5 things we learned from Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow's center to heart

Radio 2's Gary Barlow - We Write The Songs podcast sees the Take That star speak to fellow acclaimed songwriters, exploring the fine art of creating the perfect song.

Gary'south guests include John Legend, Paloma Faith, Sam Smith, and his former Take That bandmate and pal Robbie Williams.

"I'yard very seldom asked about the songwriting," Robbie reveals. "I'd be very interested to know what I actually think… I think people don't believe or understand that I take a hand in these songs."

Equally we have a listen to Robbie and Gary natter nearly songwriting, here are 5 things we learned …

one. Both Robbie and Gary are always writing

For Robbie, songwriting is an outlet that he merely needs as a way of channeling his energy. He says: "I'thou a very impulsive person and I have my addictions... I wake upwards in the morning and I am beaming some sort of energy and if it isn't fostered correctly or taken care of - as we both know - it tin go completely off the rails. Information technology's which wolf that I choose to feed. Sometimes it's the songwriting wolf."

If my energy isn't fostered correctly, it can go completely off the rail

"When lockdown happened, I started to do art. I'd practice art every twenty-four hours, 10 hours a day. I knocked out 30-40 pieces in about five weeks. And then that burnt out and I stopped being interested in it. That's when I went back into the studio and I wrote 27 songs in 3 weeks."

Robbie continues: "I dearest having a project and creating a make new affair. I enjoy pulling off that project. For example, I'll exercise my pop tape, and then I'll do a swing album, so I'll tour the swing album. I honey the kernel of an idea and and so I love putting it into fruition. But so at the end of a project, you're knackered and y'all have to switch off for three weeks. They burn you out."

For Robbie'south latest project though, he's taking a chip of a leftfield turn: "I'chiliad writing a trip the light fantastic anthology and I've basically taken the nod and the wink out of my lyrics."

2. Hip-hop was i of Robbie'southward first musical loves

Looking back to when he first got in to music, Robbie says: "I was bought two records past my sister when I was eight years erstwhile. One was Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' and the other was 'Street Sounds Electro 1', a drove of hip-hop tracks. I put Pink Floyd on and didn't get it at all, and so put the electro music on and idea information technology was a bit of me."

My very essence is a mixture of former classics and hip-hop

Robbie says that when he was quondam enough to buy his ain tape, he opted for Beastie Boys' 'Licensed to Ill' and Glenn Miller's greatest hits. Just it was also his parents' vinyl collection - which included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Tormé - that left an touch on him.

"My very essence is a mixture of former classics and hip-hop," Robbie says. "They are the two things that inspired me and proceed to inspire me."

"Lyrically, the person that virtually inspired me - apart from rappers - was Ian Dury," Robbie adds. "He chooses to get off the beaten road and utilise words that are seldom used in pop records."

three. Writing together for the starting time fourth dimension was a revelation

The pair note over the course of their conversation that they are both very different songwriters but also similar in some ways. Gary notes that Robbie is very "picky" with lyrics and never wants to say something he's heard in other songs, while he is a more than universal kind of writer.

I idea 'Guy Chambers did all of this, let'southward see what this immature lad's got'

The like, Robbie says, is that they both share "a killer instinct" - specifically "[the feeling that] it'south mine and I'one thousand going for it and nobody is getting in my way… you tin understand why a younger me and a younger yous would bump heads. I'd exist like, 'it'southward my game' and you lot'd exist like, 'no, it's my game… it's my ball'".

Writing songs for the first fourth dimension together, when Take That reunited with Robbie in 2010, was enjoyable for all parties involve. Gary says: "When we eventually got to run across over again and write once again, I was probably ane of the army camp that idea 'Guy Chambers [Robbie'due south longtime co-author] did all of this, let's run across what this young lad's got'. And I was wrong, I was absolutely diddled away - not only by the songwriting and lyrics but your melodies - you come up with them so quickly. You're every bit a melodist every bit you are a lyricist… I was so impressed and happy and proud to be in a room with yous… Information technology felt similar me and you were showing off to one another, it was so much fun… Information technology was more than right, it was electric."

Robbie admits that he felt he had something to prove to Gary: "If there was anyone on the planet that I needed to show and know and feel what I could exercise, information technology was you. I suppose because yous are [like] my older brother, I desperately wanted that recognition from you. We got it and information technology was simple and like shooting fish in a barrel. It was lovely and loving and all the all-time things you could desire it to exist."

iv. Robbie's sister helped write 'Angels'

Going back to when he starting time went solo and started to work with Guy Chambers, Robbie remembers: "I had and so much to say and I was bubbles with ideas. I just needed the perfect person to help me release those ideas. I was sent a list of songwriters and I only saw this proper noun, Guy Chambers, and pointed to it. I didn't know annihilation about him whatsoever. I went, 'that's him'... Within iii days we had written 'Angels' and 'Let Me Entertain You'. Nosotros wrote the first album in 7 days. Merely that hasn't happened since."

I went, 'I'm having that!'

On how 'Angels' came to be, he reveals: "I have a belief in archangel Michael. Whether he exists or non, he'south the angel I get to for protection. I'1000 basically singing and talking about real angels [in the song]. My sister was writing poetry at the fourth dimension and one of the poems [had the line] 'as the feeling grows, he breathes flesh to my bones". I went, 'I'm having that!'. I magpie-d that from my sister."

v. Robbie is embarrassed by one of his own songs

While Robbie acknowledges that 'Angels' is the song that "I dear and adore for giving me the career I've enjoyed", he says he is almost proud of his 2002 single 'Feel', which he emphatically describes as the "gold medal" of his career.

'Millennium' does my caput in

However, Robbie also reveals that he is embarrassed to perform i of his nigh-loved hits. "'Millennium' does my head in," he says. "I'm on phase and I'chiliad singing the chorus - I'1000 going 'We got stars directing our fate', but in my caput I'm thinking, 'have we?'"

For Gary, though, information technology'southward Take That's 1992 classic 'A One thousand thousand Love Songs' that makes him cringe a niggling. Although Robbie loves the song, Gary says: "I was fifteen when I wrote that song, so of form it'southward going to be really saccharine and actually predictable."