Prolific singer/songwriter Emily Zuzik, who recently released her seventh studio album, “The Wild Joys of Living,” blogs about the art of collaborating with such acts as Moby and gives five tips on channeling creativity.

Just say yes. Supposedly those three little letters were what drew John Lennon to Yoko Ono in 1966. A message of positivity and possibility. Those are the words my husband told me once, and I swear it hasn’t done me wrong since. I try to stay open to opportunities when they come my way and jump into new experiences every chance I get. One of those challenges for me was creative collaboration.

It’s funny now to think that I used to have such neurosis about working with other people. Fear plagued me. “What if the song doesn’t match the story?” or “What if our mix of input destroys the potency of the original emotion?”

I allowed the unknown to kill loads of unwritten potential. But one day when faced with the opportunity, I said yes.

Currently, I do most of my writing with other people, be it for commercial use or live performance. Collaboration has become a regular practice for me. I find that I play better in groups over when I’m left to my own devices. And I’m far better at meeting a deadline… I decided to dive into this topic and share some insights I’ve had along the way.

1.Get It Together:

In my opinion, there’s nothing quite like bringing two writers into a room and letting the music find its way out. Sometimes it just flows. Someone plays a lick they had been fooling around with and a new set of ears knows just what to do with it.

I had that experience when I first began writing with Wes Hutchinson for songs that eventually we produced for my record, “The Wild Joys of Living.” Wes got a studio at the NY Gibson showroom and he started playing piano parts that were the foundation of our song “You Know When You Know,” which began as a Simple Minds-sounding power ballad. The song evolved into the guitar rocker it now is, but having the time and the space to work through ideas and quickly record them to Garageband allowed us to keep trying new direction—without losing all the stops along the way.

You give it a few days and come back to it with new ears, and sometimes a totally new idea pops out. You get together and play those out. Suddenly, a new chord rears its head because it makes the pre-chorus rise to the chorus with more emotion. As a writer, I think, a song develops faster with that spontaneity and closeness that a work room or studio provides. I wish all my collaborative work occurred in the same room, but often there are situations or roadblocks that prevent it. I’ve documented my experience with a few of them.

2. All You Need Is a Little Patience:

I belong to a collective that writes for commercial pitches with my friend and fellow composer Art Hays. We’d had a few deals that nearly snagged the gig in the past. We also have a great time writing together, which makes the time-sensitivity in this kind of work, a little easier to stomach. This year, we reworked a version of The Pretender’s “Message of Love” for a pitch. Our first attempt came out as a “sound-alike,” which is a cover that closely mimics the original. The company liked it, but added, “We couldn’t use that version even if we wanted to.” The vocals were too close, so onward.

On version 2, I changed the vocals to a “Partridge Family” cool 60s direction. “Very interesting, but you lost the attitude,” they said.

Version 3, we seemed to nail it with a bratty punk vibe. Great work, but now you have to create the 30-second version. After 10-20 versions later… you get my point? Having the ability to detach and use patience helped us land the gig. Art and I were both ready to ring some necks, but we waited and kept calm and now have the theme song of NBC’s “Love Bites.”

3. I’ve Got the Power:

I recently wrote and recorded with electronic artist Moby. As you can imagine the resume line items “Grammy-nominated” and “multi-platinum” can be a little intimidating. When we first started, I was over-thinking my every word and step around him. Also, I’d heard that Moby sometimes passed the same piece of music around to different vocalists to see how each approached the tune, then chose the version he liked best. No pressure there!

At one point, I realized that I wasn’t there to figure out what would make Moby happy, so I should just write from the heart. We did a bunch of demos, but honestly, I think the best work we did together (which became our song “The Low Hum”) happened when I let go of expectation and wrote. I wasn’t worried about what he thought or if I was achieving a certain style. I listened to the music and let the words come out. Perhaps, I was sentimentally attached to the story in those lyrics, but when I saw myself as equal in the relationship, I wrote with more confidence and with better results.

4. Let Go of Your Babies:

Nothing kills creative flow like demo love. For those not down with the lingo, demo love is when you write and record a version of a song and sit with it for a while. You usually listen to it a lot and eventually, you don’t “hear” the song any other way.

Consider this—Tim Lefebvre and I began working on our album, “Domestic Blitz,” in 2006. It came out in 2010. I can’t count the number of demos on hard drives that we made. It certainly made it a lot more difficult to get to the final version. It took us a LONG time to figure out what to use, what to edit, and what we could live with.

And hey, finish the damn album! You can always “release” B sides. I find there is something really rewarding in finishing a song or a record.

5. Make Technology Work for You:

I do a fair share of co-writing with people in different rooms, and when I say different, often they are miles, states or oceans apart. When I first confronted the “Skype session,” I met it with aversion. But I didn’t want to appear old fashioned… “Sure, I have Skype,” I replied. This time I was working with Brooklyn-based soul singer Chaz Langley. I can’t say that I took to the idea immediately, but after a half hour on video chat, I got the hang of it.

I also write with a few London-based artists in the electronica world. One is Joe Lewis, whose place served as my UK tour crash pad. Joe also had a studio in the basement, and when I had downtime, we would write and work tirelessly at all hours. But then, I came home to the States.

We’d written some cool tunes, and I didn’t think the Atlantic should keep us from continuing. We needed to conquer the geological divide. Ah, skype rears its digital head again with the aid of the home studio. I’ve done a number of tracks with Joe over the years, but our most recent collaboration “Hope” with his dubstep combo REFIX wouldn’t be here without wifi and digital toys. Between Skype calls, email note sessions, yousendit files and time zone lag, we managed to craft and record a song. I think it’s easier to get in a room with someone and write together, but technology is definitely on the writer’s side now. If you can dedicate yourself to trying a new method, you might get a great song.
I wouldn’t read this and quit your day job, but all I can say is remaining positive to new ways of working certainly has helped me. In the end, I can only speak to my experience and I’m happy I did try out different methods. I learned to write with others and found the music goes places I could never commandeer it on my own. I’m proud of my collaborative work and plan to do more in the future. I hope some of my experience will be helpful to others along the way.

Emily Zuzik is coming to LA this fall! For more information about Emily visit http://www.emilyzuzik.com,  or find her on Twitter: @emilyzuzik and Facebook.