Hiring A Songwriter

[I Got Riffs]

I've been thinking about this and I have no idea where to start. It won't help that I'm extremely picky and prefer styles that aren't exactly mainstream. I'm mostly into gothic rock/metal(anything from Evanescence to Trans-Siberian Orchestra). I guess this section focuses mainly on singing and lyrics, but I'm thinking I might want to find the whole package with music and lyrics.

Please save comments about how I should write my own songs. I enjoy writing my own stuff, but I want to try something different.

I'm not sure what specific info to ask about... just wondering if anyone on here has real experience with this that they would like to share from.

 

[rayc]

Are you after someone to write songs in a specific genre/style for you specifically?
Fully arranged or just vocal melody & single accompaniment?

 

[I Got Riffs]

Fully arranged, specific style. Even hearing demos would be ideal, but for all I know, that might sound absurd. Five or six songs is what I'm thinking. I'd do my own recordings of them, probably for digital only... I wouldn't worry about doing CDs or even selling downloads(unless it cost me like $10,000 to purchase the songs). I'd probably change a few things to make them sound more like my own. I'd hire musicians to play live with me. If it went extremely well, I might want another song now and then.

To go through all the trouble of course, I would really have to like the songs. To me, it would feel more like a tribute band... yet it would be original.

Another way for me to go would be to get someone to actually use my partial song ideas. "I Got Riffs" isn't just a clever name. I don't write lyrics, but I have many musical ideas - some of which are more complete songs than others. Most are missing bridge sections, vocal melodies and of course lyrics. Some are just two or three riffs stringed together(some would say this is a song, but I wouldn't). It would take a lot of communication to finish my tunes with someone else, and I would need someone really talented that could see my vision through and stay on the same page with me. Then when the songwriting is done, they would still be my songs to use however I like.

How would the cost of these different services compare? This is all just theory, so assuming money wasn't an issue, is this realistic? I know this sort of thing goes on all the time in pop music, but in the metal world it's pretty much unheard of.

 

[SEDstar]

hmmm...

costs can vary...

someone unknown you like their sound, might collab for free, trying to "get" somewhere.

at the other end, you can just "buy" a song, lyrics, melody, accomp and all... from Diane WhatsHerName, but... she starts at six figures and goes UP from there. (Your pretty much guaranteed a placement on a chart, though...)

There's some outfit called "Neptune" which specializes in real toe tappers for "pop melodys", but again, since they are proven hit makers... they are pricey.


I would guess you can expect to pay even MORE than normal, since you basically want someone to "ghost write" for you. meaning, your putting YOUR name on all the credits, and owning the rights to everything when its done, if it ever "goes" anywhere.

I dont know about any other unknown... but for ME? getting my name SOMEwhere in the fine print under credits, is more important than any payment.

Unknown or established, I should postulate that a writer's "reputation" is equally (if not more so...) important that any payments...

 

[I Got Riffs]

You've touched on some good points, but I think it's pretty clear that a six figure hit song isn't where I'm at or what I'm after.

I think part of me is hoping to find someone that sits in their room making what I think is killer music, but doesn't have much ambition for it beyond posting it on their myspace. We'd have some sort of agreement that I could play it live. But I feel if I'm going to take this idea seriously, I'd better be ready to pay a professional that has experience writing songs for others.

I'm just doing some real creative(and naive) thinking here... So I'm interested in hearing input on any variation of these ideas.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is a good example for a large-scale version. On most of the albums, there's studio musicians that do most of the writing and even performing. But then they have two seperate touring bands that tour the West Coast and East Coast of the U.S. simultaneously. I'd like to see more musicians doing this sort of thing on a smaller scale. Breaking down the boundaries of what a band is.

I would also like to see more tribute bands. For the originals that are no longer together, it would be great if a tribute band could not only do justice to the classic material, but even write new stuff that would live up to what the original artists might have done. I'm thinking far down the road when most 70s artists are gone. There will always be top 40s bar bands, but I want to see more top notch tribute bands.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

someone unknown you like their sound, might collab for free, trying to "get" somewhere.

That's probably the best way to do things. One of the difficulties with trying to get someone to ghostwrite something in the vein of TSO is that such a writer is likely to think he's pretty hot stuff; it'll be difficult to find someone who writes music that proggy and is happy to just collect a small paycheck and sit quietly in the background.

Some ideas for how to get collaborators...
If you've already got riffs, you could try going to open mics and poetry jams in your area and finding someone who can write decent "gothy" lyrics for you.