"Songwriting Should Be the Hardest Thing You Ever Do" — Cameron Sharp on the Craft
The Forbes musician on why good songwriting can't be faked, the Mumford & Sons line that reframed it for him, and hearing the difference in his own early songs.
Plenty of people call themselves songwriters. Cameron Sharp has a higher bar — and he's honest that clearing it is brutal.
Anyone can; few can well
"Everyone can — anyone can just say 'I'm a songwriter,'" he says. "And then I hear their music and think, well, that's crap." The distinction he draws is between writing a song and writing a good one:
"To be a good songwriter, you need life experience. You need to read. You need to know what's going on in the world. You need to be emotionally intelligent. You need to understand people. You can't just grab a guitar, lay down some chords and put words to it and think, oh, I'm a songwriter."
It's the same theme that runs through everything Cameron believes: the surface is easy, the substance is earned.
The line that reframed it
He cites the lead singer of one of his favourite bands, Mumford & Sons, on what songwriting should feel like:
"Songwriting should be the hardest thing you ever do."
Cameron agrees, with a confession most musicians won't make: he doesn't actually enjoy songwriting. "Once you get a good song, then it's fun." But getting there means digging "deep into what you're really feeling at that time, which is not easy." The reward is a specific, unmistakable feeling — "you know it's good, you just know" — but you have to mine for it.
Hearing his own growth
The proof, for Cameron, is in his own catalogue. Listening back to his first single recently, he could hear the gap: "I can see how a listener would be thinking, 'what's he singing about?'" Back then, he says, "you know what you want to say, but you don't know how to say it." Too focused on making it sound nice rather than letting what's real come out.
Now? "My songs are actually making sense." He's in a groove where the craft and the feeling finally line up — which is exactly what years of doing the hard thing buys you.
The takeaway for any writer: if it feels too easy, you're probably still on the surface. The good stuff is on the other side of the hard part.
Part of a longer conversation. Read the full Cameron Sharp deep-dive, or watch the episode →.