A Songwriter's Ritual, Working From Home

Like every writer I know, I love to read. Most of my books are highlighted and dog-eared in hopes of getting something great someone else wrote to spark something, anything in my own brain:-)! Right now on my coffee table you’ll find “Cleopatra” by Stacy Shiff, “Winning” by Jack Welch, “Life” by Keith Richards,” The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman, American Songwriter, Time, Wired and….AARP. Yep…I got to admit it has some great features these days including articles on some of my favorite “baby boomer ” artists. It’s not my typical go-to mag for ideas but my wife pointed out an article by Jane Pauley (again, not my go-to author for cool phrases) and how one of her ideas comes up often in my coaching sessions with songwriters and artists…Ritual.

That’s not exactly what Jane called it, I think she refers to it more as having a routine. Whatever you wanna call it, it’s so important to people who work from home or maybe in your case from a home studio, to have a ritual. Something that let’s you know “I’m workin’ here”! The gist of her article was that she has had trouble motivating herself to feel like she’s really working when she’s home. She took inspiration from her husband, cartoonist Garry Trudeau. Gary writes “Doonesbury” and has been his own boss for more than 40 years. His ritual sounds simple; shower, shave, dress, oatmeal and raisins, scan the paper and go to work.

For me it was pretty close over the years, get up, coffee, more coffee, shower, (every other day shave) and go downstairs to my studio and just play. Had to be first thing in the morning before my brain remembers I’m an adult and have other responsibilities. No matter where I ended up later it set the tone. It let me reward myself for all the idea gathering and reading I’d been doing and let me know I was going to have a set time, everyday, to go to work. The more I created a ritual the more it let my subconscious know we’re here to get busy.

Being your own boss or working from home has some challenges for sure but I found the more structure I could create for myself the more I got done. My wife has always been amazed I’ve been able to work from a home base for so long but I’ve always thought of it as my job and I had to prepare for it anyway I could. Ritual has been key for me.

Jane quotes choreographer Twyla Tharp who said “having a routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightning bolt of inspiration”. In her book “The Creative Habit” she says the key to a productive day is a morning routine that never varies. New one for the coffee table!

Anybody have rituals that work for them?

Hit Songwriter Joe Leathers - Road To The Row

I love Joe’s story. I asked him to write a guest blog  because he’s one of the good guy’s and I knew it would be inspirational to songwriters looking to  come to the last great place to be one…Nashville. I met Joe  around 5 years ago and it’s been fun to watch his progress. At a time when so many writers and publishers are bemoaning the state of the business Joe just kept on doing what he does AND it’s working. From the title song of Kenny Chesneys #1 album “Hemingways Whiskey” to recent hits with Tim McGraw and  Craig Morgan , he’s a blueprint for any writer chasing a dream. In typical Joe fashion, I asked him about doing this and got it a day later. That’s what I’m talking about. Thanks Joe!

Joe Leathers

Ok, So the Odds are A Million To One, So What!

Songwriting for a Nashville publisher is a crazy, insane, frustrating, whacked out way to make a living. It is also the most amazing experience you can possible have when you start with a blank computer screen, and end up with a song on the radio. I sort of did it backwards. Many of my fellow songwriters moved to Nashville as an aspiring artist or songwriter, slept in their cars for the first week in town and then through sheer hard work and determination found their way through the House of Mirrors that is the Nashville Music Business. I took a different path.

Growing up in Memphis, if you didn’t play guitar, people thought there was something wrong with you. I was always fascinated by the Memphis music scene, I was the 15 year old sneaking into bars so I could watch some band pound it out for 5 hours. I started playing drums, then guitar and then I started playing in any band that would give me a chance. I went to college and instead of moving to Nashville at 18, I found a job, got married and had 4 children. While working for a bank, I still played in bands on the weekends and continued writing songs. I had no classical or formal music training so most of what I wrote was just from the heart, things that were happening in my life. I would say that most, if not all of what I wrote was really marginally mediocre. However, I never quit.

When I was in my 30′s, a friend encouraged me to enter a few songs in the Memphis Songwriters Association Songwriting Competition. Reluctantly, I entered 4 songs. To my surprise, I won two catagories and placed second in the other two. That was rocket fuel, I believed that I could actually almost write a song. Judd Phillips, one of the judges, nephew of Sam Phillips(Sun Records, Elvis) asked me to go to Nashville with him and meet Ralph Murphy at ASCAP. Ralph is the Dean of Nashville Songwriting.
We met and he listened to a few of my songs and encouraged me to continue writing, He told me I was close but not there yet.

In the meantime, some of my friends had heard about my trips to Nashville and my songwriting exploits. Many thought I was crazy, ridiculous, chasing pipe dreams, lying about it, and just in general on a wild goose chase.

In spite of all the comments I heard from people, I pressed on. I visited every publisher who would take my call. I played them songs, played every writers night I could play(sometimes driving 3 hours from Memphis, playing three songs at midnight and then driving 3 hours back to Memphis and then going to work the next morning) and just started weaving my way into the Nashville songwriting scene. About three years into this madness, I was offered a publishing deal at Curb Music. I think one of the main reasons I was offered a deal was not because I was an awesome songwriter, but because I had the work ethic it takes to write relentlessly and get songs to radio.

I wrote every day, something, anything. A riff, a melody an idea, a chorus, anything to keep me in the game. I met and wrote with writers who have have become my best friends. I surrounded myself with writers who were better than I was and that was not hard to accomplish. All along, I had friends telling me I was a moron, I could never beat the odds, I didn’t attend music school, what was I thinking.

Yes, working for a bank and writing a song that will be released as a single to country radio, the odds are  million to one. But I have had songs recorded by Craig Morgan, Jason Michael Carroll, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Trace Adkins, Steve Holy, Lee Brice, Guy Clark, Chris Kristofferson, Ryder Lee, and more. What is it you want to accomplish? Whatever it is, you can do it, I am proof. Trust me, if you are willing to pay the price to chase down a dream, you CAN do it. So, ready? GO!

Joe Leather
Nashville, Tennessee

Love Him Or Loathe Him, The Lefsetz Letter

I was working on a new blog when this came in today. Don’t know if you’re familiar with The Lefsetz Letter but he’s read by ton’s of industry pros. I don’t always agree with him but you can’t fault his knowledge or passion. This was too good to not pass on!

I almost wrote about James Taylor a couple of weeks back, because he’s giving free guitar lessons on his Website, actually, since I was last there, he’s posted one more:

http://www.jamestaylor.com/guitarlessons/

Although I gave up playing the guitar decades ago, I was stunned that a musician of his caliber seemed to be not only utilizing the Web, but using it to give back.

But that’s not what inspired me to write right now.

Last night, I was flipping the channels before going to bed and I caught James on Charlie Rose.

I’ll admit I checked out Letterman first, but he was doing his once a year grocery bagging competition, you know, where he gets the big winner and goes head to head and throws stuff on the floor and cheats and it used to be funny, but that was back in the eighties.

And flipping with the remote, I can’t wait for Time Warner to have an iPad remote, that truly shows what’s going on, that makes cable TV comprehensible, I saw a guy I recognized with just a few too many years on him since I’d studied him last. It was definitely James Taylor. But the sync was off. I switched to the non-HD iteration, but his mouth and his voice weren’t aligned there either, so I went back to HD.

And it’s no crime to get old. But in fine detail, James Taylor looked less like a star and more like a person. After all, these are just human beings, flawed like the rest of us, but they wrote those songs… How did they write those songs?

Not the way they do it today. Not the way those big Top Forty hits are constructed. They’re built from the ground up. And even those Nashville compositions are anything but bolts of inspiration. Brick by brick you build the song today. But great songs are feats of inspiration, they enter your brain and you have to write them down fast, before you forget them.

I was stunned, I was pissed I’d missed the first half of the show, because James Taylor was talking about creativity, something I deal with every damn day.

You can be reading the newspaper, watching TV, walking down the street, standing in the shower, and suddenly you get an idea, and you’ve got to RUN to the computer.

And sometimes it’s not a complete idea. Sometimes complete songs come to James, other times just fragments, which he has to put together with other fragments to get an entire number.

And it’s tougher now, because of the expectations. Everybody is watching. Well, not everybody, but his loyal fans. You’re only a superstar for a little while, but he’s lucky, a fan base has endured, that comes every year to see him, that keeps him alive. That’s his insight, not mine. But too often stars are delusional. But James is not. And he’s got the wisdom of years. But he can’t be an outsider anymore.

That’s how he felt as a teen. An alien. And he needed to write songs to delineate his condition, his feelings. To illustrate where he was coming from. But once everybody knew where he was at, they were watching, and that’s pressure. That makes it harder.

Our greatest stars were alienated. They were not the cheerleader or the captain of the football team. They were closer to suicide than being voted most popular. But there’s a little bit of alienation in all of us. And when they sing, we swoon.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11482

I don’t know if some of you already subscribe to the Lefsetz letter but he’s a wealth of info and opinions :-)!! Agree or disagree I don’t doubt his passion and knowledge of the music industry. I wanted to pass today’s on, great stuff!
–

Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

Co-Writing Etiquette For The Songwriter

Mark with Sarah Buxton Franklin, Tennessee

In the past week I’ve had two different friends ask about co-writing etiquette. In fact I’ve devoted whole sessions to this topic with some of my coaching clients. It’s one of those things that you can learn the hard way but most of the pitfalls can be avoided pretty easily. Are there any hard and fast rules? Some kind of unwritten etiquette?

A little background first. Working with publishers over the years I did a ton of co-writing. Some with great writers, not so great writers, artists and wannabes. If I can suggest one thing it’s to meet them first, have a cup of coffee or a drink. It’s a bit like dating, see if you have anything in common before you spend a long day in a room together. It’s not foolproof. I’ve made some great friends this way who didn’t turn out to be great co-writers and I’ve also written some of my favorite songs with writers who, on paper, didn’t seem like a match. If you’re booking these yourself, or you’re having a publisher set you up, you’re looking for magic. Ok, the publisher is also looking for connections, two people working the song is always better than one. You want to be compatible but you don’t want someone who only does what you do. You’re each hoping the other brings something to the table. Again, kinda like dating and marriage, looking to compliment each other, sum is better than the parts, all that stuff.

A couple of givens . . . You want to know going in the credit is split evenly between the people in the room. No matter who does what in the end. That’s a hard one for new writers to swallow but hey, do it long enough and it evens out I promise. Some days you feel like you wrote a song on your own and the other writer watched. Other days you’re buying lunch and  encouraging them to “keep at it, you’re on fire”!

Nashville is known for being fair, other markets can get trickier. I’ve written in the UK and other countries and had someone call later to approve the split, 21 1/3 % for me, 23 2/3 % for the other guy and the rest for the artist who was on the phone for most of the good stuff:-) I even have a dear friend who had the co-writer’s assistant call them after reviewing an audio tape of the day and breaking it down to who’s ideas ended up where. It can get ugly unless you decide upfront. If there are no publishers involved, it’s best to just work it out in that coffee conversation before you actually write. God forbid the song gets some action before everybody is on the same page.

What happens if you throw out that million dollar title or melody you’ve been saving and your co-writer turns it into small change? Can you go write it with someone else? No. I know it’s hurts but …NO. You could call them and ask but the reality is your reputation is built around your integrity and creativity. If your co-writer thinks you’re gonna write the same idea with 3 other writers it won’t be long before you’re one lonely co-writer. Back to the coffee meeting, try your best to put your ideas in the right hands. Pretend you’re picking a babysitter for little Dylan. Would you leave him with just anybody?

I know writers like to say thier songs are thier children. I have children, they’re not songs. (I’m gonna stop ’cause I just sounded like Andy Rooney.) So do your homework on co-witers, don’t be too precious, trust your gut and hope for a little magic. Make sure you can laugh with ‘em. Pick up the tab and show up on time. Writers like that.

Photo taken at a writing session with Sarah Buxton

Sarah is a co-writer on Keith Urbans current hit ” Put You In A Song” as well as “Stupid Boy” and… the coolest!

Kevin Savigar on the Art of Demoing Your Song

Kevin Savigar is an old friend, world class session player, producer and songwriter. In addition to being Rod Stewart’s longtime keyboardist, he was a co-writer on many of Rod’s biggest hits including “Forever Young” and ” Tonight I’m Yours”. Kevin has worked with Bob Dylan, George Harrison and John Mellencamp to name just a few. I’ve been recommending his new service The Traxmasters to songwriters and thought the topic, and the man, would be perfect for my first guest blog. Thanks Kevin!

Kevin Savigar

I’m often asked by songwriters, both experienced professionals and newbie hobbyists, questions about doing demos of their songs.

Can we get by with just a guitar or piano/vocal version?

How do i decide what genre this song really is so i can get a demo made that i can pitch to labels, artists and managers to maximize by chances of getting my song noticed?

How do we work up an arrangement that sounds contemporary enough to compete in today’s extremely competitive marketplace?

If I am not an artist myself, how do i find the right singer to sell my song?

What makes a great demo?

Who should I get to demo my song?

I may be able to shed some light on these often confusing points. The first thing to do after you are sure you have the song the best it can possibly be, – i.e. no holes in the lyric where you could have possibly gone back and improved it, a melody that is captivating and emotional, a harmonic structure that provides tension and release in all the right places, – is to decide if you should do a demo of it. It is very tempting for a writer to want to demo every song he or she composes. We all truly believe our latest work is the greatest thing we’ve ever done as the excitement factor is still running high. It’s really important to focus on your best songs and be selective to get those ones recorded the best way you can.

Technology has unlocked the door for many of us to be able to produce something decent at home on a laptop with an affordable microphone and some software, but if you are planning on presenting your material to industry professionals you really need to have a high quality, seamlessly arranged and performed recording that will represent your song to it’s maximum potential. In the grand old days of analog technology and record stores, you could get by with a simple piano or guitar/version of your song.

Today you are competing with other writers’ demos that sound like they were recorded and produced in a pro studio with great microphones and a good budget, with much attention to detail, a killer-sounding track and a flawless vocal performance. That being said, depending on your song, a more stripped-down version might be just the ticket. I also think you should get various mixes of your song when you are done with your full demo version so you have options later on. Maybe muting the drums and bass and making a version with just guitars and vocals would be a good option to be able to pitch to music supervisors for film and TV uses (a great income stream for today’s writers and a good way to get your music heard). I like to do different edited versions after I’m finished – lengthening the intro before the vocal comes in and shortening the intro to get straight to the vocal; different stripped down combinations of instruments and vocals – these are all useful to have for future pitches. I also do a mix with the vocal louder as invariably you’ll get asked for that later. It’s important the lyrics are easy to hear and understand.

Are you pitching your song to the country market? Or is it a pop song, americana, urban or electro, dance or dubstep? Are you an artist with your own sound and direction? Do you want a great singer-songwriter version to pitch to film and TV? Defining what genre your song best suits itself to is a must. Is the lyric coming from a male perspective or a female one? Or could it be sung by either, with the lyric working well for either a male or female singer? Perhaps you want to have two versions to open up more possibilities? These are some good boxes to tick while you are deciding which way to go.

Most demo companies can work up a good arrangement if you provide a worktape of the song with a rough vocal and guitar or keyboard. I like to have a conversation with the writers at the outset to find out what direction they want to go, choosing the instrumentation, and defining the genre and gender, along with any production ideas they may have and I might suggest – perhaps giving a couple of comparisons to contemporary hits that would be similar in direction sonically, groove-wise etc.

Choice of singer is the next hurdle. If you are not a performing songwriter you will want to hire a singer who will bring the right tone and emotion to your song, who makes the right stylistic choices to present the song in the best possible way. You want the song to be able to work for a wide range of artists to increase your pitching possibilities. In other words, a good, emotional reading that sticks to the writers melody without too many distracting licks!

I work with a pool of great studio singers, male and female, some specializing in country, others in pop, and I hire who I think will be best suited to the song I’m working on. The client gets to hear clips of the different singers and can choose which one they want on their song.

Well, I hope you found some of this helpful. Checkout my demo service site www.thetraxmasters.com and good luck with your songs!

Kevin Savigar
Los Angeles, California

Marriage And The Music Biz

iDoCoach Blog Mark & Kathy Cawley

Aspirations, communication, commitment, goal setting, sharing stories, dreams, disappointments , small victories and balance.

My wife and I coach couples in crisis though best selling marriage author Joe Beam’s workshops. Joe is a great friend and amazing at what he does. We also coach  couples in our community and church. Coaching couples might seem to have nothing in common with the coaching I do with creatives but  I believe it does. All of the terms I listed come up in working with couplesand songwriters/artists.

I was thinking about what I might write about  over the weekend when my wife Kathy came up with marriage and the music biz. Lord knows we’ve had to deal with how a creative life can mess with relationships over the course of our own marriage.

How do you communicate to the person you love this passion you have to write or perform? What if your dream doesn’t work out the way you planned?  The girl who used to hang out at your gigs every night now has to stay up with a two year old!! What others once saw as passion and vision starts to look a little like the kid who looks out the window in class and daydreams. How do you stay 100% committed to your art and to your partner?

Most of us creative types can tend to be self-centered. Ever look into someones eyes and realize they’re “gone”? Ever try and talk to a star about something other than them for 3 minutes..ok..thats almost unfair:-) Writers are encouraged to keep their antenna up at all times. She’s telling you about her day, you just heard a title for your next song. She’s relating, you’re re-writing. Hard for any relationship to stay on track but I think the marriage of  music and the real world takes some special skill.

With couples we coach, sometimes the trouble begins when they just assume they’re on the same path. We talk with couples who’ve been married for 20 years and never talked about their aspirations. For themselves, or their marriage. Now they’re hurt or angry because things didn’t work out the way they planned. Or didn’t plan. Communication is so huge in marriage and especially with the unique pressures that come with this lifestyle. If you’re reading this you’re probably not living a life that looks like your parents and the issues you face balancing a  career in the music business with your family is not the kind of stuff they prepared you for.

For most of us it’s taken a boatload of compromise and the ability to set new goals, attainable ones . Sometimes short term sacrifice for the long term goal. For instance, in his workshop Joe talks about how years ago he and his wife Alice were at a crossroads in their marriage. He wanted to be on the road, speaking to huge audiences. In his words, he “wanted to be Elvis”. Alice loved him but wanted the family picture she grew up with. A loving husband who was at the dinner table at 6,every night. She support the Elvis in him as long as the Ward Clever won out every night.

Their solution was to move to a hub city were Joe could still tour in support of his books but be able to be home much more than when his week was made up of connecting flights. He kept following his creative dream, she continued to support his vision and still realize a version of her goal for them as a couple and as a family. Took some trial and error, compromise and work to balance their dreams but I’m happy to say it worked out.

For Kathy and I there have been years when she had to hold down the fort while I traveled to far off places to write. There have also been lean times when we had to change roles. I stayed home and changed diapers while she went to work. We compromised, re-invented but always supported a mutual goal. To write songs and raise a family. I’m happy to say that one worked out as well!

Joe always encourages couples to share their stories with each other. I ask writers to share their stories through their lyrics.

I’d love to hear your stories. What have you guys done to keep your relationship strong and still stay on your creative path?

Photo of Mark & Kathy by Tiffany Dupree Photography

From Nashville Artist/Writer Savannah Ellis

 I got this recently from a young Nashville based artist and writer named Savannah Ellis. I’ve been coaching her for a few months and she’s excellent! Incredibly motivated to change the face of Praise and Worship music as well as writing positive pop. I have no doubt she’ll make it happen! Check out her song “Fringes” featured on the Jan “Songspage Songs” on American Songwriters site. Thanks Savannah!

Savannah Ellis

Her words:

Mark coaches in a way that nurtures the creativity you already have.

He doesn’t try to alter your writing style or change who you are as an artist- rather, he offers practical and valuable techniques that bring out great songs on a more consistent basis that represent who you are.

Savannah Ellis
Nashville, TN

Songwriting...It’s All In Your Head

With most of the songwriters I’ve been coaching, lyrics are the biggest mystery. Some people write in a stream of consciousness style, it just pours out. Others have to slave over every line.

All of us are trying to make the connection between whats in our head and what shows up on paper. This is where we all tend to dis-connect.

We have the images in our head, all the color and detail but when we start to write we get  kinda formal. We lose all the magic stuff.

The really good ones, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Tom Douglas, Matraca Berg and Leonard Cohen just to name a few are master storytellers. They bring you in with small details, they pull in all five senses  until you’re seeing what they saw.

What they wanted you to see. Just enough good stuff to let you in but still leave room for your own version of the story.

One of my oldest and best friends, Kye Fleming is a master of this. She can paint a Picasso with 3 verses and a chorus and make it look easy. We all know it’s not.

The encouraging part is that it is all in your head and if you can get it from there to the page it’s bound to be an original.

Who Supported You?

Hazel and Mark Cawley

Today my mother, Hazel, turned 95. NINE-TY….. FI–VE!!

She had been living on her own up until October of this year but is now in a nursing home. My Dad has been gone almost 21 years.She has been sharing more and more memories with me each time I visit her.

Our conversations get me thinking about a bunch of things but today I’m remembering a woman younger than I am now, sitting in the car for four hours while her son played a gig.The car usually had a U haul attached with room for a real Hammond B3 and the rest of my band’s gear. I remember looking out and seeing her reading by flashlight, spending countless Friday and Saturday nights this way. She felt it was better to pitch in and support me than to wonder what I was doing and who I was doing it with. I probably couldn’t wait to be old enough to drive myself to the gig and not have to let someone know just how uncool ( and young!) I was. My MOM was outside… waiting!!

She and my Dad both supported me all the way with music. Welcomed every long haired friend I brought home , gave up the basement, the garage and the fridge . Some even came to live with us for awhile. Their music might have been Frankie and Lawrence Welk but they surrendered the turntable to The Beatles, The Stones and Motown.My dream was their dream back then and I will always be grateful.

Take a minute and tell me who encouraged you. I’d love to hear your stories…. and wish Hazel a happy birthday while you’re here.

Photo taken on her 95th Birthday, Columbia Tennessee

Sure Fire Cut: Writing with the Artist

There was an article in the Business section of the Tennessean this Sunday called “Hitched to a Star”. A great read for anyone wanting to gauge the temperature of the publishing world. Writing with the artist is not a new concept, just that it took a lot longer for it to catch up to Nashville. Pop music has been this way for as long as I can remember. It was always an advantage to write with the artist for their upcoming record, one route to a hit.

It’s starting to sound more and more like the only route.

What’s changed? The “shrinking pie.”

People aren’t buying music like they used to, so artists, publishers and labels have to get creative. More artists are writers, more producers are publishers. Publishers want the writer to bring his connections to the deal. When I broke into writing for a living publishers typically gave the songwriter an advance against future royalties and were allowed to develop, hopefully with the aid of the publishers connections. Different time, bigger pie. Jody Williams was quoted in the Tennessean article and he was certainly one of those publishers who would not only mentor a writer but champion them in Nashville and beyond.

The talent is still there and there are still publishing stars like Jody Williams, Chris Ogelsby and Leslie DePiero in the  business. It’s just harder to “hitch yourself to ‘em”.

Photo by kevindooley