Song summit 2012 - Day 1

Today was the first day of Song Summit 2012.

I will only give a short recap right now because I'm going to do an in depth post on my thoughts after the Australian content panel, so for now I'll keep it short.

The day started with Brett Cottle welcoming us on behalf of apra, followed by the welcome to country from the traditional land owners. Then we had Simon Crean talking about the importance of the arts to government which left me with the distinct feeling that there must be an election looming. Either that or that's how politicians always speak. Either way he seemed to be speaking quite strongly about how much support labour gives and has given to the arts over the years and asked us to use not just our art but also our choices to make the changes we want from government happen. Sounds like a. Nice sentiment only it seemed to boil down to "we support the arts so please vote for us". Next up we had Stephen Navin who is the head of the publishers association in the uk. He was hilarious, comparing his own kind, that is publishers, to cockroaches. Plus stating that rock music came from ancient times, when they carved music notation on rocks...

Imogen Heap

Imogen was amazing. Not only was she completely candid about her inspiration and her methods she also played a song for us to demonstrate, right off the bat. Plus she likes the sound of people scratching their knees. (google Imogen Heap is this is confusing for you).

Australian content panel

Definitely the most divisive Of the panels today. There was too much that happened to write it all now but I will post a full account of my musings soon.

My music my business panel

This one was mostly about the practical side of things. How not to leave your future and finance in the hands of someone else or worse still no one. Definitely convinced me to talk to and arts accountant this tax time though. Time to start claiming gig tickets as research. No joke.

International songwriting panel

This one was interesting as all hell in the way of understanding the competition. This was songwriters and publishers who work specifically in pop music. Im talking writing songs for the idol winners, every big name r&b and pop diva you can think of, the churn them out big chart toppling hits kind of deal.

It was amazing to hear the difference of perspective. It's never occurred to me or even made sense to me that someone who has the urge to write songs wouldn't want to be the one up there playing or singing them but there are lots of people out there who do and lots of artists whose entire repertoire comes from these people. It was a good perspective to understand because to some extent you can see what our here up against and on he other hand it helps to know that you have advantages in writing for yourself and being to get your own music out there.

Ok so that's the basic wrap up of day 1. Much more learning and excitement tomorrow.