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Trevor Justice signed publishing deal in LA
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Pitchability
Lessons Learned At Songposium, Song Camp, Nashville Workshops
By Trevor Justice
I attended last year's Songposium, two of your Song Camps, and several of your Thursday night workshop events. Thanks to the great advice and songwriting techniques I learned at these events, I recently landed a film & TV publishing deal with Kid Gloves Music. I was also one of the 14 writers hand-picked to participate in Jeffrey Steele's 2007 Songwriting Boot Camp.
I first came to Nashville in May 2006 to attend your Song Camp 201. I had always written for myself, and had never given much thought to the pitchability of my songs. So the Song Camp session with Ralph Murphy was priceless for me; he helped me see things from a radio perspective, and showed me the common denominators in hit songs. Thanks to this one lecture, I stopped spinning my wheels on songs with little chance of being cut.
Hugh Prestwood's lecture on lyric writing was an incredible eye-opener, too. And Angela Kasset helped me put the final touches on my song "Heroes Never Die," which has opened several doors for me since. These are just three of the six hit songwriters I got to learn from that month.
If not for your Song Camp, I don't know how I would ever have gotten to learn from these legendary songwriters!
In September 2006, I returned for Song Camp 102 and Songposium. Wow! Jerry Vandiver's class "Song 91" taught me to find fresh new ways to express my lyric ideas. Steve Seskin taught me to experiment with different points of view. And Jason Blume opened my eyes to the power of showing instead of telling. These are just a few of the hit songwriters I was blessed to learn from during those seven days of breakout sessions!
In April 2007, I met with several L.A. publishers. The value of my NSAI education really hit home when these publishers raved about my lyrics - saying they felt instantly thrust into the action of my stories.
As a result, Notting Hill Music asked me to write lyrics and melody to an instrumental track by one of their writers. And Kid Gloves Music has signed me a film & TV publishing deal. That means you should be hearing my songs in TV shows and movies this coming year! Kid Gloves' clients include Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Company, Paramount, Universal, Miramax, Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, HBO and others.
Of course it's great to have career success like this after just 16 months. But it's just as satisfying, personally, to know that my songwriting has taken a quantum leap forward. I highly recommend NSAI's events to any songwriter who wants to improve his or her songwriting craft, turn heads at writer's nights, or win the interest of publishers.
P.S. There's one other thing I love about NSAI. When I have to kill time between meetings with publishers, I have a comfortable "office" where I can make free phone calls, get on the Web, print out lyrics, and even burn CDs. |
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