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you will "yay" after this one thing—the secrets of songwriting

SELF-EXPLORATION, Neuroscience, Coming-of-Age

**scroll to the end for an important link


Elated, light-hearted, clarity. These are all words associated with happiness.


First of all what is it. What makes you feel it? Since when did an elementary facial expression become an end-goal, a desperately yearned concept? How do you even achieve “happiness”? All of these are excellent questions, and are ones C&C strives to explore through the arts, philosophy, and cognitive science. However, one certain lens through which we hope to achieve this end is by helping you and others properly realize–and therefore take control of–your coming-of-age story (*see this summer’s edition of “Why C&C”). A hefty step towards feeling more happy is gratitude. In recognizing and creating our own coming-of-age stories, we turn to become aware of the things we actually have, instead of what we do not have and what we constantly lack. We become at peace with ourselves and the world. Become closer to happiness. And what better way to create this than a proper romanticized adolescence on film, something that changes the way we see the world, humanity, life, and our own inner selves?


But of course, there can be no movie without a soundtrack itself. Music. The music to your ears that can turn an ordinary moment into one of quietly observed beauty. More specifically, we will be investigating the other side of the music that comes through your AirPods: the creating part.


So we asked someone with first-hand experience. (No, not me unfortunately, just you wait.)

Combining the last syllable of his name and another “happiness word,” the name “youllyay” serves as the perfect representative. Daniel, or “youllyay,” is a fellow high schooler in MN. He is one of the most passionate, confident, and humble people I have met. And to answer our questions, we asked him what songwriting and music production means to him, and how it has impacted his brain and heart. An interview with him spewed loads of word for thought that helped bring us to a few conclusions about songwriting and the physical process of creating music.


I. It helps you process, realize, label, and recognize.


Upon being asked during what occasions he finds himself writing most of his music, youllyay says it comes after specific emotions and ideas around them that start popping into his head, the most popular strong emotions--for most musicians on that matter--originating from a lack of something, betrayal, heartbreak, strong emotions, love, and so on. Mental health organization Painted Brain describes the scientific effects on this activity:

“Songwriting specifically provides benefits both in the activation of the brain associated with emotion processing and regulation…There have been multiple studies done that provide evidence that music therapy does help change the neural structure and neural firing of the brain.

When thinking of a creative writing passage, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,

which is typically involved in cognitive-emotional perception, and the right

anterior insular cortex, which is implicated in psychological awareness are both

activated. This supports that the process of songwriting involves multiple parts of

the brain that are associated with cognition and introspection” (“Songwriting”).

Painted Brain also continues, “[Songwriting] is a more accessible outlet for processing, even more so in the wake of an especially traumatizing event. “… during the act of writing a creative piece, the bilateral temporal lobe structure is activated. This area in the brain is associated with episodic memory and memory retrieval.” When dealing with more heavyweight experiences or unpacking trauma, songwriting could be something you turn to.

One of youllyay’s songs, “what has happened and why has nothing happened,” is about the Nashville school shooting in March, 2023. We asked him what it was like for him to create it: “I woke up and read the news and just felt sick to my stomach. I couldn’t shake the feeling, and tried to produce it, and then felt ‘aw no I can’t do this because I’ll feel even worse. But damn I gotta finish otherwise I’ll feel even worse. Then I just did the percussion, mixing, and mashing…. I liked the strong message that people appreciated.” In the midst of something very emotional, this was his way of coping, of processing, and of finding strength with that information. For whatever kinds of trauma you hold, maybe practicing songwriting could help you. Because, you don’t have to carry the weight everyday. It can serve as an accessible form to unpack, to let that baggage down. This way, you can start living with a lighter load each day and closer to your happiness.


Likewise, youllyay declares that “getting the thoughts out of your mind and having it out of your mind is strengthening.” Science supports this. Even Syrian refugees have experienced this. Daniel commented on how our “thinking world” has such an impact on our lives--our thoughts have so much power to create our realities. Processing is the first step towards action. Like our previous motto on the Homepage, “Awareness is the first step,” recognizing and becoming more aware of how our brains work becomes a platform from which we can then leap off of to take action steps. Not only can we use writing to realize our introspective outlooks, but we can create a narrative, a future self we desire. We gain clarity. We become synthesized with our thoughts. We become more apt to gain control over our thoughts.



II. It helps you romanticize.


Songwriting is lyrical. It’s an art form.

In order to even write a song in the first place, you need to zoom into a specific aspect of life. In writing such things in songwriting form as described earlier, in writing on it–the practice of observation, both on the aspect and yourself–the act becomes one of romanticization. “There’s a lot of power of emotionalizing those things and romanticizing moments,” youllyay adds.


Suddenly, you are a writer. In songwriting, one subconsciously writes in a subjectively beautiful manner: in perfect poetry to random fragments, in rhyming rap or incoherent lines. Even so, the act of songwriting in of itself highlights the very beauty of the diversity of those forms; doing so allows you to apply it to other areas of your life. Songwriting also often stretches your thinking into a third and first person perspective: when writing about yourself, there becomes a camera, moving around to capture you–you, the main figure, and how things relate and revolve around to impact you. Like our page's current motto, "Any beauty you notice is a reflection of you." The more you recognize beauty in other places, with the motto, you realize that beauty is also beautifully in you. Speaking of which...


III. It brings you closer to yourself.


Any form of writing is your inner worldview splurged out onto paper. The more and more you write, the more you gradually become acquainted with your own emotional mind, your subconscious values, and worldview. When one writes specifically about emotions and gains the “self-made spotlight” of romanticization, especially in lieu of processing difficult events, they appeal for self-awareness. As mentioned before, this muscle of first/third person criticism of the self (whether positive or negative) is exercised, something youllyay believes should happen more often.

Not only does it force you to explore your inner world to a deeper extent, but it simply brings you confidence from a higher defined and synthesized sense of identity. Visualize for a moment and allow yourself to feel how you imagine you would feel observing something you created. Allow it to resonate within your bone structures.

Turns out, “making audio and that can make you feel emotion,” can be quite rewarding. Creating something that you can “put on repeat” clearly lights youllyay up. Once again, Painted Brain supports this: “Additionally, writing and song completion can increase clients’ self-esteem and self-expression.” Not only do you become more organized and “strengthened by thought,” from words (*ahem, “word for thought”) and audio, more comfortable around yourself, more conscious of what you want out of life or relationships, but you might end up doing something you find meaningful. Returning to his song “what has happened & why has nothing happened,” one of the biggest things for him was having people share it and its message; knowing that he has created something important, and in his case, an important step for change in society, regardless of how widespread. Maybe for some songwriting could become a hobby that rekindles an inner child, brings you laughter, discovers a suppressed talent, or becomes a source of purpose or self-satisfaction, a sense of achievement, or makes you learn you just can’t sing, reminds you of your range of capability, that manifests pride. Or for someone like youllyay, it can become something closely related to one’s identity. Around the end of our interview, I asked: What role does music play in your identity? Say, if I were to come up to you and ask you who are you and what do you do, what would you say? He responded,

“‘I make music.’”


Although music and songwriting may not be everyone’s purpose in life, look for something like this, something that makes you excited to wake up each morning. Look more for these rather than external validation to approve your existence. Realize that power within yourself. That being said, songwriting can be an amazing, relatively accessible place to start.


There is a reason why songwriting and music therapy exists. Not only is it a reliable coping mechanism, but can it also be an outlet for you to rewire your brain’s narrative. To help you realize you can be happy through even all the broken pieces, all the imperfection. To help you embrace partial beauty amidst even the most difficult inner moments through lyrical words and keys. Because ultimately, that moment will pass. But for now, allow yourself to feel those emotions fully in all their colors, and like what Daniel hopes to tell through his music, just remember ultimately, you’ll “yay.”



Go stream youllyay's new album:



and listen to our Spotify playlist all "youllyay"


Written by Rachel,

Interview conducted by Rachel and Wren



Sites Referenced:



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