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DON’T FOCUS ON THE SUMMIT

10/30/2020

Songwriting can be a wonderfully, beautifully frustrating pursuit. But it can be especially maddening if your singular goal is something outside of your control. It’s best to enjoy the way while you are climbing your way up this mountain of music industry. If you only and only focus on the end goal, the road to that goal would be extremely tiring and most probably you will give up when a couple of years past and you are still nowhere near your goal. In my humble opinion the best is to learn how to enjoy the way and earn all the you can while you are reaching the summit. Make your process sweet so you won’t give up very easily. So, let’s say your one obsession is a Bruno Mars cut. There are several reasons that you are going to likely spend the rest of your life banging your head on the wall and cursing the day you ever tried to be a songwriter. For sake of brevity, I won’t list them all, but the primary reason is that you can’t make Bruno Mars like any of your songs. And if he doesn’t like them, you’ll never get a Bruno Mart cut. So, I wanted to run through some alternatives to goals that are outside of your control. Considering these “what ifs” might just help you get closer to your goal than you ever imagined.

KIDS ARE DREAMERS, DREAMS CHANGE THE WORLD

10/27/2020

I remember spending my days daydreaming as a kid. I daydreamed sitting in my desk at school, I daydreamed while doing the list of chores waiting for me when I got home from school, and I daydreamed before closing my eyes and falling asleep at each night. These days I’m sure a teacher or someone would have diagnosed me with ADD and put me on some medications right away to insure a better future for my little daydreaming shoulder devil and myself!

What I didn’t understand then and what a lot of non-creative type of people don’t get, is that there is nothing more powerful than daydreaming. I believe, when done positively, it’s a form of prayer. A way to focus your intention so profoundly that you gather forces larger than yourself to change your future. The Wright Brothers dreamed of flying. Jonas Salk dreamed of curing Polio. Thomas Edison envisioned the light bulb.

They spent every waking moment dreaming first and later working to make those dreams come true. Kids get this. They don’t question if their dreams are crazy. It’s just a natural creative process. It’s the grown-up world that tells the kid to “grow up” or “be more practical” or “that’s impossible!”

JOB #1 MEANS DOING YOUR JOB!

10/13/2020

Some time ago I was enjoying a mentoring session and was offering tips to help a young songwriter understand what producers and publishers often listen for in song demos. One of the demos had an extremely long guitar solo after the first chorus. I offered that:

#1. Guitar solos typically are after the 2nd chorus and not the first.

#2. The solo was so long it pushed the song to over 4 and half minutes. And that hurt the chances of getting the song recorded. The songwriter I was mentoring shot back this question. Why can’t a publisher or producer who knows what they are doing, hear the song with all the changes and record the song anyway?

AN OPEN LETTER TO YOUNG SONGWRITERS

10/9/2020

I write with a number of young songwriters and I can’t count the times that I have referenced an older song (80’s or 90’s) and discovered that they had never heard the song and in many cases, had never heard of the artist either. This isn’t shocking to me – I once was that guy myself. But it does make me want to pass on something that my mentor, told me years ago. I had just gotten my first writing deal and had written a song that I thought turned out amazing. I proudly presented it to my mentor, and he gave it a listen. He had a huge smile on his face as the song ended and I thought that I had really impressed him. Turns out, I had made an impression, but not the one I wanted to make. He said, “You know that is iconic song for Ernest Tubb, don’t you?” I didn’t know that. I didn’t know one song by Ernest Tubb. I didn’t really like the super twangy old country. I didn’t understand why it even mattered. He changed all of that.

EAT THE BIG FROG FIRST

9/25/2020

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” Mark Twain

Author Brian Tracy wrote a book called “Eat That Frog”. He took the idea from the Mark Twain’s quote. The idea of the book (and the quote) is that most people procrastinate doing the most important things because they are usually the hardest things to do.

A SONGWRITER’S CHALLENGE

9/15/2020

One of the first things I did when I decided to seriously pursue writing as a career was to attend a Songwriting Camp. I submitted my application and nervously awaited a response to let me know if I was accepted or not. Finally, the day came. There in the stack of mail was a letter from the management. I opened it excitedly, hoping and praying that I got in. I did not. The letter very politely told me that I didn’t make it in, but I was on the waiting list in case someone dropped out.
Several weeks went by and the camp was rapidly approaching. I had given up when I got a call letting me know that someone dropped out and I could come if I still wanted to. It kind of had the feel of a girl telling you that she would love to go to the prom with you, but you were not really her first choice. It hurt a little, but I swallowed my pride and accepted. Looking back, I’m glad I did. It gave me a great beginning place. Most importantly, it showed me where the bar is. Once I realized how high the bar is, I was motivated to work even harder to get over it. During the camp of the instructors said something that has stuck with me to this day.

REASONS TO CO-WRITE

9/11/2020

People often ask me, sometimes skeptically, why I co-write so often instead of writing alone. “The songs you write on your own are great, why you need to write with others?” I heard these many times. I have some reasons that I find pretty compelling.

Not many people I know are world-class at melody and lyrics. There are plenty of people who do both but doing both and excelling at both are different things altogether. To succeed at the highest level in the music business, you have to have a world-class melody and lyrics (unless you are writing with an artist, but that’s a whole separate topic). In order to get a song at that level, 99.9% of us have to co-write. I always recommend that writers define what they are strongest at and really work hard to become world class at that. You can find someone to work with that is already world-class at whatever you are weaker at.

HOW TO INTERPRET FEEDBACK ON YOUR SONGS

8/28/2020

Often, it seems like song feedbacks leave people confused. In one of my attempts at getting feedback early in my career, I send a song to a very prominent songwriting organization that I belonged to. The was called “It Don’t Get Better Than This” and it was about the way the “this” changed throughout a boy’s life. In the first verse, the boy held his first puppy and as it licked his face, he was thinking “It don’t get better than this.” The second verse has him kissing his first girlfriend and thinking the same thing. Finally, the bridge has him standing in his wedding ceremony and while his bride walks the aisle toward him, thinking the chorus again. The feedback I got was “Pretty well written, but it’s not possible to have three things that it doesn’t get better than.” I couldn’t imagine how the person giving feedback didn’t understand that what we imagine to be “the greatest thing ever” can – and does – change over time. The feedback left me confused and frustrated. Years later, as I gained more confidence in

my writing, I took another look at that song and realized that the feedback I got was not good at all. I’ve since discovered the reason for the weak feedback. The organization that I had gotten feedback from hired people to do feedback who had never had cuts. They were aspiring writers who were struggling and needed a paycheck, not professionals or hit songwriters who knew what they were talking about. Over the years, I have found these thoughts to be helpful in interpreting feedback on my songs:

SONGWRITING ECONOMICS 101

8/21/2020

I get the question all the time, “Why won’t a signed staff songwriter write with me?”. Most people are surprised to find out that the answer is economic and it’s all about business instead of being personal in nature. When you know how exactly the business side of music industry works, you wouldn’t be surprised anymore when a signed writer rejects writing with you. Here are the economics of why staff writer’s are hesitant to write with unsigned writers.

Other unsigned writers who have gone before you have not paid for their portion of demos. They ruined it for you, and probably you would find it unfair, right? But look at it from the signed writers’ point of view, and it all will make sense. Let me give you some personal examples of my previous experiences. I have had several unsigned co-writers in the past who didn’t pay their portion of the demo costs when we did demos for the songs we wrote together. When that occurs, guess who has to pay for it?

Me. After a few times that happened, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I’ve also had unsigned co-writers tell me after we wrote a great song that they can’t afford to demo the song. Even though I am trying to appreciate that at least they told me about it before we actually proceed to make the demo, but I still wish they had told me about it before we sit down and spend so much time and energy on writing a song together because now the time had already been spent but I can’t get it cut if we can’t demo it, so we wasted a day. Both are important economic issues. Why spend a day writing a song that no one will ever hear while I could spend that time on writing a song that actually could go somewhere?

THE JOY IN THE JOURNEY

8/14/2020

I met with a songwriter friend who is very talented and very frustrated with her lack of music business success. She was describing to me how she had thought she would be so much farther along by the time she reached the birthday that had just passed. I told her my story. It took me almost 6 years of writing full time to get my first cut. Another year after that to get my first single. And another year to have my first hit. There were countless days of self-doubt. There were heart crushing disappointments when “sure-things” fell through. The rejections were there, when I was so sure about a song and knew it must drive publishers crazy, but they simply listened and with absolutely no emotions they rejected it. There were near misses that could have changed my life if they had come through. She asked me how I stayed encouraged and positive over a 17-year music business career with that many ups and downs. "The joy in the journey" was my simple answer. It just made her more confused.

HOW TO FORMAT YOUR LYRICS SHEETS

7/24/2020

The proper way to format your lyrics sheet is one of the most overlooked details in the songwriting business! Since starting our music label, Flipside, I have had the chance to see many songs and / or song lyrics presented to me. I’ve seen some wild lyrics sheets — or in many cases, even no lyrics sheets — accompanying songs being presented, and as a publisher, nothing can discourage me from listening to those songs more than having the song and don’t have any lyrics or have a very messy lyrics in front of me.

Publishers, Producers, and other people in the industry all speak a common language. The professionals in the industry share a style of working that had been developed over the years, without any written rules about it. One of the very little but important details you should care about when you are presenting your songs to someone you hope will record it is a typed, formatted lyrics sheet to be understandable by everybody. The format includes all the contact information, name of every writer, and each section such as verse and churns to be cleared.

LEARNING TO SEE THE BIG SONGWRITING PICTURE

7/10/2020

Often songwriters are caught up in the trees that they can’t see the forest. They spend lots of their time looking at the minutiae – I’ve always wanted to say that word – that they lose sight of the big picture. For instance, in a one of our songwriting courses at Flipside, I spend six weeks teaching students a framework that will improve all of their lyrics going forward. At the end of the course, someone said, “I wish you could have critiqued these three lyrics of mine instead.” There’s nothing wrong with that sentiment, but it misses the big picture. If you learn the proper framework and foundation for writing lyrics, you can not only improve all of your lyrics by yourself and going forward, you can also go back and fix anything you wrote before you learned the framework. It’s sort of like the old proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

WHERE IS THE BAR?

7/3/2020

How high is the bar for songwriters? When you mention the word “bar” to songwriters, most of them start craving a beer. But that’s not the bar I’m talking about here. I’m talking about the “How good does my song have to be to get it recorded by an artist?” kind of bar. Not every songwriter wants massive commercial success. But if that’s your goal, learning where that bar is may be the most important thing an aspiring commercial songwriter has to do.

The biggest hurdle. The problem with many songwriters, when confronted with the height of the real bar, is that instead of taking steps to learn how to get over the bar, they start trying to find a lower bar that helps them feel better about their music. It’s the equivalent of an aspiring NBA basketball player trying out for the Celtics and not making the team on his first try. So, instead of getting more coaching and improving his game, he goes to the Y and signs up for a pick-up basketball league. He feels better. He finally “made the team”.

THE 10,000 HOUR THEORY AND SONGWRITING

6/26/2020

The 10,000-hour theory I was reading a magazine on an airplane the other day and ran across an article about Dan McLaughlin, an Oregon man who quit his job and decided to try to become a professional golfer by testing out the 10,000 hour theory made popular by Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers”. Dan saved up $100,000.
He rented out his home and got himself a cheap apartment so that this housing cost was nearly zero. And he began living very simply. He didn’t spend much on anything other than golf.

n the beginning, he thought it would take him about 5 years to reach the 10,000-hour mark. Mentally, he set aside six years. At the time of the article, he was 7 years in and still has 3600 hours to go. Reading this story reminded me of the beginning of my songwriting career!

DON’T FALL INTO THE ARROGANT SONGWRITER/ARTIST TRAP?

6/19/2020

As a songwriter, I am a “lifer.” I’ve spent many hours everyday writing with, teaching to, and in online forums conversing with songwriters. It’s not uncommon to hear songwriters say things like, “You can’t learn songwriting. You either have it, or you don’t.” Or, “This song came from my inner soul, so it’s perfect just like it is.” And here is my personal favorite arrogant quote, “I only write when I’m inspired. Anyone who doesn’t just writes crap.” No, my questions are, why do many songwriters believe their art is different than every other art in the world? That hard work, training, and practicing “even when you don’t feel like it” doesn’t apply to them? Can you imagine a great guitarist saying, “I only play my guitar on days when I feel inspired?” Hell, no! The great guitarists practice hours and hours playing the same lick thousands of times. Does that mean that great guitarists don’t play from the soul like a songwriter writes from the soul? Of course, they do! But the hours of practice — inspired or not — get them to a point of executing their art at a higher level.

HOW SONGWRITING CHANGED MY LIFE

6/12/2020

I had a few minutes alone in the quiet the other morning and I started thinking about all of the different ways that songwriting has changed my life. Some of those changes are the result of being successful as a songwriter, but the biggest, most profound changes are ones that were simply the result of writing songs. Songwriting itself, and the process of becoming a professional in this industry – which can literally take ages – will teach you a lot of very valuable lessons. I was just reviewing the lessons I learned and in no particular order, here are the ways songwriting changed my life.

It opened my eyes to a larger world and my place in it. In the beginning, my songs were very self-serving and self-reflective. I wrote about the people, places and emotions that I knew, and it only belonged to me. Unfortunately, my world at that time was very plain, very lower middle class, very political and very homogeneous in almost every way. I can say I used to be pretty narrow minded and I was very comfortable in my own comfort zone and had no intention to get out of it.

IF I CAN BECOME A PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITER, YOU CAN TOO!

5/8/2020

Yes, the photo is from my childhood album!

In many ways, I am the least likely person to become a hit songwriter. I grew up with serious self-esteem issues. I’ve always been told by my father to be humble and never talk myself up and never express my thoughts and feelings directly - exactly opposite of the two main requirements for being a songwriter; be confident and be expressive! I was always extremely self-conscious for most of my life because growing up in a Persian family means no matter what you achieve, the family always say it’s not enough and you must do better. On the other hand, because of my rough attitude and just being into sports and being pretty much of a “boy-boy” I was never popular in school. Even until today that I am running my own label and dealing with a number of artists, producers and songwriters, I still am painfully shy and introverted. I grew up believing that you should always make the safe choice.

HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?

3/13/2020

“If you want something bad enough, you’ll find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.

Every time I read it, this quote hits me right between the eyes. In some areas of my life, I’m still very much a procrastinator and excuse maker. I keep telling myself that I want to lose 10 kilos and have a six-pack stomach. I know HOW to do that. I’ve even done it before. The trouble is that I don’t want that as bad as I want that plate of steak or just one more glass of that whiskey while I'm writing. So, I put it off and I make excuses. “It’s the holidays – I’ll do all that in January”. “I don’t have time to go to the gym today – I’ll go tomorrow”. You know the drill...

THE POWER OF WRITING A LOT OF SONGS

2/21/2020

If you are trying to get a song recorded on a major artist, you are competing with professional writers who write a song almost every day. Those professionals are pumping out more than 200 songs a year in many cases. The sheer volume of material they produce increases their chances of getting a cut exponentially. Why, you might ask? Here is a story to illustrate. Recently, I pitched a song to an A&R person for a big shot artist. She responded that she loved the song, but she thought that it had already been cut. I told her that I had no knowledge of it being recorded.

I had my former publisher (who published the song in question) look into the situation. They discovered that the song was scheduled to be the first single for a rising star artist that had just been signed to a major record deal. Neither I nor my publisher had any idea that the artist in question was planning to cut the song.

WHY DO YOU WRITE SONGS? AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO KNOW?

2/14/2020

I have discovered that there are many reasons people write songs. Sometimes we assume that everyone writing a song must want a major artist to record it. While that is true for many writers, it’s not the real motivation for many others. Based on my “survey” through my fellow writers, here are some of the more popular reasons people write songs:

They feel like they have something to say. Many people write because they have a message they want to share with the world. Sometimes the message is religious or moral. Sometimes it’s an attempt to share something positive with the world. Other times, the writer is promoting an idea or cause they believe in.

They were “inspired” to write. I have had many people tell me that they just “woke up with this song in their head” or that they were “given” a song and didn’t really know where it came from. Sometimes inspiration just strikes, and it seems as if we are simply writing it down as it comes to us.

WRITE A SONG THAT INSPIRES YOU

2/7/2020

One ordinary Tuesday, I went to a co-write with really low expectations. My co-writer and I were going to try to finish a song that I wasn’t really in love with. But we had decided we would finish it, so I drove to his house. We started working on the song and when lunch time came, we had not even added one word to the song. So, we decided to take a break and come back to the song after we ate. On the way back from lunch, he asked “Do you like the song we are working on?” I replied, “Not really, but I thought you liked it.” He laughed and said, “I don’t like it – I thought you did!”
Beside the fact that we both were happy about our mutual respect (without saying it out loud), for working on a song we didn’t like but we thought the other one likes it and we were rolling in, we were both relieved that we didn’t have to work on a song that we didn’t like any longer. When we got back to his house, we talked about music we loved, and we discovered that we both really like R&B feels. Then the conversation turned to the lack of that kind of feel on modern country radio. At that point, he said “Let’s just write something with an R&B feel that people can make out to.”

THINGS TO DO EVERY DAY TO GET AHEAD AS A SONGWRITER

1/31/2020

Here are 5 things I try to do every day. Doing these 5 things helps me feel like I’m making progress in every area of my songwriting.

Learn something. I’m trying to learn to play harmonica now. Yes, sometimes I work on learning an alternative tuning on the guitar. I want to try to learn something that makes me better each day. This way I’m constantly forcing my brain to be active and don’t go lazy. Brain is just like the muscles on your body. The more you use it, the stronger it will get. Plus, learning all these can be fun and you never know when they come handy.

THE DAY I WAS OFFERED $120,000 (PLUS BENEFITS) TO QUIT WRITING SONGS

1/10/2020

There have been many days in my writing career when I thought about quitting. The voices in my head have frequently tossed out “I’m not sure you’re good enough” or “The odds are stacked against you”. Most of those days have followed some sort of big disappointment. A hold lost. A cut that was a “sure thing” that fell through. A single that didn’t happen. I’ve endured many of those days.

A friend offers to take me to lunch. The big test of my resolve came one day when a friend staged an intervention of sorts. He offered to take me to lunch. That’s like inviting a fox into the hen house. A struggling songwriter is always going to be up for a meal with a good friend and having a discussion, hoping something good comes out of it. So, I went. And lunch began with lots of probing questions regarding my songwriting career.

PERSPECTIVE AND ENCOURAGEMENT: THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES SONGWRITERS FACE

12/6/2019

I write a lot about encouragement and perspective because I believe they are two of the most important issues that songwriters face at any level. For me, I stay in my “happy place” when I see progress every day. It can be the smallest bit of progress, but I need to feel a little momentum or movement in the right direction each day. The days that I get down are the days when I feel like I’m slipping backwards. A big co-write cancels. I lose a hold I counted on. Or a cut doesn’t make the record.

I feel myself slipping back into the abyss and I get scared. The “voices” start telling me that I’ve had my last cut. They start making me wonder if I’m cut out for songwriting. They tell me I should have found a stable job to work at.
I fight the voices with my daily progress. I prove that I’m moving toward success and away from failure by taking at least one step forward each day.

ARE YOU A NAUGHTY OR NICE CO-WRITER?

11/29/2019

We usually get a lot of questions in Flipside's website in regard to co-writing etiquette. There is a lot of factors in creating a reputation in the industry and make people want to write with you or simply making them to avoid you. It’s important to know whether you are on the “naughty” or “nice” co-writer list. Here are some real-life experiences I (or friends of mine) have experienced.

Naughty Co-Writer #1. This guy takes a phone call during the co-write and stays on the phone for more than 5 minutes without explaining what is going on. Usually, he leaves the room, so you don’t know where he is and if/when he is coming back.
Nice Co-Writer #1. Apologizes for his phone ringing, explains that it is urgent and comes back to let you know if he is going to be a while. Communication keeps him in the “nice” category.

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