Excellent blog on songwriting by Brooke Fraser...

Recording artist, Brooke Fraser, recently wrote an excellent blog on songwriting and how she approaches it. Brooke has released 2 albums under SonyBMG (Australia & New Zealand), and is very well known for being a part of the Hillsong worship team. Check out her music on iTunes and at brookefraser.com.

For all of our Tate Music Group artists that are currently preparing the rest of the songs for your upcoming release with us, grab some tips from an outstanding writer like Brooke!

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In this blog I’ll discuss the foundation on which your songs are built. Whether you like it or not, there is one, and it’s you. Your worldview, your motives, your ‘issues’ are indelibly marked on everything you create in your life – whether it’s a song or a conversation or a Tweet. Being aware of your headspace and internal-environment goes a long way to understanding why you are or aren’t writing the type of songs you’d like to.

Over the past few years, many of you have written to me and said you would appreciate it if at some point I could share a little about songwriting. It isn’t something I’ve written about before, and as much as I enjoy blogging about everything non-music related, for some reason now feels like the right time to bring this wee series to the table. This certainly isn’t an objective study on the theme – what I write here will be subjective, personal, completely taken from my own journey as a writer. I’m in no way attempting to table a thesis here or pretend I’m some sort of expert, which I absolutely am not. So with that cleared up, on we go. ☺

You Are What You Eat

In songwriting workshops I’ve been involved in in the past, I have often said (partly to get a laugh but partly because I believe in the metaphor) that songs are like poo. Songs are like poo because:

1) You get out what you put in. Many people are naturally gifted-songwriters, but many successful songwriters are people who aren’t naturally musically gifted but have worked really hard at their craft. Read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers”… it brilliantly dissects the “myths” behind success – culture and opportunity have a lot to do with it… but the truth is, people who excel at anything usually work really, really hard. The 10,000 hour rule.

2) It is a product of what you feed yourself. If you feed yourself rubbish, what you output will be rubbish. I you feed yourself nutritiously, what comes out will be healthy. It’s the same with what we feed ourselves emotionally and spiritually. (I’m not going to get all weird on you, don’t worry – this is pretty logical.) If you’re listening to music with lots of minor chords and cynical lyrics about how the world is an awful, desolate hell and where no one can be trusted, reading depressing books, watching depressing films… it isn’t unlikely that your worldview* will reflect the negativity and cynicism you’re dwelling on/putting into yourself through your eyes and ears.

*“1. the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. 2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or group”

I’ll expand on this a little now. If you’re an artist or creative person of some kind, your artistic “digestive system” is your heart, mind and senses, your soul. So if something affects your soul, it affects your art.

Example.

Last year we introduced my music to the Americans for the first time. We toured extensively, did press/promo and achieved some exciting results. We substantially increased our touring base in the U.S. and by the end of 2008 were playing to audiences up to eight times the size of those I played to when we first did some showcases at the end of 2007. Thanks to U.S. iTunes selecting Albertine as Editor’s Choice for a week in June and putting a banner on their homepage, the Albertine record reached #5. You amazing people that came to shows sponsored swathes of precious children through World Vision and raised a ton of money for development work in Rwanda through the light-bulb t-shirt we introduced on the September tour. This was huge for us.

But behind the scenes a whole bunch of other stuff was going on and by the end of the year I was emotionally exhausted and the long period of sustained high stress had wrecked my body. I was forced to pull out of my last scheduled tour of the year and spent the month of October in bed on aggressive antibiotics. In November I took off to Africa, a place that is always challenging and healing for me. I didn’t want a bar of being Brooke Fraser. It took me a while to be able to pick up a guitar again.

Now it’s July 2009. I’ve picked up my guitar again, opened up Garageband and poised my pencil and I’m ready to be a conduit of the songs I’m trusting will come. But I’m more aware than ever of how my internal environment will affect the songs that come out of me. So to be honest, the way I’ve been writing so far is by dealing with all the “stuff” on the inside that I do not want to colour what I write and more importantly, how I live and hope and trust. Before I pick up the guitar or sit at the keyboard, I’ve been “writing” by feeding on the stuff I do want to mark my life and my art… hope, grace, forgiveness. Don’t get me wrong – I will write this next record very honestly and it won’t be all rainbows and butterflies – but I’m aware of the ‘aroma’ I want my songs to have, and it’s not one of bitterness, but one of grace. Grace doesn’t deny a wrong suffered or pretend it wasn’t that big a deal, but forgives it and loves in spite of it. I’ve received it so now I’ve gotta learn to give it, even though I’m not always the best at this and I’m still angry about some things. I am human.

Humanity and Art

“[Picasso] said this one thing I really did like, he said “good taste is the enemy of great art” which I think is very true. Good taste has all to do with being cultured and being refined and if art has to do with anything, it has to do with being human.” – Rich Mullins

Therein lies the guts of what I’ve attempted to unpack a little today. The humanity behind our art. Our struggle to navigate the world and society with all the infinite uniqueness of our personality, family background, emotional and genetic heritage, temperament, talents, mistakes, triumphs, preferences, IQ, sexuality, spirituality, language, birth order, addictions, allergies et cetera. Finding our place in the beautiful brokenness that is humanity and observing and recording what we discover along the way. I think the greatest art will always come from honest descriptions/depictions of our experience in the great in-between of being human.
Here’s to your humanity and mine, and the art it shall make.

Brooke

Future Video Tutorials and the Future Home of TMG Studios

I've received a few emails and a few comments as well (thanks Rickey!), therefore, it is now in the works to get some video tutorials your way! Everything from mic'ing techniques, to editing, to recording techniques...

It is something that we've been cooking up for a while, and we'll drop that very shortly, so stay tuned!

Also, the new studio is nearly completed and in less than a month, we'll begin tracking within the walls of the newly renovated facility. Become a fan of our Tate Publishing Facebook page for pictures and updates on TMG and Tate Publishing and Enterprises.


Jeff Chandler Radio Promotion Tour...

Tate Music Group's Artist of the Year, Jeff Chandler (www.myspace.com/chandler360), is currently out on his national radio promotional tour. He will also be playing spot dates along the way, so be sure to check him out and tune in to these local stations!!

Aug 3 2009 9:00A
Radio Tour KXOJ/ 100.9 FM Tulsa, Oklahoma
Aug 3 2009 12:00P
KZKZ 106.3 FM FT Smith, Oklahoma
Aug 3 2009 5:00P
KLRC 101.1 fm Fayetteville, Arkansas
Aug 4 2009 9:00A
KOBC 90.7 fm Joplin, Missouri
Aug 4 2009 12:00P
KLJC 88.5 fm Kansas City, Missouri
Aug 5 2009 9:00A
KHZR 97.7fm and 94.1 fm St. Louis, Missouri
Aug 5 2009 5:00P
WJIE 88.5fm Louisville, Kentucky
Aug 6 2009 9:00A
Fish 93.7 and 94.1 Nashville, Tennessee
Aug 6 2009 5:00P
WDJC 93.7 fm Birmingham, Alabama
Aug 7 2009 9:00A
WBSN 89.1 fm New Orleans, Louisiana
Aug 7 2009 5:00P
WBHY Mobile, Alabama
Aug 16 2009 8:00P
First Presbyterian Church Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Aug 22 2009 9:00A
"Walk a mile in her shoes" walk against sexual abuse/addiction CONYERS
Aug 29 2009 7:00P
Triumph Worship Center Mounds, Oklahoma
Aug 30 2009 10:00A
Triumph Worship Center Mounds, Oklahoma

Here is a clip of Jeff on 100.9FM, KXOJ in Tulsa, Oklahoma!