Recording - June 2020 - 63

Continued from page 60
Bob: Yeah, he had some great stuff. And that was
my first deal. Whoa! I called my son-because my
son and I write together-and he was sleeping,
and I said, "Wake him up and make him go out in
the hallway so he doesn't wake the baby." And [he
yells], "We got the first one! Yay, this is all great!"
And then that turned into a placement on Californication within the year. So then, OK, let's get the
blinders on-like what they put on the horses-
and let's stay on this path. Master your genre; know
your genre. I've done a number of mentor things
here at the Rally, and what do I hear quite
frequently? I do jazz, I do hip-hop, I do country, I
do this, I do that. And I think Michael did one of
the first videos I saw way back when in 2007. And
he asked what was the V-word was that you should
never say, variety or...?

It's amazing how many people join TAXI, send in a few
things, get discouraged, go online and complain
about it. "Oh, I didn't make my 300 bucks back," or
"The screeners don't know what they're doing." Obviously, the screeners do know what they are doing,
and the company works, because it's got thousands of
people who have made money. Maybe now, over all
these years, maybe over 10,000 people who have
made money-some that are making a lot of money.
So the system works. It's the same screeners, the same
listings, the same company, the same everything
ostensibly for every member, yet it works for some
and doesn't work for others. In my judgment, having
run this company for so long, it's the people who
come to the Road Rally, who go on the Forum, and
watch TAXI TV. If they put those three things
together, it's almost impossible to not have at least
some level of success. But if they isolate themselves

and just go, "Here's my music, and it's music that I
already had, and, yeah, it's got a bass part, and it says
something about a funky bass, so I'm sending it in. It
doesn't matter if it's the wrong genre."
Bob: On your thing of isolation, so many- especially starting composers-lock themselves in the
room, and that's their world. Like I said in my presentation today, "If you're the best in the room,
you're in the wrong room."
That's great.
Bob: Yeah, you want to always be being stretched
and being pushed and saying, "Wow, how did you
do that? How did you play that? Talk to me, I need
to learn how to do that."
Don't Miss Part Two of the Panel in next month's TAXI
Insider!

Versatility!
Bob: Versatility. You know, zero in. If your genre
is country, then master it. What's the old thing?
Ten-thousand hours? When people ask me what I
do, I'm very comfortable now saying, "I'm a composer, not just a musician." Not that there is
anything wrong with being a musician, but I'm a
composer. What do I play? Well, I play all the keys,
I play all the saxes, and I play my DAW. That is an
instrument in itself-learning your DAW, learning
your software, learning your plug-ins, learning how
to make the strings sound like strings. And when
you're writing for strings, or you're writing for
woodwinds... Now, I have the benefit of being a
classically trained oboist and all that, so I've sat in
the orchestra. I know what a viola sounds like-
scary sometimes. But then, when you hear that
your strings don't sound like strings, well, you've
never sat in an orchestra, dude. But learn how that
instrument is played. So many people, when they
take an instrument and they're doing a plug-in,
they would just play it like on a piano. But that's
not how the flute plays, that's not how the clarinet
would articulate, and you have to learn... I remember on the Forum... If you're not on the Forum,
newbies, get on the TAXI Forum. I can't say
enough about the Forum. The TAXI Forum.
The TAXI Forum. Forums.TAXI.com.
Bob: I've learned so much there, and met so many
incredible co-writers on the Forum. Go there and
learn. You'll put your music up, and you have to
have patience-we all know that-and thick skin.
You have to be able to take what comes at you, and
instead of being defensive, instead of trying to
defend your position-because it's probably
wrong-because the person who knows more than
you is trying to help you here, they're not trying to
hurt you. And learn from it. Learn from it. It's so
important!

RECORDING June 2020

http://Forums.TAXI.com http://www.recordingmag.com

Recording - June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2020