Beth Killing, she wears many hats.
The Madison Singer songwriter,
Forenser Own Rock Man,
and is the gin in gin chocolate and bottle rockets.
Beth is the monster administrator
behind Girls Rock Camp.
Beth is a life coach, a mother and now, an author.
Beth has just written a new book
and it's called Embrace Your Authentic Songwriter.
How and why to play your own tune?
You are listening to Book Time with Beth.
Beth, welcome to Maxing Gradio.
Well, thank you, Racker, and good to see you, Terry,
and Katie. Thank you.
It's funny, I completely forgot that we had that outtake.
That Racker was made in 2014.
That was worth it.
I didn't even know, I totally forgot.
There's a lot of Jack Baggary occurring
in the studio when Jen and Shawny and I get together,
so they're not the pie.
We've had this bonus.
Well, we've had you in the studio and it was rowdy.
Yeah, it was so much fun.
Wow, that's the effect.
You know, I saw your post on Facebook
that you were about to write a book
or about to have this book be ready to come out.
Yeah.
It's like having a baby or something.
But, you know, we just listed everything you do.
How did you have time to do this for so glad you did?
Thank you.
Well, here's the thing.
I've been teaching songwriting workshops for years
and I had all of these worksheets
for the random songwriting workshops that I did
and I would just shove them into folders.
And then one day I was like, you know,
if I actually just typed out instead of
in bullet points in paragraphs,
what I say during these workshops,
I would have a book full of stuff.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
But here's, this is the thing that I did.
I mean, I started writing this pre-pandemic
and then everything shut down and you would think,
oh, well, that'd be a great time to hole up
and write a book, right?
But no, I was, I instead trying to get a third grader
to sit in front of an iPad and do school
and I gave up on life for a little while
but then after, you know, everything kind of came back,
I really started writing again in earnest
and I just parked my butt in the library for two hours
every Wednesday from 10 to noon for like months
and it was like, this is just my dedicated time
to write the book and then my brain would percolate
about things in between times
and then I found an amazing copy editor
by the name of Jen Morey at a ladies' rock camp.
Of course.
I know.
And you know, everything just snowballed from there
and I think it was just, you know,
timing was perfect.
Shipping away at it little bit by little bit by little bit
and then I had this awesome beta test group
that I worked with this past fall.
I actually finished most of the book writing in May
and then I kind of went into summer mode
as a performer and with girls' rock camp.
But then in September, I beta tested like class almost
like every week I would meet for six weeks
with a group of women that were reading through
a draft of the book and then saying, yeah, this is great
and I don't get this and maybe you should do more on that.
And what about this area?
And so then I went back and rewrote and then what ah,
it exists now.
It's going for many, many mothers.
Oh, that is, I love that whole timeline
of what you're talking about.
So making it you time to do it.
But then all the extra steps you've taken
and make sure it is what you want people to have in there.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Yeah, it's a big step.
I mean, it's, I put out a lot of records
and this was a different process, very different process.
Wow.
But embrace your authentic songwriter.
How and why to play your own song.
That's your new book.
Tell us about the new book and then tell us about,
like who's it written for?
Is it written for like, you know, experts or novices,
you know, beginners?
That's a great question.
So there's three parts to the book.
Part one is really kind of a philosophical dive
into why write songs.
Why do you want to write songs?
Why does music exist in the world?
What is the purpose of art?
So it's kind of, you know, heady stuff,
but I geek out on stuff like that.
And then the second part of the book
is very kind of bread and butter.
Like here is song structure.
Here's music theory.
Here's the tough stuff, actually.
Right, but here's the thing important.
I don't have any degree in music.
So I approach it from a very practical blue collar
standpoint, and I've been teaching, you know,
eight-year-olds at Girls Rock Camp to write songs.
So this is not, I'm not teaching it at a, you know,
PhD level, because I don't have that PhD, right?
So the whole center part of the book is all this, like,
very, you know, let's talk about writing melody.
Let's talk about writing hooks.
Let's talk about writing lyrics.
What, how do you find inspiration?
So there's a lot of meat there.
And then the last part of the book is kind of wrapping it all
up and talking about inspirational stories.
I talk about people who have inspired me
and how they overcame obstacles that they encountered
on their journey to make music.
And then I talk about how people can kind of get in touch
with their own personal mission statement
for being a creative person.
So it's a big cover a lot.
Yeah, yeah.
But you know, in this book, I'm really asking people
to do the work.
There are assignments at the end of every chapter.
Oh, wow, that's great.
I really see it as like a, like, almost like a text book,
but me just being kind of a dork as I go,
because I don't take myself too seriously, honestly.
And I don't think people should, I mean,
it's good to think about the process,
but I don't want people to overthink the process.
I just want them to flow and to be in the moment
with their music and say what they mean to say
and share it with the world bravely.
You know, and I find this interesting
because if you have any, even just a little peek of,
like, I would love to write a song.
Yes, this is the way to do it.
Absolutely.
Because you really, you have taught many people
that are like, what am I doing?
And there's words and descriptions
for these different parts of the song that I never knew.
And I put piano and sacks.
And it's like, well, nobody ever taught us all these other things.
But it made so much sense the way you taught it
to both Ladies Rock Camp and Girls Rock Camp
in helping people feel brave enough to do it.
Thank you for saying that.
That's exactly my mission.
And that's what I hope will inspire people.
I hope you hear from somebody who does it too.
And they're like, I did it.
I did it because of your book and you.
Thank you.
Well, and I feel like I see this at Girls
and Ladies Rock Camp all the time, people who come in.
And they're like, oh, that's it.
That's what I have.
Oh, I can do that, right?
So I've seen so many light bulbs go off.
And I've seen the floodgates open and people
who have come into my studio to think, oh,
well, I've got this one song.
Can I record it with you?
And then we work on some of the particulars.
And they're like, oh, wait, I can keep going.
And then suddenly they've got an album's worth of material.
So it's really fun to watch that happen
to create people who have a voice and they want to share it.
And then you just give them a couple little golden nuggets
and they run with it.
Oh, it's so good, yeah.
Yeah, OK.
So as Rocker said, it is book time with bass.
Yes.
Did you happen to bring anything with you
that you can read to us?
I have an episode.
Oh, my book.
OK.
Read to us, please.
So this is kind of about finding your why behind music.
And this is in a chapter where I'm
asking people to think about what they want to get out
of being a songwriter.
And so this is an excerpt.
Some of us are just born with music, lyrics,
and other creative particles flowing through our veins.
We're special, just like someone who
is skilled in sports or math or animal tracking or whatever.
We're all born with predispositions that can be nurtured.
Maybe you are just special, too.
And your why is that you have a gift and you want to share it.
Maybe your why is that writing music is therapeutic,
and it helps you sort through the world.
Maybe your why is that you want to be rich and famous.
No judgment here, but then we go into this section titled
Internal Versus Internalized Voices.
These tricky questions may require
a few years of therapy to sort through.
Are the voices in your head, really, your voices,
or have you internalized some paternalistic societal chatter
that overshadows your authentic voice?
This isn't the kind of stuff you tease out
in an afternoon, folks.
It's something that can take days, weeks, months,
or years to investigate.
What I'm trying to say here is that your why
shouldn't be about someone else's dream or expectation
for you.
If you're doing this solely to make someone else love you
or gain their approval, you're going to struggle.
It has to be authentically you.
I just want to lay on the floor and listen to her.
That was pretty cool.
Just continue to read to us as we all lay on the floor.
You know what, I was thinking, if I get the book,
I can read it.
And now that I've heard her read,
I can read it in her voice.
Oh, perfect.
I like her voice in my head.
I bet she'll do an audio book for you.
Well, it's funny, because the awesome women
that helped me beta test this book, they all knew me.
And so when they were reading it, they heard me,
but they're like, Beth, you know,
you should probably edit out some of the swear words.
And I was like, oh, darn, oh, I do know.
As a mentor to kids, I'm like, okay,
I want to make sure this is accessible to all audiences.
So I had to put like, in my manuscript,
I put like a little pink sticky
on every swear word in the book.
And then I went through and I like edited them all out.
And like, if you look at the notebook,
it's like, there's a huge strip of all these pink sticky
things that I went through.
And I'm like, okay, that was authentically my voice,
but I can, you know, say what I mean to say
without passing, so, but it was really hard.
Are you like the Ozzy Osborne of like tech of typing?
Like, how do you just like type swear words?
Like, oh, it just came out.
Yeah, I kind of did.
Well, you know, while you're saying be authentic,
it's true, it's true.
But, you know, there's ways to be authentic
without being offensive.
And so I just, I want to make sure that it, you know,
it doesn't dissuade some rights.
So someone doesn't finish the book
because they're like, oh, my God, she swore a lot.
It's just quick, and I can't read it now.
Oh, boy.
Okay, you have a release party.
Yes.
This is so amazing.
What can you tell us about it?
Okay, so I had a show scheduled on Thursday,
January 11th with my besties, Jen Farley and Sean Delmarx,
Jen Chocolate and Battle Rockets at the Harmony Bar.
We're playing from seven to nine, but at six p.m.,
I'll be there with a stack of books.
So people want to come and get a copy of the book.
I would autograph it if they want me to do that.
Oh, yeah.
And I should have, I don't have them in hand yet,
but they're supposed to be delivered
no later than the 4th of January.
And then it'll also be available on Amazon
and all these other cool, like Barnes and Noble,
that get a distributor that's kind of pushing it out
to all these different platforms.
You know, we're so lucky because we have
some amazing local bookstores too.
So I bet we're gonna see you pop up
at a couple like city books.
That is what I have a box of them.
I will be wandering down there and saying,
hello friends.
Yes.
Can you be willing to sell this book here?
I live in Verona actually,
and there's a bookstore there called Kismet Books
that I would love to partner with them.
I just have, you know, this is all new to me.
I released 18 records, but like this whole book thing
is like, wow, how does this work?
What do I do with these things?
Well, lakeside books,
so you're just talking about that.
It's owned by Molly from Civil Engineers.
Yes, I know, so I'm hoping I've got a little.
She's probably make you do like a release thing.
I would love to do something.
Yes, I plan to reach out to her after the holidays
and hopefully see what they can do.
So there's so many great resources in Madison.
Oh, we are so lucky.
And it's available in e-book and a hardcover format.
So where for people who aren't in the Madison area,
but they're thinking,
whoa, I got to get my hands on this.
How do they do it?
Where can they purchase?
Well, if you go to my website, Bethkilly.com,
then there's a whole page that's about me as an author.
Okay, and it will have links there very soon
where you can buy a hard copy.
This is so exciting.
I know.
Thank you so much for helping me spread the words.
Oh my gosh.
Oh, thank you for coming in.
We really appreciate it.
Sounds like a great book.
I got to get my hands on a copy.
Yeah.
I just, you know, got to learn more than like verse,
verse, chorus.
I know.
First chorus.
Because there are other things.
Yes, but if that's what you want to do
then you do that, Rocker.
That's, that's all there.
Oh, man.
That's awesome.
All right, you know what?
Let's hear a little bit of gin chocolate bottle Rock.
It's this is Be Your Own Superhero.
Perfect.
Oh, this is perfect.
You're listening to Maxine Crayo.
Thank you, bye.
Welcome music.
