Recording - June 2014 - 52

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aren't going to hear your song. So if you want
to pitch your songs to artists who are going to
record them, then you have got to listen to sort
of mainstream to hear what they're recording.
So go on the different radio stations. You're
gonna hear something different on KIIS than
you're going to hear on Alt Nation on satellite.

Judy: I think if you're gonna be a hit
songwriter, I think you have to listen to it all, I
really do. I think you have to do your
homework and know who you're writing for. I
think it's really important that you have that
education and you're listening to everything
out there to know what's popular and what's
not. And to answer Michael's question as far as
if you don't like what's on the radio, there are
9,000 stations. Change the station. There's
something for everybody out there!
Suzan can address this really well, because she
hears TAXI member music pretty much every day
of the week. Isn't it hard to forward a song-
even if it's great-when it sounds somewhat
dated?
Suzan: Before you go and re-demo your song
or whatever, Judy is right. Listen, listen and get
your ears used to, and get a sense of the current aesthetics. Because it's really a matter of
aesthetics, rather than technique, and do this
or do that. Get it, and see how your song could
fit into the aesthetic, or take the same idea and
write a new song that would fit in the aesthetics.

"Know who you're playing songs for.
Never settle on a vocalist though.
Always get a great singer."
-Jamie Houston
A lot of people have loved some [kind of ]
music and got stuck in what they loved. That's
the tricky part with music; it's one of the few
senses that make us time-travel. So when we
listen to music when we are 50, we are 15
again. But you're trying to sell music today, and
you're not 15 anymore. You need to listen to
what's here and get into today's aesthetics so
you can develop, and you know what to do. I
can't just give a tip and say, "take this song
that's dated, do this until you get there." You
really need to get a sense of what's there. Pop,
what's current, but it's also very important to
listen to what's underground, to the counterculture, and somewhere in the middle, you'll
find your voice.

Judy: How many people in the room want to
be writing songs...? I assume everybody's a
songwriter, or interested in it, that's why
they're here. How many people are writing to
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pitch their songs to an outside artist, and how
many are writing for themselves as an artist?
So how many people are writing to write a song
and pitch to someone to record it? Looks like
the majority. And writing to be your own
artist? All right, that's good to know. I stand by
my comment.

Anything you do, break it down. What do the
drums sound like, what does the bass sound
like, what are the vocals doing, how are the
background vocals arranged? You can get close
to turning it into what you want it to be if it's a
great song, if you have a great foundation.
Does that answer your question?

I want to go to Jamie for this one because he produces as well. There's a lot of homogeny out
there. It's like there are a handful of big production teams: Stargate, Rock Mafia, Red One, The
Martix... whoever. All the stuff really does sound
somewhat similar. All the Pop stuff, I should
say-very beat-driven. It's almost like you could
take any of those tracks and plug in an artist.
There is not that much differentiation among
them, and I think that's what is upsetting people.
Yet, the demographic that loves that music eats it
up. So people who are older than, let's say, 13 to
20 years old, maybe don't get that stuff. But yet,
if they want to be on Pop radio, if they want to
pitch their songs to Pop artists, they need to
absorb what that demographic gets, and what
those producers are doing. Do you have any suggestions for them for how they can absorb that
stuff and learn to contemporize themselves?
Jamie: Yeah, I think if you're older and you're
listening to radio now, you might have forgotten that the stuff that you loved when you were
a kid actually had a lot of copycat artists at the
time as well. My gosh, when The Beatles were
out, there was Badfinger, The Monkees, Dave
Clark Five. Every generation has their copycats.
Fortunately, and unfortunately, our business
kind of thrives on that, and it's not that different today than it ever was. But one difference is
that technology has allowed a lot more people
to get into the game. The fortunate aspect of it
is that most people suck, which is good for us if
you guys were really working, because if you're
trying to be a great songwriter-yeah, there's a
lot more competition because it's cheaper to do
it. But if you really concentrate on writing a
great song and being good at what you do, you
can rise. You have an opportunity to raise your
game and compete. To me, if you always start
with a great song, no matter what the production... You can make the production work
probably about 85% of the time, almost, in 75%
of the different genres. A great Pop song, if it's
not too surreal, can work in Country. A great
Country song cannot always work in Pop,
because a lot of the stuff lyrically is really specific, so it kind of takes it into a rural area. But
as far as like production and stuff... I mean, as
much as I hate sitting down and looking for a
great snare sound, it's kind of like a necessary
evil that you have to do. And I think that if you
just break it down and reverse-engineer it...

Yeah, I think it makes perfect sense. I think it
breaks a lot of hearts, though, because people
want to believe-we all do believe-that a great
song is a great song is a great song. An undeniable hit you would recognize if you heard it with
just an acoustic guitar and a vocal, or a piano and
a vocal. However, the industry doesn't really
accept that as much anymore.
Suzan: The art form has evolved. The art form
is 3-D. The textures are part of the writing. It's
like judging a sculpture on a 2-D graphic. The
song is the 2-D, and now you've got producers
who create their paints and they make it 3-D,
and there's so much dynamic on their track and
on the sonics. And because the new
instrument, the computer, gives an infinite
ability to create sonics, and you've got people
who go and create those sonics and those beats
and those sounds. It became part of the creative process, so all of a sudden, something
that was 2-D that the producer just had it to
paint, became 3-D with people adding textures
and dimensions to it. It would be very naïve to
say, "Oh, you can get through it." You can still
have a fantastic song and get those graphic...
Those 3-D people come to it. Right now a lot of
the DJs are looking for guitar/vocals to like texture it, but it will end up being a co-write. I'm
not saying the song doesn't matter, but it's
naïve to think that you can exclude the texturing part out of the equation in 2013.

Jamie: Right, but like you said, at the same
time the song is... On this level where you guys
are-where we are-if you're not producing the
artist and you're not writing with the artist, the
only thing you have control over is how good
you are. So if your songs are great and you can
bring the production to a certain point, you'll
have a much better shot than someone who's
got the same sounding track but the song
blows, you know what I mean? Pro Tools has
raised the level of mediocrity to an all time
high, I really believe it. That being said, artists
and record label people and publishers-this is
not for everybody-but a lot of people are so
used to hearing things that sound like a
finished product, that unless you come in that
way, you are really at a serious disadvantage.
That being said, if you know who you're pitching to-if you know the producer or the artist
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Recording - June 2014

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