For Love Or For Money
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

For Love Or For Money

There’s plenty of talk about how the music business is thriving and worth billions. It's all true except that those billions aren’t making their way to the pockets of the writers who create the product that make a music business possible. 

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Reconsidering Nashville
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

Reconsidering Nashville

I seem to fit in better now. Maybe Nashville has changed. Or maybe I’VE changed. Or maybe I used to try too hard to fit in. Now I’m comfortable just being myself. Maybe that’s the key to life in general.

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Teachable Songwriting
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

Teachable Songwriting

For a successful destiny, one has to have the fire in their belly—which is usually recognized at a young age—and the desire to communicate within a 3.5 minute boundary. If these parameters are already in place then maybe one can learn to get better. 

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Living Room Live
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

Living Room Live

I’ve narrowed a 7 hour audio book down to an hour’s worth of the best bits. I put a mic and an amp in the corner of my office and every night I've been firing up the purple lights and running through the script. I'm enjoying myself immensely. So are my cats. I'm not sure how to proceed next, but I'll figure it out. One foot in front of the other. Like everything. If you build it they will come. 

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Bruce on Broadway
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

Bruce on Broadway

I wonder if I could do a one woman show too…"Confessions of a Serial Songwriter." Except mine wouldn’t be on Broadway and I wouldn’t be Bruce Springsteen. Hopefully some people would come.

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What's Next
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

What's Next

Indeed, life, career, love have their ups and downs. Perhaps the lulls are necessary, albeit not as thrilling, as the excitement. I’ve always enjoyed unscheduled time to collect my endless thoughts. Examining is where we get material. We need to take time to replenish. 

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10,000 Hours
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

10,000 Hours

Sometimes I feel invisible. I am a singer/songwriter who has yet to write a hit. I go to a party and when you ask what I do I tell you: I wake up every day and write songs. It’s like breathing. 

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#Us Too
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

#Us Too

When it comes to the MeToo movement, Songwriters are not immune. As sole proprietors and small business owners, we are currently unable to unionize. We have no HR departments, no sexual harassment protocols, no real recourse. We only have each other. So where does a female songwriter (or artist or composer or producer) go when a line has been crossed? SONA is stepping up.

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Back Down To Earth
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

Back Down To Earth

Looking out the window of my west bound plane, taking in what just happened, I’m filled with so many thoughts. Adam is worried. He suggests after all the excitement and euphoria I’m going to crash. Post GRAMMY Depression. I won’t. I’m pretty sure I’ll be high for a while. 

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Christmas in L.A.
Uncategorized Shelly Peiken Uncategorized Shelly Peiken

Christmas in L.A.

Songwriters! If you’ve ever written an original Christmas song you know the drill: REMEMBER THE BULLET POINTS...or as they say in Nashville—the particular pieces of "furniture" that represent all things Christmas—the snowmen, the carolers, the mistletoe, etc. And whatever you do, do NOT forget the jingly bells in the production. It’s not a Christmas song without jingly bells! 

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Confessions.