Sijya’s 6 stages of songwriting

Sijya: “I collect lyrics whenever they strike in the day – from shower thoughts, driving thoughts, other lyrics, conversations, etc.” Photo: Tito

From initial sounds to final arrangements and lyrics, the composer reveals how she transforms fleeting ideas into fully realised songs

New Delhi-born composer, producer, and visual artist Sijya approaches her second EP, Leather & Brass, as both a technical investigation and an artistic statement. Developed through years of experimentation, the work examines the physicality of sound—its distortion, density, and the tensions between analogue warmth and digital precision. With guidance from Matthew Herbert and Hugh Jones, she refined her craft while ensuring the record reflected her own creative instincts at every stage.

Where her 2022 debut EP Young Hate captured the exhilaration of first discoveries, Leather & Brass represents a considered articulation of method, informed by a distinctive and evolving process. This approach can be mapped through six key writing stages, as Sijya reveals here… 


Discover more songwriting tips

1. FIND A SOUND

I think that’s always the starting point. I’m usually going through digital synths and, often preset sounds to spot whatever feels exciting in the moment. When I find something, I go into the synth and tweak it. Sometimes I change it a lot, and sometimes I just modify it to bring out what I liked about it and shut away the rest. That’s also something I do with harsh EQs, if changing the synth doesn’t work. Then I find a few notes and chords that, for lack of a better and less gross-sounding term, hit the spot. I make a little pattern that’s enough to carry me through the next stage.

2. MAKE A DRUM LOOP

Finding the right kick sound that I feel captures the feeling of the song is the starting point. I go through all my kicks. I never really used the Ableton drum rack before but now I’ve started to use it a lot. It’s actually so well designed. I try to make a groove that works. It shouldn’t take away from the feeling in the synths. It should support or add to it. Rhythm is movement but it’s important for me that it’s expressive.

Sijya: “You don’t want to ruin a good idea. You also don’t want to leave it sounding half-baked.” Photo: Tito

3. EXTEND INTO AN ARRANGEMENT

Many little loops are discarded here. I’ll come back to an idea and see if I feel it has something. I’ll extend it into the rough song arrangement, develop all the bits, add bass, other synths, more percs. This is when it starts to take shape and sound like something.

4. MUMBLE SOME VOCAL GIBBERISH

I used to do many rounds of this. Now I don’t do too many. But yeah, I’ll just record lots of vocal gibberish over the full track. Then do it again. Then listen back and cut out the bits that I actually like, delete the stuff that makes me cringe or sounds too familiar.

5. LOOK AT MY NOTES APP

I collect lyrics whenever they strike in the day – from shower thoughts, driving thoughts, other lyrics, conversations, etc. it’s not like I do this all the time, but I do this when I’m not out there looking for a lyric. Like, ‘Oh that would make a nice lyric.’ I have these in a Notes app in my phone. Day One is a great app btw, it lets you have many journals within it, and I have an exclusive lyric journal. I scroll through that while listening to vocal bits to find something that clicks. If I find a sentence that matches and feels right, that gives me direction for what the song is going to be.

6. FINISH THE SONG

Most of it is done. Now comes the last painful 10-20 percent, the finishing. It’s not going to sound too different, so I do question how important this bit is. But it needs to be done. I hate this bit so much; I often leave this for when I actually want to put out a track. I’ll collect demos and decide which ones get this extra painful work. And this is the bit that takes the longest. And is the hardest. I guess because it’s also got a lot of confusion and undecidedness. You don’t want to ruin a good idea. You also don’t want to leave it sounding half-baked. I know some people like to finish a song in one sitting. Currently, I’m not one of those.

Sijya’s new single Tabla is out now and her Leather & Brass EP will follow on 12 September via One Little Independent Records. Learn more at sijya.lnk.to/tabla

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.