24 Spots

Songwriting “camps” have been a growing trend in our culture for some time now. They’re often hosted by a producer or a publisher collecting material for a notable artist in the process of making an album.

The main purpose of SONA - Songwriters of N. America (an advocacy Org to which I passionately belong) — is to fight for higher streaming rates and preserve the value of songs and songwriters! It keeps us pretty busy. So much so that ironically we don’t have a lot of time to plan actual music-making events.

That said, we recently received a generous offer from Moritz Braun of Just For The Record to use his gorgeous studio space for one day (for free!) in whatever capacity we chose.

Michelle “Feathers”tone and I went to see the studio.😳 It was a no brainer.

Four (impeccably decorated) state of the art rooms. (This isn’t an advertisement by the way.) We could potentially host our first songwriting “day-camp” if you will. There could be a morning session and an afternoon session with 3 writers in each room. Feathers and I did the math. That’s 24 writers. Ok! We’d call our workshop (day camp) “24 Spots.”

But 3 hours to write a song?!?!?! 😳 (That’s where my old school mind goes.) Feathers was a little ambitious (IMO) and I was a little apprehensive (IHO) but between the 2 of us (and a bottle of wine) we proceeded without much caution.

We put the word out to hundreds of potential “campers” all over the country and ultimately offered 24 hopefuls a Spot. We couldn’t make typical songwriting-camp promises like ‘We’ll actively pitch your songs for synch’ or ‘We’ll bring in Beyonce to bounce from room to room’ but we could provide an environment for a fun-loving, non-competitive, positive-spirited creative day. It was an SONA experiment. We crossed our fingers.

I’m relieved to say, this past Saturday, it went off without a hitch.

The 3-way Collabs were grouped randomly. Cuz unlikely bedfellows often produce the most amazing songs.

It was curiously quiet in the common area when the campers were in their respective writing rooms. They only emerged for a bottle of water or to use the restroom. Nobody had a look on their face that said, “why did you put me with that guy?”

Moritz and his super-friendly and professional staff couldn’t have been more hospitable and accommodating in every way.

After the 2 sessions we invited a bunch of industry heavy and middleweights for tacos, drinks and a listening party. Some campers sang their freshly written songs to tracks. Others performed acoustically.

And altho like I said, no promises were made, several producers, music supervisor and publishers reached out for copies of the songs anyway. 😎 Karma.

You know, as a more been-there-done-that set-in-her-ways songwriter, I’ve always been a bit wary of camps. I prefer to slow-cook my songs over the course of a week or 2. You know. Marinate. But when you have time, you take time. And when you don’t you’re more focused. You learn to trim the fat fast! Everyone seemed to thrive under these speed-writing conditions. So much so that I was a little jealous of the campers. 😢

But not to worry because when Michelle Lewis (Exec Direct of SONA) was bidding all adieu she suggested that at the next 24Spots we pair new-school writers with seasoned hit-makers. The Shelly Ps, Pam Shaynes, Sam Hollanders, Greg Suttons, Lauren Christys with up-and comers. Everyone cheered. (Especially me!) It makes sense because in my view the current approach in songwriting incorporates more wordplay but often lacks a solid concept. Whereas seasoned writers come with solid concepts that could use more wordplay — consistent with current pop trends. I’m down for the next time.

In the meantime, it does appear that everyone had a rich creative experience, made new friends, discovered new collaborators. For that, I’d say, SONA’s mission was accomplished.

Stay tuned. Follow SONA here.

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Of course, it wouldn’t have been a SONA event without some kind advocacy element, so Niclas Molinder came in (from Sweden!) to talk about #CreditsDue - a campaign to help creators get credited and register their work properly!! Check-em out!