Recording - December 2016 - 55

DECEMBER 2016
TAXI Road Rally 2015

Writing Hit Songs, Part 4
Michael Laskow, Moderator
Hit Songwriters: Jason Blume, Richard
Harris, Allan Rich, Ralph Murphy, and
Marlin "Hookman" Bonds
Songs from these writers have been cut by and been
on records with artists like: Britney Spears, Barbra
Streisand, Jordin Sparks, Oak Ridge Boys, Randy
Travis, Shania Twain, Whitney Houston, Rod Stewart,
Jason Derulo, Katharine McPhee, Tyler Shaw, Leila
Broussard, New Kids on the Block, Koko LaRoo, Crystal Gayle, Ronnie Milsap, Greg Holden, and many,
many more chart-topping artists. Our conservative
estimate is that their songs have been on more than
300 million records sold!
Ralph, sorry I cut you off.
Ralph: I was just saying it doesn't matter
whether it's L.A. or London or New York or
Nashville or wherever. Work ethic. I ran into
Josh Kear, and when he first came to town for
like two years I thought he was so great, and I
hauled him to a whole bunch of publishers and
producers and whatever... nothing! So he got into
a little cabal writing with Chris Tompkins and
whatever. Well, he has won now two
Grammys-"Before He Cheats" and "Need You
Now"-and I ran into him at the awards the
other night, and I said, "Oh, man, let's go and
how 'bout breakfast?" He said, "I only have one
breakfast a week. The rest of the time I am
working." And he is working from literally 7 in
the morning until 7 at night. He has a 12-hour
day. And his work ethic... You would think, after
a couple of Grammys and endless cuts and
whatever, at some point in time he would slow
down, but he has not. He is just as committed.
Ashley Gorley... I mean, all of them. Dallas
Davis. They are all workaholics, and I would
suggest that everyone on this stage is
workaholics and turn up on a regular basis for
whatever it takes to make it. It's really important; you've got to be present to win. I said that
to Georgia Thomas this afternoon, and she came
out and said, "Man, this is so great. There are so
many people here." And I've met this producer
who is pitching songs for this film-and-television

(Left to right) Hit songwriters Jason Blume, Michael Laskow (moderator), Richard Harris, Allan Rich, Marlin Hookman Bonds, and
Ralph Murphy huddle up for a photo after their panel at TAXI's Road Rally 2015.

thing, and he said, "The Road Rally is such a
cool event." And I said, "You have to be present
to win."

never lived in Nashville. He lives in the Bay Area,
and a lot of people I know don't even realize that
he doesn't live in Nashville, because he's always
been a presence there. They don't realize that
he's coming in for two weeks, or he's coming in
for three weeks three or four times a year.

Jason: I'm sorry, I have to jump in. I can imagine if I were sitting out there and there was no
way that I can move to L.A., or there's no way I
can move to Nashville, or wherever. I would find
that very depressing thinking, "Then what am I
gonna do? How am I gonna do this?" I think
that there are ways to do it in increments. I have
seen people become very successful with welltimed trips to a music center three or four times
a year. I work a lot with somebody who became
very successful not living in a music center; he
became more successful than me not living in a
music center. And then when things got to a certain level where it was just crazy, now he spends
at least half his time here-but only half-but
still was present a lot of the time. In other
words, three days a year is probably not going to
cut it.

The panel before you guys was all about TAXI members collaborating all over the world. Collaboration
is at the root of all this it seems these days. Well,
Skype, the Internet, you don't need to be in the
same town to collaborate with a producer
anymore.
Jason: I'm almost never in the room anymore
when I write with anybody. For 12 years I went
to a writing room on Music Row and I wrote
songs face-to-face with somebody, and I just

I don't know if anybody knows, Steve Seskin has

Continued on page 56

But don't walk out of here going, "Oh God, it's
impossible because I can't move." I think there
are a lot of things you can do, including joining
songwriting organizations wherever you are.

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