Believe it or not, there was a moment in time when Sia and I were both up and coming pop songwriters, trying to make it in the LA pop co-writing world. As Aussies in LA always do, we would cross paths at BBQs and friendly gatherings, and compare notes on how we were doing infiltrating the pop music illuminati.
The pop writing world in LA is extremely factory-like. It involves bouncing around each day to various sessions with various producers, who often churn out multiple songs per day to submit for different artists and projects who are known to be looking for songs. It’s really a numbers game. You try and be a part of as many songs as possible, with the hope that one of them might make a break and take out a win at some point.
I had a new baby at the time, so was interested in getting off the road for a bit, and had often been told my pop songwriting skills were decent, so it made sense for me to have a crack at this new role. After all, the prize is big in pop writing. One hit can pay the bills for years if you’re lucky.
The thing is though, for every song that is a “winner”, there might be 20-100 that just sit and languish on your hard drive. You can’t be precious in the world of pop writing. It kinda predated social media in the view of art as “content”, each song a new roll of the dice in a never ending gambling binge.
I had one “hit” so far, a tune that a songwriter named Tim Myers and I had written for the Chase Bank Super Bowl commercial. It was used 2 years running, and Im not kidding, kept food on the table for those two years while I wasn’t on the road. Pretty cool! It was kinda modelled on “Float On” by Modest Mouse, but had its own thing too. If this song made you want to open a Chase bank account I take part of the credit. Here it is…