Well, all I can say is WOW! It was very inspirational to see these fantastic songwriters (members of the Faculty at the 2007 Humber Songwriting Worskhop) present their work (2 songs each) in an intimate setting. Most of the audience were participants in the workshop, but I'm lucky enough to live close enough to walk on over and enjoy a great night. My buddy, Jeff, and Norma and Liana from my SAC Songwriting Group, also came.
I walked home and picked up my guitar right away... I sincerely valued all of the songwriters who told their stories and played their songs, some new, some old, but all wonderful... Kudos to the entire 2007 Faculty who all presented their tunes with flare - coupled with gusto or trepidation, but always entertaining... I'm definitely going to enroll next year...
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Songwriter Tom Waits Playboy Interview - March 1988
Songwriter Tom Waits Playboy Interview - March 1988
Very cool article about one of my artists... discussing his songwriting process... Thanks to bloggingmuses for this link...
Friday, July 06, 2007
Pause and Wonder #2
Well, I've learned how to embed an MP3 player directly into my blog, so now I can post my creations right within the post... so that's cool. Please listen to the song and make any comments you'd like to (I can always delete them if they aren't kind :)
I received some nice feedback on the song after I posted it on Muses' Muse... Here are some of the comments:
- I think this is a good song that you should pursue from the arrangement standpoint, so that it works better for the casual "I'm only going to listen to this once" type audience
- I think you should just add the full drums at some point in this... I think it needs a little more work on the vocal (intonation). Enjoyed the listen!
- I like it as a song, and I would love to hear it with some of the "clutter" removed. Right now, it is as though I am having to listen through other stuff to get to its centre.
- Lyrically, this is a really good.
Ci vedimes...
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Garrison Guitars Goes To Gibson
Not that I could ever afford one of these (and I'm very happy with my collection of Ibanez, Takamine and Fender guitars), but I thought it interesting that the company that makes one of the standards for singer/songwriters - the good old Canadian Garrison acoustic guitar made in Newfoundland - has been sold to Gibson Guitars Corp.
Here's Gibson's press release and here's the article from today's Globe & Mail, Business Section:
Here's Gibson's press release and here's the article from today's Globe & Mail, Business Section:
- Gibson grooves on Garrison's guitars
TIM SHUFELT
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
July 5, 2007 at 3:51 AM EDT
Build a better guitar and the music world will beat a path to your door.
St. John's entrepreneur Chris Griffiths was banking on that logic when he sketched a revolutionary acoustic guitar design on the back of an airline napkin in 1995.
On Tuesday, industry giant Gibson Guitar Corp. of Nashville announced it had acquired Garrison Guitars, the company Mr. Griffiths started when he was 19.
But Mr. Griffiths has no misgivings about a hollowing out of the Canadian hollow-body guitar industry.
"I just don't see how we could have grown as exponentially as we're about to grow by just continuing on in our current path," he said, pointing to Gibson's plans to increase production fivefold over the next 12 months to about 60 guitars a day.
The current path, however, has already put Garrison guitars on shelves in 35 countries and in the hands of big-ticket bands such as The Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo and Rush. Garrison recently reported annual sales close to $5-million, but would not comment on its current financial performance or the terms of the Gibson deal.
With the acquisition, Gibson is buying into a unique system that uses injection moulding to build a single-piece guitar frame which is 40 per cent glass. The remainder of the moulding is comprised of what Mr. Griffith's called his "secret sauce."
Mr. Griffiths started playing the guitar at age 12, and in his teens started a business repairing and handcrafting the instruments. After touring various guitar makers' facilities in 1995 to learn about how the instruments were made, on the flight home Mr. Griffiths had an epiphany: "Wouldn't it be more efficient if we could make all the braces out of one piece?"
And since carving an entire guitar out of a single block of wood would never do, the idea of using synthetic components followed.
"This was the first time anybody had tried to strictly make the bracing system out of man-made material and allow the rest of the product to be made out of wood," he said.
After securing patents for the design in 2000, Mr. Griffiths raised the $3.5-million needed for a facility in St. John's, complete with lasers and robotics. With Garrison's method, it takes all of 45 seconds to complete a guitar frame, as opposed to the two hours required to individually machine and assemble the 30-plus wooden pieces that make a traditional frame.
Gibson will produce its new line of Garrison guitars out of the same plant, and will add 40 workers to the staff of 65, including Mr. Griffiths, who will stay on as general manager.
According to a Gibson release, the acquisition "will further Gibson's expansion in the acoustic guitar market, offering a new series ... aimed at the median price point."
Newspaper clipping #2- Songwriter Lawsuit!
More knocks against Avril Lavigne... This comes from CANOE:
Avril sued over 'Girlfriend'
By CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI
TORONTO (CP) - Canadian punk princess Avril Lavigne, repeatedly dogged by accusations she doesn't write her own songs, is now being dragged into a legal battle to prove she penned her chart-topping hit "Girlfriend."
A pair of U.S. songwriters allege her contagious single sounds suspiciously like a song called "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," released by the Rubinoos in 1979.
The American song features the upbeat chorus: "Hey, hey, you, you, I wanna be your boyfriend," much like Lavigne's boppy refrain, which declares: "Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your girlfriend."
San Francisco lawyer Nicholas Carlin said Wednesday that the similarities are clear, and accused Lavigne of copying substantial chunks of the song from the one crafted by his client, Rubinoos founder and songwriter Tommy Dunbar.
"She's made a lot of money off of my client's song," Carlin said by phone from northern California, where the claim was filed.
"The entire song is not the same, they have different bridges, but the heart and soul of her song is directly taken from our client's song."
Lavigne's manager, Terry McBride, scoffed at the charges, calling the suit "baseless" and little more than a "case of legal blackmail."
"Avril's a great songwriter and she's proving it over and over and over again," McBride said from Vancouver, where he runs Nettwerk Music Group.
"Avril's very, very sensible. She knows music well. If the chords had been similar, the melodies had been similar, lyrics had been similar ... she would have gone, 'OK, I can see their point.' But nothing's similar."
McBride said the suit was filed July 2 but that he received a draft of the claim roughly six weeks ago.
It names as the plaintiffs songwriters Dunbar and James Gangwer and names Lavigne, Avril Lavigne Publishing, and the 22-year-old's songwriting partner Dr. Luke among the defendants.
While Carlin admitted that the lyrics and melodies differ, he insisted that the main hook of Dunbar's song was ripped off.
"You don't have to have the entire song to be similar to the original song for it to be an infringement. It just requires a certain, substantial similarity, meaning an important part of the song," he explained.
He went on to recite the lyrics to Lavigne's upbeat track, noting they morph from "I don't like your girlfriend" to "I want to be your girlfriend."
McBride said he hired a musicologist to study both tracks and the expert found no basis for the allegations.
"This one came back so solidly on our side it's just ridiculous," he said.
Still, McBride admitted he's considering settling the suit out of court if the costs of defending the case prove too high.
He noted that a similar claim against his client Sarah McLachlan about 10 years ago cost roughly $500,000 to defeat in court. When Nettwerk tried to recoup the costs from the plaintiffs, they declared bankruptcy, he said.
Veteran entertainment lawyer Paul Sanderson said copyright suits are common in the music business and are often settled out of court.
"There used to be a saying in the industry: 'Where there's a hit, there's a writ,' " said Sanderson, a Toronto lawyer who used to represent Lavigne and whose current clients include Chantal Kreviazuk and Ron Sexsmith.
"It really is about the money. If someone thinks that they have a possibility of making some money out of the claim and there's money in the pipeline that's been earned by a song ... there's money there to argue about."
McBride said his current legal battle is "an unfortunate part of this business."
"We will try and settle for costs that will be less than defending," he said. "Emotionally, it sucks. But at the end of the day you have to take that out of it."
The legal blow is just the latest in a series of jabs that question Lavigne's songwriting claims.
Last month, Kreviazuk suggested to Performing Songwriter magazine that Lavigne took credit for a song Kreviazuk wrote called "Contagious."
Kreviazuk told the publication she gave a song called "Contagious" to Lavigne two years ago and was surprised to see a track with the same name on Lavigne's current disc with a credit to Lavigne and songwriter Evan Taubenfeld.
McBride said Kreviazuk has never even heard the Lavigne track and has since retracted her statement.
"I know, personally, she regrets saying what she said," said McBride, adding the songs are nothing alike. "The interviewer obviously got Chantal on a bad day."
Lavigne, who grew up in Napanee, Ont., has also had to deflect accusations from the Matrix, the production team behind hits "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm With You."
Songwriter Lauren Christy told Rolling Stone that Lavigne did little but "change a word here or there," but Lavigne has insisted the pair crafted the melodies and lyrics together.
McBride said the barrage of criticism facing Lavigne is just part of life at the top of the charts.
"Everyone comes after the stars. If Avril was not successful, they wouldn't really care," he said.
Avril sued over 'Girlfriend'
By CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI
TORONTO (CP) - Canadian punk princess Avril Lavigne, repeatedly dogged by accusations she doesn't write her own songs, is now being dragged into a legal battle to prove she penned her chart-topping hit "Girlfriend."
A pair of U.S. songwriters allege her contagious single sounds suspiciously like a song called "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," released by the Rubinoos in 1979.
The American song features the upbeat chorus: "Hey, hey, you, you, I wanna be your boyfriend," much like Lavigne's boppy refrain, which declares: "Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your girlfriend."
San Francisco lawyer Nicholas Carlin said Wednesday that the similarities are clear, and accused Lavigne of copying substantial chunks of the song from the one crafted by his client, Rubinoos founder and songwriter Tommy Dunbar.
"She's made a lot of money off of my client's song," Carlin said by phone from northern California, where the claim was filed.
"The entire song is not the same, they have different bridges, but the heart and soul of her song is directly taken from our client's song."
Lavigne's manager, Terry McBride, scoffed at the charges, calling the suit "baseless" and little more than a "case of legal blackmail."
"Avril's a great songwriter and she's proving it over and over and over again," McBride said from Vancouver, where he runs Nettwerk Music Group.
"Avril's very, very sensible. She knows music well. If the chords had been similar, the melodies had been similar, lyrics had been similar ... she would have gone, 'OK, I can see their point.' But nothing's similar."
McBride said the suit was filed July 2 but that he received a draft of the claim roughly six weeks ago.
It names as the plaintiffs songwriters Dunbar and James Gangwer and names Lavigne, Avril Lavigne Publishing, and the 22-year-old's songwriting partner Dr. Luke among the defendants.
While Carlin admitted that the lyrics and melodies differ, he insisted that the main hook of Dunbar's song was ripped off.
"You don't have to have the entire song to be similar to the original song for it to be an infringement. It just requires a certain, substantial similarity, meaning an important part of the song," he explained.
He went on to recite the lyrics to Lavigne's upbeat track, noting they morph from "I don't like your girlfriend" to "I want to be your girlfriend."
McBride said he hired a musicologist to study both tracks and the expert found no basis for the allegations.
"This one came back so solidly on our side it's just ridiculous," he said.
Still, McBride admitted he's considering settling the suit out of court if the costs of defending the case prove too high.
He noted that a similar claim against his client Sarah McLachlan about 10 years ago cost roughly $500,000 to defeat in court. When Nettwerk tried to recoup the costs from the plaintiffs, they declared bankruptcy, he said.
Veteran entertainment lawyer Paul Sanderson said copyright suits are common in the music business and are often settled out of court.
"There used to be a saying in the industry: 'Where there's a hit, there's a writ,' " said Sanderson, a Toronto lawyer who used to represent Lavigne and whose current clients include Chantal Kreviazuk and Ron Sexsmith.
"It really is about the money. If someone thinks that they have a possibility of making some money out of the claim and there's money in the pipeline that's been earned by a song ... there's money there to argue about."
McBride said his current legal battle is "an unfortunate part of this business."
"We will try and settle for costs that will be less than defending," he said. "Emotionally, it sucks. But at the end of the day you have to take that out of it."
The legal blow is just the latest in a series of jabs that question Lavigne's songwriting claims.
Last month, Kreviazuk suggested to Performing Songwriter magazine that Lavigne took credit for a song Kreviazuk wrote called "Contagious."
Kreviazuk told the publication she gave a song called "Contagious" to Lavigne two years ago and was surprised to see a track with the same name on Lavigne's current disc with a credit to Lavigne and songwriter Evan Taubenfeld.
McBride said Kreviazuk has never even heard the Lavigne track and has since retracted her statement.
"I know, personally, she regrets saying what she said," said McBride, adding the songs are nothing alike. "The interviewer obviously got Chantal on a bad day."
Lavigne, who grew up in Napanee, Ont., has also had to deflect accusations from the Matrix, the production team behind hits "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm With You."
Songwriter Lauren Christy told Rolling Stone that Lavigne did little but "change a word here or there," but Lavigne has insisted the pair crafted the melodies and lyrics together.
McBride said the barrage of criticism facing Lavigne is just part of life at the top of the charts.
"Everyone comes after the stars. If Avril was not successful, they wouldn't really care," he said.
Canadian Musician Songwriting Article #2
I enjoyed the Songwriting article in the latest issue of Canadian Musician magazine. It was written by Emm Gryner, a Canadian songwriter, musician, producer and label owner.
While admitting that everyone wants to write a "hit", a popular song that "people love", she also points out:
"But to write primarily with feeling, with your senses alive, and your heart in the right place means something very different than to write with your head in overdrive, thinking, 'How can I get this to sound like Maroon 5 in 20 minutes or less?'..."
Ms. Gryner goes on to describe a typical day of writing for her (not necessarily what any other songwriter should do) and points out:
While admitting that everyone wants to write a "hit", a popular song that "people love", she also points out:
"But to write primarily with feeling, with your senses alive, and your heart in the right place means something very different than to write with your head in overdrive, thinking, 'How can I get this to sound like Maroon 5 in 20 minutes or less?'..."
Ms. Gryner goes on to describe a typical day of writing for her (not necessarily what any other songwriter should do) and points out:
- The need to sit at her piano (where she writes) first thing every morning, without distractions.
- She goes where she can be completely alone and where her instrument sounds best.
- She jots down melody ideas as musical notes next to lyrics she's written so she can remember those melody ideas that go with certain words. This can also be done by singing into her telephone and leaving herself a message.
- She goes with her superstitions - same tape of paper, same pen. AND she writes the alphabet on the top of the page to help her with her rhyming.
- She knows she's done when she gets a "good feeling" about her song.
- "Write what you love, not what is trendy."
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Newspaper clipping - Songwriter Catfight!
From today's Globe & Mail Review Section... the article speaks for itself:
- Chantal accuses Avril of crossing 'ethical line'
GEOFF NIXON
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
July 4, 2007 at 3:48 AM EDT
Two of Canada's most well-known chanteuses, Chantal Kreviazuk and Avril Lavigne, share the same orbit in the Canadian music scene. Both are signed to Sony BMG Music, both have management through Vancouver's Nettwerk Music Group and the two have even collaborated from time to time. But now an apparent rift has emerged between the two, with Kreviazuk taking aim at Lavigne and her work in a recent interview in an American music magazine.
In the June, 2007, issue of Performing Songwriter, Kreviazuk pokes fun at the notion that Lavigne is a songwriter and suggests that the pop singer from Napanee, Ont., may have lifted a song title from Kreviazuk's own work.
"I mean, Avril, a songwriter?" Kreviazuk is quoted as saying. "Avril doesn't really sit and write songs by herself or anything."
Kreviazuk goes on to say in the interview that she sent Lavigne a song called Contagious two years ago and that Lavigne then included a song by the same name on her most recent album, The Best Damn Thing.
"Avril will also cross the ethical line, and no one says anything," Kreviazuk said in the interview.
"That's why I'll never work with her again. I sent her a song two years ago called Contagious and I just saw the track listing to this album and there's a song called Contagious on it - and my name's not on it. What do you do with that?"
In a response to a question from the interviewer, however, she said she would not seek legal action.
Lavigne's Toronto-based entertainment lawyer, Chris Taylor, said yesterday that he had no comment on the remarks made by Kreviazuk. Both Sony BMG and Nettwerk were similarly mum about the tiff between the two stars.
Evan Taubenfeld, who collaborated with Lavigne on four songs included on The Best Damn Thing and who is the singer for the L.A.-based band Black List Club, said the Contagious that made Lavigne's record was one that did not involve Kreviazuk.
"I honestly can't speak as to the song that Chantal is claiming to have sent or not have sent," Taubenfeld said.
"The only thing I can say is that Avril and I wrote a song called Contagious for my record. We started it from scratch. We wrote it at her house and we wrote a 100-per-cent original collaboration that only her and I were part of, and that we came up with the concept for it on the spot. I was going to use it for my record, and then at the last second she used it on her record."
As for the relationship between Lavigne and Kreviazuk, Taubenfeld said he could offer no explanation as to what led to the dispute between the two musicians.
"Av is probably my closest friend in the world and I think she's always treated Chantal fairly and with great amounts of respect and dignity," he said.
"I'm not sure what happened. I know they had a great relationship for the last record and they wrote some really good songs together. But I'm not really sure, exactly, what happened on this record."
He reiterated, "I can say that Contagious was 100 per cent between [Avril] and I. Chantal had nothing to do with it."
Rick Taylor, managing editor of Performing Songwriter, said Kreviazuk's comments simply came out in a regular conversation between the singer and freelance writer Bob Cannon.
Cannon said he felt the controversy between the two stemmed more from the fact that Kreviazuk was not mentioned as an influence on Lavigne's song.
"I think Chantal, without saying so, ... was a little bit hurt by that," he said, adding that feuds over credit are common in the music industry.
Neither Lavigne nor Kreviazuk could be reached by The Globe and Mail yesterday for comment.
Free Concert - Featuring a Dazzling Group of Singer/Songwriters
I think I saw this event in the past, and LiANA, my Songwriting Workgroup leader, just sent an email about it, and it's right near my home, so I should really be going to it... The concert is sponsored by the Songwriters Association of Canada and features numerous singer/songwriters performing in a lead-off event for the Humber Songwriting Workshop.
The news release issued by Humber College last week states:
The news release issued by Humber College last week states:
- TORONTO - A truly exceptional group of prominent singer/songwriters – including Jules Shear, Danny Michel, Shari Ulrich, Damhnait Doyle, Justin Gray, and Haydain Neale – will perform at the Bluebird North: Where Writers Sing and Tell concert kicking off this year’s Humber Songwriting Workshop.
Sponsored by the Songwriters Association of Canada, the free concert is scheduled for Saturday, July 7 at 8:00 p.m. in the Assembly Hall located on the south-east corner of Lake Shore Blvd. West and Kipling Avenue in Toronto.
Brief Bios:
Damhnait Doyle - (member of Shaye: award-winning vocalist and successful collaborator)
Justin Gray - (songwriter/producer, works with Joss Stone, Ryan Malcolm, Emma Bunton, Snow, and others; nominated for Grammies, Junos, and British Music Awards)
Danny Michel - (writer/producer/performer – making rare Toronto appearance)
Haydain Neale - (soul writer/singer/ producer, winner of Juno Award for best R&B/Soul recording of jacksoul)
Jules Shear - (originator of MTV Unplugged, writer for Bangles, Cyndi Lauper, and others; making a very rare Toronto appearance)
Shari Ulrich - (noted composer, producer and performer coming all the way from British Columbia)
About the Humber Songwriting Workshop
The Humber Songwriting Workshop offers aspiring lyricists and musicians an opportunity to spend a week writing songs with a faculty that includes some of the greatest names in songwriting. The workshop runs from July 7 – July 13 at Humber’s Lakeshore campus. For details, please contact Pat Tait at 416-675-6622 ext. 77172
Pause and Wonder - Soundclick
Well, I tried some of the vocal tricks I learned in the Revolution Audio class last week (EQ/Compression/Reverb) and put them to use on my song Pause and Wonder. Please have a listen and let me know what you think...
It's late... I'm off to bed...
It's late... I'm off to bed...
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Muses' Muse
I've been visiting the Muses' Muse for a long time now... I haven't posted up there lately 'cos I've been remiss in providing my opinions to other songwriters' tunes, but I always enjoy dropping in on the message board in the lyrics and lyrics & music critique sub-board of the songwriting message board... It's great to have that resource available for quick, inciteful feedback from your peers (some of them pros)...
I also subscribe to the Muse's News Songwriting Newsletter and this month, I was lucky enough to be a winner in the monthly prize giveaways... I won a copy of a book THE SONGWRITER'S JOURNAL by Stan Swanson. As reviewed by Ed Teja for Muses' News: "it should make anyone a more prolific songwriter, which will provide the opportunity for improvement. It should help tickle a sleeping muse awake, and that can't hurt." - That's good news for me... I need that muse awoken at times...
Thanks to Jodi Krangle - Proprietress of the Muse's Muse for this great prize... Jodi is a fellow Canadian in the GTA and she runs a wonderful resource for all songwriters worldwide. A great debt of gratitude is owed to her... KEEP UP THE EXCELLENT WORK!!!
I also subscribe to the Muse's News Songwriting Newsletter and this month, I was lucky enough to be a winner in the monthly prize giveaways... I won a copy of a book THE SONGWRITER'S JOURNAL by Stan Swanson. As reviewed by Ed Teja for Muses' News: "it should make anyone a more prolific songwriter, which will provide the opportunity for improvement. It should help tickle a sleeping muse awake, and that can't hurt." - That's good news for me... I need that muse awoken at times...
Thanks to Jodi Krangle - Proprietress of the Muse's Muse for this great prize... Jodi is a fellow Canadian in the GTA and she runs a wonderful resource for all songwriters worldwide. A great debt of gratitude is owed to her... KEEP UP THE EXCELLENT WORK!!!
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