Song Craft Sessions ft Rico Love

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[00:01:19] The Connect with Graffiti.

[00:01:20] What's good y'all?

[00:01:21] It's the Connect with Graffiti.

[00:01:22] A quick connect right now.

[00:01:23] I got my man on the line with me.

[00:01:26] Super songwriter, super producer, hit maker.

[00:01:29] Man just all around good dude.

[00:01:31] The father of course.

[00:01:32] Of course.

[00:01:33] I gotta put that out there.

[00:01:34] My man Rico Love.

[00:01:35] What's up brother?

[00:01:36] What's up bro?

[00:01:37] How you feeling?

[00:01:38] I'm feeling good man.

[00:01:39] I love to ask this question before I start the conversation.

[00:01:42] How's your mental?

[00:01:43] Good man.

[00:01:44] I'm in a really good place.

[00:01:46] You know I think that we go through different things in life ups and downs or hurdles

[00:01:50] but I'm in a very strong confident place right now.

[00:01:53] I appreciate you asking that.

[00:01:54] Word.

[00:01:55] Love to hear that.

[00:01:56] Love to hear that.

[00:01:57] Man so of course I see the plaques behind you man.

[00:01:59] The catalog is heavy.

[00:02:01] Before I hopped on I had to run back and just run back out catalog a little bit.

[00:02:04] You're going crazy Beyonce, Usher, Jamie Foxx, I mean Bat Joe, T.I., Fergie.

[00:02:11] The list goes on and on man but the main thing I'm about to talk about right now

[00:02:15] is the song craft session.

[00:02:16] Tell me a little bit about that and what that is.

[00:02:19] So first of all I started the We Love Music Conference in 2015 as an opportunity to teach

[00:02:25] the things that I've learned and the information that I've acquired over the years of being

[00:02:31] in the business and I want to be able to put on these seminars kind of coaching people

[00:02:35] through the process and through my process and teaching them how I move and how I

[00:02:39] operate as a songwriter.

[00:02:40] Then I started to think about that more interpersonal interaction with creatives.

[00:02:45] That's when I created song craft.

[00:02:47] I actually created song craft right before the pandemic and we were going to go from

[00:02:51] city to city, 15 people max, five in each room, do these sessions where they can write songs

[00:02:56] with me and learn my process so it's not just me teaching them a technique.

[00:02:59] It's them actually in real time writing songs with me.

[00:03:02] Obviously the pandemic happened so we couldn't do that in person.

[00:03:05] So maybe probably in the 2023 I started doing it and I said let's go out there

[00:03:11] and see how it is.

[00:03:12] And it hit like it rung off crazy in different cities and states.

[00:03:17] UAE, Abu Dhabi, we did South Africa, we did Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago so far we're doing

[00:03:25] Boston and then we'll be in Denver.

[00:03:27] So many more cities are being announced soon.

[00:03:30] So it's an opportunity to get in the room with me, write with me, collaborate almost

[00:03:35] like a family, like a unit.

[00:03:37] And be able to just kind of vibe and pow wow around the microphone and make records.

[00:03:41] Yeah, that's fine man.

[00:03:42] That concept is dope.

[00:03:43] Let's talk about what it takes to kind of put something like that together because of

[00:03:46] course the idea is fire but you know you're dealing with a bunch of different creatives,

[00:03:51] a bunch of different personalities, a lot of different energies and just getting

[00:03:54] them all to come together on one room.

[00:03:55] Just kind of the background behind actually putting something like that together especially

[00:03:59] since you're going city to city with it.

[00:04:01] Yeah more than anything is about the nucleus and I try my best to be the strongest

[00:04:06] nucleus possible and to bring people together and to educate people also to let them know

[00:04:11] that there's no bad ideas is just about us finding the best idea.

[00:04:14] So just because this idea is good, how do we get it to great?

[00:04:18] And as far as the personalities in the rooms, I really do well managing the energies

[00:04:24] and the personalities and I'm really, it's not stopped but eight hours it's me running

[00:04:28] in and out of the room so I don't get to sit down they get to have a pause.

[00:04:32] But for me I get the opportunity, I don't want to say the burden, the opportunity of being

[00:04:39] able to jump from room to room, share the energy, critique, hey how can we make this

[00:04:43] better?

[00:04:44] I don't like this verse, I think this should be better.

[00:04:45] Let me show you this technique.

[00:04:47] This is my method and how I do it.

[00:04:49] It's a lot of fun and as far as the energies, it's all about the energy I bring and

[00:04:55] I try to bring the most positive, most loving, most open minded and open hearted energy that

[00:05:03] I possibly can.

[00:05:04] Absolutely.

[00:05:05] So let's talk about the learning side of it man so we're in a weird space right now

[00:05:10] and I know you can speak on this a little bit with the industry and just entertainment

[00:05:13] and music and just the art and the craft of music.

[00:05:18] A lot of people we have access to everything now so you can just get in and put something

[00:05:23] out.

[00:05:24] The internet has opened up the floodgates in good and bad ways.

[00:05:28] You know what I mean?

[00:05:29] And so in some ways the art and the craft of songwriting and just producing good music

[00:05:35] has been lost along the way so let's just talk about the importance of just educating

[00:05:39] songwriters on writing good songs.

[00:05:41] To be totally honest when you look at SZA, you look at Bad Bunny, you look at Kendrick,

[00:05:49] you look at Drake, you look at Cole, you look at Miley Cyrus, you look at Beyoncé, you look

[00:05:54] at John Baptiste, you look at PJ Morton.

[00:05:59] These are all, that's the Grammy lineup from 2023 so I don't think that the industry is

[00:06:05] a problem.

[00:06:06] I think the oversaturation of the openness, the energy to be able to create and then

[00:06:12] release music instantly, that is where we kind of get diluted but the top of the

[00:06:17] top is going to consistently be quality music.

[00:06:19] All of those artists that I'm from Burnaboy all the way to 21 and you know to Dochi, to

[00:06:27] Doja Cat, all these artists.

[00:06:29] I guess it's a plethora of, it's a wide variety of talented acts and at the top of the mountain

[00:06:35] is not more quality music so the quality never changed.

[00:06:40] What happens is many more people saturating the lane, 600,000 songs are uploaded per

[00:06:45] day to Spotify.

[00:06:47] Per day.

[00:06:48] So what happens is there is more to choose from which makes the playing field a little bit

[00:06:54] more difficult because how am I going to be noticed and if this door is free and it's

[00:07:00] open, we can walk through this door, it's great if you walk through that door.

[00:07:04] The problem is there's 600,000 people that are going to walk through that door today.

[00:07:07] So how do I stand out?

[00:07:08] And then tomorrow and the day after.

[00:07:11] So the issue isn't the level of quality because all of the quality rises to the

[00:07:15] top.

[00:07:16] It's the how much quality doesn't make it.

[00:07:19] You know, I mean how much quality is going to be overlooked and how do I find a way to

[00:07:22] stand out?

[00:07:23] How do I keep getting into rooms that will get me noticed and get me in the next room

[00:07:27] and the next room and the next room and the next room and that's the key.

[00:07:29] Right, right.

[00:07:30] Cream always rises to the top.

[00:07:32] Yeah.

[00:07:33] Just as I'm so I want to stay on that with Spotify and kind of just streaming right

[00:07:36] now.

[00:07:37] You know there's a lot of talk about there's always a lot of talk but just you know

[00:07:41] songwriting credits and the publishing side of things and splits and percentages.

[00:07:46] Oh yeah.

[00:07:47] So I'm assuming in these sessions those conversations come up as well.

[00:07:50] How do you manage that?

[00:07:51] Oh, when it comes to that, it's really important to kind of make you got to be clear on what

[00:07:57] your what your earning is early.

[00:07:59] You got to be clear on what your split is early.

[00:08:02] You got to be clear on how your business going to be handled.

[00:08:05] What I always suggest is if you're doing writing sessions everything equal down

[00:08:10] in middle because you might write 10% today but tomorrow you might write 50%.

[00:08:16] You might write 50% today and tomorrow you write 2%.

[00:08:19] You want to be able to you know have a form of a good bond and a good connection.

[00:08:23] Also understanding if this the relationship is not going to be long then you can go by

[00:08:28] percentages of okay choruses, the this much versus the this much.

[00:08:32] Also finding ways to make sure you compensate producers and writers in a world where the

[00:08:36] record companies used to do that for you.

[00:08:38] Now when you're independent what's the incentive for me to write a song for independent artists

[00:08:43] if I don't share that master because it's difficult because you're the only person that

[00:08:49] can make the money is the masterholder.

[00:08:51] Nobody Spotify doesn't pay the songwriters.

[00:08:54] Spotify pays the record companies and the record companies are supposed to pay the

[00:08:56] publishers and the songwriters.

[00:08:57] So the business has shifted so much in all other people they'll aim Spotify but

[00:09:01] it's really the songwriter.

[00:09:02] It's really the record companies that are not divvying up the money the right way.

[00:09:06] Right, right.

[00:09:08] I'm curious just kind of from the outside looking at you know I'm in the industry a little bit

[00:09:11] but just from the lightning side we're watching all the news like how that relates to you know

[00:09:16] the TikTok band and how artists are saying you know TikTok is kind of messing up the

[00:09:21] game right now.

[00:09:22] Not the artist and it's the labels.

[00:09:24] It's the labels.

[00:09:25] The labels are being hypocrites because they're saying TikTok has made billions and

[00:09:30] they only paid us 100 million.

[00:09:31] Yeah, that's the same way record companies are doing artists off the streams.

[00:09:36] So yeah I think that obviously it's lopsided, universal, pulled the entire catalog which is

[00:09:42] going to make it a very open wide open for independent artists who submit and put out

[00:09:47] their regular on the Spotify, on the platform, on the TikToks and all that stuff.

[00:09:51] So yeah it's not fair to you know somebody's gonna get the shit in the stick but the

[00:09:56] problem is music is not at the forefront.

[00:09:58] People feel like there's so much music that if you guys pull your whole catalog

[00:10:01] we'll be fine.

[00:10:02] Right.

[00:10:03] So we've got the people hooked so they'll be here and they'll find which songs they

[00:10:07] can use and they'll use those songs.

[00:10:09] That's crazy man.

[00:10:10] So TikTok is essentially doing the labels out of labels through the bass.

[00:10:13] Exactly.

[00:10:14] Man, that's crazy.

[00:10:17] That's crazy.

[00:10:18] So with SongCraft man I'm kind of curious just the vetting process so you know I know

[00:10:23] everybody and their mama think they can make a song like what is the actual process?

[00:10:26] So normally what we do is we make it available for the creatives and people register

[00:10:31] and they pay for the registration fee.

[00:10:34] With Denver it was crazy because Myohah Jeweler, police and thieves sponsored and they were

[00:10:42] like we want to be involved, we want to sponsor the entire thing.

[00:10:47] So for this we're allowing myself, Myohah, Gregory Smith, Francois, police and thieves

[00:10:55] we're gonna choose the best 15 people.

[00:10:58] Now normally it's not like that.

[00:11:00] Normally the first 15 people to register, register and they pull up.

[00:11:04] Most cities go over 15 because it's hard for me to turn people away so much talent.

[00:11:09] But for this particular thing Denver is doing something special that a lot of cities are

[00:11:13] following suit now.

[00:11:14] They were like we want to pay, we don't want creatives to have a hard time.

[00:11:18] Some people who may not be able to afford it, we want to be able to pay for it.

[00:11:21] So they sponsored the entire thing.

[00:11:23] So it's our job now to pick and select who we feel like would be the best.

[00:11:27] That's what's up man, that's fire.

[00:11:28] That's my Myohah Jeweler is everybody you just named.

[00:11:31] So just fast forward and you get through the process, you get the writers in the room,

[00:11:35] they put together some fire.

[00:11:37] You're like yeah I like that, let's move forward.

[00:11:39] What's the steps after that?

[00:11:41] What happens after that?

[00:11:42] Oh we create and then we try to find places for the records.

[00:11:47] We pitch the records and try to find places to put the records.

[00:11:50] So on this particular thing I have a few artists in mind that I want to work on songs

[00:11:55] for and we get to song crafting course.

[00:11:58] We'll announce who we're working on songs for and give them a theme for the first

[00:12:02] three, four hours after that we give them free range to just create because we want

[00:12:05] to limit anybody wanting to stunt their creativity.

[00:12:08] So then for the five hours rest of the last five hours we just created

[00:12:13] everybody just be as creative as possible.

[00:12:16] Oh yeah man so I'm going to keep it too long but just one more time

[00:12:19] I just want to get it out there to the people.

[00:12:21] So just go ahead and let them know the dates.

[00:12:22] I know you'll be out here in Denver.

[00:12:24] Yes I get Denver on the 27th but the song crafting course is on the 28th.

[00:12:28] Shout out to Mile Hyde Jewelers, shout out to Police and Thieves,

[00:12:32] shout out to Francois.

[00:12:33] All the sponsors that are involved.

[00:12:35] It's one more sponsor that I'm forgetting.

[00:12:39] Oh man I'm kicking myself as I'm forgetting.

[00:12:43] It's a sponsor but it's free sponsor.

[00:12:45] We'll plug it in, that's all good.

[00:12:47] Yeah yeah but I'm super excited about all the work everybody's doing

[00:12:51] and we want to come out there and just kind of make an impact

[00:12:55] and make sure that we shine a light on the creativity in the Denver area.

[00:12:59] Don't man we appreciate it, we appreciate the energy.

[00:13:02] I'm gonna try to be around see what's going on man but I love it.

[00:13:05] I appreciate your sign man.

[00:13:06] We go love.

[00:13:06] Look down, look down with graffiti.

[00:13:09] Our guys love.

[00:13:10] Love, love.

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