Under The Influence
Writing under the influence changes your judgement. It just does. That said, I’m all for it as long as you're not too invested. As long as you're willing to wake up the morning-after and forgive yourself for the sin of thinking you were a genius the night before when in fact you were a fool. 😳
10 Songwriting Habits
Hello songwriting junkies!
I detest listicles and their clickbait intentions but I came upon a piece I wrote for Songwriting Magazine called “10 Key Phrases to Help You Tap into a Deeper Level of Songwriting Creativity.” The list is actually random brain farts 😜 that I didn’t think too much about. On the re-read however, I thought — ”Yeah!” So … I’m sharing with you. I hope you find something here that ups your game. 🎸🎶
Why Does Ed Sheeran Keep Getting Sued?
We all fall into that delicious trap of borrowing something we sincerely believe we wrote. It’s human. We’re influenced by everything that came before and it’s not surprising that we mimic. Just like we inherit our parents’ mannerisms because we’ve grown up around them. But it’s our professional duty to assess our work and adjust as needed. And if we find it’s impossible to separate ‘ours from theirs,’ then we share credit PRE-release just like the writers of “I’m A Mess” did with Meredith (Brooks) and I when a resemblance between their track and our song “Bitch” was brought to their attention.
The Show Must Go On!
Three days before the only rehearsal for the first table read of our Musical I suggested to Adam that we reschedule. According to Apple weather LA was expecting a storm of mass proportions. The worst in 40 years. We’d probably lose power. What would YOU do? 😫
Who’s Zoomin Who
Suzan Koc, my long-time-work-wife, the ultimate song whisperer, teacher and mentor to hundreds — wanted to use this time to give back to creatively-starved songwriters who are feeling isolated from their community. Understandably, there are a multitude of virtual creative online offerings right now. Suzan's Zoom Songwriting Camp is one I can vouch for. She’ll make a more mindful songwriter out of anyone. She told me all about it over our virtual dinner.
