Phil Coulter on songwriting craft and personal reflection with Brendan O'Connor

Phil Coulter, the acclaimed songwriter, shared his perspective on the craft of songwriting with Brendan O'Connor on RTÉ Radio 1. Coulter asserted that "there’s no such thing as a born songwriter," emphasizing that it is a skill that must be diligently learned. He recounted his early life in Derry and his musical education in Belfast, which balanced the study of 16th-century harpsichord music with an immersion in the emerging form of the three-minute pop song.

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There’s no such thing as a born songwriter. It’s a craft you have to learn.

Coulter admitted that his intense focus on pop music sometimes overshadowed his formal studies. He described a demanding routine of demoing six new songs every two weeks for a publisher, a process that required consistent output regardless of inspiration. "What if the muse didn’t hit you that week?" O’Connor inquired. "That’s what you had to learn," Coulter replied, contrasting the romantic notion of a muse with the professional necessity of meeting deadlines.

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What if the muse didn’t hit you that week?

The conversation touched upon a period of excess following his Eurovision win with "Puppet on a String," during which he confessed to "getting carried away" and letting songwriting take a backseat. This phase was followed by a renewed drive to prove his staying power, particularly after a publisher dismissed them as a "flash in the pan." Their attempt to win Eurovision again the following year with Cliff Richard's "Congratulations" was famously beaten by Spain's entry, leading O'Connor to playfully question if they were "robbed by General Franco."

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That’s what you had to learn. This concept of a songwriter wandering through the forest, waiting for a flash of inspiration, that’s grand – except if you’re a professional and the publisher is knocking on the door, saying, ‘We don’t want it great, we want it by Tuesday.’

However, the interview took a profoundly emotional turn when discussing Coulter's son, Paul, who died at the age of four from heart complications related to Down syndrome. Paul's birth had inspired Coulter's song "Scorn Not His Simplicity." O'Connor, whose own daughter has Down syndrome, shared his personal struggle with the song, admitting he couldn't listen to it for years due to his own difficult reactions. He explained that it took time to understand that people react differently to such situations and that his own perspective has evolved since the birth of his daughter.

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I’d have to confess, we got carried away. I’m coming from a terraced house in Derry. I think I’ve won the Lotto. Songwriting took a backseat.