Radiostar Songwriter Workshop: What’s in a Song? with Emm Gryner
This another in a series of posts from the Radiostar Songwriters Workshop at Tom Lee Music on September 14, 2008.
Emm Gryner is a singer-songwriter and previous winner of RadioStar. She has toured in David Bowie’s band as a keyboardist and vocalist, and has been nominated for 3 Juno Awards, including 2 for Best Pop Album.
Emm opened with Almighty Love a song Bono was quoted in Q Magazine as saying it was one song from the last 20 years he wishes he had written.
Emm joked that she wishes Bono would just record it so she could buy a house.
Songwriting is a difficult thing to speak on. It’s hard to explain how to put in to words something that just happens naturally.
An open discussion of what makes a good song:
- “Titles” is the first answer given. Emm is a big fan of titles, she usually starts with the title and that leaves in to everything else.
- Chord progressions, production, songwriting, connection, universality are all shouted from the crowd. Listenability is an important area to explore. The way technology has improved, there is no reason why anyone can’t produce something that’s listenable.
Emm went to Fanshawe College for music production and those skills helped her produce music that people could actually listen to.
She encourages people to enter RadioStar. No need to be jaded, or think it’s rigged. It’s a true and real contest. “If someone like me who was raised by wolves can win it .. “ she jokes.
A publicist was the biggest expense after she made her first album, and it was the most important thing she did – better than getting a manager. It helped her get noticed as she toured Toronto clubs and it landed her a worldwide record deal with Mercury and A&M.
When that company was absorbed by Universal, everyone she was working with was fired. It was tough, since the people who were let go were the ones who believed in her and had behind her since day one. The new rep assigned to her was also responsible for Britney Spears and was given just a week to decide if she was worth keeping – he decided she wasn’t.
Emm went home, didn’t give up and made a cd, Science Fair, for $500 and it became more successful than her discs that had major label and radio support.
Some notes that Emm made on what makes a song great: Melody, lyrics, uniqueness of the lyrics, universalness, beat, rhythm, riff, musical motif (doesnt always have to be a lyrical hook – can be a musical one), how easy is it to play (can you imagine a muzak version in the mall).
How to make your songwriting better?
- “Live life.” The more you live, the more you experience, the more you have to write about.
- Read books to improve your vocabulary and expand your horizons so you don’t keep relying on the same words in your songs.
- Learn to play. Take lessons. You may be a great, self-taught musician but learning and exposing yourself to new ideas is a way to expand horizons. Singing lessons work well to expand your range with your voice and perhaps take your songwriting in to new directions.
- Bounce your stuff off people who are not family members. Get opinions. “It’s super scary, but it’s indicative of what the music industry is like. It’s full of critics who will tear you to shreds, but it’s also full of people who will become your biggest fans.”
- When you get bad feedback you can’t cling to it – you have to consider the source. Take it, learn from it, but don’t dwell on it. Use your instincts to determine who is giving you advice from a pure spot and is not trying to prove a point or show how much they know.
- Co-writing. Emm encourages you to collaborate because of the things you’ll learn from other people. She had a meltdown on her last album as she was co-writing in Sweden. Her co-writer decided to start with a ballad, and he was taking his time with chords and tuning. Emm usually writes ballads in a quick blaze, and they instantly had a fight about methods. But she learned that someone else’s approach to songwriting is worth respecting and trying.
- Lyrics are important. be articulate in your writing – they go to google and search a couple of words and they’ll find your song.
Emm doesnt have ProTools, she uses Wiretap to just get the songs and ideas down. Some songs are successful for their simplicity.
Figure out your goals, do you want to be famous and recognized or do you just want to lay your art out? But sometimes you can do both: Beck said once “success lets me be as creative as I wants to be.”
Listen to The Beatles.
Something that works really well, instead of relying on your voice to come up with a melody – go to an instrument and work on it. Go the piano, the guitar and you’ll discover new places your voice can’t go. So it helps if you learn many instruments and are comfortable discovering them.
Covers aren’t bad. It can help the audience discover where you’re coming from, your influences etc. Learning other people’s songs helps you learn new chord progressions, timing structures etc. An artist in the audience, Ivy, mentions a cover she opens with – Prince’s When Doves Cry that is nothing like the original. Another audience member says it helps break the ice with the audience too.
Play live to find out which songs resonate with people. Also helps you to roll with the punches with different sound techs and things that can happen on stage.
FACTOR is an important source of funding for producing albums, marketing albums and VIDEOFact is good for video production. Canada Council for the Arts helps out and there are Provincial levels of funding as well. MusicBC is a local group that will help you find sponsors through grants.
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