Recording - November 2014 - 52

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ple's rules and waiting for their acceptance. And
the problem is that when you're writing and
you've got only a handful of songs that you're
trying to get into film and TV or with a library,
you have to play that game. There's no other way
around that. That is a very hard and frustrating
thing, and I get why people would be frustrated
when they don't get forwarded. I totally understand that.
We feel the pain that our members feel when we
can't forward something that's pretty close, we
really do. I think there's a perception among musicians that the industry is trying to keep them out,
when it's the exact opposite. Everybody is desperately searching for the perfect stuff.
And one thing that I try to convey to people-
and this is really hard to take because music is
emotional-but just because you wrote it doesn't
mean that it's good. And that's really hard for
people to get over, because we get emotionally
attached, and the truth is writing is re-writing,
and we have to eat our babies. I know there are
hit songwriters that are up here, and the truth is
nine times out of ten they're not writing a hit
song because they woke up and felt inspired and
they just cranked it out. They've got all these tools
in a toolbox so that when somebody says, "Hey, I
need a song that is touching on these themes," or
if they do get touched emotionally by something,
they have enough tools in the toolbox so they can
go write that music. So it's perspiration, not inspiration, right? So the problem is when you're
pitching music based on inspiration, it's very,
very hard to deal with that rejection.
Especially if you only do a few a year. It's much
more important to you, than if you're somebody
who can crank out a couple a week.
Exactly! I always tell people if they are kind of
new to this, don't spend a lot of money on your
recordings because you are probably not ready
to record those songs yet. What you really need
to do is use TAXI to get the feedback about how
to make your songs better. Writing is rewriting. I
don't even know if you're allowed to do this
with TAXI, but what I would do anyway-
because I kinda do what I want to do and you
have to forge your own path-but why not try to
get five different critiques on the same song
from a variety of people at TAXI? Because the
same issues will most likely come up. Don't
spend a lot of money on your recordings
because you're probably not ready to record
those songs yet. What you really need to do is
use TAXI to get the feedback about how to make
your songs better.
We always tell our members to look for the common thread.
52

You have to. And then when you're consistently
getting positive feedback, now you're ready to
record the song. Because too many people, they
get excited, they get emotional, they've got a
week vacation, and go, "I'm gonna go spend
$3,000; I'm gonna do this great song; it's gonna
be so much fun." And they're really just kinda
throwing money out the window.
We also have a thing called the Custom Critique,
where they can send in something in guitar/vocal
or piano/vocal demo form and say, "How should I
fix this song before I go do it for real?"
Good. And really that is the best feedback. I
mean, I think that is invaluable; I think it would
be the worth the price of membership just for
that! You know, there's composition and
arrangement, and they're two separate things.
So when you are really doing the things for real,
you need a really kickass arrangement, right? I
mean, connect the dots; make it easy for somebody to say "yes." But when you're just writing
the song and trying to get a feel if it's good or
not, or what needs to be improved, or what's
working or not working in it, a good song comes
through with just an acoustic guitar. I could play
any Beatles song on the piano or the guitar and
it's still gonna be a great song. And I could play
that song with a 60-piece orchestra, and it's still
gonna be a great song, you know why? It's a
great freakin' song! I mean, that is really the bottom line, right? So in the beginning don't spend
the money when you're writing and re-writing. It
should be the guitar. If you can't sell it with the
guitar and the vocal, then you are probably
missing something.

I still didn't quite understand the difference
between those two points. Are both of those-
in your mind-contemporarily produced to
sound...? How would you define retro versus
retro-influenced? Also, do you accept both, or
only the vintage? All three, or only the vintage?
To be clear, we do all three. So let's just talk
about this for one second. If you listen to "Jackhammer," for example... Maybe we should just
reference it really fast and play track #6 for a
second to spark people's memories.
[Music plays]
Remember that one? So that is clearly a Classic-Rock knockoff. So that is music that is
specifically written to emulate Led Zeppelin or
Deep Purple, or one of those bands. That
would be library music that sounds like Classic rock, and I would say... When we say
retro-influenced ... Amy Winehouse would be
retro-influenced, because it's taking elements

"It takes a lifetime to build trust, and
it takes a second to destroy it."
-Jeff Freundlich
of Soul music from the 1960s and doing it in
a modern and contemporary way. "Jackhammer"-the song you just heard-there is
nothing really modern about it in any way
shape or form, right? It's not even trying to
be the Black Keys, which references kind of
older types of music. It is clearly written to
replace Led Zeppelin for a Classic Rock song
in a TV show.

Should people try to do as many genres as possible for the film and TV market?
I think it's better to be really good at one
thing, and focus on that and do that better
than anybody else. Don't be a jack-of-all
trades. Everybody comes up to me and says,
"Well, I do Folk music, and I also do Classic
Rock, and I also do this." And my initial reaction is, "You think you do, but you don't." If
you're trying to be everything to everybody,
then you're really being nobody to everybody,
you know? There's an old marketing theme
saying that the strength of a brand is inversely
proportional to its scope, which means that the
more things that you try to be to another person, the less of that message gets through. So
I would rather that you walk up to me in the
elevator and say, "I do this. This is what I do."
Don't tell me that you do a little bit of everything, because I don't need a guy that can do
a little bit of everything.

Audience Member: I just recently had a song forwarded from TAXI to your company. If you don't use
it will you tell me? Or will I only hear from you if
you use it?
You will only hear from me if we want to sign
it. It's the industry standard. And the truth
is... I think from Michael and Kevin we got a
batch of maybe 50 songs, and there are probably a dozen in there that we will want to
pursue. And it might take us a week or two to
contact everybody and kind of reach out. But
there are literally not enough hours in the day
for me to call everybody that had a forward
and say, "I'm sorry, I can't use it." And then it
opens up a can of worms, "Well, why didn't
you use it?" Again, I can't pay an administrative person to only do that. And my time
needs to be with my clients pitching the music
that we did sign. So, unfortunately, we can't
do that for everybody. And in a lot of ways,
that's part of having thick skin. It's hard.

Audience Member: Hi, the description of this
talk has you defining three different kinds of
music: vintage, retro and retro-influenced. I
think we all got the point on the vintage that it
really is vintage from a time period. My question is regarding retro and the retro-influenced.

Everybody in the industry will tell you that. We
know it's painful for those of you: "My song is in
somebody's hands, it's on their desk, and they're
gonna hear it." It's gotta be torture. We understand that, but they just don't have the time to
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Recording - November 2014

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