Isarah Dawson · May 10, 2026 · 3 min read
TL;DR
Isarah writes lyrics before any music exists — always. Words come first because they carry the architecture. She writes in fragments across notebooks and voice notes, often at night, and assembles them into songs the way a mosaic is built: piece by piece, pattern emerging only at the end.
Words always come first.
Before I hum a melody. Before I open a DAW. Before I think about arrangement, production, or what the album cover will look like. The words.
This is not how most people make music. Most producers start with a beat, a chord progression, a sonic texture — and the words come later, shaped to fit the groove. I work in the opposite direction. The words are the foundation. Everything else is built on top of them.
Why? Because in a 30-album architecture where every song connects to other songs across universes, the words carry the structural weight. A chord progression does not know that track 7 on album 3 needs to echo the emotional resolution of track 2 on album 1. But a lyric does. A word does. A phrase planted in one song can bloom in another, years later, if it was placed with intention.
I write in fragments. Not in finished songs — in shards. A line in a notebook at 3 a.m. A phrase whispered into a phone voice note while walking. A word circled in the margin of something I was reading. An overheard sentence in a language I barely understand that carries exactly the weight I need.
These fragments accumulate. They live in notebooks — physical notebooks, never digital for the first draft. There is something about handwriting that connects the body to the language in a way typing cannot replicate. The hand slows down. The mind follows.
When enough fragments exist for a song, I assemble them the way you build a mosaic. You do not see the pattern at the start. You see tiles. You see colors. You move them. You rotate them. And then, somewhere in the middle of the process, the image appears — the thing the song was always trying to say reveals itself.
Some songs arrive whole. Those are rare and sacred. Most songs are built, rebuilt, stripped, and rebuilt again. The first draft is never the final draft. I rewrite until every word earns its place — until nothing can be removed without the structure collapsing.
The language chooses itself. I do not decide to write a song in French or English — the emotion arrives in a language, and I follow it. Some grief is French. Some defiance is English. Some prayers are Armenian. To understand more about why each language matters, read Why I Sing in Many Languages.
The hardest part of writing is not finding the words. It is finding the silence between them. The space where the listener fills in their own meaning. A lyric that explains everything leaves nothing for the listener to inhabit. A lyric that suggests — that opens a door without walking through it — that is the art.
This process is slow. But speed was never the point. The point is permanence.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Isarah Dawson write lyrics?
Isarah writes lyrics before composing any music. She captures fragments in notebooks and phone voice notes, often late at night. Songs are assembled from these fragments like a mosaic — the pattern emerges only once enough pieces exist. Words always come first because they carry the architectural intent of each album.
Does Isarah write music or lyrics first?
Always lyrics first. The words carry the architecture — they define the emotional intent, the narrative arc, and the thematic connections to other songs across the 30-album structure. Music, production, vocals, and visuals are all built to serve the words.
What language does Isarah write in?
It depends on the emotion. Some feelings arrive in French first, some in English. Certain songs require Arabic or Armenian. Isarah does not choose the language — the emotion chooses it. She writes in whatever tongue the feeling inhabits.
Explore Further
Isarah Dawson
Artist