I recently spent an inspiring week with 30 awesome songwriters, totally immersed in the world of song. YVR SongShop is an intensive 5 day songwriting retreat held in Vancouver each spring. It’s hosted and facilitated by the Nimbus School of Recording and Media and sponsored by MusicBC, SOCAN, CCMIA, and Bell Media as part of the Canadian Songwriter Challenge.  YVR SongShop brings established and aspiring songwriters together to write, learn and create in an intensive workshop format.

This was my second year attending, and I loved every minute of it. We had unbelievable mentors who worked with us, gave us inspiration feedback and even workshopped our songs. Dave Genn, Shaun Verrault, Blair Packham and Kinnie Star.

We talked branding and social media, recording, the anatomy of a song and then the main event – write and record a song with a three person song writing team. My team hit the ground running with a fun breezy song about summer time.. (I’ll post the songs and it’s evolution soon!)

Someone I know in the industry asked me last year why I go to these type of things – he was like, “You know how to write a song, you know how to write good songs even… so why spend time and money to have someone tell you what you already know…”

I thought about that for a long while. In one sense he was right… I have been writing songs for a long time and have studied song forms in many genres and spent countless hours deconstructing songs I love. And while I’m far from tearing up the Billboard charts, I have developed a certain level of competency in my writing. So as i dug deeper I decided that the answer has two main parts 1) Connection and Community and 2) Get out of my Comfort Zone

1) Connection and Community: I guess the first answer is what we all want and aspire to as songwriters.. Connection and Community. I write songs to try to connect with people, make people feel something or see things in a new way or tell an interesting story, sometimes that can be a lonely pursuit. I’ve spent a lot of time and energy in the last couple of years trying to feel like I wasn’t the only one locked in a basement struggling to write a cohesive song – Attending the S. A. C. Regional Writers Group, and Deborah Holland’s Private Songwriters workshop.  YVR SongShop is the perfect remedy for this, suddenly you are spending 5 intense days with 40 other songwriters. Sharing Ideas, inspiration and supporting each other – its an amazing feeling.

2) Get Out of My Comfort Zone: It is easy to get in a rut or get stagnant in your writing when you are doing it alone in isolation. You become blind to your weaknesses and it is easy to let things go a bit. But when you are in a room with 30 amazing songwriters and a half dozen music industry professionals you have to be on and bring your best game. Those weaknesses you’ve been neglecting to work on suddenly become obvious. And when you are performing or workshopping a song in a group like that, that throw-away line in Verse 2 or that so-so bridge you slapped on at the last minute becomes crystal clear in your mind. Pressure in this regard creates growth, as you strive to present your best self, and work with others to hone and refine your skills you get better! And afterwards when you are home and inspired and energized by all the creative passionate songwriters you’ve been hanging with you get driven to hone your craft all the more..

Anyway here is the video they created summing up our experience as well as a selection of Photos that I took! Til next year!

Anyway, if you are in Vancouver (or interested in coming here for this,) contact Nimbus and get on the mailing list for next year…