A Songwriting Conversation With John Braheny – Part 1

John Braheny is a consultant for songwriters and the author of “The Craft and Business of Songwriting”.  Learn more about him at www.johnbraheny.com.

John Braheny is a top consultant for songwriters, performers and industry entrepreneurs. He is a consultant and screener for TAXI, the independent A&R company, and offers valuable feedback on songwriting craft and business and career strategies for performers.

John is one of the most respected people in the music industry, and, more specifically, in the songwriting community. From 1971-1996 he co-founded and directed the legendary Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase (LASS), which BMI sponsored for 18 years.

During that time the organization gave exposure and opportunities to a virtual Who’s Who of up and coming singer-songwriters, including Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, Janis Ian, Warren Zevon, Karla Bonoff, Stephen Bishop, and Diane Warren.

John graciously took some time away from his busy schedule to discuss songwriting with Serve The Song over the phone and via email. Below is the first part of our conversation.

1. Most readers of Serve The Song are DIY songwriters and producers. Can you talk a little bit about how they need to think like entrepreneurs to move their careers forward?

Sure. In some way or another we’ve always had to be entrepreneurs, even during the days when everybody aspired to a major label deal. We had to find managers, booking agents, hire or select musicians for our bands, select and book recording and rehearsal studios. We had to handle and budget our money and we had to promote ourselves. If we found a manager, many of those tasks would be taken over by him/her and/or a business manager. If we got a major or indie label deal, the company would often take over the jobs of finding a booking agent, selecting a producer and paying for marketing and record promotion.

One of the most expensive items was marketing/promotion. The record had to be good enough for radio airplay and promoted to radio with a combination of in-house and out-sourced promoters. In the old label deals most of that cost would be recouped by the record companies through record sales. Production costs, tour advances and sometimes promotion costs were recouped from the artists royalties before the artists got their first penny.

Currently, most of those things still have to be done, but DIY artists now have a vast array of services and resources to help them with booking, accounting, and fan-base management. What that does, however, is to put the responsibility of developing your career solely on your own shoulders. It requires self-discipline, good time management skills, networking skills, the willingness to seek feedback on your work (an often under-appreciated service that was provided in the past by music publishers and record companies) and to commit to growing and learning as an artist. So without the record label or a good manager, you can’t blame failure on anyone but yourself.

The bottom line is that even if you do aspire to a major label deal, labels want to sign successful entrepreneurs who have demonstrated a real commitment to their careers. I’ve heard many record execs through the years remind artists that when the deal is signed, that’s when your REAL work begins. These days I’d disagree. Your work as an entrepreneur starts when you decide YOU want to make a living doing what you love.

2. Besides pitching songs to established artists and TV/movie music supervisors, what other opportunities are available to today’s DIY songwriters and producers?

Getting your songs into film/TV is the biggest but there are other opportunities. Video games are using more actual songs aside from scores and more games are getting set up so that the songs can be changed out and new songs used. Songs in greeting cards are getting big, although they’re still dominated by old hits. There are many compilation CDs created for charities that will use songs that focus on their particular interests (medical, animals, armed forces family charities etc.). You won’t see a lot of income from those compilations but it’s a good way to get your songs out there to help people discover you. Sponsorships and endorsement deals can be a good income generator or a way to finance your road tours, equipment, etc.

Some contests offer cash prizes and all offer recognition if you win. Good indie producers are always in demand if you’re willing to work on “spec” until you get real opportunities. It’s also good to attend audio school combined with internships that prepare you and put you in line for those opportunities. Always look toward your classmates and contemporaries as potential partners on projects. Join forces and collaborate wherever possible and jump on any creative opportunity. This is not a time for competition, but for cooperation.

I’ll mention here that one of the best ways I know to connect with new opportunities if you feel you have a viable catalog of songs is to join TAXI. It’s a great opportunity to get constructive critiques to help you grow as a writer and artist.

3. In the old days we used to be able to pitch material with just a simple guitar and vocal demo. Given the current level of competition out there, what is the minimum quality standard songwriters should shoot for when pitching their demos? Does everything need to be slickly produced? Is it possible to get an acceptable level of quality in a home studio environment?

If you learn to use your home studio equipment well – your software and samples, plug-ins and outboard gear as well as old-school microphone placement techniques, you can do very good demos on your own that are comparable to masters costing thousands of dollars in expensive studios not all that long ago. So don’t think you have to get that elaborate. You need clean, undistorted sound. The kinds of demos you present to whom is a topic I cover extensively in my book but I’ll try to be brief here. If the song is for country or a pop ballad, and has a great, unique lyric and melody, you can get away with a well-played guitar or keyboard and vocal. The vocal MUST be very good. If you know anyone who’s a better singer than you, hire them to sing it. If you’re a band, you obviously use your band. If you write rock or R&B, Hip-Hop, etc. you need a great rhythm section and a great singer. This is a generalization and there are a lot more nuances to this question.

4. How important is storytelling when it comes to writing a great song?

What’s most important is engaging and holding the listener’s attention lyrically, melodically and rhythmically. Storytelling is one of the most successful time-tested lyrical approaches. There have always been great story songs in all cultures. Holding a listener’s attention with a well-developed story has been a staple in all genres. The linear narrative like “Coward of The County” or Eminem’s “Stan” or Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne” is one kind of storytelling but you can also tell a more non-linear, abstract, emotional story that leaves more to the listener’s imagination. Ultimately, it’s a magic combination of lyric, melody, groove, production and arrangement and performance that together tells, and sells, the “story”, regardless of how you define it.

5. How important is an understanding of music theory and various song forms?

What both of those give you is a toolbox. If you only know one chord progression or one melodic mode, you’ll start repeating yourself very soon. Your writing will get stale. Though it’s not necessary to know music theory to write a good song, understanding the theory will help you to know how to analyze your own instinctive artistic choices. Once you know them you know how to control them and expand them.

Song form, or structure, is very important if you’re writing contemporary music that you want to be commercially viable. There are many viable structures to choose from. Although you should have them all available in your toolbox, it’s equally as important that you understand why they work. Song structure serves as a matrix that helps to guide the listener through the song with a combination of predictability and surprise that serves to hold their attention. If you have 5 0r 6 verses in a row with the same melody, it doesn’t hold a listener’s attention as well as a verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus structure that introduces a listener to 3 different melodies to keep it interesting. Note that the bridge (surprise factor) comes after a repeat (predictability factor) of two verse/chorus modules.

You always need at least two of something before you can introduce a surprise. If, say, you had 4 different sections in a row where nothing repeats, though it may be interesting to progressive rock or jazz fans, it’s hard to hold the attention of a mass market audience who likes to “own” a song by learning the chorus and participating.

There are styles of music that don’t need to use the same structures as pop music because the audience doesn’t need these structures to hold their attention on radio while they’re thinking about/doing something else. Dance music is generally built for clubs where the music surrounds the listener and depends on a different mix of ingredients (groove, sounds, etc.) to delight its audience. Musical theater uses songs to move the story along and develop characters and already has the attention of a viewing audience. To some extent, music for film/TV doesn’t always require the same kind of structure and dynamics as radio music because its function is more about supplying a “vibe” or emotional underpinning to what’s happening on-screen or saying lyrically what the characters are thinking. In that case, the screen, not the music should hold your main focus – unless the film is about the music.

Check out Part 2 of “A Songwriting Conversation With John Braheny”, and please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

Related posts:

1. A Songwriting Conversation With John Braheny – Part 2
2. A Songwriting Conversation With John Braheny – Part 3
3. A Day In The Life Of Game Composer Aaron Marks – Part 1
4. A Day In The Life Of Game Composer Aaron Marks – Part 2

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