March 7, 2023 • 16 mins
Carla Mya (aka Carla Wells) is a songwriter’s songwriter. She loves everything about the process of writing songs and uses the process as a form of improving general health, striving for career excellence and for personal enjoyment.
On this episode, Carla is very articulate about her internal writing process and shares the origin of how songs begin, how she develops ideas and the details of her decision making process. As Carla explains, she strives to be authentic in her writing and to tell a strong story.
After joining the Songwriting and Production Membership (SoPro) at Love and Laughter Music, the whole team jumped on board to support Carla's vision to create three songs.
Grab some tea, sit back and enjoy the conversation.
LISTEN TO CARLA'S MUSIC AT INVENTINGCARLA.COM
LISTEN TO CARLA'S MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD.COM
https://www.livingcrazybrave.com/book
https://loveandlaughtermusicgroup.com
Visit Barnes and Noble to purchase Lisa's book "THE CRAZYBRAVE SONGWRITER"
OR purchase a SIGNED COPY of Lisa's book from Lisa's website
+
Host: Lisa M Arreguin @ LivingCrazybrave.com
Recorded @ LoveandLaughterMusicGroup.com
Podcast Music: Joey Arreguin
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Crazy Brave Songwriter
Podcast.
This is a podcast about themagic of making music one song
at a time.
My name is Lisa m I'm happy tobe your host for today.
Hi everybody.
I'm so glad you had anotheropportunity to take a listen to
(00:22):
the podcast.
Today we are highlighting themusic of Carlo Wells.
She is a songwriter, songwriterand has been a friend and
colleague for many years.
I remember when she first cameto the US from Australia and
I've been a big fan and followedher music ever since.
When I say she's a songwriter,songwriter, I mean she loves
(00:43):
everything about the process ofwriting songs, admittedly better
than performing.
On this episode, Carla is veryarticulate about her internal
songwriting process.
She shares the origin of howsongs begin for her, how they
develop, and how she usessongwriting as a form of general
health and therapy andenjoyment.
(01:03):
Earlier this year, we sat downtogether and I put on my
listening and consultation earsto provide some insight about
her newest set of songs.
After that, she joined oursongwriting and production
membership.
We call it the So Pro for short.
Our whole team of producers,songwriters, and musicians
jumped on board to help makeCarla's music shine.
(01:24):
It was such a pleasure and itwas so much fun to see the songs
grow and expand as moreinstrumentation and production
were added to her music.
We didn't have to do too much toCarla's music because the bones
and heart were already there.
Today we're highlighting twosongs, somebody's name and melt
away.
Sit back and enjoy theconversation.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Check one, two, check one, two, testing, testing,
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Soften singing since I was a child and I always loved
to perform, and when I was ateenager, my parents put me in
formal singing lessons and I wasin lots of different musicals
and sang in cover bands.
And when I was about 16, 17, Idiscovered songwriting.
So then I was like, wow, this isamazing.
(02:16):
I recorded my first EP when Iwas 17, and that was truly like
life giving.
It was like the thing I lovedthe most about singing, and I
realized I love recording morethan I like performing.
So I just really got intosongwriting.
At that point, I was using aguitar to write songs and I, I
(02:37):
sort of knew how to play aguitar, but I learned more
chords so that I could, youknow, write more interesting
songs melodically.
And after that, I was all aboutsongwriting.
I used it as therapy.
And um, you know, after everyheartbreak I would write a song
and it was like a truly healingprocess because then I'd come
(02:59):
out with something reallybeautiful at the end and I was
almost like looking forward tonext heartbreak so that I could
come up with a really cool songafterwards.
Well, I initially ended up inAmerica after doing music school
in Venezuela.
That was just something fun Idid when I was in my twenties.
(03:20):
And then when I moved herepermanently was when I was
married.
The creative part of my life'sbeing put on the back burner.
While I've raised two littleones, which is the creative
project in and of itself, I, Ithought initially that I could
continue like playing guitar andlike the little kids could dance
(03:41):
and like watch me play, but uh,like my el oldest would come
over and like mess with thestrings when I was trying to
play guitar.
So I was like, okay, this isn'tgonna happen.
I'm gonna like wait till they'rea little bit older and now that
they're in school I can actuallylike song write and focus on
that and, and they're love mymusic.
They're always asking to, tohear it.
And you know, they're verygracious fans and and now
(04:05):
they're like, I wanna be a momand a singer.
Like that's what I wanna be whenI grow up.
So it's very cute.
I realize that even though I nolonger perform, um, and gig as
much as I used to, that thesongwriting aspect of it was
still in me.
When I met with you to like dosome songwriting consultation, I
just felt like such a safespace.
(04:26):
Like this is where I need to be,this is the next step for me.
And even if I don't go on to,you know, perform stadium
concerts, like the songwritingaspect is what I keep coming
back to.
Yeah, most of the time when I'mlike confused about a situation,
I'm not exactly sure why I feelthe way that I do.
Um, the best therapy for me isto just start writing and
(04:49):
sometimes I'll just like strumand sometimes I'll, a lyric will
come to mind and I don't reallyknow where it came from and I
don't really know what it means,but then I'll start playing and
then all these other lyrics comeout.
And the process is just so funand transformative that
sometimes if the end resultisn't an amazing song, it
doesn't really matter becausethe process itself is enjoyable
(05:11):
and sometimes, uh, a reallygreat song comes out and that's,
you know, a bonus.
Uh, so as I come up withdifferent lyrics and process my
feelings that way, and Ifinished the song, I'm like, oh
wow, that's, that's what I wasfeeling.
That's why, I wasn't surewhat it was, but that sort of
helped me come to the conclusionthat I needed to come to.
(05:31):
And again, this is one of thosethings where like you can't
really measure it scientificallyand you can't, like, you're not
gonna go to a doctor and say,I'm feeling anxious or
depressed, and they're gonnasay, oh, here's a script for a
go, go write a song that'll makeyou feel better.
And what I mean by it beingtransformative is that I go into
another zone, I go like to analtered state of consciousness
(05:54):
somewhat.
And and that can be like, if youdon't have like a set, uh, song
structure in mind, you know, adiscipline that you're starting
out with that can get a littlelike psychedelic, right?
You can come up with like just abunch of Mars Volta songs and
that no one really gets.
But for me, like I, I start offwith like, okay, these are the
(06:17):
chords I'm going to use.
This is the sort of theme I'mgoing with.
And then I'll allow myself tolike get lost in my subconscious
and see what comes out of that.
And sometimes stuff comes outthat I'm like, I've never
experienced that before, even ina relationship, but I'm sure
it's happened to.
Someone been listening to BillyEilish a lot and I was like, how
(06:38):
does she do that with her musicand lyrics?
But mainly I think it was themalady that I was listening to
that really transcends you.
And so I was trying to explainthe feeling of being cheated on
and how like you might not knowthat they're cheating on you,
but you might sense it.
You're in a relationship wherelike that person's moved on so
(06:59):
you haven't broken up yet.
The song's not about oh my gosh,you've broken up and I'm
heartbroken.
Which in some ways might be arelief cuz you have an answer at
least.
But this is all about thatfeeling of the ambiguity of not
knowing and sort of like feelinglike you're being lied to.
And my favorite line of the songis the, uh, Toson turn and cry
(07:20):
out every night somebody's name,we both know that's not mine,
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Utah Center and cry out every night somebody's name.
We both know it's not my,
Speaker 3 (07:42):
But can you imagine like someone lying next to you,
like you have obviously a veryintimate relationship because
you're presumably sleeping inthe same bed, but they're saying
someone else's name at night.
How horrible that would be.
Like I was trying to likeexplain that feeling in a very
metaphoric way and try tocapture the pain of all of that.
(08:18):
Yeah, so when I first startedriding Melt Away, I was thinking
about, um, New York and all thedifferent encounters you have in
cafes and restaurants, it's all,you know, very magical.
I wanted to capture that idea ofjust meeting someone in a cafe,
which apparently people don't doanymore.
Beautiful experience of likerunning into someone and not
(08:41):
even like exchanging details,wondering if you'll ever see
them again.
And so in this scenario, shemeets someone at a cafe and I
guess they have severalencounters at this cafe and then
he disappears.
Really wanted to, to center itaround the idea of the cafe vibe
and the, you know, the differentcharacters you might meet there.
(09:02):
At one point I felt stuckbecause even though it felt very
vivid in my mind, um, when Isang it and recorded it, it
sounded a little flat and I waslike, oh, this isn't, it's not
sounding as good as I wanted itto sound.
Some of the um, sound engineersstarted like working with some
of the beats and added like areally cool beat to it.
(09:23):
Like, what do you think of this?
I was like, oh my gosh.
Like that is exactly how itsounded in my mind.
Like, she's running through thestreets and she's wondering
where the sky is.
And then the beats actuallyadded to that.
And that was an aspect ofsongwriting I hadn't even
considered that the beat couldreally add to the story.
(09:43):
So initially the, the singingaspect, um, was in the beginning
it sounded like I needed to takeit down a, a key.
Um, so we did that.
We went back and recorded itagain and um, and then I was
able to sing it well.
Um, so typically I'll justrecord it on my phone initially,
(10:04):
uh, and then I write things downoften in a, a journal and then
I'll transfer it to a computerso that I have an electronic
copy.
I just think consistency is keybecause you might not feel like
you're gonna write a good song,but if you're in the discipline
of trying, you never know what'sgonna come out.
And you might have had like areally blah day, but there's
(10:24):
still stuff staring in there.
And a, you know, a reallyamazing song might come out of
it, you know, be your authenticself cuz you can hear in a song
when someone's forcing it orwhether they're trying too hard
to come up with like a cleverlyric, like write what comes
naturally and if it needspolishing later, then you know,
(10:45):
consult with someone or get aproducer like you can always
polish it later.
But that raw honest process islike really key to, to a good
unique song.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And for your listening pleasure here is Melt
Away by Carlo Wells.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
You may be right, you may, but soon as you out that
don't we met that
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Day
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Cafe
Speaker 5 (13:01):
And
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Remember who that person was.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
My breath.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Know your art, build your skill, spend time doing
what brings you energy andhappiness and fun like Carlos
spoke about.
I like to think that when youspend time doing the thing that
brings you energy and joy, theuniverse will respond.
Passion is an organizingprinciple, meaning when you cut
(15:33):
out the fluff, the distractions,and the silly day-to-day things
and spend your time doing whatbrings you calm and passion
inside synchronicity will occur.
You'll see a license plate orsomeone will say just the right
thing to you to help move yourcreative art along it's magic
and God in the universe all inone.
(15:54):
So go get your happiness.
This is Lisa again and I wannatake this moment to applaud the
team at love and laughter musicgroup.com, a safe and
knowledgeable spot for musicianswho wish to learn more about
writing songs and recordinggreat music.
This episode is a product ofliving crazy brave.com, another
(16:16):
hub where musicians cancultivate new awareness about
what it takes to honor thesacred art of making honest
music.
Let me leave you with this.
Darkness can only becounterbalanced by the light
becoming brighter in all of us.
Music creates light, so keep itgoing.
You are listening to the Crazy Brave Songwriter
Podcast.
This is a podcast about themagic of making music one song
at a time.
My name is Lisa m I'm happy tobe your host for today.
Hi everybody.
I'm so glad you had anotheropportunity to take a listen to
(00:22):
the podcast.
Today we are highlighting themusic of Carlo Wells.
She is a songwriter, songwriterand has been a friend and
colleague for many years.
I remember when she first cameto the US from Australia and
I've been a big fan and followedher music ever since.
When I say she's a songwriter,songwriter, I mean she loves
(00:43):
everything about the process ofwriting songs, admittedly better
than performing.
On this episode, Carla is veryarticulate about her internal
songwriting process.
She shares the origin of howsongs begin for her, how they
develop, and how she usessongwriting as a form of general
health and therapy andenjoyment.
(01:03):
Earlier this year, we sat downtogether and I put on my
listening and consultation earsto provide some insight about
her newest set of songs.
After that, she joined oursongwriting and production
membership.
We call it the So Pro for short.
Our whole team of producers,songwriters, and musicians
jumped on board to help makeCarla's music shine.
(01:24):
It was such a pleasure and itwas so much fun to see the songs
grow and expand as moreinstrumentation and production
were added to her music.
We didn't have to do too much toCarla's music because the bones
and heart were already there.
Today we're highlighting twosongs, somebody's name and melt
away.
Sit back and enjoy theconversation.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Check one, two, check one, two, testing, testing,
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Soften singing since I was a child and I always loved
to perform, and when I was ateenager, my parents put me in
formal singing lessons and I wasin lots of different musicals
and sang in cover bands.
And when I was about 16, 17, Idiscovered songwriting.
So then I was like, wow, this isamazing.
(02:16):
I recorded my first EP when Iwas 17, and that was truly like
life giving.
It was like the thing I lovedthe most about singing, and I
realized I love recording morethan I like performing
So I just really got intosongwriting.
At that point, I was using aguitar to write songs and I, I
(02:37):
sort of knew how to play aguitar, but I learned more
chords so that I could, youknow, write more interesting
songs melodically.
And after that, I was all aboutsongwriting.
I used it as therapy.
And um, you know, after everyheartbreak I would write a song
and it was like a truly healingprocess because then I'd come
(02:59):
out with something reallybeautiful at the end and I was
almost like looking forward tonext heartbreak so that I could
come up with a really cool songafterwards.
Well, I initially ended up inAmerica after doing music school
in Venezuela.
That was just something fun Idid when I was in my twenties.
(03:20):
And then when I moved herepermanently was when I was
married.
The creative part of my life'sbeing put on the back burner.
While I've raised two littleones, which is the creative
project in and of itself, I, Ithought initially that I could
continue like playing guitar andlike the little kids could dance
(03:41):
and like watch me play, but uh,like my el oldest would come
over and like mess with thestrings when I was trying to
play guitar.
So I was like, okay, this isn'tgonna happen.
I'm gonna like wait till they'rea little bit older and now that
they're in school I can actuallylike song write and focus on
that and, and they're love mymusic.
They're always asking to, tohear it.
And you know, they're verygracious fans and
(04:05):
they're like, I wanna be a momand a singer.
Like that's what I wanna be whenI grow up.
So it's very cute.
I realize that even though I nolonger perform, um, and gig as
much as I used to, that thesongwriting aspect of it was
still in me.
When I met with you to like dosome songwriting consultation, I
just felt like such a safespace.
(04:26):
Like this is where I need to be,this is the next step for me.
And even if I don't go on to,you know, perform stadium
concerts, like the songwritingaspect is what I keep coming
back to.
Yeah, most of the time when I'mlike confused about a situation,
I'm not exactly sure why I feelthe way that I do.
Um, the best therapy for me isto just start writing and
(04:49):
sometimes I'll just like strumand sometimes I'll, a lyric will
come to mind and I don't reallyknow where it came from and I
don't really know what it means,but then I'll start playing and
then all these other lyrics comeout.
And the process is just so funand transformative that
sometimes if the end resultisn't an amazing song, it
doesn't really matter becausethe process itself is enjoyable
(05:11):
and sometimes, uh, a reallygreat song comes out and that's,
you know, a bonus.
Uh, so as I come up withdifferent lyrics and process my
feelings that way, and Ifinished the song, I'm like, oh
wow, that's, that's what I wasfeeling.
That's why
helped me come to the conclusionthat I needed to come to.
(05:31):
And again, this is one of thosethings where like you can't
really measure it scientificallyand you can't, like, you're not
gonna go to a doctor and say,I'm feeling anxious or
depressed, and they're gonnasay, oh, here's a script for a
go, go write a song that'll makeyou feel better.
And what I mean by it beingtransformative is that I go into
another zone, I go like to analtered state of consciousness
(05:54):
somewhat.
And and that can be like, if youdon't have like a set, uh, song
structure in mind, you know, adiscipline that you're starting
out with that can get a littlelike psychedelic, right?
You can come up with like just abunch of Mars Volta songs and
But for me, like I, I start offwith like, okay, these are the
(06:17):
chords I'm going to use.
This is the sort of theme I'mgoing with.
And then I'll allow myself tolike get lost in my subconscious
and see what comes out of that.
And sometimes stuff comes outthat I'm like, I've never
experienced that before, even ina relationship, but I'm sure
it's happened to.
Someone been listening to BillyEilish a lot and I was like, how
(06:38):
does she do that with her musicand lyrics?
But mainly I think it was themalady that I was listening to
that really transcends you.
And so I was trying to explainthe feeling of being cheated on
and how like you might not knowthat they're cheating on you,
but you might sense it.
You're in a relationship wherelike that person's moved on so
(06:59):
you haven't broken up yet.
The song's not about oh my gosh,you've broken up and I'm
heartbroken.
Which in some ways might be arelief cuz you have an answer at
least.
But this is all about thatfeeling of the ambiguity of not
knowing and sort of like feelinglike you're being lied to.
And my favorite line of the songis the, uh, Toson turn and cry
(07:20):
out every night somebody's name,we both know that's not mine,
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Utah Center and cry out every night somebody's name.
We both know it's not my,
Speaker 3 (07:42):
But can you imagine like someone lying next to you,
like you have obviously a veryintimate relationship because
you're presumably sleeping inthe same bed, but they're saying
someone else's name at night.
How horrible that would be.
Like I was trying to likeexplain that feeling in a very
metaphoric way and try tocapture the pain of all of that.
(08:18):
Yeah, so when I first startedriding Melt Away, I was thinking
about, um, New York and all thedifferent encounters you have in
cafes and restaurants, it's all,you know, very magical.
I wanted to capture that idea ofjust meeting someone in a cafe,
which apparently people don't doanymore.
Beautiful experience of likerunning into someone and not
(08:41):
even like exchanging details,wondering if you'll ever see
them again.
And so in this scenario, shemeets someone at a cafe and I
guess they have severalencounters at this cafe and then
he disappears.
Really wanted to, to center itaround the idea of the cafe vibe
and the, you know, the differentcharacters you might meet there.
(09:02):
At one point I felt stuckbecause even though it felt very
vivid in my mind, um, when Isang it and recorded it, it
sounded a little flat and I waslike, oh, this isn't, it's not
sounding as good as I wanted itto sound.
Some of the um, sound engineersstarted like working with some
of the beats and added like areally cool beat to it.
(09:23):
Like, what do you think of this?
I was like, oh my gosh.
Like that is exactly how itsounded in my mind.
Like, she's running through thestreets and she's wondering
where the sky is.
And then the beats actuallyadded to that.
And that was an aspect ofsongwriting I hadn't even
considered that the beat couldreally add to the story.
(09:43):
So initially the, the singingaspect, um, was in the beginning
it sounded like I needed to takeit down a, a key.
Um, so we did that.
We went back and recorded itagain and um, and then I was
able to sing it well.
Um, so typically I'll justrecord it on my phone initially,
(10:04):
uh, and then I write things downoften in a, a journal and then
I'll transfer it to a computerso that I have an electronic
copy.
I just think consistency is keybecause you might not feel like
you're gonna write a good song,but if you're in the discipline
of trying, you never know what'sgonna come out.
And you might have had like areally blah day, but there's
(10:24):
still stuff staring in there.
And a, you know, a reallyamazing song might come out of
it, you know, be your authenticself cuz you can hear in a song
when someone's forcing it orwhether they're trying too hard
to come up with like a cleverlyric, like write what comes
naturally and if it needspolishing later, then you know,
(10:45):
consult with someone or get aproducer like you can always
polish it later.
But that raw honest process islike really key to, to a good
unique song.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And for your listening pleasure here is Melt
Away by Carlo Wells.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
You may be right, you may, but soon as you out that
don't we met that
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Day
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Cafe
Speaker 5 (13:01):
And
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Remember who that person was.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
My breath.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Know your art, build your skill, spend time doing
what brings you energy andhappiness and fun like Carlos
spoke about.
I like to think that when youspend time doing the thing that
brings you energy and joy, theuniverse will respond.
Passion is an organizingprinciple, meaning when you cut
(15:33):
out the fluff, the distractions,and the silly day-to-day things
and spend your time doing whatbrings you calm and passion
inside synchronicity will occur.
You'll see a license plate orsomeone will say just the right
thing to you to help move yourcreative art along it's magic
and God in the universe all inone.
(15:54):
So go get your happiness.
This is Lisa again and I wannatake this moment to applaud the
team at love and laughter musicgroup.com, a safe and
knowledgeable spot for musicianswho wish to learn more about
writing songs and recordinggreat music.
This episode is a product ofliving crazy brave.com, another
(16:16):
hub where musicians cancultivate new awareness about
what it takes to honor thesacred art of making honest
music.
Let me leave you with this.
Darkness can only becounterbalanced by the light
becoming brighter in all of us.
Music creates light, so keep itgoing.
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