Virtually Inspired
Aug 14, 2009 muse
This past Thursday evening I was looking forward to the “Writing A Song With Dave Berg” session in the SongU.com (SU) e-Auditorium. Since I was playing the role of TA (teacher’s assistant), I made sure my Mac was ready to record the session, and about 10-minutes before it started I logged in and fired up the “classroom” application. This was my first session with video, I knew Danny [Arena] was working on this piece, and it really works well. I need to find out the application he’s using because the quality and responsiveness was quite good.
Dave Berg is one of the hottest writers in Nashville these days, and it took just a few minutes for me to feel totally at home with his attitude and personality. I mean this guy is the real deal, but he’s as unpretentious and humble as can be, which made his words and wisdom all the more meaningful.
As he shared his back story, it was clear Dave hadn’t done anything like this before, that is, a virtual discussion with songwriters from all over the world. For all his success he kept iterating that he was relentless in grinding out songs and learning what it takes to be a successful songwriter in Nashville. His background is playing in rock bands in Portland, OR, so he didn’t grow up listening to country music.
The main topic was around the back story for Stupid Boy, which he wrote with Deanna Bryant and Sarah Buxton, and worked out pretty well for Keith Urban. Interestingly, they (Dave/Sarah/Deanna) chose that day to write a song from a very personal perspective that they thought would never get cut, aside perhaps on their own CDs. It was great to hear Dave keep harping on the fact that sure we have to learn our craft, and learn it well. But it’s not about formulas and writing what we think people want to hear.
Dave proceeded to play a verse/chorus of Stupid Boy live, jaw dropping! Next time in Nashville seeing Dave will be a top priority, provided he’s in town, of course. He then talked about co-writing and the process, the disappointments, the luck, the vast chasm between the ups and downs… but through it all, we write because we want to, because we have to.
Another point he shared that was key for me is that his publishers never tried to take the edge of his writing. Early on A&R folks would say they loved his songs but they weren’t necessarily marketable in the country market. But his management didn’t give him that feedback, they hedged bets his edgy-ness would pay off, cha-ching.
I “enrolled” at SU in the early years, and hazard to guess learned more about songwriting holistically in this environment than others. I’ve considered dropping my membership when I get discouraged and think the change would be good. Truth is, for all the great training and mentoring and collaboration I’ve gleaned from SU, I’ve not exhausted the resource, it’s more about my own lack of discipline and persistence. There’s no way to put a dollar value on the [virtual] inspiration I got from Dave Berg — and this is what SU is about.