Blog Archives

HOW TO GET MOTIVATED TO WRITE MORE SONGS

5/25/2021

Over the last couple of years, I have personally responded to thousands of emails. Many want to write better songs but can’t seem to get motivated to commit to writing on a regular basis. If this is you, you are not alone. We all feel the pull of emails, social media, answer to that WhatsApp message you wanted to answer for past 3 hours, or that new movie downtown that we just got to go see; instead of writing songs. We see videos of other songwriters and artists and we think they are doing well. We think it must be easy for them. The truth is, no writer that is doing well, does so some without struggle. When we choose to start writing songs or dedicate ourselves to writing more songs, we are really deciding to make a lifestyle change.

Think about those times you’ve decided to start eating healthier, drink less, get to the gym more often, or spending more quality time with your family. Even though these were all good decisions, the decision was the easy part. The follow-through was the real challenge.

So this is the main lesson I want to leave you with. No matter how much you desire change, you have to take action to get the momentum rolling your way. Here are a few things you can do now to help you change old habits get your writing back on track.

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HOW TO CHANGE YOUR ODDS IN ANY CREATIVE BUSINESS

5/18/2021

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From time to time, someone asks me “What are the odds of getting a cut?”. In my mind, what they are really asking is “Is this even worth trying?”. I’m going to suggest here that this is the wrong approach to dream chasing of any form. Let me put it to you this way. What are the odds that an Iranian guy with experience of being a rapper and producing hip-hop finds himself in Singapore, writing and producing more than 3,000 songs for more than 250 artists? Almost zero. Yet, here I am! What are the odds that a guy who grew up with no connections in the professional music business at all, figures it out, gets more than 400 songs recorded by internationally major artists, and writes 16 #1 songs? Not great odds. Yet, here I am. What are the odds that a rapper with no formal business training create a business that has grown from day 1 and has served more than 4,000 songwriters all over the world in just 5 years? Yet here , Flipside stands. That’s laughable.

Even let’s move one step further, what are the odds for a guy who couldn’t speak more than 20 English words to leave Iran, and next year get his first English song that he wrote, recorded, and then more than 1,000 English songs later, he starts writing books and blogs all in English? Yet, you are reading his blog right now. So, please don’t ever tell me that there is such a thing as “impossible”. I am a living proof of my claim, and I personally know people who proof it even stronger by the things they’ve got done!

The longer I live, the more I realize that it’s really not about the odds unless you are playing the lottery. In that case, there really are odds that are stacked against you. Those odds are measurable and accurate. They are based on math. They are real! In any creative endeavor, however, the odds are not so fixed. You can figure out ways to cut them way down. How do you do that?

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REASONS TO SIGN AWAY YOUR PUBLISHING

5/11/2021

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Over and over, during my songwriting career, I have been a part of debates over the issue of holding on to publishing vs signing away publishing. As a general rule, keeping your publishing would be preferable. After all, the publishing share is half of your share of the song. So, why would anyone sign away their publishing? Here are a few good reasons:

You need a monthly draw. In the beginning of my career, I needed a monthly income to survive. I traded my publishing for that monthly check. Looking back, it was the right choice. It got my foot in the door. I had an amazing mentor/publisher. And I got some cuts. I came out close to even on a 5-year deal that I considered “Songwriting School”. I learned the craft and I learned how the business worked. That was invaluable.

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UNPOPULAR OPINON: MAYBE TAYLOR SWIFT ISN’T A SAINT?

5/10/2021

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Last month we had an audition to expand our team of songwriters and singers. Given the situation we are facing these days because of the Covid Pandemic, the turn out of the audition was much better than I was expecting. A big group of participants were teenagers or youth in their early twenties, mostly quite talented but there was one issue. As a label, when we are auditioning, we are not only focused on their talent and skills but even more importantly the focus is on their personality and character. Somethings like singing or songwriting are skills which can be learned but the mindset to grow or knowing how badly one would want something is a different story. That’s the selling point for someone when they go an audition. Therefore, we try to have a little chat with each participant to get to know them better. And during that chat to them, I noticed something remarkably interesting!
One of the questions I always like to ask is “if you could be one of the current A-Listers, who you’d want to be and why?” interestingly, almost every girl from the participants answered that they want to be Taylor Swift because “she is standing for what’s her right!”

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DO YOU WANT TO BE A SUCCESSFUL PUBLISHED SONGWRITER?

5/4/2021

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Today, I was sharing my songwriting journey with a group of high school students. I’ve never really told my story in quite this much detail and to such a young audience or matter of fact, to anyone out of my very small close circle, but in the course of trying to convey my story, I discovered a couple of things about myself. I told them about growing up in Tehran and how I had to leave Iran, because I almost got executed and almost lost my life, simply because of writing music which was questioning certain things about the government, and about the intimidation I felt in regard to the music business because of the huge number of people I encountered that were trying and failing to make their dreams come true.

Even though I had dreamed as a child of being one of the people whose names were on the liner notes as having written the songs, I was scared senseless, so much so that I wouldn’t even try.

I went to college and got a degree in Industrial Engineering, but I never gave up my music dream and eventually at age of 20 I ended up studying the degree course again in major of Music Production (instead of studying Master of Industrial Engineering).

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HOW TO GET MOTIVATED TO WRITE MORE SONGS

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR ODDS IN ANY CREATIVE BUSINESS

REASONS TO SIGN AWAY YOUR PUBLISHING

UNPOPULAR OPINON: MAYBE TAYLOR SWIFT ISN’T A SAINT?

DO YOU WANT TO BE A SUCCESSFUL PUBLISHED SONGWRITER?

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