Recent content by Reid Rosefelt

@Wykilla @David Cuny The only thing that works for me is to keep trying. I consider the words and notes in Synth V to be clay to be pounded and molded into a song. I output every day to my phone and walk around listening to it a dozen or more times. When I'm at the early stages, it's painful...

I'm glad that this post has been woken up again, because I think it's maybe the most useful post ever on this forum, along with all the other posts by @Nekujak Maybe it's a place where we all could add our own ideas for crafting songs? If people disagree, let me know. Maybe this should stay...

Paying for seats has been a part of the movie business as long as I've been in it. It's very important to get a decent gross for an indie film on the first weekend, or you'll be tossed out of the theatre. You might not even get a full week. Small companies don't ever do this, but some indie...

After I wrote what I wrote above, I started thinking about how I might have learned a lot from collaboration. What if I had meet somebody when I was young who was sympatico and good to work with? I think of Taylor Swift getting her parents to move her to Nashville as a teen. She had stories...

I've thought about this since I was twelve. Even when I was in a band with other songwriters, I've never done it. I've always written about something I felt strongly about or events that just happened (a girlfrend leaving me, etc.) and I didn't know how anybody else could tune in to the emotion...

Another story. He's written countless great songs, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be "Strawberry Blonde." He told me it took a long time to write. When I asked him why, he said "because it was so sad." When I listened to it later I realized that Ron really doesn't write hopeless...

I used to know Ron Sexsmith a little bit. This is how it happened. An actor friend of mine used to invite me to her place in the Catskills each year for a few days around New Year's. I earned my way by doing chores and bringing my guitar and singing. One year, she told me that Ron was going...

I'm writing every day. I was working a little too frantically last year trying to complete my first album of all new songs. I was writing many songs at the same time, as well as hiring singers, doing arrangements, working with a mixer, etc. Chaos. My plan was to revive my old YouTube Channel...

There's a thought-provoking thread on this forum about AI and songs. It started out being about Synthesizer V, but the focus broadened into larger issues of AI and songwriting. What is an AI song? If somebody types in a prompt on Suno or Udio and clicks generate, I think we can all agree that...

I was listening to tech journalist Kara Swisher on her podcast "Pivot" today and she said that instead of labeling things as "AI," we should instead label everything that doesn't use AI as "real." I think she was talking about AI pictures and videos, which are always fully generated (music is...

This is a songwriting community. It matters enormously to me that on this forum, this issue is worth debating. I am uncomfortable on Muse Songwriters, which is drifting into AI. I have been mocked there standing up on this issue. Some people have left for this reason. So this conversation is...

No matter how music is defined, there are a million songs going up on Spotify each week. I believe that 99% of the ones that matter to listeners will be written and performed by humans. Adele, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Billie Eilish, Dylan, Ed Sheeran, and whoever floats your boat...

Wonderful job, Tom and Josie! I do want to thank you Tom, for introducing me to Josie, by bringing her to this forum. I was lucky enough to work with her on two songs this year. Folks, don't be satisfied with the results you can get out of Synth V. Josie will astound you with what she can...

This isn't my idea, it belongs to the songwriting teacher Sheila Davis. But her idea, similar to what you have said above, is that a pop song will last if it speaks to something about the human condition that everybody can relate to. She goes on to say that it doesn't try to teach you something...

I'm not sure about that. This song speaks to issues that everybody will face someday, therefore IMHO it is timeless. Also, don't most people have grandparents? I was around my elderly relatives when I was a small child. I didn't know what it was like to be old when I first heard "September...