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Allison Ponthier knows the hardest part of making anything is getting started.
I come up with like a million different song concepts.
Like, recently Ive just really wanted to make a song about not being able to drive.
Autopilot was not called Autopilot.
When I wrote it down, this pitch was called Cant Drive, which is a way worse title.
Its whatever is sticking in my head that stands out to me.
There are also a bunch of rhymes, like pristine-16-Christine.
Literally, this stage is just like a word vomit.
Step Five: Find the narrative
Next up, I write the story of the song.
One of the best things I learned was from a YouTube video that I watched byLake Street Dive.
They write down the story of the song.
Youll never be unhappy with the outcome because you said exactly what you wanted to say the whole time.
The concept for Autopilot was that I have a huge phobia of driving.
Driving cars is very mundane for a lot of people.
They do it every day, but for me its my big fear.
Its something I think about all the time.
Its something I used to measure myself up against other people and I feel like I fall short.
So in the first verse, I literally had just watchedChristine, by Stephen King, the night before.
Shaking awake from my nightly fever / I shouldnt have watchedChristinealone.
And then it goes into my personal fear of driving, when I was 16.
Im on my third permit.
The chorus needed to be about the concept of the song, which is I hate driving.
I dont feel like I can do it.
And its saying,Yeah, this is my weakness, but this is also who I am.
And people need to accept that if they accept me.
