Arden, Rock to dish on craft of songwriting
Juno Songwriters Circle entertaining way to learn a thing or two, Dana Gee writes.
JUNO SONGWRITERS CIRCLE
Presented by SOCAN in association with Canadian Music Publishers Association
When: March 25, noon
Tickets: $39.50, ticketmaster.ca While Juno Awards are handed out in Vancouver on March 25, it’s worth remembering that without songs there would be no reason to celebrate.
A few hours before the actual Michael Buble-hosted awards take place at Rogers Arena, the craft of songwriting takes centre stage at the Juno Songwriters Circle at the Orpheum Theatre (at noon).
Co-hosting the event are eighttime Juno-winner singer/songwriter and author Jann Arden and Canadian Music Hall of Fame member, Grammy and Juno-winning songwriter and producer Bob Rock.
This will be the second time that Arden and Rock will have teamed up in recent years: The two recently worked together on Arden’s just-released album, These are the Days. Rock has also produced past projects for Arden.
Over the years, Arden has taken part in a lot of these songwriter events. The Calgary resident says it’s what she leaves with that keeps her coming back.
“It’s very inspiring,” said Arden, who has been busy this year with her new book, Feeding My Mother: Comfort and Laughter in the Kitchen as My Mom Lives With Memory Loss. “It’s so great to see the songs stripped down. Certainly from a songwriting point of view it’s very memorable.
“You sit there many times and think, ‘I wish I would have written that, I wish I would have come up with that idea.’ It’s very inspiring indeed.”
Rock, who is well known as the producer of the likes of Metallica, Aerosmith, The Cult, Bon Jovi, The Tragically Hip, Motley Crue, Ron Sexsmith and Buble, has had success as a songwriter. With his writing partner Paul Hyde, Rock wrote hits for the Juno-Awardwinning Payola$ and Rock & Hyde.
In his four decades in the music business he has worked on songs with hundreds of songwriters, but he has never taken part in a songwriting circle.
“I’m looking forward to this because I like talking about this sort of thing,” said Rock, a Winnipeg native who calls Maui home. “It should be fun. I like talking about songwriting, the process. The different ways people approach songwriting.”
Presented by SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers), the songwriters circle showcases a handful of Canadian songwriters. The Juno-winning and Juno-nominated writers perform songs and talk about the stories behind the songs. Sitting in this year’s circle will be Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy, Iskwe, Rose Cousins, Ruth B and Scott Helman.
“It really is an intimate interactive experience,” said Arden. “You understand the true nature of a song. A lot of songs today are based on production values.
“If you were able to sit somebody down and with just a guitar or piano and play some of these top hits it would sound like s--t because the songs aren’t just there. It’s all production,” said Arden, before adding: “There is nothing wrong with production. I love a wide spectrum of music. There really is nothing I don’t like. Songwriter circles are unique because it is the writer and song. You really get to see these people shine and understand what songwriting is all about.”
Finding a writer and a song that can stand the test of an acoustic guitar and nothing else isn’t the easiest task, hence the increased production values. Rock, whose job it is to make artists and bands sound good, concurs that a singer, guitar and a fabulous song isn’t the most common of combinations.
“I’ve studied this my whole life, songwriting and making records, there’s so many different ways. Some people can pick up an acoustic guitar and write a song, but I think in those terms I think that is the hardest song to write. It’s just so simple and it’s got to be really, really something special before it translates,” Rock said.
With a resume like his, Rock has seen pretty much every creative choice and approach to songwriting. But despite the differences, he says one thing is a constant — everyone needs some help once in awhile, an extra pair of (very good) ears, if you will.
“Sometimes people get stuck on something, so my job through the years has always been to maybe nudge somebody or get them inspired or help them change up so they can get through the wall, so to speak,” Rock said.
“Most songwriters, especially established ones, can be quite secretive. They hold their cards close to their chest and can be insulted by any kind of criticism,” said Rock, adding that during the event he’ll likely share a story about James Hetfield of Metallica and how no one had ever suggested he change a word. Rock said he did just that and the result wasn’t a catastrophic meltdown, but a creative breakthrough.
“I would call it wisdom — wisdom of the experience, not just intellectually. I call it wisdom, meaning there are patterns of songwriting,” Rock said. “Most artists maybe they do 15 albums throughout their lifetime, but if I count the albums I have probably done a couple of hundred. When you are in the room that many times, you just see how people get stuck.”
You also see that being rigid isn’t always going to serve a song or encourage creative juices to flow.
“One of the most important things is to get the wheel turning. A lot of people get stuck. You have to start and you’ll only get better by rewriting it and constantly writing. That’s how you get good at it. Some people are born with it. Most people, it is work, it is something you have to learn. Everybody gets stuck, you have to not be precious about it. You just have to be able to try things.”
Arden has certainly been working at the craft. She says she wrote her first song at age 10 and never looked back.
“I had written hundreds of songs by the time I was 18. Terrible songs, sh---y songs, but songs,” said Arden. “Always broken-heart songs.”
But she was writing songs and that was the key.
“You have to sit down and try,” said Arden, who writes both music and lyrics at the same time.
For Rock, a turning point for him as a songwriter and future producer was in the early 1980s while working with the legendary guitar player David Bowie and producer Mick Ronson on the Payola$’s No Stranger to Danger album. Rock said he and Hyde came into the studio with their song Hastings Street.
Yousitthere many times and think, ‘I wish I would have written that, I wishIwould have come up with that idea.’ It’svery inspiring indeed.
Ronson liked the song, but felt Rock and Hyde needed to take another pass at it.
“He opened the door for me for thinking that way,” Rock said. “Whatever you got to do to the song, do it. Then you find a home for the song, then you find the best way to translate that song so people can enjoy it.”
Because this is a story about songwriting with award-winning Canadian songwriters, one has to ask Rock for some of his favourite Canadian tunes. Rock chuckles and then offers up:
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Also bookend that with Sundown,” said Rock about the Gordon Lightfoot classics. “Probably Neil Young Old Man, I like that — really the classics. Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now. Probably Leonard Cohen’s Bird on a Wire. You just shake your head and go, ‘How?’ Oh, and a lot of Robbie Robertson stuff.”
Arden, when faced with the same question, has a couple of similar choices to Rock.
“I like it when people write about real experiences,” said Arden. “Look at Gordon Lightfoot, he is the perfect example of a guy who has found such a balance over the last 50 years of how he can write a romantic song about love, you know If I Could Read Your Mind, and then something like the Edmund Fitzgerald, really historic storytelling. He really encompasses to me what is the quintessential rogue storyteller.
“Guys like him, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen. These names come up time and time again. They come up because they truly are masters at what they do. They can transport us to a different time and place.”
Arden’s list also includes everything from Terry Jacks (“I sang Seasons in the Sun like eight billion times growing up) and Buble (“anyone who has been on the road can relate to Home”).
As well, she gives a nod to the work of Cousins and looks forward to hearing her at the songwriting circle.
Proceeds from the circle will go to MusiCounts.