An Interview with Patrice Wilson

An excerpt from an interview with songwriter and producer, Patrice Wilson, which appears in the February issue of the magazine. Read the full piece on believermag.com

THE BELIEVER: What is the formula for these songs that are “viral material”? It seems to me like there’s a lot of name repetition. Nobody would hear “Friday” and wonder, What’s the name of that song? Whether you want it to or not, the word Friday just kind of burrows into your head.

PATRICE WILSON: All the songs I write have something in common. There are catchphrases. In “Thanksgiving,” there’s the “Oh, oh, oh.” In “Friday,” there’s an “Oh, oh, OH!” in the beginning part. You have plays on words, like “Ch-ch-ch-chow mein” [in “Chinese Food”].

The key to it becoming popular is to keep it very simple and have repetitive words. If you have a simple word, and you stay with that word, people might think it’s cheesy, like, “That’s the stupidest song I ever heard!” But subconsciously you’re singing the song in your head. Or you might be doing something and thinking, I love fried rice, and you don’t know why you’re singing the song. Keep the format of the song simple. Too many words and it’s too hard to remember. With fewer words, you can hear the song one time and kind of remember it the next day. I don’t try and make the songs sound simple and ridiculous. It’s just my style of writing.

BLVR: You say that it’s ridiculous. Would you confess that sometimes the lyrics and the hooks are catchy to the point of seeming like a bit of a joke?

PW: I got married six years ago. My wife is my biggest critic. She’ll look at a song and go, “Are you serious? This is ridiculous. It doesn’t make any sense.” I wrote “Friday,” and I was so excited, like, “I got a perfect song!” She was confused. She’s your standard Spokane, all-American girl. She knows when something doesn’t make sense. In the early stages, she’d get on it and go, “This is not a good song.” Since then, she’s realized it’s part of me. This is how Patrice writes songs. Sometimes she’ll say, “Why don’t you sit down with some writers, with a pen, and spend the whole day writing a song?” I don’t write that way. I write in the spur of the moment. I have something in mind, and I start freestyling, and the words are just there.

BLVR: Is it true you wrote “Chinese Food” in thirty minutes?

PW: Pretty much. Thirty minutes. I wrote it last year, before my birthday. I was going to write it for myself. I wrote it,...