KEY POINTS:
Ask Will Adams - better known as Will. I. Am from the Black Eyed Peas - what the art to writing a good song is and he'll turn the question back on you.
Usually, answering a question with a question is irritating, not to mention intimidating, but in this case it's apt.
"What kind of song?" asks Adams bluntly, lounging on a sofa at the W Hotel in Los Angeles as he picks through a bunch of grapes.
A hit song, but also a good song.
And with this the interrogation continues.
"What kind of hit?" he snaps.
One that people can dance to.
"What type of people?"
People like me, people like the girl walking down the street singing to her iPod ...
"You see, that's the craft of songwriting. You ask a whole bunch of questions, you figure out what the song's for, who it's for, and set out to represent that."
As well as writing for the Peas and his solo albums, Adams has written songs for everyone from Justin Timberlake and Usher, to current chart topper Chris Brown and even US presidential candidate Barack Obama.
But he doesn't like having prepared songs sitting around ready to go - that's kind of like pulling a frozen chicken out of the freezer.
"I like them fresh. So they are - usually, anyway - instantaneous, right then and there, because otherwise that's not working."
And with this he sets up a mock scenario where he is going to come up with a song for me. Although, the questions he asks turn out to be - mostly - rhetorical.
"So," he begins, popping another grape in his mouth, "if I was going to write a song with you I'd ask you questions like, `What's your favourite song right now? What were your favourite songs when you were younger? What song makes you wanna dance? Oh, you don't wanna dance. So what song makes you wanna make love? Oh, it's not a love song? Well, what do you wanna write about? You wanna write about the world? Okay then, who of the four artists who write about the world - because there's only four who really talked about the world: Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan - do you like?"
Bob Marley, I manage to offer up.
"Okay, but you don't want to do reggae? So what type of beats do you like? Oh, hip-hop. But you want Marley chords. So what pisses you off about this planet? George Bush? So you wanna start talking about peeing in the bush? How about chopping down the bush? Let's call the song Bush because bush is short for bullshit. That's how you do it," he laughs.
And that is how you write a hit song. In Adams' mind, at least.