I had a long and interesting chat with writer Malcolm Wyatt recently; we talked about Dancing With The Beast, politics, Nashville, vinyl records and lots of other things. An excerpt:

“I listen for characters, I listen for voices, I listen for titles, and the voices that were the loudest in my head when I was writing these songs were these girls and women, so those were the stories I chose to write. But when I look back on it, I’ve been doing that for 25 to 30 years, going back to Independence Day and probably going back further… those characters inspire me. They’re heroic. These women I’ve written about, some of them almost feel like my best friends, my guardian angels. They’re heroic in very quiet, almost stoic ways, but they capture my imagination. That’s why they stay in my head and that’s why their songs get written.”

To read this interview in its entirety, visit Malcolm Wyatt’s blog.