After Hours: Cook’s Jeremy Shere, songwriter

Cook employees are interesting and often have active lives outside of the office. One example is Jeremy Shere, a marketing content specialist for the Interventional Radiology (IR) clinical division who is also a songwriter. We recently interviewed him about this creative outlet of his.

How do you go about writing a song?

For me, songwriting is a lot like solving a puzzle. When I start, I usually have only a vague idea of what the song is about, what sort of song it will be (rock, folk, etc.), how the song will be structured, and so on. Typically I start with a bit of melody, or maybe a lyric or two, and play around until ideas begin to emerge. Like most songwriters, I borrow a lot from other songs, but mostly I try to listen to hear what the fledgling song is telling me.

In your opinion, what makes a good song?

I really believe that the best songs are not so much created as discovered and that the songwriter’s job is to be patient and open enough to hear and sense what a song wants and needs. The writer exerts some control, obviously, but not as much as you might think. Thinking too much about what a song should be or worrying if it’s cool enough or fits a certain genre or popular trend is a good way to kill a song before it begins. My best tunes evolve in a very spontaneous, organic way and often go in directions that surprise me. It’s kind of like creating puzzle pieces as you’re fitting them together.

How do you balance your songwriting with having a family and working a full-time job?

Most days after work, after spending some time with my kids and hanging out with my wife, I head down to my home studio to work on music. Sometimes I’ll work on a song I’ve been hired to write. Sometimes I work on my own songs. You might think that after a full day at Park 48 I’d have little energy left for songwriting and recording, but most of the time I’m eager to get in the studio, mainly because I don’t experience songwriting as work. It’s more like play, like doing a puzzle or playing a strategy game. It takes time, concentration, and commitment, but the process of writing and recording songs is so absorbing, and I look at it as something I have to do.

Jeremy has been writing songs for more than 20 years, for the past few years in a semi-professional capacity, and regularly writes songs for hire. He wrote an original song for the Disney movie Prom (2011). The song, called In Deep, is featured in the movie almost in its entirety. Jeremy is also in a band called Burly & Steinbeck that plays frequently around Bloomington.

Jeremy has recently released a CD of original songs about Bloomington for which he wrote all the songs, played all the instruments, and recorded in his home studio. The album cover was designed by Holly Kannady, a marketing graphic designer in IR. The album and individual songs are available on jeremyshere.bandcamp.com, iTunes, cdbaby, and at The Venue art gallery in Bloomington.