Song Contest Blog » Lyric Writing Contest

How a Song Comes to Life

Lior Shamir — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:02:04 +0000

It often escapes me why I got into this business.

But from time to time, I am reminded of the thrill of an idea coming to life in words and music.

While I no longer write and record myself, I enjoy just as much, if not more, the experience of watching other musicians realize their musical ideas.

Aaron Hurst, Winner of Round 3 of the Lyric Writer Awards, provided me with just this thrill. But he didn’t do it alone.

With the aid of We Are Listening’s master writers, Pete & Pat Luboff, the trio set the words to his winning lyric, “Worst of You”, to music to create what I consider to be an awesome collaborative effort.

Congratulations to the three of you for creating a moving piece of music, from idea to tangible finality.

Lyric Writing Contest Writing & Production Prize

Lior Shamir — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:32:46 +0000

For his prize, Vincent Robert Trocchia, winner of Round 3 of The 2009 Lyric Writer Awards, joined forces with We Are Listening’s songwriting duo, Pat and Pete Luboff to polish his lyric, set it to music, and produce an outstanding demo.

Hearing Things

Learn more about our lyric writing contest, other songwriting competitions, and song critique services.

Re-writing & Producing A Winning Lyric

Lior Shamir — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:10:23 +0000

Songwriting duo, Peter and Pat Luboff, have joined forces with We Are Listening once again to co-write and produce the winning lyric from the latest round of the Lyric Writer Awards. Dean Caputo, a multi-finalist in previous rounds of the contest struck gold in Round 2 of the 2009 Lyric Writer Awards when the contest judges selected his lyric as the winner.

After a few weeks of the Luboff treatment, including modifying the lyric, setting words to melody and producing an awesome sound recording, “Southern Style” is now complete.

This is the original lyric by Dean Caputo, followed by the revised lyric and final demo by Dean Caputo, Peter and Pat Luboff:

VERSE
I was born red-necked and raised blue collar
She was born with a silver spoon
She ate at 5-star restaurants
I drank at cheap saloons
I was a slow, winding river
She was the blue lagoon
She leased a little loft in the city for a while
before she lived SOUTHERN STYLE

CHORUS
SOUTHERN STYLE is what was missing
She was caught up in the city grind
She made a smooth transition
so we tied the knot in fishin’ line
She went from city glow to harvest moon,
from champagne to sweet, red wine
Now she’s barefoot walking a country mile
Since she’s learned to live SOUTHERN STYLE

VERSE
She had a fluffy cat named “Crystal”
I had a huntin’ dog named “Blue”
She drove a turbo Beamer with the alloy wheels
I had a pickup built for two
She was missin’ out on the good life
So I taught her all I knew
And after luxury living in the country for a while
She decided on SOUTHERN STYLE

[CHORUS]

BRIDGE
There’s no guarantees on these transferees
So I’m her maitre d’ in dungarees
Got her southbound to slow down for the hoedown
And smell the freedom in the country breeze

[CHORUS]

Revised Lyric:

Southern Style
by Dean Caputo, Peter Luboff, Pat Luboff

VERSE 1
I was born red-neck and raised blue collar
She was fed with a silver spoon
She sipped champagne at 5-star restaurants
I drank beer at honky tonk saloons
I was a slow, winding river
She was a deep blue lagoon
It was a doggone pity how she cried in the city
till I, my oh my, how I taught her how to smile

CHORUS
Southern style slow and easy like a lazy summer breeze
Barefoot walking ‘neath magnolia trees
Sweet tea talking front porch swinging crickets singing in the moonlight
Southern style

VERSE 2
Now her fluffy cat named princess Julie
Goes a-huntin’ with my blue tick hound
And she traded in her turbo Beemer
For a ride in my pickup to my two horse town
When she tasted the good life
It turned her whole world upside down
She said I”m deep down happy as a matter of factly
We’re hot, so why not, tie the knot I got some fishing line

[CHORUS]

BRIDGE
She loves me like a sunflower loves the bees
Life is sweet for my honey and me and we like it

[CHORUS]

© Dean Caputo & Pea Pod Music

360-degree Lyric Writing Contest

Lior Shamir — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:15:25 +0000

2009 marked the beginning of a 360-degree lyric writing contest from We Are Listening, opening our doors to writers who don’t necessarily have the experience or resources to set their words to music and produce a viable demo. With that in mind, we committed the Lyric Writer Awards to become the only independent lyric writing initiative to produce a professional demo by the end of its cycle, with the promise to provide equal opportunity to every single one of our contest participants, regardless of their musical maturity and songwriting chops.

For the first time in the history of the Lyric Writer Awards, a young fledgling writer with no musical background whatsoever was selected by the judges as a winner. Allyson Weiland, an English Major at the University of Texas and member of its varsity rowing team, submitted the lyric “Tag, You’re It” and won the 2009 Lyric Writer Awards (Round 1). This is what the lyric looked like at the time of her submission:

VERSE
See that woman pushing that stroller there?
Yeah that’s the one with the wild brown hair
You may think housewife when you see her now
But in her crazier days, we all tried to chase her down
She used to yell

CHORUS
Just Try and catch me Romeo,
I’m flyin fast and you’re movin too slow
Time’s racing by and this moment’s gonna pass
Tag, you’re it, now step on the gas

VERSE
At 16 her parents gave her her dream
The keys to a beautiful racing machine
Friday night, she pulled up next to me
Revved up her engine, and flew off with a wink
And she screamed

[REPEAT CHORUS]

BRIDGE
She had two hands on the wheel and one foot to the floor
Laughing sayin’ come on baby show me what that engine’s for

VERSE
The last time we saw her my senior year
A black mustang passed her on the road out of here
She took it as a challenge caught up to him quick
Brown eyes sparkling, that cloud of dust was thick
She must’ve told him

[REPEAT CHORUS]

VERSE
She came back few years ago all settled down
Riding shotgun in that mustang without her racing crown
That guy she married managed to win that race
Man, that must’ve been one hell of a chase
With her yellin’

[REPEAT CHORUS]

After several edits by Allyson, our staff sent the lyric to our songwriting team, Pat & Pete Luboff, who ironed out some of the creases and set the words to melody and composed a suitable chord progression. Pete sent We Are Listening a rough demo (and I mean rough!) of the composition for our review. Listen to it here and notice the changes in the Lyric:

Tag, You’re It
by Allyson Weiland, Peter Luboff, Pat Luboff

VERSE 1
See the woman pushin that stroller there?
Yeah, that’s the one with the wild brown hair
She may look like a housewife when you see her now
But in her crazier days we all tried to chase her down
She used to yell

CHORUS
Just try and catch me Romeo
I’m flyin fast and you’re moving way too slow
Time’s racin by and this moment’s gonna pass
so step on the gas if you want another kiss,
Tag, you’re it

VERSE 2
At 16 she was given her wildest dream
The keys to a beautiful racing machine
Next couple years she held on to first place
Til’ a boy in a mustang made it a race
She told him

[REPEAT CHORUS]

BRIDGE
They tore outta here like the wild things they were
Didn’t think they’d be back for a while
But two years later when they traded rings
We all watched her running down the aisle
And Laughing

[REPEAT CHORUS]

© Allyson Wieland & Pea Pod Music

We approved Pat & Pete’s work and sent the recording and lyric to StudioPros.com to be professionally produced. This is what StudioPros came up with:

Now, with a strong demo in hand, We Are Listening is shopping Allyson Weiland and Pat & Pete Luboff’s co-write for publishing opportunities.

Learn more about the Lyric Writer Awards.

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We Are Listening teams up with StudioPros.com

Lior Shamir — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:09:01 +0000

We Are Listening have teamed up with StudioPros.com for the Lyric Writer Awards, a lyric writing contest with a 360-degree approach to turning the winners’ lyrics into publishable, radio-ready soundtracks. Learn more…

StudioPros.com brings the studio recording experience, production value, and LA’s finest session musicians and audio professionals to your home at a price you can afford. From quick songwriter demos to radio-ready masters, the entire tracking, mixing, and mastering schedule is managed by you, online and in real-time, from the comfort of your desktop. The StudioPros.com team comprises of session players who have performed with Seal, Jessica Simpson, Miley Cyrus, Jesse McCartney, among others, and Grammy nominated mixing engineers credited by Wyclef Jean, Leona Lewis, Kelly Clarkson, OneRepublic, Beyonce, and more.

Songwriting Contest

Lior Shamir — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:42:09 +0000

The Singer/Songwriter Awards from We Are Listening is a prestigious international songwriting contest that takes place six times a year and attracts songwriters and performing artists from across the globe. The songwriting contest boasts a music industry panel of the highest caliber and offers a range of songwriting, recording and marketing related prizes for unsigned and professional artists. For lyricists, We Are Listening has developed a lyrics-only songwriting contest called the Lyric Writer Awards, the first independent songwriting contest to offer a co-writing and publishing deal, and takes place four times a year. Songwriters that write in any language other than English have also been catered to with a world music song contest called the World of Music Awards, a songwriting contest for foreign-language and instrumental composers that reflects the rich variety of music and culture from every corner of the world.

Founded in 2004, We Are Listening provides aspiring and established artists with relevant music industry opportunities and artist development services. In addition to its songwriting contest initiatives, We Are Listening caters to fledgling songwriters with a unique approach to music education through professional feedback and on-going evaluations. Armed with a 37-strong panel of the music industry elite, We Are Listening is quickly becoming one of the leading independent music companies in the new music economy.

We Are Listening Reborn

Lior Shamir — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:10:47 +0000

Today marks the launch of We Are Listening’s brand new site! We have spent almost a year developing and implementing a facelift for the platform and backend features that will improve the overall user experience and song contest and lyric writing contest entry workflow. Soon, every participant in our music competitions will have access to a backend dashboard with entry management and content security tools. It’s all fairly straight forward stuff, really. Although re-branded, We Are Listening’s commitment to world class opportunities, awards, and musician resources for indie artists and unsigned bands remains at the forefront of the company’s mission.