Memory Lane
I’m sure this must happen to you too: you get in your car … your phone talks to Bluetooth … a random song starts playing from iTunes. It sounds familiar. You’re trying to place it. When it gets to the hook you realize, “Hey I think I wrote that! Wow, it wasn’t half bad…for it’s time.” You smile. Do you keep listening? If you do, you’re gonna be there for a while especially if you’ve written as many songs as I have.
Out From Under (His Eye)
When I wrote the lyrics to “Out From Under,” a track Britney Spears recorded for her 2008 album Circus, I was thinking about how we feel when we’re trying to get ‘out from under’ the influence of love. But after I heard Britney’s recent leaked testimony — about how her father has had control over all major aspects of her life and finances — it occurred to me that maybe what SHE was thinking about when she sang it was getting out from under the influence of him. That’s way worse than a broken heart.
So You Want To Start A Blog
Blog. I hate the word. It sounds like “blah” which is synonymous with boring. Or worse — “blah blah blah” — a monotonous drone (of someone’s personal predilections perhaps). It also rhymes with clog which reminds me of congestion. I wish they called it something else. But if you believe the way you see the world is worth sharing, if you feel you have a unique slant on things even if it’s not popular or hip, forget about what the word evokes. Be brave and and go for it.
Eurovision
I was never a huge fan of TV Talent competitions. Maybe I know too much about what goes on behind the scenes — unfavorable contracts, song ownership grabs — or maybe it just feels like ‘how did we get here from there’? Would Dylan or Carole King have gotten a Golden Ticket? I doubt it. Not enough melisma. That said, I’m pleased about this win.
Love Is War
It was 2010. Britney Spears was making a new album. I felt like I had some momentum because she recorded another song I wrote “Out From Under” for her previous album Circus. Songwriters all over town were partnering up and trying to come up with something undeniably Britney. One night I sat down at the piano with a glass of wine. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what the girl had been through. How might she feel if she were STILL trying to get over Justin? I didn’t know for sure that’s where her head (and heart) was at. But you have to start somewhere.
More Today Than Yesterday
I’ve sadly (and gratefully) gotten used to you not being here. Isn’t that what we wait for when we lose somebody — to get used to it? It’s the only way we can get on with our lives. It’s just that the older I get the more questions I have.
Appreciating Josh Groban
I was perplexed. Josh Groban was a curious choice to be the special guest speaker for an all-woman week-long songwriting seminar I participated in recently. He certainly has a golden voice and I hear he’s a lovely human but couldn’t they have found someone with lady parts? There are loads of them out there. 😳
#PAY$ONGWRITERS!
We were always underpaid. It’s just there was enough flowing down from the top of the waterfall so our time was better spent trying to write another song that would catapult us to the top. But when the invisible stream came along and hijacked our mechanical (physical) royalties we weren’t able to sustain ourselves any longer. The rumble of discontent has grown into a deafening roar. I’m happy to report there are quite a few initiatives circling the zeitgeist to effect change.
Can I Have Your Attention?
Pop songs are getting shorter and shorter. A recent report finds that by 2030 the average length of a hit song will be 2 minutes. That’s about half the length of what it was in 1990. James Shotwell says “it’s not about writing the most incredible song that anyone’s ever heard it’s about getting them to listen to it.” That’s a shame. Writing the most incredible song was always a fun goal. Something to shoot for.
For The Dreamers
A go-to co-writer is someone who continually delights you. They bring out colors you didn’t know you had. Because they believe in you, you’re on your game when you’re with them. Little do they know it’s because THEY are special. THEY are having an effect on you! Maybe we need to let them know more often how much we appreciate them. Feel free to tell about or post a pic one of your favorite collaborators in the thread below. Let’s honor the creative spirit of the people who bring out the best in us.
Jukebox: The AI of Music
As if songwriters aren’t struggling enough with dwindling digital royalty rates and competition for song placements, will we now have to compete with thousands of compositions composed by non-humans as well? I feel fortunate that I never had to think about this stuff as a young songwriter. Diane Warren was my biggest fear! I’m more grateful every day that I came up in an innocent time when a Jukebox was a music-generating device in a diner into which we dropped a coin and pressed B5 or C8 to hear out favorite tune.
“Drivers License”
How does an 18 year-old girl who can’t have that much experience writing songs professionally tap into her feelings so effortlessly? Well, perhaps she’s simply downloading the truth instead of following an emotional pop-chart algorithm that would guide one through a proven formula. Newsflash…algorithms don’t have hearts. We’re all trying to write hits when we should be ignoring the algorithms and just telling the truth.
#Anti-Social Media
My heart isn’t in the game. An appetite for promoting my own endeavors is waning. When I scroll my feed I hear what sounds like noise. My own noise included. So now...first thing every morning before checking my email, or any texts I might have missed from the night before I grab a coffee and sit in my yard and just be. In fact before I take a sip I hold the mug to my nose and breath it in so as to “pre-extend” the experience. Life isn’t just about our purpose or our calling, but the more subtle beauty going on around us.
Are You a John or a Paul?
You may ask ‘why do we have to choose?’ We don’t. But why not? It’s fun. Do we ultimately prefer John’s heady, trippy world or Paul’s tales of imaginary (and not so imaginary) friends, lovers, mothers, dogs —Maxwell, Rita, Mary, Penny, Martha, Lady M…It’s a long and winding road.
That’s So 2020
2020 cheated everyone out of something. A canceled wedding, a canceled tour, a deserved vacation or the worst... the loss of a loved one. Like all of us, I’m looking forward to a new year and I’m hoping it’s all up hill from here. (Read on for my most recent 2020 moment.)
Dark Horse vs Joyful Noise
Recently I was asked to consider signing an Amicus brief in support of the “Dark Horse” position in an infringement suit filed by the writers of Flame’s “Joyful Noise.” Newsflash, if it were your song in the test tube you may not want me on the jury. I tend to hear similarities my colleagues don’t. That said I’m concerned that the onslaught of lawsuits of late are threatening the creativity of my community. Still, I want to be thoughtful about each individual case. So let’s take a deeper dive.
Thankful
“I don’t write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don’t, everything feels even worse.” — (Lily King — “Writers & Lovers”) I’m thankful to have a passion for a process that can usher me through the gamut of ‘lifely’ emotions. Life just wouldn’t be the same if I couldn’t write my way though it.
Almost Doesn’t Count
I’m eternally grateful to Suzan Koc for pitching the track to Atlantic Records’ Craig Kallman in 1997 when it had nothing to do with the purpose of their meeting. 😳 That’s what a song publisher was all about back then. Turns out “Almost Doesn’t Count”’ actually counted…a lot. And looking back I can honestly say, I’m glad that idiot broke my heart.
Minding Your Songwriter Business
Every so often I take a break from writing about me me me to give a heads- up on initiatives that you you you should be aware of if you’re a professional songwriter or plan to be one some day. After all being a consumer of digitally delivered music is awesome but getting paid for CREATING digitally delivered music is a bit more complicated. This piece will help you get ready for 2021.
