Martin Sutton

FOUNDER & LEAD INSTRUCTOR

Martin Sutton is the founder of The Songwriting Academy and multi-platinum songwriter and producer. Starting as a young busker on the streets of Norwich, he spent years developing the craft of songwriting, traveling the world to work with other writers, learning about the music business and honing his production skills. He is now a successful songwriter/producer and has sold millions of records in nearly 50 countries around the world.

His work includes Backstreet Boys, LeAnn Rimes, Celine Dion, Gary Barlow, Pixie Lott, Mark Owen, Olivia Newton-John, Andrew Roachford, Brian McFadden, Lulu, Mike & The Mechanics, K-Pop superstars Super Junior and X-Factor/Idol winners worldwide.

His teaching methodology and ethos have been described as “life-changing” by many of his students and over the years he has shared his knowledge and experience with thousands, opening their eyes to the world of professional music making. His diverse programming and production skills are widely sought after, from orchestration for Celine Dion and Andrew Lloyd Webber to quirky programming and beat-making for K-Pop/J-Pop artists, and rich country productions for artists including LeAnn Rimes.

Michael Garvin

Michael Garvin is a Grammy nominee and multi platinum writer of 22 No.1 hit songs including “Waiting For Tonight” (Jennifer Lopez) and “Never Give Up On A Good Thing” (George Benson).

Not only has he written global hits for the pop market but is also a highly respected figure in the country market, having written hits for Kenny Rogers, Tammy Wynette and George Strait, amongst many others.

He is a well-loved mentor at the Songwriting Retreats and an avid supporter of new talent. Michael was recently the second “most added playlist” artist on the Billboard charts with his jazz guitar instrumental project.

Pam Sheyne

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.

Chris Neil

Chris Neil is a multi platinum producer and songwriter. He began his career as the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair in London’s West End. After a short period as a recording artist he moved into record production and swiftly became one of the most respected producers in the industry.

In his career he has produced classic records for artists including Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Mike & The Mechanics, Cher, Jose Carreras, Andrew Lloyd Weber and many more. Chris is also a multi-platinum writer, having written hits such as “All I Need Is A Miracle” for Mike & The Mechanics. His knowledge and attention to detail as a producer are unparalleled and he is renowned for his remarkable talent in vocal production.

Rob Davis

In 2000 Rob wrote the record phenomenon of the year, Spiller’s “If This Ain’t Love”. He then trumped it with the boundary crossing pop single of the year, Kylie’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”, co-written & co-produced with Cathy Dennis which went to No.1 in over 25 countries and earned them 3 Ivor Novello awards: Most Performed, Best International, and Best Dance Song.

An accomplished producer, guitarist and keyboard player, Rob has worked with some of the best of British and American songwriters and artists. He is equally adept at turning an instrumental dance groove into a FM-friendly anthem or creating pop classics from scratch.

Ian Dench

Ian Dench was the guitarist and principal songwriter in the band EMF, who scored a major international hit with the song “Unbelievable” reaching number 1 in the United States.

He co-wrote the duet “Beautiful Liar” for Beyonce and Shakira for which he won an Ivor Novello award in the Best Selling British Song Category in 2008. Beyonce’s album “I Am… Sasha Fierce” saw a further three Dench songs: “Disappear”, “Ave Maria”, and “Satellites”. Other hits include “Tattoo” for American Idol winner Jordan Sparks, “Red” a top 5 UK hit for Daniel Merriweather and “Gypsy” from Shakira’s “She Wolf” album.

Ian also spent 2 years as Vice President of A&R at Epic Records in New York so has a unique experience of songwriting from both sides of the table. He is a hugely popular mentor at the Songwriting Retreats, always offering advice, support and encouragement in equal measures.

Paul Statham

Paul Statham is a multi platinum selling songwriter and producer who has been published by Warner Chappell Music for over 18 years. Paul co-wrote with Dido the breakthrough single “Here With Me” and the title track of her first album No Angel, selling over 20 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, writing 7 albums with former Bauhaus vocalist Peter Murphy, 2 albums with Mercury prize nominated Helicopter Girl, and Scottish rock band Simple Minds.

Paul spends a lot of time developing new artists/writers for Warner Chappell including writer Ed Drewett  (1D, The Wanted). Paul also lectures weekly at Solent on popular song writing and Leeds College of Music where he is a visiting Professor.

Stephen Allen Davis

Two time Grammy nominated songwriter Stephen Allen Davis’ musical career began in 1967 when he walked into his first meeting with a major music publisher in Nashville. He played one song that day. That song was “Take Time To Know Her” and it went on to become one of Percy Sledges’ greatest hits, reaching top 10 with a gold record and resulting in Davis’s first (2) BMI awards. Stephen was offered an exclusive publishing contract and within a few months he was signed to RCA Records and flown to New York to record. Stephen had just turned 18.

Since then Stephen Allen Davis has had over 350 songs recorded by a diverse group of artists ranging from the likes of Diana Ross to Tammy Wynette, Meatloaf to John Hiatt and George Jones to Joe Cocker. World-wide sales top 40 million. Stephen has earned 18 prestigious BMI awards over the years and has 3 songs that are in the exclusive Million-Aire performance song category. His song “Stand Beside Me” recorded by JoDee Messina was awarded a 3 million plays certificate from BMI.

Stephen Allen Davis has released 9 critically acclaimed albums over the years including “The Light Pink Album”. He is presently recording his newest project “Jericho Road” at his studio TWANGSTAR IV. Stephen Allen Davis continues to fine tune his craft and to extend his creative reach.

Paddy Byrne

Joe Killington

Joe is a multi-million selling singer and songwriter from Hackney, East London who started out as a pirate radio MC before becoming a songwriter for other artists. As one of the most prolific and popular songwriters in the business Joe works with many signed artists and songwriters for the current music scene. He co-wrote Armand Van Helden’s My My My, and has written for Avicii, Fat Boy Slim, Idris Elba, Jaguar Skills, Nao, Camo and Krooked, O-Town, Cher Lloyd and Mullalley to name just a few.

With his recent success as the singer of Devil in Me with Purple Disco Machine, which charted no 3 in French official charts, Joe has earned a solo artist deal with NHMM, LLC world-wide. Expect many more releases in the near future!

Joe is published by Notting Hill Music, managed as an artist by NHMM, LLC, and managed as a songwriter by Sound Collective.

Cliff Masterson

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 Kylie Minogue, Lionel Richie, Michael McDonald, Il Divo, Labrinth, Emeli Sandé, Robin Gibb, One Direction, Westlife and Susan Boyle.

He composed/produced music for both the opening ceremony at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 London Olympics.

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), Ben Montague and International multi million selling artists Monica Naranjo and David Bisbal.

He has been Musical Director for both the X Factor and The Voice TV show recordings, Radio 1 Live Lounge performances by Ella Henderson, Leona Lewis and Little Mix and for studio recordings by Robbie Williams and Ella Erye.

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.

Cliff has arranged 14 Classical BRIT nominated albums, the current Radio 2 jingle package – including the iconic BBC News jingle – and orchestrated Hollywood movies including The Mummy.

He has been a finalist in the International Songwriter of the Year and Vivian Ellis/PRS Awards and was awarded an Associate of the Royal Academy in the 2016 honours list.

www.cliffmasterson.com

Jake Shillingford

Jake is the founder of the 90s cult orchestral alternative band My Life Story, releasing three successful albums and six top forty singles. Steve Lamacq described Jake as “One of our finest lyricists”. Jake went on to replace Terry Hall in a late incarnation of The Specials, then began compering and co-promoting bands at London club The Panic Station, booking early shows for The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and My Bloody Valentine.

My Life Story went on to collaborate with with PJ Proby, Marc Almond, Morrissey, The Wonderstuff and headlined over Oasis. He has been described as one of the first DIY entrepreneurs , starting his own label in 2002 funded exclusively by investors, benefactors and fans, inventing the now ubiquitous fan funded model.

He is the co-director of  film and TV music production company Chøppersaurus. Winners of  the Sensoria Pro scoring award and currently nominated for 2 UK Production Music awards. Choppersaurus have written music for everything from Obama’s favourite TV show “Homeland” to playing guitars on X Factor.

Jake is also in charge of Artist Development across all 6 BIMM colleges, responsible for discovering the best potential talent and introducing young, high level musicians to the music industry.

Jez Ashurst

Jez Ashurst is a multi-platinum songwriter/producer based in London, who has also worked in the USA, Scandinavia, Germany and Japan.

His early career spanned work as an engineer to session guitar work and composing for TV.  The last couple of years have seen Jez write cuts for (and with) Will Young, Mel C, Boyzone, Joe McElderry and many other established and new UK acts.

His track record includes the iTunes No.1 “One More Sleep” (Leona Lewis),“Love Will Save The Day” (Boyzone), “Loving You” (Matt Cardle & Mel C) and “Panic” (Gabrielle Aplin). Jez has added his guitar and programming skills to hit records from Susan Boyle and Il Divo, as well as a Number One for Little Mix, and he was one of the team behind the music for the 2011 and 2013 X Factor. He particularly likes developing new talent and has a wealth of experience as a songwriting and production coach.

In 2016 Jez hit the UK Top 10 with Jason Derulo and Little Mix performing his song “Secret Love Song”

Sharon Vaughn

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.

Maria Christensen

Maria is a multi platinum award winning songwriter and artist with hit songs recorded by global artists including  Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, N’Sync and many placements in Disney films and TV shows including Girl Meets World and Stuck In The Middle.

Originally from South Florida by way of Pittsburgh, PA, Her strong voice caught the ear of Grammy award winning producer Ric Wake, who produced such artists as Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Taylor Dane and moved her to New York to record with him. The result was her self-titled album on Atlantic Records.

At that time she co wrote with some of the most successful songwriters in New York and she honed her own skills as a songwriter and began to place songs with many successful artists. This lead to a publishing deal with “Notation Music Publishing”.

Her songs have been recorded by artists including Celine Dion (“Just a Little Bit of Love” and “Christmas Eve”) both on which she also lent backing vocals, and N’SYNC (“The Only Gift”).

Later she was signed to A&M Records as the lead singer of the group 3^rd Party for which she co-wrote the song “Waiting for Tonight” with TSA mentor Michael Garvin. The song went on to become a top 5 Billboard charting worldwide hit for Jennifer Lopez.

Her music can also be heard in films and TV. shows such as “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen”, “Drumline” “Kiss me Guido” and “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”.

Recently she placed two songs on the hit Disney film “Lemonade Mouth”. From there she cultivated a relationship that resulted with song placements in other Disney TV. shows such as “Austin and Ally” and “Jessie”.

Her Christmas song “Favorite Time of Year” was feature at the Macy’s Day parade last year as performed by Debby Ryan.

She also wrote the theme song for Disney’s hit TV. show Girl Meets World, called Take on The World and current has the single Lucky Me with up coming young country artist Tegan Marie,  She recently landed the theme song for new Disney show “ Stuck in the Middle “.

Jeff Franzel

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.

Sie Medway-Smith

Ally McErlaine

Kim Richey

Over the past two decades two-time Grammy nominated Kim Richey has released six critically acclaimed albums, been listed in the “Top 10 Albums of 1999” in Time Magazine for her album Glimmer, received 4-stars in Rolling Stone and named “Alt-Country Album of the Year” in People Magazine for her album Rise.

She has written two #1 singles and four other Top 10 records.  Her songs have been recorded by Trisha Yearwood, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Gretchen Peters, James Morrison, Jamie Lawson and many others.

Her songs have been featured in film and television over the years, ranging from recent placements in Nashville (3 songs) and Bones to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Little Liars and many more.  Kim’s latest album “Thorn In My Heart” made the best of lists of 2013 by No Depression and The Boston Globe.

Shelly Poole

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.

Helienne Lindvall

Helienne Lindvall is an award-winning professional songwriter, musician and Board Director of the Ivors Academy (formerly BASCA), as well as the writer behind the Guardian music industry columns Behind the Music and Plugged In. She chairs the Ivors Academy Songwriter Committee as well as the Ivor Novello Awards Committee, and is the former Head of Business & Songwriter relations for the song data management platform Auddly, backed by hitmakers Max Martin and Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus.

Hailing from Sweden, she worked as a session singer, recording artist and performer in Stockholm and NYC before settling in London, where she signed a publishing deal with BMG Scandinavia. Since then she’s been working with recording artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including Roger Sanchez, Big Daddy Wilson and the Dark Tenor, collaborating with award-winning writers including Jörgen Elofsson (Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears), Patrik Berger (Icona Pop, Robyn) and Steve McEwan (Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood). In 2016, her song A Better Man, co-written by Andrew Fromm (Backstreet Boys, Mark Anthony) and Peter Kvint (A-ha, Andreas Johnson) made the UK Eurovision finals.

Charlie Dore

Although best known as one of the UK’s most respected songwriters, Charlie enjoys a multi-faceted career that includes acting in film,TV & radio, comedy-improvisation, writing for radio and composition for film and TV.

Her songs have won two ASCAP awards, an Ivor Novello nomination, both the Overall Grand and the Folk Prize from the International Acoustic Music Awards and in 2012 Best Album Lyrics from the Indy Acoustic Project for her album Cheapskate Lullabyes.

Known for her bittersweet, often quietly subversive lyrics, she is one of a handful of UK writers to have success across many genres, defined by the range of artists to have covered her songs, including Tina Turner, George Harrison, Lisa Stansfield, Paul Carrack, Ricky Ross, Celine Dion and Jimmy Nail, notching up along the way a UK No 1, US No 4, No 11 for her own Pilot of the Airwaves and hits in Italy, Germany, France and Israel. She has just released her 9th album, Dark Matter, and is touring across the UK throughout 2017-18.

Charlie Grant

Multi-platinum songwriter Charlie Grant got his first break in music while working in an Organic food store in London’s Notting Hill, with regular customers like Brian Eno, The Edge, PJ Harvey and other luminaries of the music world. It was just a matter of building up the nerve before Charlie passed on a demo tape to regular customer Damon Albarn of Blur. This led to meetings with legendary A&R man Mike Smith and eventually to a deal with EMI music publishing and the beginnings of a life writing songs with and for other artists full time. He got the chance to hone his songwriting skills while working with many of the industry’s best, Liz Rose, Pete Woodroffe, Savan Kotecha, Simon Wilcox, Chris Braide and Ed Sheeran being just a few.

As well as releasing music as an artist in his own right, Charlie helped to develop the songwriting module at London’s LCCM with his friend and regular songwriting partner Jez Ashurst. Tom Walker and Rhys Lewis were among their students.

A move to Berlin to take advantage of the vibrant creativity and excitement of a city claiming it’s place as an artistic world capital came in 2015. Charlie continues to play live and release music with his own artist project and is working internationally with rising artists like Bryde, Hundreds and Iris Caltwait. Charlie is also a member of Berlin based band More Than Ruins and co-founder of Spirit Animal Kollektiv, a songwriting and production collective dedicated to collaborating with and developing new artists around the world.

Shridhar Solanki

Tesmond “Taz” Rowe

Jamaican born Taz had an early introduction to local artists & Sound System hanging out with Terra Fabulous, Monster Shock, Lee’s Unlimited and Beanie Man. At the age of 12, Taz moved to London and his big break came in 2004 when he hooked up with Dizzee Rascal. Taz produced and co-wrote the Ivor Novello nominated ‘Just A Rascal’ , which featured on the Mercury award winning album Boy in Da Corner, and then supported Dizzee on his 2004 ‘Boy in da corner’ UK Tour. Taz’s part in putting UK Grime onto the global mainstream music map cannot be underestimated.

This success led to further production & remix work including Ashanti’s ‘Rain On Me’ and ‘Rock Wit Chu’ plus ‘Locked Up’ taken from Akon’s ‘Trouble’ LP. Soon after the head of Def Jam signed Taz to be the first and only UK rapper on this iconic hip hop label. His debut LP ‘Analyse This’ featuring Kardinal Offishal & Terri Walker features seminal tracks ‘Only God Can Judge Me’, ‘Wish Me Luck’ and the UK Top 40 hit ‘Can’t Contain Me’. ‘Cowboy Film’ went on to become a UK Hip Hop classic featuring Kardinal Offishal, a remix from Sway and Bigz and revolutionising urban video in the UK.

Taz continued to write and produce with Dizzee and toured with Kanye West and Sean Paul. He has performed for Prince Charles alongside Jay-Z, Beyonce and Alicia Keys. Taz has also performed on tracks alongside Akon, Styles P, Estelle, So Solid Crew, Blaxxx and Arrow Benjamin

Morris Pleasure

Known affectionately as Mo Pleasure, this renowned multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer, began playing acoustic piano at the age of four and by his early teens already mastered several instruments including bass, trumpet, guitar, drums and violin. He has played with Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Christian Aguilera, Mary J. Blige and Earth, Wind & Fire.

Upon receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from University of Connecticut, Mo began his professional music career playing bass with Ray Charles. He then began working as a session musician, backing some of the most accomplished talents in Jazz ,R&B and pop including George Duke, Natalie Cole, Dianne Reeves, Christina Aguilera, Jonathan Butler, Rachelle Ferrell, Brian Culbertson, Michael McDonald, Oleta Adams, Chaka Khan, Roberta Flack, Marcus Miller, Mary J. Blige, and Frankie Beverly and Maze, to name a few.

From 1989 through 1992, Mo was both keyboardist and musical director with saxophonist Najee, pianist Alex Bugnon, and vocalists Philip Bailey, Patti Austin and Jon Lucien. In 1993, he became a member of the legendary group Earth, Wind & Fire, and ascended to become the band’s musical director from 1994-2001. Mo was featured playing keyboards, trumpet and guitar with Janet Jackson’s 2001 All For You tour and played keyboards and trumpet with Boney James’ 2004 Pure tour. As a principal member of the group Devoted Spirits he was featured playing keyboards for Jimi Hendrix’s 60th Birthday Celebration and the 2004 Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix tour.

Mo was a keyboardist in Michael Jackson’s final touring band that was scheduled to perform in the late superstar’s historic 2009, comeback tour at London’s O2 Arena.

Tim Fraser

Tim is a multi platinum songwriter/producer with songs recorded by Tina Turner, Lulu, Marcella Detroit, Billie Myers and Steve Brookstein. He has also had music placed in X-box game Stoked and in multiple TV series including CSI Las Vegas, Roswell High and new British movie Love Me Still.

Tim is also an artist manager and a highly respected board member of BASCA. He is in demand not only as a songwriting tutor but also for his extensive knowledge on all aspects of the music business, including publishing, royalty collection, grand rights and financial advice for songwriters.

Tim Goodacre

Julian Hinton

In a career spanning 20 years, Julian has worked with some of the biggest names in the music business. Always passionate and creative his collaborations have proved long lasting. His enduring love of records, and the art of the song found him a home at London’s famous Sarm Studios where he spent 5 years working alongside Trevor Horn as arranger and keyboard player, as well as producing for Horn Productions. Julian is as comfortable creating an intimate piano part or conducting a thunderous orchestral score, working with the likes of Seal, Rumer, Laura Welsh or Atlantic A&R and long standing relationships with Trevor Horn and Don Black speak volumes for his musical vision and drive.

The past few years have seen Julian recording, arranging and conducting at London’s Angel,  Abbey Road and Sarm Studios; producing for Sony and Warner; MD’ing The Trevor Horn Band and composing for the BBC. He has scored countless string and orchestral arrangements for various artists and he featured as performer and programmer on “Seal 7″ . Julian has a production and writing partnership with Graham Archer, Grammy nominated engineer/producer whom he met whilst at Sarm.

Graham’s credits include Madonna, Sam Smith, Jeff Beck and Lana Del Ray. 2016 saw them writing with amongst others Zak Abel, Laura Welsh and James Walsh.  Julian featured in the BBC4 documentary “The Secret Science Of Pop” investigating whether there’s a formula to the perfect pop production, took to the stage at London’s Roundhouse to perform with Ronnie Wood and Imelda May and July 2017 sees the release of the Studio Deen/Stan Leecreation for which Julian wrote the theme and much of the incidental music. www.julianvictorhinton.com

Ben Robbins

Ben Robbins is a multi million selling songwriter/producer. As an engineer he has worked alongside artists such as A-ha, Cliff Richard, Leo Sayer,The Moody Blues, D-Influence, Gabrielle, Shola Ama, David Cassidy, Jason Donovan, and Vanessa May. As a writer/producer he has had hits with Tina Arena, Errol Brown, Rick Astley and Laura Pausini (Grammy award nominated).

He co-produced Katherine Jenkins first album ‘Premier’ which stayed at No1 in the Classical Charts for 7 weeks. In Sep 2007 Ben won Classic FM’s Composer competition with his setting of ‘In Paradisum’ performed by Soprano Fiona Jessica Wilson. Since then he has worked with Shayne Ward, Robert Plant, Mike and The Mechanics, Roachford, Matt Lucas, Alfie Boe, Michael Ball, Justin Lee Collins. He has also written for SKY and had compositions recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Choral Society.

Martin Sutton

FOUNDER & LEAD INSTRUCTOR

Martin Sutton is the founder of The Songwriting Academy and multi-platinum songwriter and producer. Starting as a young busker on the streets of Norwich, he spent years developing the craft of songwriting, traveling the world to work with other writers, learning about the music business and honing his production skills. He is now a successful songwriter/producer and has sold millions of records in nearly 50 countries around the world.

His work includes Backstreet Boys, LeAnn Rimes, Celine Dion, Gary Barlow, Pixie Lott, Mark Owen, Olivia Newton-John, Andrew Roachford, Brian McFadden, Lulu, Mike & The Mechanics, K-Pop superstars Super Junior and X-Factor/Idol winners worldwide.

His teaching methodology and ethos have been described as “life-changing” by many of his students and over the years he has shared his knowledge and experience with thousands, opening their eyes to the world of professional music making. His diverse programming and production skills are widely sought after, from orchestration for Celine Dion and Andrew Lloyd Webber to quirky programming and beat-making for K-Pop/J-Pop artists, and rich country productions for artists including LeAnn Rimes.

Michael Garvin

Michael Garvin is a Grammy nominee and multi platinum writer of 22 No.1 hit songs including “Waiting For Tonight” (Jennifer Lopez) and “Never Give Up On A Good Thing” (George Benson).

Not only has he written global hits for the pop market but is also a highly respected figure in the country market, having written hits for Kenny Rogers, Tammy Wynette and George Strait, amongst many others.

He is a well-loved mentor at the Songwriting Retreats and an avid supporter of new talent. Michael was recently the second “most added playlist” artist on the Billboard charts with his jazz guitar instrumental project.

Paul Statham

Paul Statham is a multi platinum selling songwriter and producer who has been published by Warner Chappell Music for over 18 years. Paul co-wrote with Dido the breakthrough single “Here With Me” and the title track of her first album No Angel, selling over 20 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, writing 7 albums with former Bauhaus vocalist Peter Murphy, 2 albums with Mercury prize nominated Helicopter Girl, and Scottish rock band Simple Minds.

Paul spends a lot of time developing new artists/writers for Warner Chappell including writer Ed Drewett  (1D, The Wanted). Paul also lectures weekly at Solent on popular song writing and Leeds College of Music where he is a visiting Professor.

Stephen Allen Davis

Two time Grammy nominated songwriter Stephen Allen Davis’ musical career began in 1967 when he walked into his first meeting with a major music publisher in Nashville. He played one song that day. That song was “Take Time To Know Her” and it went on to become one of Percy Sledges’ greatest hits, reaching top 10 with a gold record and resulting in Davis’s first (2) BMI awards. Stephen was offered an exclusive publishing contract and within a few months he was signed to RCA Records and flown to New York to record. Stephen had just turned 18.

Since then Stephen Allen Davis has had over 350 songs recorded by a diverse group of artists ranging from the likes of Diana Ross to Tammy Wynette, Meatloaf to John Hiatt and George Jones to Joe Cocker. World-wide sales top 40 million. Stephen has earned 18 prestigious BMI awards over the years and has 3 songs that are in the exclusive Million-Aire performance song category. His song “Stand Beside Me” recorded by JoDee Messina was awarded a 3 million plays certificate from BMI.

Stephen Allen Davis has released 9 critically acclaimed albums over the years including “The Light Pink Album”. He is presently recording his newest project “Jericho Road” at his studio TWANGSTAR IV. Stephen Allen Davis continues to fine tune his craft and to extend his creative reach.

Paddy Byrne

Cliff Masterson

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 Kylie Minogue, Lionel Richie, Michael McDonald, Il Divo, Labrinth, Emeli Sandé, Robin Gibb, One Direction, Westlife and Susan Boyle.

He composed/produced music for both the opening ceremony at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 London Olympics.

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), Ben Montague and International multi million selling artists Monica Naranjo and David Bisbal.

He has been Musical Director for both the X Factor and The Voice TV show recordings, Radio 1 Live Lounge performances by Ella Henderson, Leona Lewis and Little Mix and for studio recordings by Robbie Williams and Ella Erye.

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.

Cliff has arranged 14 Classical BRIT nominated albums, the current Radio 2 jingle package – including the iconic BBC News jingle – and orchestrated Hollywood movies including The Mummy.

He has been a finalist in the International Songwriter of the Year and Vivian Ellis/PRS Awards and was awarded an Associate of the Royal Academy in the 2016 honours list.

www.cliffmasterson.com

Jake Shillingford

Jake is the founder of the 90s cult orchestral alternative band My Life Story, releasing three successful albums and six top forty singles. Steve Lamacq described Jake as “One of our finest lyricists”. Jake went on to replace Terry Hall in a late incarnation of The Specials, then began compering and co-promoting bands at London club The Panic Station, booking early shows for The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and My Bloody Valentine.

My Life Story went on to collaborate with with PJ Proby, Marc Almond, Morrissey, The Wonderstuff and headlined over Oasis. He has been described as one of the first DIY entrepreneurs , starting his own label in 2002 funded exclusively by investors, benefactors and fans, inventing the now ubiquitous fan funded model.

He is the co-director of  film and TV music production company Chøppersaurus. Winners of  the Sensoria Pro scoring award and currently nominated for 2 UK Production Music awards. Choppersaurus have written music for everything from Obama’s favourite TV show “Homeland” to playing guitars on X Factor.

Jake is also in charge of Artist Development across all 6 BIMM colleges, responsible for discovering the best potential talent and introducing young, high level musicians to the music industry.

Jez Ashurst

Jez Ashurst is a multi-platinum songwriter/producer based in London, who has also worked in the USA, Scandinavia, Germany and Japan.

His early career spanned work as an engineer to session guitar work and composing for TV.  The last couple of years have seen Jez write cuts for (and with) Will Young, Mel C, Boyzone, Joe McElderry and many other established and new UK acts.

His track record includes the iTunes No.1 “One More Sleep” (Leona Lewis),“Love Will Save The Day” (Boyzone), “Loving You” (Matt Cardle & Mel C) and “Panic” (Gabrielle Aplin). Jez has added his guitar and programming skills to hit records from Susan Boyle and Il Divo, as well as a Number One for Little Mix, and he was one of the team behind the music for the 2011 and 2013 X Factor. He particularly likes developing new talent and has a wealth of experience as a songwriting and production coach.

In 2016 Jez hit the UK Top 10 with Jason Derulo and Little Mix performing his song “Secret Love Song”

Chris SD

Chris SD is an award-winning music producer. He has worked on 5 albums that won Juno Awards (Canada’s Grammys) along with 7 nominations. He was also nominated as Engineer Of The Year in 2012. With his extensive industry contacts and experience he has helped artists land record deals, find management and booking agents, and license music to TV & film.

He started Sync Songwriter to help musicians who live anywhere get their music licensed. To date he has helped hundreds of musicians and artists get their music into TV & film. They have collectively earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in up front sync fees and back-end royalties.

Sie Medway-Smith

Ally McErlaine

Shelly Poole

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.

Charlie Grant

Multi-platinum songwriter Charlie Grant got his first break in music while working in an Organic food store in London’s Notting Hill, with regular customers like Brian Eno, The Edge, PJ Harvey and other luminaries of the music world. It was just a matter of building up the nerve before Charlie passed on a demo tape to regular customer Damon Albarn of Blur. This led to meetings with legendary A&R man Mike Smith and eventually to a deal with EMI music publishing and the beginnings of a life writing songs with and for other artists full time. He got the chance to hone his songwriting skills while working with many of the industry’s best, Liz Rose, Pete Woodroffe, Savan Kotecha, Simon Wilcox, Chris Braide and Ed Sheeran being just a few.

As well as releasing music as an artist in his own right, Charlie helped to develop the songwriting module at London’s LCCM with his friend and regular songwriting partner Jez Ashurst. Tom Walker and Rhys Lewis were among their students.

A move to Berlin to take advantage of the vibrant creativity and excitement of a city claiming it’s place as an artistic world capital came in 2015. Charlie continues to play live and release music with his own artist project and is working internationally with rising artists like Bryde, Hundreds and Iris Caltwait. Charlie is also a member of Berlin based band More Than Ruins and co-founder of Spirit Animal Kollektiv, a songwriting and production collective dedicated to collaborating with and developing new artists around the world.

Morris Pleasure

Known affectionately as Mo Pleasure, this renowned multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer, began playing acoustic piano at the age of four and by his early teens already mastered several instruments including bass, trumpet, guitar, drums and violin. He has played with Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Christian Aguilera, Mary J. Blige and Earth, Wind & Fire.

Upon receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from University of Connecticut, Mo began his professional music career playing bass with Ray Charles. He then began working as a session musician, backing some of the most accomplished talents in Jazz ,R&B and pop including George Duke, Natalie Cole, Dianne Reeves, Christina Aguilera, Jonathan Butler, Rachelle Ferrell, Brian Culbertson, Michael McDonald, Oleta Adams, Chaka Khan, Roberta Flack, Marcus Miller, Mary J. Blige, and Frankie Beverly and Maze, to name a few.

From 1989 through 1992, Mo was both keyboardist and musical director with saxophonist Najee, pianist Alex Bugnon, and vocalists Philip Bailey, Patti Austin and Jon Lucien. In 1993, he became a member of the legendary group Earth, Wind & Fire, and ascended to become the band’s musical director from 1994-2001. Mo was featured playing keyboards, trumpet and guitar with Janet Jackson’s 2001 All For You tour and played keyboards and trumpet with Boney James’ 2004 Pure tour. As a principal member of the group Devoted Spirits he was featured playing keyboards for Jimi Hendrix’s 60th Birthday Celebration and the 2004 Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix tour.

Mo was a keyboardist in Michael Jackson’s final touring band that was scheduled to perform in the late superstar’s historic 2009, comeback tour at London’s O2 Arena.

Tim Goodacre

Julian Hinton

In a career spanning 20 years, Julian has worked with some of the biggest names in the music business. Always passionate and creative his collaborations have proved long lasting. His enduring love of records, and the art of the song found him a home at London’s famous Sarm Studios where he spent 5 years working alongside Trevor Horn as arranger and keyboard player, as well as producing for Horn Productions. Julian is as comfortable creating an intimate piano part or conducting a thunderous orchestral score, working with the likes of Seal, Rumer, Laura Welsh or Atlantic A&R and long standing relationships with Trevor Horn and Don Black speak volumes for his musical vision and drive.

The past few years have seen Julian recording, arranging and conducting at London’s Angel,  Abbey Road and Sarm Studios; producing for Sony and Warner; MD’ing The Trevor Horn Band and composing for the BBC. He has scored countless string and orchestral arrangements for various artists and he featured as performer and programmer on “Seal 7″ . Julian has a production and writing partnership with Graham Archer, Grammy nominated engineer/producer whom he met whilst at Sarm.

Graham’s credits include Madonna, Sam Smith, Jeff Beck and Lana Del Ray. 2016 saw them writing with amongst others Zak Abel, Laura Welsh and James Walsh.  Julian featured in the BBC4 documentary “The Secret Science Of Pop” investigating whether there’s a formula to the perfect pop production, took to the stage at London’s Roundhouse to perform with Ronnie Wood and Imelda May and July 2017 sees the release of the Studio Deen/Stan Leecreation for which Julian wrote the theme and much of the incidental music. www.julianvictorhinton.com

Phil Da Costa

Phil is a Music Producer, Songwriter, Engineer, Programmer and Mixer.

In a career spanning over 30 years he has enjoyed success with many genres of music and a wide variety of artists. He owns CrazyJoeCola Music Productions and runs his own production/mixing studio.

Credit highlights include:

Co-writing, producing and mixing all the original songs for the ‘Bob The Builder’ TV show currently broadcast worldwide (Mattel) 2017-18

Recording tracks for the “Take That And Party” album including “A Million Love Songs” (RCA) 1991

Producing Jaki Graham single “Breaking Away” 1,000,000 Sales (Avex Japan) 1996

Mixing the Military Wives single “Wherever You Are” 2011 UK Christmas No 1 700,000 sales. BRIT Awards Nomination: Best British Single (Decca) 2012

Mixing and additional production on the Military Wives album “In My Dreams”. No 1 in the official UK album chart. 300,000 sales (Decca) 2012

Mixing over 25 albums for Decca since 2006 culminating in over 4 million sales in the classical crossover genre.

Co-writing “15 Minutes” with The Yeah You’s (Island) – Highly successful airplay hit – also used on American Idol and synced on the US hit movie “Easy A”. 2009

Co-produced The Yeah You’s (Island) album “Looking Through You” – 4 stars in Mojo Magazine and BBC Radio 2 Album Of The Week. 2009

Producing/mixing tracks on the critically acclaimed album “The World Goes Quiet” by Radio 2 A listed indie-rock band Rubylux (Sony Red/Luxury B) 2013

1990s Dance Remixes of Boyzone, Louise, Eternal, Rozalla, Aaliyah, Paul Young, Imagination and more – Many Club Chart No1s

Engineering, programming and mixing on “Dive In” by Darius – 300,000 sales (Mercury) 2002

Engineering Vic Reeves single “Born Free” No 6 in UK Singles chart (Island) 1991

Other notable artists worked with (Engineering/programming and Mixing):

Sir Tom Jones, Dame Shirley Bassey, Mick Fleetwood, Alison Moyet, Edwin Starr, Julio Inglesias, Vanessa Mae, A-ha, Boy George, Bruce Forsyth, Davy Jones (The Monkees), Lisa Stansfield, Lulu, Mica Paris, Myleene Klass, Shakin’ Stevens, Steps, Vic Reeves, Gareth Malone, Andy Williams and Denise Van Outen

Justin Broad

Justin is a London based Songwriter & Music Producer.

His work can be heard on albums from artists such as Corinne Bailey Rae, Jessie J, Emeli Sande, Raleigh Ritchie and Izzy Bizu.

Justin started his music career as a Sound Engineer working for a number of producers including Gary Barlow, Eliot Kennedy, Salaam Remi, Paul Herman, Baby Ash and Pam Sheyne.

He studied sound engineering at Alchemea in Islington north London, specialising in audio engineering and production and quickly gained a reputation as being one of the foremost production engineers in the UK.

After leaving Alchemea Justin engineered at studios all over London. It was during this period that he started developing his skills as a producer. This lead to Justin’s first released production which was a song on Corinne Bailey Rae’s album. The co-writer on that song was Paul Herman (Dido, Eminem, Emeli Sande) who Justin developed a strong working relationship with that continues to this day.

Ben Robbins

Ben Robbins is a multi million selling songwriter/producer. As an engineer he has worked alongside artists such as A-ha, Cliff Richard, Leo Sayer,The Moody Blues, D-Influence, Gabrielle, Shola Ama, David Cassidy, Jason Donovan, and Vanessa May. As a writer/producer he has had hits with Tina Arena, Errol Brown, Rick Astley and Laura Pausini (Grammy award nominated).

He co-produced Katherine Jenkins first album ‘Premier’ which stayed at No1 in the Classical Charts for 7 weeks. In Sep 2007 Ben won Classic FM’s Composer competition with his setting of ‘In Paradisum’ performed by Soprano Fiona Jessica Wilson. Since then he has worked with Shayne Ward, Robert Plant, Mike and The Mechanics, Roachford, Matt Lucas, Alfie Boe, Michael Ball, Justin Lee Collins. He has also written for SKY and had compositions recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Choral Society.

John Saunderson

Possibly the most prolific publisher in the UK and certainly the most popular, John Saunderson taps into his extensive network of major and independent labels around the world to provide live songwriting briefs for the ever increasing number of talented writers in our Platinum Mentoring Program.  John also collaborates with The Songwriting Academy in organising songwriting camps both in the UK and abroad. He is also responsible for the world renowned networking events that bring together the biggest gathering of songwriters, producers, artists, managers & agents in the UK throughout the year at Tileyard Studios in London.

Danny Roberts

Danny Roberts is the head of A&R at Made Records, a sub label of Universal Music UK/Germany. A year into this new role, Danny has spent the year searching far and wide in an effort to build a brand new roster. With a focus on development, Danny took this role as it enabled him to work with artists at an earlier point in their career.

“The buzz for me is finding raw talent and helping a band or artist realise their potential. It means I have the opportunity to work with people far more talented then myself. I try to find like-minded artists who want to work together as a team to achieve something magical. From a personal point of view, once success has occurred, there is something quite wonderful about knowing you were the first person to invest time and money in something when nobody else did. How rewarding is that?”

Having previously spent 8 years working as International A&R Manager at Decca Records, Danny signed and developed a diverse roster of artists including AURORA, Rhys Lewis, The Teskey Brothers, The Wandering Hearts and more. These artists combined, have amassed over 500 million streams on Spotify alone.

Danny says he feels very lucky to wake up every morning to do the job he always dreamed of!

Lee Dannay

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.

Rick Blaskey

Rick was International VP for Arista Records US and EMI Europe and intrinsically involved in the international careers of Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Ricky Martin, among many others. He has pioneered in creating official music for many of the world’s major sports events and bodies as Executive Producer of music for FIFA World Cups, UEFA, The FA, Rugby World Cup Ltd, The RFU, BBC Olympics, ITV Sport, SkySports and others.

Rick founded The Music & Media Partnership in 1991 and pioneered the link between broadcasters, brands, agencies and international sports bodies with the music industry, creating major brand partnerships with Coca Cola, MasterCard, Pepsi, Evian, Dr Martens and Holsten, among others.

Another major area of pioneering has been in taking ‘classical’ music to the mainstream, including producing Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras. Rick also discovered and produced the international chart-topping ‘People’s Tenor’, Russell Watson, and discovered and managed the multi million selling ‘fastest violinist in the world’ David Garrett.

Most recently, Rick has been writing and producing for Andrea Bocelli and Emeli Sande. He is also working in musical theatre, creating and developing new international theatrical musical entertainments. As a devoted Sheffield Wednesday fan, Rick’s mantra is ‘the only limit to what is achievable is what is imaginable’.

Jochen Schuster

Jochen Schuster has more than 20 years of experience in the music industry and is one of the most respected label executives in the business. He has worked at a high level in Universal Music, Sony Music, Polydor and Island,  selling millions of records with pretty much all of the most successful German artists, as well as International acts Meatloaf, Bryan Adams, Avicii, Caro Emerald, Nena, A-ha and many more.

Jochen has also been a leading project manager for TV shows The Voice, Germany’s Got Talent, Starsearch, Eurovison Songcontest.

Five years ago he stepped out of Universal and started his own companies including an artist management company, his own publishing arm at BMG rights, a consulting company and he also founded a direct-to-fan platform for artists and their fans „getnext.to“.

This new platform recently rolled out and already has many artists on board who successfully monetize their content with their fans. A great opportunity for any artist to earn money from digital and physical content, whilst fans love this new more intimate form of relationship with their favourite artists.

Chris SD

Chris SD is an award-winning music producer. He has worked on 5 albums that won Juno Awards (Canada’s Grammys) along with 7 nominations. He was also nominated as Engineer Of The Year in 2012. With his extensive industry contacts and experience he has helped artists land record deals, find management and booking agents, and license music to TV & film.

He started Sync Songwriter to help musicians who live anywhere get their music licensed. To date he has helped hundreds of musicians and artists get their music into TV & film. They have collectively earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in up front sync fees and back-end royalties.

Andy Bibey

Andy began his musical career playing in bands across south Wales in the mid 2000’s, before packing his bags and moving to the outskirts of London to study. He spent around 3 years on the road across the UK & Europe as a tour manager before joining One Little Indian Records in 2011.

Andy ran the International department until May 2017, contributing to global campaigns for Björk, Asgeir, Cody ChesnuTT & Sinead O’ Connor amongst others, before joining Believe Distribution services in June 2017 as a Senior Label Manager, running global campaigns for direct artist deals and acting as a label manager for Believe’s digital distribution clients

Bob James

Bob has over 20 years of high level experience in record labels, publishing, promotion and music management, helping his clients sell over 60 million records along the way. He has a strong professional contact network through LA, New York, Nashville, Germany the UK and Asia and is a sought after music business consultant and lecturer with an unparalleled knowledge of music publishing, record label set-up and expansion, artist management, as well as all aspects of digital publishing, intellectual copyright, marketing, branding and promotion. Most recently his management company have launched the global careers of Kelvin Jones (Sony music), Corey Fox Fardell (winner Sony/ATV songwriting award) and YouTube phenomenon Hannah Trigwell Bob is now responsible for running the publishing interests of The Songwriting Academy, Agenda Rights Management.

Luc Floreani

Luc Floreani is an international singer songwriter and manager, born in Alice Springs, Central Australia.

He has worked with artists including  Amy Winehouse, Corrine Bailey Rae, Sam Smith, Blake, numerous X Factor/The Voice contestants, Jack Bruce, Marcella Detroit, Tony Hatch, Barry Mason, Kasabian, Darren Hayes and Starsailor.

He wrote the theme tune for
 Australia’s Channel 7 television current affairs program “Today Tonight”,
 the Prince’s Rainforest Project campaign song,
 Euro Gay Pride theme song 2011
 Cand the title track to the film “Darkness”.

Luc is the current host for OK Magazine Music Sessions online. “Live with Luc Floreani ” and a regular featured writer inwww.trebuchet-magazine.com.

Helienne Lindvall

Helienne Lindvall is an award-winning professional songwriter, musician and Board Director of the Ivors Academy (formerly BASCA), as well as the writer behind the Guardian music industry columns Behind the Music and Plugged In. She chairs the Ivors Academy Songwriter Committee as well as the Ivor Novello Awards Committee, and is the former Head of Business & Songwriter relations for the song data management platform Auddly, backed by hitmakers Max Martin and Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus.

Hailing from Sweden, she worked as a session singer, recording artist and performer in Stockholm and NYC before settling in London, where she signed a publishing deal with BMG Scandinavia. Since then she’s been working with recording artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including Roger Sanchez, Big Daddy Wilson and the Dark Tenor, collaborating with award-winning writers including Jörgen Elofsson (Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears), Patrik Berger (Icona Pop, Robyn) and Steve McEwan (Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood). In 2016, her song A Better Man, co-written by Andrew Fromm (Backstreet Boys, Mark Anthony) and Peter Kvint (A-ha, Andreas Johnson) made the UK Eurovision finals.

Vicky Pitchers

Vicky Pitchers is founder of VJP Media and an award-winning broadcaster.

Her previous clients include Glasgow Life, Des Clarke, Red Note Ensemble, Manchester Camerata, Musicians Union, MagicFest, Edinburgh Corn Exchange and Spider Online.

Vicky has created sponsorship and promotion campaigns for Coca Cola, Bacardi and Miller Genuine Draft. As a radio presenter Vicky hosted Save the Children Gala Dinner and The Scottish Executive Awards, reported backstage from the MTV VMA’s and Live 8 and presented a number of award winning breakfast shows.

She is also a consultant for Arts PR, an arts PR and communications agency helping organisations and individuals to manage their own effective PR through ideas, support and mentoring.

Tim Fraser

Tim is a multi platinum songwriter/producer with songs recorded by Tina Turner, Lulu, Marcella Detroit, Billie Myers and Steve Brookstein. He has also had music placed in X-box game Stoked and in multiple TV series including CSI Las Vegas, Roswell High and new British movie Love Me Still.

Tim is also an artist manager and a highly respected board member of BASCA. He is in demand not only as a songwriting tutor but also for his extensive knowledge on all aspects of the music business, including publishing, royalty collection, grand rights and financial advice for songwriters.

Richard Salmon

Richard is a music lawyer, writer, and active musician. He has worked with a range of clients including major and independent record labels, music publishers, managers, artists, writers and producers. He advises on business affairs, contract disputes, copyright, and digital matters. Richard has also penned numerous press articles, covering all aspects of music business and law. http://www.intunemusiclaw.co.uk/

Dan Graham

Dan has over 15 years of international digital communications experience. He has led the successful redesign of several websites and developed content strategies that have helped attract millions of visitors.

Dan is currently the Head of Communications for the Kofi Annan Chaired Africa Progress Panel (APP). Prior to the APP, Dan was the Head of Web and Social Media for the United Nations World Food Programme and Director of Online Communications for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Paddy Byrne

Jo Valentina Sinclair

Jo is an NLP Practitioner and Lifecoach with over 20 years personal development knowledge.

Having worked for the BBC for nearly 10 years in Editorial Strategy managing the creative and strategic direction of tv channels, Jo spent several years working for Creative Marketing Agencies account managing global brands such as 02, Lloyds TSB, Halifax.

She has also worked as a Marketing Executive in the Music Industry for companies such as Warner, Mercury and Sony.

Bob James

Bob has over 20 years of high level experience in record labels, publishing, promotion and music management, helping his clients sell over 60 million records along the way. He has a strong professional contact network through LA, New York, Nashville, Germany the UK and Asia and is a sought after music business consultant and lecturer with an unparalleled knowledge of music publishing, record label set-up and expansion, artist management, as well as all aspects of digital publishing, intellectual copyright, marketing, branding and promotion. Most recently his management company have launched the global careers of Kelvin Jones (Sony music), Corey Fox Fardell (winner Sony/ATV songwriting award) and YouTube phenomenon Hannah Trigwell Bob is now responsible for running the publishing interests of The Songwriting Academy, Agenda Rights Management.

Luc Floreani

Luc Floreani is an international singer songwriter and manager, born in Alice Springs, Central Australia.

He has worked with artists including  Amy Winehouse, Corrine Bailey Rae, Sam Smith, Blake, numerous X Factor/The Voice contestants, Jack Bruce, Marcella Detroit, Tony Hatch, Barry Mason, Kasabian, Darren Hayes and Starsailor.

He wrote the theme tune for
 Australia’s Channel 7 television current affairs program “Today Tonight”,
 the Prince’s Rainforest Project campaign song,
 Euro Gay Pride theme song 2011
 Cand the title track to the film “Darkness”.

Luc is the current host for OK Magazine Music Sessions online. “Live with Luc Floreani ” and a regular featured writer inwww.trebuchet-magazine.com.

Chris Johnson

Originally trained in Speech Level Singing (SLS), Chris has spent his coaching career working with scientists and specialist coaches to bring the most advanced, effective and true methods of voice training to his clients.

Now an authorised instructor for the highly connected ‘Vocology In Practice’ network, Chris’s contemporary clients have included recording artists Lawson, The Staves and Deaf Havana.Musical theatre credits include preparing lead vocalists for Wicked, Mama Mia and Beautiful.

As a performer, Chris is a busy soul singer working with bands and production shows, and has supporting credits for The Drifters, Alexander O’Neal and Lemar.

Jacqueline Norton

Jacqueline Norton is a professional coach supporting creatives in the skills of working within the music business that can sometimes be overlooked – business skills. Musicians, songwriters, artists, DJs and producers are naturally gifted in creative idea generation, emotional connection and many of the ‘right-brain’ characteristics. For those that struggle with the more linear, ‘left-brain’ skills, she, under her Authentic Artists brand, offers coaching, training and support for both practical and mindset disciplines that balance the music with the business.

Authentic Artists was created in 2015 following Jacq’s own TSA journey through the Platinum Programme, to fill a clear need to support her creative collaborators with building confidence in business and networking skills.  Jacqueline is a songwriter with a wealth of corporate experience in professional sales and executive coaching.

Martin Sutton

FOUNDER & LEAD INSTRUCTOR

Martin Sutton is the founder of The Songwriting Academy and multi-platinum songwriter and producer. Starting as a young busker on the streets of Norwich, he spent years developing the craft of songwriting, traveling the world to work with other writers, learning about the music business and honing his production skills. He is now a successful songwriter/producer and has sold millions of records in nearly 50 countries around the world.

His work includes Backstreet Boys, LeAnn Rimes, Celine Dion, Gary Barlow, Pixie Lott, Mark Owen, Olivia Newton-John, Andrew Roachford, Brian McFadden, Lulu, Mike & The Mechanics, K-Pop superstars Super Junior and X-Factor/Idol winners worldwide.

His teaching methodology and ethos have been described as “life-changing” by many of his students and over the years he has shared his knowledge and experience with thousands, opening their eyes to the world of professional music making. His diverse programming and production skills are widely sought after, from orchestration for Celine Dion and Andrew Lloyd Webber to quirky programming and beat-making for K-Pop/J-Pop artists, and rich country productions for artists including LeAnn Rimes.

Simon Coulson

CO-FOUNDER

Simon has been a performing musician for over 20 years, performing in a variety of original bands and heading up top UK Coldplay tribute Coolplay, including live performances to 40,000 people and performing at  Londons O2 Arena.

After attending one of Martin Suttons songwriting workshops Simon and Martin decided to combine talents and create The Songwriting Academy to be the leading Songwriting and Music Production training company using world class industry experts to deliver expert tuition to aspiring songwriters, producers  and musicians.

Simon is a serial entrepreneur and has launched a number of online businesses including The Internet Business School – one of the UKs leading Internet marketing training companies. Simon has an MBA from University of Kent and provides coaching on business and online presence.

Angela Skinner

STUDENT DIRECTOR

Angela is an in international songwriter based in Hertfordshire. She has a Master Certificate in Songwriting from Berklee College of Music’s online platform and currently writes for artists and synch. With a background in nursing and business, she brings a host of people skills to her combined roles now as TSA’s Customer Relations Manager and as Martin’s PA!

Kristian Vader

STUDENT SUPPORT MANAGER

Kristian is a songwriter and founder of Songwriter News UK – an online blog/magazine and Social Media network to promote Songwriters and emerging artists.  Originally from Sao Paolo, his diverse working career includes, video production crewing and being a former talent scout for an Indie label.  Kristian, a former Platinum Member, was awarded TSA Member Of The Year 2016 and has now joined us as TSA Events Correspondent.

Cat Aimi

ONLINE COURSE MANAGER

Cat is a former Platinum student of The Songwriting Academy and popular collaborator with many established hit songwriters including Pam Sheyne (Christina Aguilera), Rob Agostini (Dido), Sherman De Vries (Sean Paul). Known in the music business for her powerful yet husky voice she is the first choice for many pro vocal sessions. Her passion for TSA led her to become our Online Course Manager.

Luke Moseley

STUDENT LIAISON MANAGER

Luke (a.k.a MOSELEY) is an Aussie-American Englishman songwriter and producer based in London, and a former Platinum student of The Songwriting Academy. He writes with and produces for signed and unsigned artists worldwide including Kidnap, Salt Ashes, Tommy Ashby and Marisha Wallace, with credits also for film & TV commissions, including Primark, BT and Lowe Alpine.

Luke is an accomplished singer and multi-instrumentalist playing the guitar, bass and drums and has picked up a myriad of other, lesser-known instruments along the way. He is also an adept Ableton and Logic Pro X user.