Songwriters in Seattle is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization which supports the community of Pacific Northwest independent artists through events that foster creative development, collaboration, music education, and performance.
Songwriters and those who wish to be more involved with songwriting are invited to join us for free at meetup.com/songwritersinseattle where all events and communication are managed.
"Do one thing each day that scares you" - Eleanor Roosevelt
For Pacific Northwest songwriter Laura Berman, this quote embodies her approach to her music and her life. While she acknowledges that there are scary things that should be avoided, many of our scary things are self-created. “Your instincts are smart and generally on-point, so listen. But sending an email about…
As we come to the end of another year of growth and creativity for Songwriters in Seattle, I am writing to share that I plan to step down from serving as Executive Director of the organization in early 2024. January will mark my 14th anniversary as Executive Director of SiS, and it feels like the right time for new leadership and new energy to help SiS continue to build and support the songwriting community in our region and beyond. To be sure, though I helped guide SiS over the years, it was never “my” organization - it is and always has been yours. This community is what makes us strong and without your help and involvement, we wouldn’t have accomplished near what we have over the years. That is what gives me confidence there are still many great things yet to come and I couldn’t be more excited to see what happens next for Songwriters in Seattle!
I’m proud of all we have accomplished together since I took the helm in 2010. At that point, our organization was only a few years old with a few hundred members—just getting established and gaining visibility. We are now over 4,000 members strong, have held over 1,500 events, and are still striving to provide the best possible support that independent artists like yourself deserve.
In particular, I am glad we were able to be there for songwriters during the early days of the pandemic, all learning Zoom together (remember that struggle?), and in fact expanding our outreach around the world as artists looked for like-minded and safe communities online. I’m also proud of the incredible range of events that our incredible hosts have provided over the years, from educating us on the many facets of the music business to honing our creative skills to memorable performances to simply being a friendly, listening ear. I’m so grateful for our many hosts who have volunteered over the years to lead, guide, and inspire us.
I am confident in our current event hosts and our board of directors to carry on our work in the future, with participation from all of you. Please take this moment to consider what your role might be in sustaining a strong SiS community. Is this Executive Director position something that speaks to you? Might you step up to volunteer as a board member, event host, or partner to help behind the scenes in the year ahead? Will you check the event calendar and encourage colleagues to join? SiS is a network made up of a supportive community of musicians, and I encourage you to find a way to engage and contribute to our collective impact.
Thank you for this opportunity to serve and be a part of our vibrant creative community. I have found a lot of joy in meeting many of you and hearing your heartfelt, powerful music. I am grateful for the ways in which you have inspired and motivated me. You will likely still see me around, as I don’t plan on leaving the area or stop attending SiS events. I will also be helping with the transition, making sure whoever leads the way forward gets the time and support they will need to be successful.
I hope we continue to cross paths and that I get to hear whatever beautiful creations you bring into this world in the future.
Creatively Yours,
Chris
Chris Klimecky
Executive Director, Songwriters in Seattle
A Message From The Board
The SiS Board of Directors recognizes our responsibility to ensure a good leadership transition as Chris moves away from his leadership position. We have had many good discussions and have developed a plan. With your help, we will be seeking out a new leader both within Songwriters in Seattle as well as beyond our membership. We are choosing to involve the community as you have always been the best resource for connections and information that points us in the right direction.
We will launch the search for our next permanent Executive Director in January, and we will share more details with you then. In fact, we invite our members and partners to provide input regarding the qualities most needed in our next leader via the annual open Board of Directors meeting at Razzi’s in Greenwood. We hope that we will have many candidates from within our membership, so please consider the opportunity yourself or share it with leaders that you admire within the music community.
We are thankful to Chris for his years of leadership and willingness to help with a long, smooth transition. We also look forward to new leadership and continuing success for Songwriters in Seattle.
I have written a couple hundred songs over the years. And it’s important to me that they find a way out into the world. At my age, I know I won’t have a career as a performing songwriter, but I want the songs to have a life outside my computer. It would be lovely if they were covered by established recording artists or bought for synchronization in TV and/or films. I think that is probably unlikely. But, it is not without possibility.
I don’t have the money to go into a studio to pay musicians, arrangers, engineers and producers to record my songs the way I hear them. I don’t have the money to then have them mixed and mastered. And I don’t have the money to print hundreds of CD’s or vinyl records for distribution.
Nevertheless, right now I have fourteen 6-song EP’s that can be found on all the major online music stores and streaming services, like Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Amazon Music, iTunes, Tidal and the like. I have four more in the works. You can audition my music on Bandcamp (https://davidguilbault.bandcamp.com/).
This is how it works. I find six of my songs that I believe hold together in some lyrical theme. Then I think of one of these folks who might have a particular ear for the essence of that music. Maybe they would bring a country feel, or a pop sensitivity or a dark tenor to the music. Living on a fixed income, I negotiate a flat fee for them to arrange, produce, record and mix the six songs. In most cases, they play all the instruments.
I give them scratch guitar and vocal tracks recorded to a click track. I either do that at home on my computer or, preferably, I come to their project studio to lay down the scratch tracks. Then I essentially wash my hands of the project.
Because I am not paying them what they should rightly earn playing the multiple roles of musician, arranger, producer and engineer, I give up creative control of the final arrangements. They are free to produce the songs any way they hear them. I don’t meddle in the process. And there is no deadline for them completing the project. I have had some EP’s take up to two years to complete.
When these masterful musicians have laid down all the instrumental tracks, I come back and do a final vocal on a good mic, trying my best to capture the feel of the music they have created with my singing. Many times I am surprised by arrangements that I would not have expected or would not have created if I were doing the songs myself. In only one case (with none of the folks mentioned above) have I been disappointed.
I still have to pay to get the final mixes mastered, but there are now algorithms online that can do that for very little money.
Like I said, the crux of these deals is that I surrender the music to the producer. Since I am not paying them market rates, I am not going to waste their time asking for revisions. What I get is my song matched with their musical talent.
What that means is that each collaboration has a unique sound, reflecting the tastes and talents of the individual producers. The downside of that is that I haven’t established my personal performance style across these recordings. But, this process is about getting the songs recorded professionally and out onto the Internet, and not about developing and promoting a profile as a recording artist.
I use DistroKid as my distributor. You upload your music to them digitally and they get the albums in all the major stores. Getting folks to find the songs, however, listen to the songs and buy the songs is another ball of wax altogether. For the most part, my music is still unheard. Which is another reason not to spend ten thousand dollars on a studio produced CD that few radio stations are going to play and few people are going to buy.
So, I am grateful to the lovely and talented collaborators who have been generous and kind with their time and talent in taking on my cut-rate projects and producing them with such feeling and expertise. For better or for worse, I have at least a third of my repertoire out there in the ether. And, if my music should ever catch fire and actually make money, I have every intention of sharing the proceeds 50/50 with these wonderful musicians.
I hope you find a way to get your music out into the world. In the meantime, please be safe and well, and keep on writing and performing. Music is indeed a labor of love. Getting paid for that labor would be sweet.
This set of lyrics is seeking music. Please submit a recording or a written account of the chords and melody to collaboration@songwritersinseattle.com and indicate that it is for Mystery Matchup #2.
The deadline for this activity is Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 at 7:00 PM
It Didn’t Turn Out
It hasn’t been hard to get what I’ve needed,
as long as the price didn’t turn out too high.
I stick to the basics, and sometimes I’ve cheated.
You do what you know you must do to get by.
Despite all the answers I’ve sought, it didn’t turn out like I thought.
Despite all the breaks that I’ve caught, it didn’t turn out like I thought.
Well, I never argue and I never fight,
If people don’t like what I say.
I’ve never been silenced, and never back down.
I just do my best to get out of the way.
Despite all the times I’ve been right, it didn’t turn out like it might.
Despite all my prayers every night, it didn’t turn out like it might.
Maybe you’re smarter, or maybe you’re lucky,
or maybe it’s just that you know how to lie.
Or maybe you know something I’ve never heard of.
Maybe you know something I’d never try.
Despite all the times I’ve been good, it didn’t turn out like it should.
Despite all the times I’ve knocked wood, it didn’t turn out like it should.
So please understand that it’s never been easy,
You know that it hasn’t been easy at all.
You try to be patient, and do unto others,
But mostly you do what you can not to fall.
Despite all the things that I am, it didn’t turn out like I planned.
Despite that I did what I can, it didn’t turn out like I planned.
This post received several collaboration submissions. The final chosen submission was from Brent Fletcher. I’m guessing that the female voice in the recording does not belong to Brent.
The original lyrics were posted by Carmen Ficarro.
Here is the final piece:
Thanks to everybody who participated. If your version was not selected, try again on our next round. If you would like to have your piece shown here for all to see, just let me know via email and I will post it in an honorable mentions section.
The Mystery Matchup is an online collaboration where an anonymous donor posts a piece of music or set of lyrics, and others are invited to complete the song by adding the missing portion.
This activity is designed to inspire creativity and foster community. As such, the posted content should be respected, but modified as necessary to fit your contribution. After you submit your version of the completed song, the original poster will review all submissions and choose one or more to share for all to hear.
How it works
At the beginning of the event, the poster will be anonymous. All submissions will be forwarded in as anonymous fashion as possible. After the poster chooses a favorite response, the end result will be published along with the identities of all who were involved.
Because the identities are not revealed until after the collaboration process is complete, the contributing authors will not be limited by preconceived notions based upon identity, such as anticipated style or content limitations. It is our hope that people will be pleasantly surprised by the identities of collaborators.
Do you want to collaborate?
In order to keep this going, we need others who wish to post their ideas for collaboration. If you have a set of lyrics or piece of music that is looking for collaborative content, please email us at collaboration@songwritersinseattle.com
To be clear, there is no need to RSVP for these events, just submit your collaboration at collaboration@songwritersinseattle.com anytime within the two week period that it is open for submissions.
This piece of music has been submitted as a chart with accompanying audio.
The deadline for this activity is Sunday, April 19th, 2020 at 7:00 PM
Chart:Mystery_Matchup_1
(If you right click, you can open in another window or tab so that you can see the chart while listening to the music on this page)
Audio: (Click three dots to the right to download, or play in this page)
Please submit possible lyrics that may work with it. They can be submitted as text and/or as a recording. Please make it clear which lyrics align with which section.
Sections can (and should) be repeated or modified as necessary. This is a collaboration and is merely meant to be a starting point.
