Page 8 - August InDesign

CONNECTIONS

e’d all love to think that getting to the top in the music industry is all about talent.
The reality is that lots of qualities are required, including determination, resilience,
Wdiscipline, and quite possibly some luck. But one skill that you will definitely need to
cultivate is making the most of connections that you make as you progress in your songwriting
career.

Why connections matter

In almost every walk of life, success comes from recognizing that people need the support of other
people. To take a very obvious example from the music industry, a rock singer normally will re-
quire the support of a guitarist, bass player, and drummer. There aren’t too many one-man band
artists at the top of the charts!

However, there are other behind the scenes connections that can be really influential in shaping
an artist or band’s career. American heavy rock group Skid Row’s rise to success in the late 80s was
greatly helped by when they were given a helping hand by global superstar band, Bon Jovi. Skid
Row’s guitarist Dave Sabo had been a friend of Jon Bon Jovi as a teenager and as his own fledgling
band set out on their career, that Bon Jovi connection helped them secure a record deal and then
get a slot as support act on a Bon Jovi tour. That kind of exposure is priceless and fast-started the
band’s own rise to stardom.

How you can nurture connections

We won’t all have been lucky enough to have a childhood friend who has gone on to become a huge
pop star, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t establish our own smaller scale connections. Part of
a lyric writer’s life is finding musicians to work with so that their lyrics can be turned into songs.
When you find a musician who is really talented, then do your very best to make sure that your
working relationship extends beyond just one song.

Here are some tips that will help you achieve that:

• Be open to suggested tweaks to your lyrics. Musicians (especially vocalists) will often come
up with suggestions to improve your lyrics. It may be that some changes are needed to fit with the
prosody of the supporting music. Or that the singer finds that a particular line in your lyrics is hard
to sing. Being open to sensible constructive suggestions will make the musician feel more comfort-
able to work with you, and will often lead to better quality songs.

• Always do your best to supply a lyric if a musician asks you to supply lyrics to a piece of mu-
sic that they have written. This demonstrates your willingness to help them, and also that you have
the flexibility to either work from a lyrics first or a music first basis.

• Offer and ask for feedback. Show that you can add value by making suggestions on how to

08 www.writeawaymag.co.uk