Friday, December 30, 2011

BBC - What a Wonderful World

Nature is full of beauty. When it comes to songwriting, I believe the songs we create that are most natural and authentic to who we are end up being the most beautiful. If you've never watched BBC's Planet Earth series, I would highly encourage it...


Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Stay Warm

A&R Joke

I mentioned recently that the industry is based on opinions. Here's a good joke about  
Songwriter: "So what did you think about the song I sent you?"  
Record label A&R: "I don't know...I haven't played it for anyone yet."
Much truth is said in jest...

Keep writing,

Ben

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

PledgeMusic on ABC News

This is the model for funding records that I think is going to be most friendly to independent artists over the next few years, and I believe PledgeMusic is the best option out there.



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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Quote of the Day - Cooley

"An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one."
 
- Charles Horton Cooley 

 
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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas Eve, Eve in Fort Wayne

Merry Christmas to everyone!

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Ho-ho-ho-verdubs



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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Tim Gearan & Jesse Dee - "Winter Wonderland"



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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

George Bailey

If you're in Nashville this week, I'd encourage you to go see "It's a Wonderful Life" at the Belcourt Theater. It's a wonderful movie.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The Power of Hearing



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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Quote of the Day - Merton

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

- Thomas Merton 

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Want to Be a Producer? Now's Your Chance



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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Driving Force

I've been thinking a lot lately about the state of the industry. The conventional publishing model has developed in such a way that it provides the songwriter the opportunity to get songs pitched to a number of artists. The result of this is that the understanding of possible outlets creeps into the creative process (or is blatantly the goal) and causes the songwriter to create art that is driven by the opportunities at hand.

What would happen if it were the other way around? What if instead of the opportunity driving the art, the art drove the opportunity? Deep down in my soul I desire this to be the case. I want to sit down and write whatever I feel led to create that day, and figure out a way to monetize the art on the back end.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to even get songs into the right hands for them to be recorded by major artists, let alone find their way onto the radio (for more reasons than are worth getting into). In the meantime, I believe it's most important for each songwriter to write the art they feel most led to create. Those will be the songs that have the greatest chance of standing the test of time.

Keep writing,

Ben

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Kicks

Last week I had the chance to hear The Kicks perform at Brite Revolution's Christmas party. The night was getting late, so I was about hitting the point of wanting to head home when they took the stage. Honestly, I would've stayed for another two hours just to hear more from them. These guys have an incredible amount of potential, and I especially love that their influences and references go back earlier than 1990. Check out their recording below:



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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Fast Company: How to Lead a Creative Life




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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Monday, December 12, 2011

"Les Baricades Mistérieuses" by Couperin

Though I can't really give the film a rave review (first I have to figure out its meaning), I fell in love with this piano piece, and appreciated the role music played in the story:



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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Friday, December 9, 2011

What's Your Opinion?

The business of songwriting is based on opinions. The life of a song can end as soon as one of these people deems the music not good enough to listen to:


Songwriter
Publisher
Song plugger
Artist's manager
Artist
Artist's label head
Label promotional team
Radio DJ
Distributor
Retailer
Listener

The most significant decisions happen in the creative stage. As a songwriter, if I want to get my music all the way through the process to the listener, I should probably take into account the opinions of everyone along the way. Sounds logical, right? But the more people you try to appease, the less focused and pure the song becomes. You can write a song that plays by all the rules, but lacks uniqueness. When you create art, it is impossible to please everyone.

In the end, we are all better off staying true to our own understanding of what a great song is. If we do that, in the end we can at least believe in the art we create.

Keep writing,

Ben

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

T-Pain Buble?

I don't mean to be at all negative, but I just need to vent for a second. I really enjoy Christmas music and was looking forward to hearing Michael Buble's new holiday album (I'm a big fan). A few songs in, however, I found myself in disbelief about how much Auto-Tune was used on his voice on some of the songs. Seriously, if there's one incredible singer who doesn't need this robot treatment, this is the guy (to me, this is the equivalent of a professional bowler using bumpers). I prefer listening to an amazing human voice (imperfections and all) over a computer any day. Here's a sample:



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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Quote of the Day - Wilde

“The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.”

- Oscar Wilde

 


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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Notorious Baby



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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Monday, December 5, 2011

B+

 
Believe me...I'm all about doing things right. My personality is an INTJ, which basically says that I can put my stock in the idea that there's a concrete way to do something: my way.

But at Songbird Camp, I had the realization that maybe every song doesn't have the potential to be perfect. Maybe I'm not expected to finish each day with a masterpiece. Maybe the idea of perfection is the enemy of an attempt at authentic art.

Steve Longbrake (pictured), who led the discussion on personalities and collaboration, said that his personality tends to make decisions quickly. "B+ is good enough," he said. To my personality, this doesn't jive. But I did realize that sometimes it's best to let a song be a B+ and just move on.

The first night of the retreat someone asked Luke Laird when he decided a song was finished. I expected him to talk about how often he works days and days perfecting the lyric or melody, but he simply answered, "At the end of the day."

If we spend all our time trying to make a B+ song an A, we may never get around to writing the A+ songs.

Keep writing (and moving on),

Ben

Friday, December 2, 2011

Quote of the Day - da Vinci

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”

- Leonardo da Vinci

 

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Old Photos, New Life



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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!