2008 USA SONGWRITING COMPETITION DEADLINE LOOMS

The 2008 USA Songwriting Competition deadline is fast approaching. Win a
top prize of $50,000 worth of cash and merchandise such as cool gear from
Sony, Ibanez Guitars, D'Addario Strings, Peavey, Audio-Technica and more.
Also, have your winning songs played on radio! Enter in Pop, Rock/Alt,
Folk, R&B, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Instrumental, etc.

Since 1995, USA Songwriting Competition has been honoring songwriters from
all over the world. Winners came from Australia, Japan, Canada, UK,
Germany, Brazil, South Africa, USA, etc. Past winners have gotten
recording contracts, getting their songs on film, TV as well as getting
cuts with major artists. The 2005 Winner of the country category had his
winning song cut by Faith Hill. The 2005 winner of the pop catgeory was
signed by MySpace/Interscope records.

Entries must be entered by May 30 or earlier. The entry form can be found at:
http://www.songwriting.net

The Mayer Songwriting Process - Patent Pending

John Mayer is teaming up with FunnyOrDie.com for a tongue in cheek look at how a his songwriting process has evolved, "having not been inspired since 2004." Discussing song ideas, including not being able to get the girl, Mayer deadpanned, "If I can't get the girl, why don't I just tell them I'm John Mayer?" Making a cameo in the clip is 'Heroes' star Kristen Bell. Watch it here:

Morissette: Songwriting Helped Her Cope

Here's Alanis sharing some insight...
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2008/05/10/morissette_songwriting_helped_me_cope/1134/
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Morissette: Songwriting helped me cope

Published: May 10, 2008 at 1:38 PM
LOS ANGELES, May 10 (UPI) -- Canadian singer Alanis Morissette says she wrote songs for her new album, "Flavors of Entanglement," to help her deal with problems in her private life.

The "Jagged Little Pill" singer told People.com she was able to work thorough a number of personal issues by writing songs for the new album, which is set for a June 10 release.

"The record chronicles the rock bottom finally being hit," Morissette said.

Morisette's decision to call off her engagement to actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007 was said to be part of what the singer called "a personal unraveling of significant relationships in my life."

The Grammy Award-winning singer said she is in a new romantic relationship and remains hopeful about the future and true love, People.com said.

"Oh yeah. My nature is always hope filled. It's more about values matching now," Morissette told the Web site. "That's the foundation."

© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.

Please click on the link below to view the entire article.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2008/05/10/morissette_songwriting_helped_me_cope/1134/

Hiatt - Lifetime Songwriting Achievement Award

John Hiatt will receive the Americana Music Association's lifetime achievement award for songwriting. You can read more about here on the organization website, but in the words of Jed Hilly, the Executive Director of the organization:

“It’s a privilege to honor John Hiatt,” says Hilly. “He is the essence of what the Americana Songwriter award is all about; a true artist, a performer and songwriter whose work is steeped with integrity.”

Enough said...

Nick Cave on Songwriting

Here's part of an interview by Russell Hall, staff writer for the Independent Mail in Anderson, South Carolina, on the songwriting discipline as seen through the eyes of Nick Cave talking about his new album "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" (full article here):

Russell Hall: I understand that you go to an office every day to write songs, the way a businessman might do. That flies in the face of the image of the tortured artist, waiting for inspiration to strike.

Nick Cave: Oh, I’m tortured. I’m tortured in my office, between nine and six.

RH: How exactly does a song tend to unfold for you?

NC: I’m happy if I’m writing a song — lyrics and music — once a week. I’m very happy if I get two, and I’m distressed if I don’t get any. The way a song comes about ... (pauses); It happens in so many ways it’s difficult to say. But it’s very much about a couple of words, and slowly sort of adding to those words. It starts off with a very small germ of an idea, which then blossoms in some way.

RH: Is there something that tells you when you’re onto something promising?

NC: Yes. It’s a physical thing. I start getting kind of shivery and excited, and my heart beats faster. And then suddenly I’m just there, in it, and it’s off. That feeling is great, but then you can lose that, too. Suddenly it’s gone — it’s not there any more — and that’s not so good.

RH: Have you ever experienced a serious case of writer’s block?

NC: No. Actually I’m horrified at the thought. I’m very superstitious about the whole thing, and horrified of being jinxed. One of the things I do is just never stop writing. If for one reason or another I’m forced to take a holiday, or something like that, I begin to get very anxious, and fearful that it will all go away.

RH: Which is more difficult, writing prose fiction or writing songs?

NC: Writing songs is the most difficult thing of all, for me. The problem is that you always have to start again, after each song. You’re always back at square one, very quickly. It’s like, “What do I do now? What do I write about now? What am I concerned with now?” With a novel or a piece of prose, or a film script, or these other things that I’ve done, you’ve got an idea and you run with it and tell a story. Each line suggests the next line. I find that very easy, actually.

Always back at square one... doing it all over again... oh, that crazy Muse... may she stick by us all...

New Blog: Get My Songs in a Movie

Tom St. Louis, a songwriter who "oozes music" and is an "obnoxious blowhard" (hey, those are his self-deprecating words, not mine - though they do show his good-naturedness and I'm sure I won't be sued for slander... I think), has recently started a blog entitled: Get My Songs in a Movie


The blog is insightful, entertaining and links to Tom's songs... Best of Luck on your endeavour Tom (as I continue on mine) and may the Muse be with you...

Jam-Write with Adriel

I had a productive evening last night with a co-writer that I met at the Songwriting class I took last fall. Adriel is a multi-talented guitar player, singer, songwriter and production wiz. We laid down the basic tracks to a song we wrote in class (Love Is Just A Breath Away). As soon as we finish the track, I'll post it up here... Check out Adriel's link and let him know that I sent you... some great tunes there...

Keep the faith!

MusesMuse and ISC 2007

Here's a "good news" press release I'd thought I'd share with you, and a great example of why you should participate in the MusesMuse forums:

ISC 2007 Grand Prize Winners Collaborated on MusesMuse.com to Write Their Winning Song

Collaborating online made it possible for two songwriters living across the world from one another to win the grand prize in the International Songwriting Competition, one of the most prestigious songwriting competitions in the world.

Toronto, ON (PRWEB) April 15, 2008 -- Collaborating online made it possible for two songwriters living across the world from one another to win the grand prize in the International Songwriting Competition (http://www.songwritingcompetition.com/). One of the most prestigious songwriting competitions in the world, ISC is renowned for its high-profile judges, who have included Tom Waits, Robert Smith (The Cure), Loretta Lynn, Brian Wilson, B.B. King, Ray Davies (The Kinks), Rob Thomas (Matchbox 20), Neil Finn (Crowded House), Chaka Khan, Charlie Walk (President, Epic Records), Monte Lipman (President, Universal Records), and many more. The Grand Prize winner receives a whopping $25,000 in cash and over $30,000 in merchandise and services, all geared toward helping further a songwriter's career.

Eduard Glumov from Aktobe, Kazakhstan & Z. Mulls from Swarthmore, PA, wrote their award winning song after finding one another online in the message boards at The Muse's Muse Songwriting Resource (http://www.musesmuse.com).

According to Mulls, it was a Creative Competition in one of the Muse's Muse forums that inspired him to write the lyrics. "I wrote a lyric about a guy who really likes a girl, but has to hang out with her and her (bad) boyfriend," he says. "I used a lot of short phrases, echoes and repetition, and those qualities -- the short lines, the repetition, the 'bad boyfriend' storyline -- all fed into a good rock song."

When the lyrics were completed, Mulls put it up on his website. Some time later, Glumov visited the message boards in search of a collaborator and the two connected there, soon taking their discussion to email. When Glumov visited Mulls' site, he picked out a few of the lyrics there that he was interested in putting music to. "I'm Not Your Friend" was one of them and the moody, driving music Glumov wrote for the piece along with his haunting melody and passionate singing, helped give the song what it needed to make it into something the ISC judges couldn't help but recognize. Their song has also won First Prize in the Rock/Alt Division of the Great American Song Contest (http://www.greatamericansong.com).

According to the ISC website, "The collaboration between Eduard Glumov and Z. Mulls -- from Kazakhstan to the USA, from one side of the globe to the other -- perfectly reflects the International Songwriting Competition's mission of nurturing songwriting throughout the world." The Muse's Muse Songwriting Resource promotes that same nurturing mission.

The Muse's Muse message boards have been around since 1997 and currently have a membership of over 7,000. Lyric and song competitions are held regularly for the members there on an informal basis. Many great songs have been written as a result. It's likely that the amount of global collaborations in the arts will only increase as the Internet makes the process far easier than it has ever been in the past.

Congrats to these two songwriters, Glumov and Mulls, for finding their muse through online collaboration... and may the Muse be with us all...

Paul Zollo Interviews David Crosby in Aspen

Paul Zollo, author of many books on songwriting and a songwriter himself, interviewed David Crosby live on stage in Aspen on April 8, 2008, as part of the Lyrically Speaking series put on by the Aspen Writers' Foundation.

The Interview was covered in the Aspen Times by Stewart Oksenhorn. It's an enjoyable read (especially when the reporter recounts Paul Zollo prying a bit too deep into Crosby's feelings about Stephen Stills) and it offers the following thoughts on songwriting:

The famed rocker responded that writing songs is a shadowy process, and noted that songs tend to come to him in moments between wakefulness and sleep, when the mind is slipping into the unguarded realm of dreams.

So Crosby, notable for membership in two landmark groups, the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, could shed little light by speaking on the songwriting process. Even his own songwriting, which has yielded such gems as "Wooden Ships," "Long Time Coming" and "Déjà Vu," is a mystery to him: Songs come to him every which way; any sense of methodology is foreign to him; inspiration comes from a place that he cannot locate.

But when Crosby finally, after a bit of a tease, picked up an acoustic guitar and started playing those off-kilter licks from "Déjà Vu," illumination came at last. There are some things that defy words, and while songwriting on the whole may not be one of them, the way that Crosby writes seems to be. It was noted repeatedly by Zollo that a David Crosby tune doesn't follow the standard structures of a song - not even close, in fact. So the best way to gain an understanding of Crosby's writing was to see and hear the results, and when Crosby picked his way through "Déjà Vu" - and later, parts of "Long Time Coming" and "Triad" - they were instances of clarity: "So that's the essence of his songwriting."

Enough said...

Jason Collett - Papercut Hearts and Songwriting

Jason Collett, Canadian singer/songwriter and perennial Broken Social Scene member, can be found in the Song of the Week feature of IndyWeek.com by Chris Parker.

The featured song (available as a free download) is "Papercut Hearts" from his recent "Here's To Being Here" release. There's some interesting insight on the production of musical recordings, The Rolling Stones and conducting interviews over cell phones - which you should definitely read - I've included just a couple of quotes:

You said you wrote "Papercut Hearts" fairly quickly, in like 20 minutes. Is that unusual?

I think the best songs are the ones that come quickly and relatively intact because you don't have any time to second-guess anything. And that's where the trouble begins, when you start to think about what you're doing or intellectualize it in any way. I would say the whole process of songwriting is a real mystery to me. I do subscribe to the Townes Van Zandt view of songwriting: He said it was as if the songs had all already been written, and that a good songwriter just happens to be present in the room when one floats by.

Do you have to deal with different expectations about your songwriting because of Broken Social Scene?

Mostly I don't care. Inspiration comes and I'm kind of beholden to it, whatever it's going to be. If it falls into some sort of mid '70s feel good groove, so be it. I often write in a very simple 2-3 chord structure just as a way of jostling out the inspiration. It's almost a childlike way of doing it, a nursery rhyme sort of melody, something that puts me into a rhythm that allows for the song itself to come out lyrically. And then I can take that and change the melody. The whole sort of craft thing comes later. But the crucial moment is just that moment of inspiration. I find that if you take the time to adjust the melodies and the structure and start thinking about how this all should be, you can often lose that moment, you know what I mean? It will slip through your hands.

I agree whole-heartedly... the "craft thing comes later" - get inspired and write first! Think later! And may the Muse be with you...