Expanding the music: junior writes lyrics for EDM record companies

Laura Figi and Zoe Dowley

With a little luck and a Tweet advertising the need for song lyrics, junior Brian Donohue launched his journey into the world of music. From creating the lyrics, to submitting them to different record labels and getting them produced, his accomplishments have not gone unnoticed.

Though he has only two and a half years of experience, Donohue has had his lyrics published for more than 40 songs with record producers such as Monstercat, Spinnin’ Records and Protocol Recordings.

“I don’t like to tell too many people,” Donohue said. “I can’t say that I’m any different than anyone else just because I had the small opportunity of seeing that Twitter post.”

A group by the name of Vicetone was the first group to work with Donohue and post his lyrics. In fact, his first song lyrics were published in the song “Heartbreak” by Vicetone. From there, he was introduced to several other record labels, artists and groups.

“I only have a small building block at the very start,” Donohue said. “I never really intended on doing this; it just became something that I like to do.”

After Donohue submits his lyrics to the labels or groups, it is then revised and improved along with assigning the lyrics to a singer.

“I always admire the lyrics and the people who write lyrics alongside me and above me,” Donohue said. “At times, they can do it a lot better than me so I have a lot of respect for that.”

Emotions play a big role in writing lyrics and tend to be Donohue’s biggest source of inspiration. Each sentence includes a lot of different thoughts and feelings depending on the circumstances around him.

“The genre itself is known for being not too heartfelt– it’s all about the beat,” Donohue said. “You’re talking about feelings, and that’s really what it boils down to. In only a couple of sentences, you’re putting as much thought and as much emotion into it as possible.”

Though he has achieved a substantial amount of success, Donohue doesn’t plan to pursue lyric-writing as a career. Instead, he plans on joining the military or studying to become a lawyer.

“Its definitely not a career,” Donohue said. “You get to see them expand — people like them, and thats all fun and games, but when you write lyrics you [just] write lyrics. I try not to get too complex.”