You’ll be learning from mentors like this…
This is your chance to learn close-up, from at least eight multi-platinum award winning songwriters and industry experts including founder Martin Sutton.
Our mentoring team have worked with huge global artists including Eminem, Janet Jackson, John Mayer, Frank Sinatra, Nile Rodgers, Bob Dylan, Dido, Backstreet Boys, Labyrinth, Celine Dion, Kylie Minogue, Emelie Sande, Christina Aguilera, LeAnn Rimes, Mark Ronson and many more, and have been involved in over 175 million record sales.*
Martin Sutton
FOUNDER & LEAD INSTRUCTOR
Backstreet Boys/LeAnn Rimes/Celine Dion and more
Multi-platinum award winning Martin Sutton has over three decades of success in the music business as a full time songwriter, producer, engineer, mixer and multi-instrumentalist. He founded The Songwriting Academy 10 years ago and has since helped thousands of songwriters around the world leap forward with their music.
Martin has worked with some of the biggest artists in the world including Celine Dion, Backstreet Boys, LeAnn Rimes, Katrina & The Waves, Des’Ree, Kim Wilde, Gary Barlow, Mica Paris, Blue, Andrew Roachford, Mike & The Mechanics, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Super Junior, Sir Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton John, Garou, Pixie Lott, Michael Patrick Kelly, Lulu, Lena, plus multiple Voice and Idol winners around the world.
Martin owns a sync agency and works closely with music supervisors to provide music for movies, TV shows and video games.
He is also an Amazon best-selling author of the spiritual guide : Conversations With Nishu.
Cliff Masterson
Emilie Sande/Labyrinth/One Direction and more
Since graduating from the Royal Academy of Music, Cliff has been in demand as an arranger, composer, songwriter and producer. He has worked with artists including Josh Groban, Kylie Minogue, Lionel Richie, Michael McDonald, Il Divo, Tom Walker, Emeli Sandé, Robin Gibb, Westlife and Susan Boyle.
Cliff wrote and produced the theme song for the “Mission Space” attraction in Disney World Florida and has had songs recorded by artists including Charlotte Church, Shayne Ward (X Factor), Anthony Callea (Australian Idol) and International multi million selling artists Monica Naranjo and David Bisbal.
He has conducted the scores for Hollywood movies including Jurassic World: Dominion, The Witches, Doctor Strange and Hacksaw Ridge as well as arranging 14 Classical BRIT nominated albums and the current Radio 2 jingle package – including the iconic BBC News jingle.
Cliff has been Musical Director for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year Show since 2017 and worked on both the X Factor (US and UK) and The Voice. He has musically directed Radio 1 Live Lounge performances for Ella Henderson, Leona Lewis and Little Mix and studio recordings by Robbie Williams, Delta Goodrem and Ella Erye.
He composed / produced music for both the opening ceremony at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 London Olympics.
In his work with orchestras he has conducted the RPO, LSO and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra at events including the Nobel Peace Prize, The FA Cup final and the Buckingham Palace Coronation Festival.
He has been a finalist in the International Songwriter of the Year and Vivian Ellis/PRS Awards and has been awarded an Associate of the Royal Academy Music (ARAM).
Shelly Poole
Janet Jackson/Mark Ronson/Paloma Faith and more
Shelly Poole is a multi platinum selling British singer and songwriter who has achieved international success in an ever- increasing variety of musical settings. The daughter of Brian Poole of the classic 1960s group The Tremeloes, Shelly formed the chart-busting band Alisha’s Attic in the late nineties with her sister Karen . Alisha’s Attic scored a string of hit singles, made 4 gold and platinum selling albums, secured a nomination for an Ivor Novello songwriting award and saw Shelly described as one of the iconic female voices of the legendary lilith fair tour of America in 1997.
Shelly’s 2005 solo album Hard Time For The Dreamer entered the I tunes charts at number 1 and earned her constant radio exposure and copious five-star reviews. In 2008 she co-founded the country/folk band Red Sky July with her husband Ally McErlaine (lead guitarist and founder member of Texas) and the American singer Charity Hair. Red Sky July have released 3 albums all entering the Official Uk Country charts in the top 3 . They also won the Nordoff Robbins inspiration award in 2013 and have toured with Jools Holland , Sheryl Crow , Steve Earle , Tom Jones , they continue to make records and tour.
Shelly is also a highly respected award wining songwriter and has worked closely and had hits with talents as diverse as Janet Jackson , Massive Attack, Jack Savoretti ,Mark Ronson, Gary Barlow, Westlife, Boyzone, Paloma Faith , Michael Gray, Zucchero amongst many others Shelly also continues to write with produce and mentor new and emerging artists.
Pam Sheyne
Christina Aguilera – Genie In A Bottle/Seal/Corinne Bailey Rae and more
Now based in Los Angeles, New Zealand born Pam Sheyne’s career has resulted in a number of globally recognised hit records, major film end titles, sales of 50+ million records, 100+ platinum, gold and silver sales certifications, 7 BMI Pop airplay citations and a prestigious Ivor Novello award.
Whilst best known for the global breakthrough single “Genie In A Bottle” for Christina Aguilera (No.1 USA Hot 100/No.1 UK), she was also responsible for Dream’s debut hit “He Loves U Not” (USA No.2 Hot 100/No.1 Soundscan) as well as Jessica Simpson’s “Irresistible” (No.15 USA Hot 100).
Her songs have been covered by a number of international artists including Seal, Corrine Bailey Rae, The Backstreet Boys, O Town, Nick Lachey, Laura Pausini, Hayley Westenra, Lindsay Lohan, Eternal, Play, No Angels, Cece Winans, Point of Grace and The Saturdays.
Paul Statham
Dido/Kylie/The Saturdays/Tina Arena and more
Paul Statham is a multi platinum selling songwriter and producer who has been published by Warner Chappell Music for over 25years. Paul co-wrote with Dido the breakthrough single “Here With Me” and the title track of her first album No Angel, selling over 25 million records.
Paul also wrote two tracks on Kylie’s massive album “Fever” Kylie as well as songs for The Saturdays, Matt Cardle, Gabriella Cilmie, Peter Andre, Rachel Stevens, Right Said Fred, Tina Arena and many European acts inc the Italian artist Noemi (recent album “Made in London was a no 1 record in Italy ). He has also worked with more left field artists, Simple Minds, 7 albums with former Bauhaus vocalist Peter Murphy, 2 albums with Mercury prize nominated Helicopter Girl.
Paul spends a lot of time developing new artists/writers for Warner Chappell including writer Ed Drewett (1D, The Wanted). Paul also lectures at Solent on popular song writing, BIMM London & Leeds College of Music where he is a visiting Professor.
https://www.paulstatham.com/about
Listen to some of Paul's work here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5VnP8AVEk4b6W9NZpqigps?si=cba5fe08ee5e4b9c
Lee Dannay
John Mayer, Trey Lorenz, Train
Lee Dannay has over twenty five years experience in the music industry, including 15 years at Sony Music, as a senior A&R executive for both Epic and Columbia Records, plus five years at Warner/Chappell Music Publishing. While at Sony, Lee signed, developed and worked with a variety of artists including John Mayer, Shawn Mullins, Five For Fighting, Anna Nalick and General Public.
Lee also worked as a senior music producer for America’s Got Talent, involved in casting and artist development for the music talent portion of the show, and as an executive producer for the artists subsequently signed.
Through her own creative consulting company, GoodWorks Music, Inc., Lee maintains the role of Creative Director and founding member of a music therapy initiative called Knock Out Noise, which researches and creates music and musical templates for disorders related to sensory processing.
Currently, Lee is head of A&R for Nashville based entertainment company Thirty Tigers, responsible for signing artists, providing A&R services for the roster as needed, and assisting with the development of the Thirty Tigers publishing venture.
Additionally, Lee is an adjunct professor at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, teaching the Business of Music Publishing and is a voting member of The Recording Academy.
Jonathan Li
Social media expert
Jonathan Li is an expert in Social Media and digital marketing for independent artists and managers in the music business. He is a data-driven and growth-focused digital marketer with over 13 years of experience leading digital work for clients such as Nissan USA, Dell, AT&T, Infiniti USA / Global, Hewlett Packard, Electronic Arts, and Canada’s Broadcasting Corporation. He currently serves as a mentor with numerous music programs such as The Juno Awards Masterclass and Canada's Music Incubator where he has helped 200+ artists/music managers over the last 4 years with digital marketing. His consulting agency, Prosody Digital, works with businesses and marketing agencies to improve their eCommerce, SEO, paid advertising and analytics capabilities.
In his past artist life, Jonathan was a Western Canada Music Awards and Gospel Music Awards nominated singer/songwriter. Today, he utilizes his formal education in songwriting to pen songs for independent & major label artists around the world in multiple genres.
Jeff Franzel
Frank Sinatra, Shawn Colvin, N’Sync
Jeff Franzel is a multi talented songwriter jazz pianist with over 35 years experience in the music business and is currently living in NYC.. He began as a jazz pianist and toured with many groups including The Hues Corporation (Rock The Boat) and Les Brown big band. Jeff accompanied such artists as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, and Mel Torme.
Jeff has over 250 of his songs recorded and has sold over 30 million records. He has had over 20 top ten singles internationally and travels to London, Sweden, LA and Nashville to co-write with artists and songwriters.
Jeff's first big hit was "Don't Rush Me" which was #2 pop hit. He has written songs for such diverse artists as Josh Groban, Placido Domingo, "NSYNC (2 Christmas songs) , Shawn Colvin (two film songs including Never Saw Blue Like That), Clay Aiken, Louise - (All That Matters), The Temptations and Dianne Reeves.
Jeff has had a number of his songs in film and TV including Runaway Bride, Serendipity, De Ja Vu, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and Barbershop 2.
Jeff currently has songs coming out with Rhys Lewis on Decca Records, Hayley Westenra, Persons of Interest, Elvis Blue-South Africa , Falipa-South Africa, and BoA - Japan.
Jeff is a Yamaha artist and performs solo piano regularly in NYC.
Al Berry
Nile Rodgers, Avril Lavigne
Al is a seasoned world-touring musician, songwriter, bassist, vocalist and recording artist who has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry.
He has written with Nile Rodgers, toured with Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson, and worked with Lenny Kravitz, Lionel Richie, BB King, as well as featuring on the Grammy award wining multi-platinum album "Family Style' by Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughn.
His network in the industry is vast and his compassionate approach to helping and supporting new songwriters and artists is an inspiration.
Andrew Rollins
9 songs placed in ‘Nashville’ TV series
Andrew is an Emmy award winning composer, hit songwriter and musician, an acoustic master - whether he's playing guitar, keyboard, or mixing, orchestrating or editing. Andrew has an innate ability to capture the essence of a mood and this has been key to his contributions in various well known songs, as well as music on film and television.
His resumé includes several songs on the ABC series Nashville, the theme song of the award winning comedy show The Hughleys, featured songs for HBO's Happily Ever After: A Fairy Tale for Every Child, Three Little Pigs and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and other features for network and cable productions including General Hospital, The Ranch, At Any Cost, Mr. Music, Shake, Rattle & Roll, Hendrix, Free of Eden, My Own Country, Live Through This, Jailbait, Star Trek Voyager, The Amazing Race, Level 9, and the Broadway production It Ain't Nothing But the Blues - which was nominated for four Tony awards, including Best Musical.
Andrew has worked with well known recording artists including Andre Benjamin, B.B. King, Chaka Kahn, Marc Anthony, Chante Moore, Charles Esten, Ronnie Dunn, Terrance Trent D'Arby, Graham Nash, Billy Ray Cyrus, Blink 182, Dan Wilson, Dionne Warwick, Jose Feliciano, Johnny Lang, Dicky Barrett, K-Ci & Jo-Jo, Deana Carter, Carole King, Joe Walsh, Gary Allen, Saison, IV Xample, and En Vogue, among many others.
In 2018, Andrew was nominated and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song "Who I Am", which he wrote for General Hospital. Some other awards that he received include 3 SISA International Music Awards for Album of the Year, Producer of the Year, and Song of the Year for I Believe, a Telly Award, and the Axion Award for Musical Excellence.
Andrew is now runs a publishing company Left On Sunset with Randy Jackson.
Sharon Vaughn
Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffet, Agnes
Sharon is a multi platinum songwriter who started her career in music in her home state, Florida, as a singer.
She spent years as a session singer (Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, George Jones and many others) until her first recorded song hit for the Oak Ridge Boys, followed shortly by the iconic, MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COWBOYS, by Waylon Jennings and then recorded by Willie Nelson on OSCAR winning soundtrack of The Electric Horseman film.
After enjoying long term success as a country music songwriter, she moved to Stockholm in 2008 and penned Agnes’ worldwide hit, RELEASE ME and continues to travel back and forth between Europe and the States composing all genres of music… including scores for musical theatre in Europe and The States.
Paddy Byrne
Paloma Faith, Tom Grennan, Will Young
Paddy Byrne is a multi million selling British songwriter, musician and producer known for working in a variety of genres with multi platinum and developing artists alike such as Snakehips, Paloma Faith, Ella Eyre, Tom Grennan, Olly Murs, Will Young, Gabrielle, Sinead Harnett, Daley, Devlin, Felon, Watermat, I Blame Coco and Mononoke.
His focus is always on the song, the artist’s vision and their vocal. He is as accomplished when writing and producing an entire song as he is writing lyrics and top line for other productions.
Paddy started his professional career writing and singing in his band ‘Byrne’ gaining widespread acclaim for their self produced album ‘Slowly & Gloriously’, receiving unanimously positive reviews including 9/10 in NME, 4/5 UNCUT and 5/5 Observer Music Monthly.
Following the birth of his first son he stopped touring and set up his studio and began co-writing and producing. His journey from the indi scene as an artist to co-creating in more commercial genres was immediately successful working with Will Young on four songs for his album ‘Let It Go’. His experience as a lead singer and writer gives him a deep affinity with artists and a love of vocal expression and lyric.
He has written and produced many multi platinum selling songs and is currently working with a wide variety of established and up and coming artists, writers and producers.
Our team will take you step by step through the complete process of hit songwriting, from finding the initial inspiration, editing and crafting your songs like a professional, right through to finding out how to get you and your music in front of the right people and into the charts.
If you want songwriting to be your career, or if you want to write songs that you’re just really proud of, this is the perfect springboard.
Every day there will be simple, fun, interactive sessions carefully designed to help you remember the invaluable techniques used by pro songwriters.
After a week meeting and learning major players in the business, and working with like-minded songwriters, you’ll be set up for life!
All we ask is that you’re willing to listen, try new things, and DO THE WORK…
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