Some songwriters start the writing process with an idea or a story, but Brett Young says, “The creative process for me is maybe a little bit more specific than it is for other people. I was just talking about this the other day. Writing songs has to start with an idea, which most of the time is a song title. I work my way backwards from that. I like to start with the hook and work my way backwards and kinda build a story around what I think is central. I wasn’t always that way, but as I’ve lived in Nashville and written there for a couple of years now, I found myself kind of gravitating towards that.”

We don’t know if Brett had the title or the idea first for his debut single, “Sleep Without You,” but we do know it was inspired by hearing one too many songs on pop radio about a guy wanting to sleep with a woman.  He decided to take a sweeter spin on the idea and write a song about a guy who can’t sleep without the woman he loves.

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Brett Young – creative process :24

“The creative process for me is maybe a little bit more specific than it is for other people. I was just talking about this the other day. Writing songs has to start with an idea, which most of the time is a song title. I work my way backwards from that. I like to start with the hook and work my way backwards and kinda build a story around what I think is central. I wasn’t always that way, but as I’ve lived in Nashville and written there for a couple of years now, I found myself kind of gravitating towards that.”