Songwriting

Here are five key questions you should ask each time you write a song with an artist… What kind of song are you looking for? Hopefully, they will answer more than just “a hit”, but unfortunately that’s the most common answer I get. Their response to this question can tell you a lot about the…

I have had a number of amazing experiences because of songwriting. I’ve been able to travel the world and see places like Barcelona, Malmo, Nassau, Vancouver, and Toronto simply because I wrote songs that became hits. I’ve met and worked with people from all over the globe. Those experiences have shaped who I am and…

About two years after I started trying to write professionally, a friend of mine staged an intervention of sorts. He approached me very kindly and asked me how my writing was going.  I told him my frustrations and I told him the truth – I didn’t have much of anything going on.  He asked me…

Your innocence is a major asset… One of the things I love about working with young writers and artists is just the innocence they bring to the writing process. They aren’t bitter or jaded. They aren’t worried about what radio will think (this can be good or bad). They just want to write a great…

There are a number of quick ways but these are my top 9 on how to lose a co-writer and friend… 1) Show up late, drunk or hungover regularly. I can’t count the times co-writers have shown up in bad shape and I consider that wasting my time. Be professional. Be on time. in other…

Negative songwriting thoughts keep a heavy cloud over you and your writing AND they actually decrease your chances of success. If these thoughts creep into your head, kick them to the curb before they derail your creativity and your forward progress. 1) “My songs are better than….” It doesn’t matter at the end of the…

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning.  And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” Mark Twain Author Brian Tracy wrote a book called “Eat That Frog“. He took the idea from the Mark Twain…

At SongTown we deal in real… People often ask Clay and me why two writers who have had multiple #1 songs and are still getting cuts would spend time doing something like SongTown? SongTown is the community we wish we had in the early stages of our careers. It’s a true labor of love. We…

Being realistic about your songs… Clay and I talk to people every week who are obsessed with finding a publisher to hear their songs or a song plugger to pitch them. 99.9% of the time, those songs are not ready for a publisher or a song plugger. Why? Because they haven’t yet gained a realistic…

I believe that the scariest songwriting moment in songwriting is the moment before you start. Most of us have voices that play in our heads. Those voices often tell us that the task at hand “can’t be done”. “You aren’t good enough”. “You can’t handle this”…. you know the drill.   It is the rare…