story–and their voice–to the great American soundtrack?
For up-and-coming L.A.-based singer-songwriter Ali Angel, inspiration comes from pretty much everywhere. Angel grew up in the San Fernando Valley, attended college in New Orleans and recently moved back to the L.A. area. She’s found success with her first single, the whimsical “Play Pretend”; her latest production is Loving You Lately, a song about a relationship that’s still evolving. “I always like to write lyrics that sound like my voice,” Angel says. “I don’t always feel the need to write super abstract ideas. I don’t know that songs are always meant to be so original or complex. Maybe they should just make you want to dance or put you in a good mood!”
Loving You Lately took shape after a third date with her current boyfriend. The song was initially inspired by the feelings of falling in love but Angel decided to keep writing as the relationship–and her feelings–evolved. Ultimately, she took on a co-writer and producer to realize its full potential. “I’m so glad I did that because he’s very thorough and thoughtful,” she says of her collaborator. “And also because it’s such a vulnerable song. The lyrics meant a lot.”
Typically, Angel writes with her guitar, exploring chord progressions and lyrics at the same time, a process familiar to anyone who’s watched Peter Jackson’s docu-series on the Beatles’ recording of the Let It Be album. But Loving You Lately was initially composed on a piano, before switching to the guitar, the instrument Angel’s plays on stage. “If I’m writing more of a ballad, I like to start on piano because it gives me a different writing style than guitar,” she says.
Angel uses the voice memo app on her iPhone to record the melodies because, she says, she is prone to forgetting them. The memos can easily run an hour long, so Angel listens to them while navigating L.A. traffic, figuring out what works and what doesn’t in her head. But Angel doesn’t try to force creativity. “It’s not about writing the most original thought,” she says. “A lot of the greatest songs have the most simple lyrics, because people can relate to them. You’re not trying to be cloudy, you’re simply expressing a feeling in a way that everyone can understand.”
Play Pretend has proven very relatable. The single is featured on a number of playlists, and it has been streamed nearly 100,000 times on Spotify alone. Angel calls the song a product of her “random” writing process.
What isn’t random is Angel’s attention to detail, which extends to arranging, mixing and hand-picking musicians. Unusual for a recording artist, Angel likes to be present for the entire process, from inspiration through to the final production.
“I’m not detail-oriented until it comes to my music, then every detail matters,” she says. “Every producer works differently, but I always want to hear every single take for tone, for emotion, and so on. With one of my producers, we’ll spend seven hours perfecting the vocals, whereas others will make me move on because they want things to sound as natural as possible. But I always want to know that we got the best take!”
Angel helps write the guitar solos and even the brass section arrangements of her often lush productions. While many of her contemporaries are content to let computers do the heavy work, Angel has found inspiration in the texture of real instruments and human artists. She recently bonded with a trombonist who plays with the New Orleans band Dumpstaphunk. Jam sessions take place over Zoom. “I’m collaborative,” she says. “I give notes.”
Angel often becomes so consumed with getting her vision for a song absolutely perfect, that the producer has to tell her when it’s ready. Loving You Lately, she recalls, was a welcome exception, an example when her “nit-pickiness” paid off. But the songwriting process is a rollercoaster under the best of circumstances. One day she’ll question whether a record is good enough; the next day she’ll be certain it’s ready. Doubt, Angel says, is part of the creative process, inspiring dark thoughts at times but creativity too.
“Obviously the magic can wear off the more you play a song,” Angel admits. “I try to remember the feeling of the first time we play a song that’s close to being finished, in the studio with the big speakers. Hopefully that’s how other people will feel when they hear it for the first time too.”
At the end of the day, she’s learned that every great song has the same quality: timelessness.
“It’s a good sign when you’re hearing your song at the end of the process, and you could still hear it again and enjoy it,” Angel says. “With anything you write or create, by the time you release it, you feel like it’s old. But for everyone else, it’s brand new.”
