Last year, we introduced our inaugural 6-Pack songwriting challenge. The idea is for writers to stretch and write outside their comfort zones. The winner was Liz Miller of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Her prizes included gear from Sony, Cakewalk, Digidesign and Universal Audio. As a grand prize, Broadjam flew her to the NAMM show in Anaheim. After the show I spent a day in LA with Liz introducing her to key people in the film and television business and getting to know her.
Like many of our members, Liz works a “real job” as a nurse, is married and has two kids. She’s an exceptional country writer, but can really write in many genres. I’ve never been in the studio with her, but I’m sure she’s the biggest critic of her own work. That’s probably why her stuff is so good.
There were a few memorable meetings. The first was with Kevin Edelman. He’s the music supervisor for 6 or 7 TV shows and always has a film in the hopper. We met him at his office in Hollywood and he had some advice for Liz and all aspiring writers:
1) The work begins when you’re done writing. Pitch your music and follow-up.
2) Keep writing and sending everything. While a supervisor can’t listen to everything that’s sent, keep submitting so your name is constantly in front of them.
I always love getting together with Kevin as he’s very good at his job.
After dropping off CDs to other folks, we had lunch with Tiffany Davis, Director of Membership for the Academy of Country Music. I appreciate Tiffany taking time out of her busy day to share her thoughts about the industry with us. Tiffany could be the most connected and hardest working person in the country music business. In an ACM newsletter after we had visited, Liz was featured as a guest of the Academy. This was a surprise to Liz and I both. Thanks Tif.
We ended up at Paul Broucek’s office. Paul is the President of New Line Music Group. His projects have included Austin Powers, Blade and the Oscar-winning Lord of The Rings. Paul spent an hour and a half with Liz, giving her feedback that only a guy of his caliber could offer. At times he shook his head and simply said good work to her. Other times he was encouraging, but honest with Liz. In all, he listened to 10 tracks and gave Liz the direct feedback we all desire.
Then Paul and I spent some time talking about Broadjam, New Line and the industry in general. As I’ve done in the past, I showed him around Broadjam.com and played several artists for him including Adam Dachman and Tally Hall. In Broadjam’s early days, he and Kevin gave me insight on how they look for music. This is one of the key reasons we ask you to include so much metadata for your songs. When these guys search for music, they’re looking for specific criteria to help them sift through the enormous volume they get daily. After we finished talking, he reviewed several artists on our site.
Our new 6-Pack launched this week. We can’t promise the above, but if you’ve checked out the details, you know we have something very exciting in store for the winner. Our line up of sponsors is a who’s who in the business: IK Multimedia, Sony, Genelec, Digidesign, E Labs Multimedia, PowerFX, Ableton, Hercules, Kaysound, DigitalMusician.net, PG Music, Mackie, ILIO, Spectrasonics, MasterWriter, Electro Voice and DigiTech. We’re eager to watch our members battle it out for the top spot and to hear the submissions for the new challenges: Spill Your Guts, Put Your Music Where Your Mouth Is, Acoustic Slide, Birthday Bash, Jingles All the Way, and Lights, Camera, Music. All challenges are now open, so let your creativity flow!
Congrats again to last year’s winner, Liz Miller. Thanks to the sponsors and to Kevin, Tiffany and Paul for their time and thoughts.
Let me know what you think about this year’s challenges. I’m anxious to hear your thoughts and submissions and to check out the competition when the Leaderboard launches.
Roy
Posted by Broadjam on Jun 9, 2006 in Broadjam Blog
Freddy has taken the lead making the race as close as it’s ever been. John Curry right behind. Tonight I was turned on to Willie McCullough. The description on his profile page reads, “If the Beach Boys sang of Scottish shores instead of surf and sun and Sean Connery had the vocal range of Rascal Flatts with John Mayer on mandolin and the Eagles on harmones, you might get an idea of Willies’ unique brand of music.” I can’t say I’m an expert on Celtic Music, but I certainly was captured by it tonight. Check out the vocal harmonies on “Outer Hebridies” and “Kylenagrannah.” The playing and the arrangments are brilliant. The mix is perfect. If you’re into this style or you simply want to stretch, check this out. Roy
Aug 4, 2006/8:39 pmI just checked the leaderboard again and things are tightening up. The stylistic guitar work of Norman Learo leads, followed by the versatile John Curry and the great songwriting of Freddy. Defending champ Liz Miller is fourth. Mario Massi is creeping up the list as well. I’m working late tonight and decided to listen to some of Mario’s stuff. I went to his songlist page and hit the playall button while I work on a spreadsheet. Here’s a guy who can cross through many different styles as convincingly as anyone. I checked a couple of times to make sure it’s the same writer and artist. Everyday I’m reminded of the great music on this site. Thanks and keep it coming.
Aug 3, 2006/9:26 pmWhile the leadership of the songwriting challenge hasn’t changed in the past week or so, I have noticed lots of movement in the other spots on the leaderboard. In the past few days I have been listening to John Curry. I was not familiar with his music prior to the 6 pack. He describes himself as a 12 string acoustic and synthesizer player. I have listened to his songlist a couple of times and especially like the song Lost Way. It’s very George Winston-like and can get you “lost in thought” very quickly. Great performance. He’s a very tasteful writer and arranger.
Jul 26, 2006/9:37 amWe launched the leaderboard for the Acoustic Slide competition yesterday. Norman Learo has jumped out into a commanding lead. I listened to his stuff again this morning. He’s a great player and deserves to be on top…..If you have an original birthday song, a jingle about anything or a creative video, this is what we’re looking for in the next 3 challenges. Keep writing. Roy
Jul 19, 2006/11:53 amI checked out Ryan and he is young and very talented. Great style at such an early age…..Tonight, Freddy is on top of the leaderboard. Another great writer-performer…..There is a lot of good talent here. Roy
Jul 16, 2006/2:16 amIt looks like Liz Miller’s got some competition now! I see Ryan Bicheranloo’s topping the leaderboard today. It’s shaping up to be quite an exciting competition. I can’t wait for the other challenges to launch on the leader board.
Jul 12, 2006/11:00 amThe unique sound of Christopher Scott Hamilton and the brilliant guitar playing of Norman Learo are making this competition very interesting. If you get a second, check these guys out…..We launched the review scores for the second round last week and the leader board has had many changes in the past few days. Toby, Shiver and Freddy are all hanging in there as well……This year’s 6 Pack has turned me on to even more great music. It never ceases to amaze me how much good music the independent music world has to offer. Keep writing. Roy
Jul 9, 2006/10:14 pmIt looks like Liz Miller is not ready to relinquish her 6 Pack songwriting crown as she has holding a strong lead for the past week…..Pecana Independent Artists from Denmark has been in the Top 20 since the contest was launched. If you haven’t had the chance, you should listen to their stuff. We could all take a lesson in arrangement and production from these guys…..Another long time member from Canada, Freddy, is 2nd on the leaderboard. A very good songwriter, with a clean McCartney like pop voice. According to his bio, he’s having some well deserved success at Canadian radio…..It will be interesting to see the changes in the overall leaderboard when we launch the rankings for the Instrumental Contest, “Put Your Music Where Your Mouth Is.” Keep writing and reviewing.
Roy
Jul 3, 2006/11:21 amThe leaderboard was launched yesterday and I noticed some familiar names as well as new ones. Toby Tune, who contended all of last year, was leading yesterday and today Mike Schmid is on top. From the picture on Toby’s profile page, it looks like he has the dream studio in Costa Rica. Mike is a graduate of Berklee and lives in Hollywood. I listened to some of his tracks this morning and was blown away by the quality of the songwriting and productions. His stuff is radio ready and could easily be in rotation at any pop/rock station…..Toby, a veteran on Broadjam, is one of the most versatile and prolific writers on our site. I’ve enjoyed listening to his music for years. Check both of these guys out. Good stuff…..Remember to do your reviews as the leaderboard changes every hour….I’ve done a few this morning and found lots of good new music that I’ve never heard.
Roy
Jun 20, 2006/1:41 pmThanks to everyone who has responded so far. With all the messages I’ve received from our members, I’m quite confident in saying the 2006-Pack is going to rock!
I was recently asked how we come up with the challenge categories. I wish I could say there was a scientific process that pre-determines all future 6-Packs for the next 10 years, but I can’t. What I can say is that we collect input from many sources and usually have about 15-20 topics to choose from. We want it to be as inclusive, diverse and challenging as possible. If you have a challenge idea for a future 6-Pack competition, feel free to post it here in this blog and we’ll keep it in mind for future years.
I’m looking forward to the leaderboard launching next week. The only thing is, once the leaderboard launches, the work seems to stop at the Broadjam office. (And not for a lack of work to be done!) Along with many of our staffers, I checked the leaderboard several times a day last year. Like the leaderboard, the review process can be very addicting as well. Although we are not allowed to enter, many of us at Broadjam spend a lot of our time reviewing the entries.
As I mentioned, Liz Miller was last year’s winner. Liz is a great example of a writer who can stretch and she will be tough to beat this year. Of the six challenges last year, Jim Ferrie said he had to write 5 new songs. That’s really what we’re after. We want you to stretch and create outside of your comfort zone. Jim finished 15th overall, so that tells you how strong his songwriting skills are. Like Jim and Liz, Bobby Caputo is also a strong writer who finished 4th overall last year. It seemed that the leaderboard had a different front runner every day last year until Liz started pulling away at the end. Lots of great writers took part in the competition, including Glenn Kricher, Toby Tune, Steven Judge, Yaktuna, The Underwriters, Mike Kroell, Craig Miller and Alan Daubenspeck, to name a few.
It will be interesting to see how things shake out this year with the different categories. Gentlemen, the lady from Conshohocken, PA has thrown down the gauntlet!
I forgot to mention this earlier, but while in LA, I asked Paul Broucek who’s hot and what I could pass onto our members. He immediately started thinking and you could see the passion for music in his eyes as he rattled off numerous artists whose music he felt was appropriate for the current state of film. James Blunt and Ed Harcourt were the first ones he listed. He said both are good songwriters and their music is very good for dynamic scenes as it’s filled with and written about emotional events in their lives.
Though he spoke highly of James and Ed, most of the conversation was about female artists such as Imogene Heap. She’s an artist he highly recommends checking out. Emellano Torrini of Iceland and Narnia were two others he worked with in Lord of the Rings and spoke highly of. Others mentioned were KT Tunstall and Tracy Bonham. One of his very interesting comments was, “It’s really a good time to be a good female artist with good songs and good productions.” Hopefully you’ll find this info useful.
Keep the comments coming!
Roy
Jun 14, 2006/10:16 pmOkay, you don’t have to go to my website-
The Broadjam 6 pack, which started me off thinking more about the business end of this music thing,is starting up again.
It was Paul Brousec of New Line Cinema who advised me to go to Nashville and how to proceed. Meeting him was truly a life event.My kids will know his name. Since winning the NSAI contest slot in the top 5, I have made many contacts and am busy planning my strategy for an effective trip.
Kevin Edelman let me know how exactly ill prepared I was to submit to a music supervisor. He was kind enough to take my submission as is but I am busy preparing metadata to resubmit in an appropriate manner.
Tiffany Davis couldn’t have been more gracious and warm to this newbie. I gave her and a colleague cds and had a wonderful time with her at lunch. The more I read about Nashville, the more I realize how important it is to meet people.
So, my trip is planned for September.
I can’t be thankful enough to Roy Elkins who made all this possible. Stephanie, Colleen and Kyle were the best possible chaperones for someone who doesn’t usually like to come out of the basemant. Now, since I have my new gear, my condition has worsened.
Liz Miller
Jun 13, 2006/12:34 pmHaving listened to Liz’s material, I say she’s a very worthy winner and I wish her all the best for her future in songwriting. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of last year’s 6-pack and had to write and record from scratch for 5 out the 6 contest elements, some in areas of music/lyrics with which I was not particularly familiar. I did what I could, as best as I knew how with what I had and just enjoyed the ride. I was very pleased with my prize (as a winner in the “Open to Interpretation” element)- but look at the prizes this year. Wow! I get a feeling that this year’s 6-pack is going to be very competitive and we’re going to hear a lot of good, quality entries. Roy and his folks have attracted some serious sponsors this year and I think that reflects on the quality of submissions during last year’s contest and subsequently how much serious “outside” interest there is on Broadjam artists. I, for one am going to enjoy submitting to this year’s 6-pack.
Jim Ferrie
Jun 13, 2006/6:18 amhttp://www.studiodawgs.com
I don’t care about any other contests. The 6 Pack contest is the ultimate challenge for a songwriter. Push your own envelope. Get out of your comfort zone. As the musicians on Broadjam get better and better, the challenge gets tougher. This isn’t about competing with fellow songwriters, it’s about reaching into yourself farther than you thought you could go and pulling out something amazing. The challenges this year look scary and fun which always translates into a good time.
Bring it on!!!!!
Check out the news on my web site for better details of my meetings with the pros.
http://www.lizmiller.org
Hi Bobby.
Liz MIller
Jun 12, 2006/5:55 pmI had a lot of fun with the 6-pack challenge, mostly with the categories I didn’t even break the top twenty in….and Liz winning was a perfect end….She is every bit a winner….This year looks pretty tough, but fun’s fun!
Bobby Caputo
Jun 12, 2006/5:11 pm