JUNE 2006
TAXI Road Rally: Hit Songwriter Panel, part 2
How can you write a hit song about a SWAT team?
Barry DeVorzon
Mark Selby
PANELIST S Kara Dioguardi – cuts by Jessica Simpson, Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, Enrique Iglesias, etc. Mark Selby – cuts by Jo Dee Messina, Trisha Yearwood, Mindy McCready, etc. Tia Sillers – cuts by the Dixie Chicks, Alan Jackson, Wynonna, etc. Barry DeVorzon – cuts by Mary J. Blige, The Carpenters, The Eagles, etc. Ron Miller – cuts by Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion, Diana Ross, Barbara Streisand, etc. Michael Laskow, Moderator Barry, it feels like outlets for songwriters are largely limited to Pop, R&B, and Country these days. You found a different area in which to excel, TV themes—a tiny little niche—and you’re a powerhouse at it. How did you learn how to write themes? BD: It’s really different than writing for the record market, except with a motion picture or television show you definitely have a theme, an idea that you have to get across. I saw Aaron Spelling and said, “Give me a
Tia Sillers
Kara Dioguardi
shot at one of your television shows, and I’ll give you a hit.” I was kidding him, right? Because who can guarantee anyone a hit? And he called me about four weeks later and said, “Alright, come down. I’m going to show you my new show. I’m all excited. This is the first television show I’ve ever done.” I go down to the studio and they show me “SWAT.” So I walk out of there and I said, “How can you write a hit about a SWAT team. [laughter] This is impossible. Everyone hated SWAT. It was during the riots in downtown LA. So I went back to Santa Barbara. I was totally depressed. Couldn’t he give me a detective, a pretty girl, something? He gives me a SWAT team. I sat there and suffered with it and after about a week I said, “Okay, you can’t write a hit about a SWAT team.” So I’m just going to give him the most exciting theme I can give him. These guys are piling out of that truck, and I’m gonna make the audience feel the excitement of that and the electricity of that. And that’s how I gave birth to “SWAT.” Now don’t get me wrong, I worked just as hard on that as any song I ever wrote because it had to be right. And it had to be right when I went into the studio. What happened is, Aaron loved it; it made his main title; it sold what he was trying to sell with “SWAT.” And to everyone’s surprise, it went to #1.
Ron Miller
So, once you’ve figured out how to write TV themes, how do you go about pitching in that market? Do you go knocking on doors? BD: That is difficult, but that door is really opening up. At the time I was writing for film there wasn’t, believe it or not, a lot of contemporary music happening. Television was very jazzy and big band. Now the door is open, and there are a lot of Rock & Roll, R&B, and many other kinds of contemporary scores happening. I think the key is probably the music directors at the various studios. And, Lord, if you have any kind of in with a producer or a production company, that would be a good way to go. And you take three or four of your best songs and give it to them, and hope that they listen to it and are intrigued by it. But don’t give them too much. Are there rules to follow when trying to pitch thematic music? Do you just give them a 60-second piece? Do you make it largely instrumental? Can you have vocal stuff in there? Obviously, it’d be tough to write vocals for a show you don’t know the content of. BD: Honestly, you’d probably have a better chance to get a song in a film or a television show. But the problem with the theme is that usually the guy who gets the theme is also the guy who does the score. So you really have to be continued on page 2