Songwriting
The Book
A few years ago, Gordy Quist and I wrote a book called Songfarmer: Writing More and Better Songs. The premise was simple: songwriting isn’t a talent you’re born with — it’s a crop you cultivate. Four daily habits, kept small enough that you can’t say no. Write. Read. Listen. Perform.
The Prompt Generator
We built an app to go with the book — a song seed generator that rolls a random setting, song type, theme, color, and seven words. Everything you need to start writing when you don’t know where to start.
The Daily Practice Tool
The book said what to do. The app gave you a starting point. But I kept running into the same problem: the moment of choosing. Should I write? Practice guitar? Read? By the time I’d decided, half my energy was gone.
So I built HatRack. It picks your next habit randomly and rolls a timer. You don’t decide what to work on. You don’t decide how long. You just start.
A hat is a role you step into. You put on the writing hat and you’re a writer — not someone thinking about writing. The app picks the hat, you wear it until the bell rings.
The Journal
I write about songwriting, creative habits, and the process behind the songs on my newsletter, Closer, Says Love.
Owen Temple is a songwriter based in Austin, Texas. He has released ten albums of original music and his songs have been recorded by Gretchen Peters, John Baumann, Band of Heathens, Walt Wilkins, and others.