Who: Isom Innis

Claim To Fame: Isom Innis is a multi-instrumentalist, song-writer, producer, and member of the Platinum-selling band Foster The People. 

Where To Find Isom: Instagram, Twitter, Spotify

When and where do you like to write? Are you the same-thing-every-day kind of writer or can you write anytime, anywhere?

The nature of having to travel as a musician has meant my writing process has become really adaptive. I have an ideal writing set-up, but am usually bouncing back and forth, finding a flow between being creative while traveling and being stationary in LA. A lot of times I’m bouncing back and forth between studios, too. So my laptop is really my homebase.

Do you have any pre-writing rituals or habits before you sit down to write?

I try to exercise first, but the most consistent ritual is a cup of coffee and clearing my thoughts to where I can approach my work with fresh instincts. For me, this is finding a balance in my life. For example, if I worked on music until 6am the night before, instead of having any musical interference in the daytime, I’ll listen to a podcast or watch a film until I work again—just trying to avoid any other musical stimulation.

Have you ever experienced a prolonged creative rut or a spell of writer’s block? How did you get through them?

Yes, usually writer’s block for me comes shortly after the completion of a project and takes me a period of experimentation and research to evolve, successfully emerge and start from square one again. It’s a process of going back and researching musical eras and sounds that I’m inspired by and in some way are leading the sonics of where music production is now—for me, it’s a process of being a student of music history and then deciding where it can go from there.  

When you’re writing a song do you typically begin with the lyrics or the music?

I’m a drummer, so a lot of my writing process comes from either playing the drums or making a beat — and then I’ll usually experiment musically over a beat. If I hit a pocket of inspiration and I’m able to transcend in a kind of moment of hypnosis, then lyrical and melodic ideas will come. My lyrical and melodic ideas usually are channeled as a response to the music I’m hearing 75% of the time.

What’s your process for editing and refining a song? When do you know that the song is finished?

It’s a brutal and essential process—also essential not to overcook and is something that is a never-ending education for me. But I’m a firm believer that art is never finished but abandoned. Usually after a period of really intensively working on something, there’s a period of taking some space from it, and then coming back with fresh ears.

Any books or writers that have most influenced the way you think and the way you write?

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield helped me push through resistance and come back on a consistent basis—and taught me not to expect inspiration to come all the time. I also have a hard cover compilation of T.S. Eliot works that I’ll crack open as sort of a roulette wheel of lyric inspiration and phrasing. Also, my wife has a vast poetry collection that is great to dive into.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Don’t be afraid of failure. Put the time in. Be honest. Also, cherish your pockets of inspiration and ride them out as far as they’ll go—in my experience, inspiration is elusive and it’s a lifestyle of chasing it. 

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