I took some time at Midem 2010 to put a question to David Stark, publisher of SongLink. His tipsheet provides some of the best tips in the business, hooking up major artists with songs. The “names” have included Tina Tuner, James Blunt, Kim Wilde and many others. Publishers and songwriters use SongLink obviously to get their songs on the shortlist. So the obvious question was: what does it take to write for a name artist?

You’ll find the answer here.

This is the reason it’s such a pleasure working with Perry Rose: his sheer musicality. Over a simple ukulele riff, he builds layers of piano and vocals (bear with him). He will be interviewed on Belgium’s Classic 21 radio on November 18 2009 at midday, with a show on Nov 21 in the Belgian town of Mons.

Perry Rose downloads

One of my writing partners, Steve Willaert (known for his soundtracks for movies such as “Hell in Tangier”, “Stille Water” and “Vermist”, has just announced concert dates for an ambitious project he put together with a bunch of multinational musicians.

ChiBeJa features Chinese flautist (and Real World artist) Guo Yue, Japanese drum master Ryutaro Kaneko, dancers Gerlo Geverien and Christiaan De Donder and singer Chantal Kashala. It took me a little time, but I eventually worked out the name is an acronym of “China -Belgium – Japan”.

They promise to play extracts of “Stille Water” and compositions combining the multiple influences of the performers. More details can be found on the Eventually Productions site.

Click through for the concert dates.

ChiBeJa dates in Belgium, October 2010

* zaterdag 3 oktober 2009
CC Casino Beringen
* zaterdag 10 oktober 2009
CC De Plomblom Ninove
* zondag 11 oktober 2009
CC Ter Dilft Bornem
* vrijdag 16 oktober 2009
Arenberg Schouwburg Antwerpen
* zaterdag 17 oktober 2009
CC De Biekorf
* donderdag 22 oktober 2009
Schouwburg Kortrijk
* vrijdag 23 oktober 2009
De Spil Roeselare
* woensdag 28 oktober 2009
Stadsschouwburg Sint-Niklaas
* vrijdag 30 oktober 2009
Stadsschouwburg Brugge
* zaterdag 31 oktober 2009
Cultuurcentrum Hasselt

Feeling stuck on a song? Worried about blank page fever? Writer’s block? Then try a little exercise. Take out all your lyrics and give them a hard look. Spot any trends? Are you still writing about that one big break-up? Are you still fuming about that same two-faced liar? Are you still copying Smokey Robinson or Motown? Does the same sense of social injustice drive all your lyrics, except this time it’s driving you into the wall?

Chances are you’re stuck in a rut. You’re bored by your own writing. Your songwriting habits are sending you – and most likely your listeners – to sleep. Time for a little lateral thinking.

Habits can be handy. They are comfortable, as they enable you to function on low energy. You’ve learnt a few skills and apply them almost automatically to pad out your songs. Trouble is, they can lead you to write emotional clones, songs that have an almost identical point of view. Isn’t that a little, um, boring?

But the good thing about habits is that they are there to be broken – and quite easily. I remember talking with the singer of a great band called Venus, who was preparing to record a new album. The first thing that struck me when we spread out all the lyrics is that all the songs were first-person. “I this/I that/I feel/I say/I want/I don’t…” That one letter “I” led to another one, “Z” as in “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” Each individual song was OK. But as a block? Snore.

I introduced him gently to the concept of the “you” song. As an exercise, I suggested he completely abandon “I” and re-write a few of the songs from a new viewpoint. It’s not as if he had never heard a song about “you”. It’s just that he had been sitting inside his comfort zone, the habit of “I”. It happens to us all.

Songwriting tools: don't forget the chololate!

Songs are emotional conduits; they channel stuff. But people have to recognise the emotions involved. If your songs only “work” when you sing them, you’re relying on interpretation. So they might only have surface attraction, and it’s unlikely anyone else will ever record them. When’s the last time someone recorded “Be Bop a Lula”?

My Scotty Trick
One idea that I particularly enjoy is what I call the Scotty Trick, beaming someone else into the song. I remember writing for the Dutch singer Sylvia Samson. I was stuck. She has a great voice and I was basically churning out another weepy ballad. Oh yes, “woe is me/now you’re gone/zzzzzz”. I happened to watch a documentary about No Doubt and really enjoyed Gwen Stefani’s attitude. It struck me that she’d never sing the self-indulgent tosh that I was writing for Sylvia. If it’s not good enough for Gwen, why should I foist it on someone else? So in my head, I edited out the glissando strings and minor chords and actually imagined Stefani on stage singing the melody, including her hand gestures and attitude.

The result became “I’m not Looking”. It’s still a slow song, but one about self-affirmation: “I’m not looking for someone / That will change my life [...] When I know that someone is me”. It turns out, it really struck a chord with Sylvia. She would probably have sung the weepy version very well. But now we both had something we could hang real emotions onto. But I had reached beyond my comfort zone of writing girlie love songs. Yay! And guess what: “girlies” have recognisable emotions too, and you give your song more when you give them the right words. I’m being facetious, of course, but it’s dispiriting the cynicism that I sometimes find in songwriting teams (I’ll get back to this subject).

Wake up your lyrics

So dig out your lyrics. Scan them for recurring themes and structures. Hopefully, your next song will step away from them. “But that’s not me,” you might be tempted to say, “I have my style.” Perhaps, but it could also be that you have yet to reach the full potential of your writing. There are perhaps parts of your writing that you haven’t yet uncovered. So break the habit and wake up your lyrics. The listeners might pick up their ears as well!

Shameless plug: Michael Leahy puts words in other people’s mouths. Buying just one track of their music will thrill both them and me! I’d also really love to get a discussion going, so feel free to comment. What’s your technique for breaking the habit? Don’t forget you can sign up to follow lyric news on A-Lyric on Twitter or Song Lyrics RSS

The infobahn is alive with Susan Boyle’s rendition (nice word, eh?) of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses”. There is an overwhelming opinion that Boyle has now recorded one of the definitive versions of the song. This, however, is seen as sacrilege by others, who cling to memories of the Stones and Gram Parsons. This sort of fuss is frequent when someone decides to cover a song. Why? What’s the issue?

One of the most enduring myths in pop culture is the myth of the auteur. There is a strange obsession about artists singing their own lyrics. I think it comes from our desire to associate the performer with the song – as if most men could actually love you “all night long” or Marilyn Manson was as dark and twisted as he tries to make out (which I doubt – he’s remarkably well-read and articulate). To burst the bubble, all one has to do is think of some absolute defining moments in pop and ask: who cares who wrote them?

Who cares that Elvis Presley didn’t write “Hound Dog” (Lieber & Stoller)? Who cares that Edith Piaf didn’t write “Je ne regrette rien” (Doumont & Vaucaire)? Who cares if Jimi Hendrix didn’t compose “Hey Joe” (Billy Roberts)? Each made history and moved countless millions of people with their versions. What’s more, how would those songs sound if sung by their respective authors? The answer is easy: disappointing in most cases.

If it’s worth singing, sing it well
So I can’t knock people singing “covers”. It’s a tribute. If a song is worth writing, it is worth singing well. And for me, the better the singer the happier we should be. Yes, even if that singer is Celine Dion, Nana Mouskouri or in this case the winner of a TV show.

Coming back to “Wild Horses”, Boyle has indeed created a superb version. Yes, it’s a bit incongruous Susan Boyle slipping into a song made famous by Mick Jagger. But she breathes new life into the song. When you look at it from a songwriting perspective, “Wild Horses” is basically a magnificent melody and structure with dubious lyrics. I’m not sure how Boyle manages to put such emotion into Jagger’s mild misogyny, but she does. Being a nice guy at heart, I salute verses such as:

I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or offstage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn’t drag me away

But I’ll pass on the rest. We should be thanking Susan Boyle for her voice and heart. We need more of both in the charts.

Susan Boyle: I Dreamed a Dream

The way music is licenced around the world means that I have no control over where the tracks I work on eventually crop up. As Perry Rose has played quite a lot in France, just about all his albums are available on Amazon France as MP3s.

I have to say: Perry is truly one of the best melody writers I know, in addition to being a great singer. His Irish roots are also pretty clear to see (check the liner notes on the compilation “Celtic Circus” where he talks about the Duffy Circus in Ireland). Amazon have a neat widget, so I made a selection of our co-writes over the years and added comments for each track. My faves are “On my Knees” and “Down to the Sea”, but there’s not one track here I’m not proud of.

I met Jack Stafford once (so in showbiz terms he’s “a dear friend”, when he sells a few more records I’ll bill him a “very dear friend”). He’s a Brit currently living in Amsterdam and playing about 200 shows a year. Two things strike me about this vid of “Cedar Room” from the album “Long Live Love”: one, it’s a pretty cool song; and two, it’s a classic example of doing things small but well. Click through for the Jack Stafford Foundation tour dates in Germany, the US, Switzerland and Belgium.

Jack Stafford Foundation tour dates
Aug 7, 2009 6:00 PM Schlauerbauer Festival Wetzikon, Switzerland
Aug 8, 2009 5:00 PM Poetry festival Hengelo, Netherlands
Aug 8, 2009 8:00 PM Gebaude 9 @ Stereo-Summerland Fesitval Colgone, Germany
Aug 10, 2009 8:00 PM Cafe Gattlich Bonn, Netherlands
Aug 11, 2009 8:00 PM SubRosa Dortmund, Germany
Aug 13, 2009 8:00 PM Erbse Dillenburg, Germany
Aug 14, 2009 8:00 PM Kiste Stuttgart, Netherlands
Aug 15, 2009 8:00 PM Abendsegler Feldberger Seenlandschaft, Germany
Aug 22, 2009 8:00 PM Hafen 2 Offenbach, Germany
Aug 29, 2009 8:00 PM Intersoup Berlin, Germany
Aug 29, 2009 8:00 PM Kunstbaurkino Grosshennersdorf, Germany
Aug 31, 2009 8:00 PM Li-Wei Apolda, Germany
Sep 1, 2009 12:00 PM Cafe Galao Stuttgart, Germany
Sep 2, 2009 8:00 PM Steinbruch Duisburg, Germany
Sep 3, 2009 8:00 PM Spatz and wal Unna, Germany
Sep 4, 2009 8:00 PM Pferdestall Bremerhaven, Germany
Sep 5, 2009 8:00 PM Kassel Museumsnacht Kassel, Germany
Sep 17, 2009 8:00 PM The Space Hamden, CT
Sep 18, 2009 8:00 PM The People’s Pint Greenfield, MA
Sep 19, 2009 8:00 PM P.A.’s Lounge Somerville, MA
Sep 20, 2009 8:00 PM Burren Somerville, MA
Sep 21, 2009 8:00 PM The Red Door Portsmouth, NH
Sep 22, 2009 8:00 PM Radio Bean Burlington, VT
Sep 23, 2009 8:00 PM Langdon Street Cafe Montpelier, VT
Sep 24, 2009 8:00 PM The Monkey House Winooski, VT
Sep 29, 2009 8:00 PM Cafe Nine New Haven, CT
Sep 30, 2009 8:00 PM The Saint Asbury Park, NJ
Oct 1, 2009 12:00 PM Dewey Beach Music Conference & Festival Dewey Beach, DE
Oct 2, 2009 12:00 PM Dewey Beach Music Conference & Festival Dewey Beach, DE
Oct 3, 2009 12:00 PM Dewey Beach Music Conference & Festival Dewey Beach, DE
Oct 6, 2009 8:00 PM Tin Angel Philadelphia, PA
Oct 7, 2009 8:00 PM The Wonderland Ballroom Washington, DC
Oct 8, 2009 8:00 PM The Triple Richmond, VA
Oct 9, 2009 8:00 PM The Boot Norfolk, VA
Oct 10, 2009 8:00 PM MANSIONS 462 Chapel Hill, NC
Oct 11, 2009 8:00 PM The Acoustic Coffee House Johnson City, TN
Oct 12, 2009 4:00 PM WDVX Knoxville, TN
Oct 13, 2009 8:00 PM Caledonia Lounge Athens, GA
Oct 15, 2009 8:00 PM Preservation Pub Knoxville, TN
Oct 16, 2009 8:00 PM Music City Bar Nashville, TN
Oct 17, 2009 8:00 PM Ri’chard’s Whites Creek, TN
Oct 19, 2009 8:00 PM Record Bar Kansas City, MO
Oct 20, 2009 8:00 PM Vaudeville Mews Des Moines, IA
Oct 21, 2009 8:00 PM The Picador Iowa City, IA
Oct 22, 2009 12:00 PM Mojo’s Davenport, IA
Oct 22, 2009 8:00 PM The Frequency Madison, WI
Oct 26, 2009 8:00 PM Pike Room Pontiac, MI
Oct 28, 2009 8:00 PM The Bug Jar Rochester, NY
Oct 29, 2009 8:00 PM Perfect Wife Manchester, VT
Nov 19, 2009 8:00 PM The Aardvark Fort Worth, TX
Nov 20, 2009 8:00 PM Saxon Pub Austin, TX
Nov 27, 2009 8:00 PM The Corner Pub Conroe, TX
Dec 16, 2009 8:00 PM Lokaal Vredebreuk Den Haag, Netherlands
Dec 17, 2009 8:00 PM Pageturner @ Pakhuis Wilhelmina Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jan 7, 2010 8:00 PM Cult Bar St. Gallen, Switzerland
Jan 8, 2010 8:00 PM Musig Bistrot Bern, Switzerland
Jan 9, 2010 8:00 PM Atelier Art and Bar Wohlen, Switzerland
Jan 10, 2010 8:00 PM Fassbeiz Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Jan 14, 2010 8:00 PM Weekender Innsbruk, Austria
Jan 16, 2010 8:00 PM Triebwerk Wiener neustadt, Austria

You can find their tracks for sale on eMusic and CD Baby

Long-time collaborator Perry Rose was invited to organise a special show during the summer. It sold out pretty quickly. The good news is that RTBF radio were on hand and recorded it, broadcasting it in two parts. The second part is going out on December 31 as part of the “Le Monde est un village” show at 7pm local time (Paris-Brussels). Perry is a remarkable composer and musician, and invited numerous guests to play on the day (although I don’t know who will be on the radio show itself). Click through for frequencies and info

The frequencies for the show can be found on the RTBF website. Check also Perry’s website.

For once, an old-fashioned singer-songwritery tip. Amanda Ghost is perhaps best-known for having co-written “You’re Beautiful” with James Blunt. She also wrote “Beautiful Liar” for Beyonce and Shakira. But as you’ll see from this and other tracks of hers, she’s a compelling singer and songwriter on her own.

“Blood on the Line” is pretty straightforward lyrically, but beautifully done:

I don’t know how to shut my mouth,
no other way to let it out.
I have a voice that won’t be heard,
an empty cage without a bird.
I don’t know how I missed the sign,
Lord I must be blind,
But, that’s my blood on the line.
That’s my blood on the line.

Nicely put.

With the shocking Mumbai attacks still playing out as I type this, I can’t help thinking back to other attacks and other wars with their cast of innocent victims. But attacks also leave witnesses. Nitin Sawhney and Natty appear together on the remarkable “Days of Fire”, the opening track on Sawhney’s latest album “London Undersound”. It recounts the feelings of someone whose ordinary routine – and perhaps later life – was affected by the London terror attacks. What was ordinary takes on a new aspect. There’s a sense of disconnect, of time slowing down.

The lyrics are remarkably personal and sober, without playing on any easy emotions. The opening lines are very simple, an attendant presumably telling the author to find another way home:

There’s no more trains going that way
There’s no more trains coming this way
You better make your way home, son
There’s something going down in London

When the blasts occur, he records the emotion, without resorting to cheap shots or flag-waving.

Now it’s all gone slow motion, everything slow motion
The lights gone out – I feel no more emotion
I’m all out of emotion, I’m out of emotion

On these streets where I played
And these trains that I take, I saw fire
But now I’ve seen the city change in
Oh so many ways, since the days of fire
Since the days of fire

It’s interesting that nowhere does he refer to the dead, apart from mentioning the “Brazilian name all over TV”. So he rigidly steers clear of cheapening the song, or turning it into a “tribute”. It’s a simple statement about the day the city changed.

Remarkable writing, that is well served by the railway track rhythm of the Sawhney’s guitar. There are no strings or minor chords. It’s a clear, personal and honest account of one person’s questions faced with a monumental change.

With “Don’t Forget the Lyrics”, Singapore is now the 30th country to host a lyric-based TV competition. Along the lines of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”, the game pushes contestants to sing the missing lines of songs. The prize at the end of the rainbow? A cool $500,000. The show is hosted by local celebrity Gurmit Singh. Apart from actually knowing the lyrics, it takes a cool head to win. Talking to Channels News Asia, Singh said, “These people who come along thinking they know the song and when the music stops, the lyrics go away, they get stumped. My theory is this, when people see blanks, dashes, their minds go blank as well.”

Well, it sounds like writers are not the only ones to suffer from the fever of a blank page. My advice to contestants: don’t look at those blanks. My advice to writers: same thing.

One of the very best vocalists I’ve ever worked with is hands down CB Milton. I’ve often asked people for news, as he slipped off the map. Producer Kristof Hermé put me on the trail again, leading me to the documentary “Playing for Change”. This superb extract of various musicians playing “Stand by Me” features him at about 1.50″, billed as Clarence Bekker. I see he still has to stand about a metre from the microphone. This is one LOUD singer, believe me. I saw him sing “Redemption Song” a-capella without a mike in a huge venue in Amsterdam many years ago. Fantastic clip overall.