Kate let me know that there was a monthly (more or less) podcast being organized, a "song club," which would have a dozen or so songwriters each contributing a new tune for each episode.
She planted herself in the small dining room as if it were a concert hall, and the 100 or so songwriters and show people were the most important audience she had ever played to.
The CTW wanted to attract the best composers and lyricists for Sesame Street, so songwriters like Joe Raposo, the show's music director, and writer Jeff Moss were allowed to retain the rights to the songs they wrote.
So, Neil Finn, songwriter, how do you do it?
So, our songwriter comes up with a plan.
And so other songwriters may find themselves getting much lower royalty rates.
Small wonder so many songwriters signed on to 30 Days, 30 Songs, a kind of sonic pop-up project that has been delivering a new message of protest every 24 hours for the entire month leading up to the election.
But unlike so many "songwriters" who are respected for their "honesty" about "relationships" – who write songs which convey nothing but venom and connivance – Darnell never loses his humour or humanity.
The law should provide clearer rules so that songwriters can know when the line is crossed, or at least where the line is.
I just know that until there is some regulation, the world may never see the potential of so many songwriters, singers or artists that just can't afford to make music.
And as a lyricist he grasps the paradox that eludes so many songwriters: that the widespread relatability of a piece of music — the way it can make somebody, or millions of somebodies, feel like they're being spoken to — increases in direct proportion to its specificity.
