Today’s subject matter is  the life of a Hit Songwriter  and how to reach it and live it yourself. Exciting stuff.  Very, very exciting stuff. And of course, in case you don’t know who I am, my name is Rob Wells. There it is. And, yeah, let’s get started. This is basically just me  taking you through what I go through on a day-to-day basis,  and also sort of how I got to where I am right now  and things to consider in lots of different writing scenarios when you are, you know, going to write with somebody else or you’re writing by yourself, or you’re writing with a publisher on board or, or not.
So, what is a typical day like for me? Most people think that it’s me just sitting down and writing a song on pen and paper and away we go. But there is so much more to it than that because this is my business. This is what I do on a day in, day out, schedule.
So the first thing that I call  my day is the beginning part, and it’s called business in the Morning.  And that’s typically from nine o’clock until 11 o’clock where I take care of all the business aspects. The second part is what I call party in the afternoon,  and that’s my favorite part. Of course, that’s where I get to be creative, but I’ll, I’ll dive more into that. and then once I’m done party in the afternoon, I shut everything down at six o’clock and I do sleep at night, but that doesn’t mean that I fall asleep right at six.
It just means that I do a lot of things that are just sort of like recharging the batteries, if you will. So let’s dive into this a little bit more. we’ve got business in the morning, party in the afternoon, sleep at night. Let’s go into business in the morning.  So here’s a list of all the things that I pretty much do, daily  every morning. Of course, I don’t do all of these things all at once within a two hour period from nine o’clock until 11 o’clock in the morning, but here it is.
I exercise, I do do that daily,  answering emails,  so being responsive to everybody, getting on social media because I get a lot of communication happening there as well. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter,  all these different places that are just, you know, sending messages to me nonstop. So answering emails, social media, and then dealing with my team. So dealing with lawyers, dealing with my manager,  that’s, that’s a daily thing, you know, like there’s, there’s a lot of things where I have to be  getting in touch with them and figuring out what we’re gonna be doing this week or today, or, you know, who we need to get in touch with or what needs to be signed, what contracts need to be figured out, all these different things.
So dealing with lawyers, artists,  managers,  labels  a and r at the labels,  assistants, people that are helping me out doing things. I manage my schedule like crazy.
I’m really, really a bit crazy with managing my schedule. It, it is a nonstop thing where I’m just constantly looking at my calendar and really trying to fit everything in so that everybody’s well served and nothing gets lost. Nothing gets sort of shuffled outta the way and falls between the cracks. I just, I’m really, really, really on top of my calendar, on top of my schedule. So important. I, I really recommend that to everybody, to just daily beyond their schedule and just make sure that everything fits in nicely. what else am I doing in the morning? I’m booking gigs  all the time.
and I get those gigs from answering the emails, answering the social media, answering any communication that comes through, checking my voicemail,  all these different things that, that, you know, where gigs can come from. It isn’t just one place. There’s, there’s multiple places where the gigs can come from. So it is important to just be on top of your communication and not let anything fall into the cracks again.  So I’m booking gigs. there are some times where, believe it or not, there are times where, I have a hole in the schedule  and it’s in my best interest to fill that hole.
So I will be hustling for more gigs, booking gigs, hustling for more gigs. Â Then there’s making changes to previous gigs. So, you know, let’s say I’m in the middle of a, of a big schedule. I’m working on a full record, and then in the morning I check out one of my emails, and there it is. It’s just like, Hey, Rob, do you think that we could add a little bit more reverb to the lead vocal of that song that you did two weeks ago? So there’s that, that has to be done within this two hour period before the artist that I’m currently with comes into the room.
Very, very important. So making changes to previous gigs, doing your research on new music and new styles. Yep, daily, I’m listening to new music all the time, all the time. When I get in the car, I listen to new music. When I’m going for a walk, I listen to new music. If I’m not looking for inspiration, if I’m, if I’m looking for inspiration by, by finding all the new music that’s coming out there, Â I’m constantly excited. I’m finding the joy and the beauty in all different kinds of music, because I wanna stay current, I wanna stay relevant, but I still wanna know what the older music is as well.
And I also wanna know what world music is like as well. So I’m not just focused on, because I’m in Canada, I, I, I don’t just focus on North American charts, north American music, I go all over the world and really just check all the different music that’s out there and see if there’s a way that I can incorporate some of that into the music that I’m currently doing right now. I have this app on my phone that I use. it’s called My Tuner Pro, Â and again, my Tuner Pro.
And it’s a radio station app where I can literally go to any country and it’ll list me the top 10 radio stations in that country, and I can go on and I can just listen for free, live over the internet, what’s going on in that country. Really, really amazing stuff. so yeah, doing your research on new music and new styles, learning new software. Â Oh, yeah, I learn new instruments, new vsts, virtual instruments, you know, new programming software. If, if there’s anything out there, anything that helps me out with my day-to-Day job, I’m, I’m constantly trying to, trying to learn stuff, and I just don’t wanna be bogged down by, by the old stuff.
I want to see if there’s new ways that are coming out, new, new technologies that will help make my job that much easier. So, for sure, learning new software, staying current, that goes into finding new music and new styles. And also staying current is, is really a big one. You know, I’m, I just turned 49, Â and let’s face it, there’s a lot of people out there that are just getting started that are in their late teens, early twenties, and to a lot of record companies, that’s the, that’s where the excitement is, that’s where they’re really putting a lot of their focus in with all the new crop of people that’s coming up with, you know, new styles of music that they haven’t heard before and, and new ways of creating music.
So I wanna stay just as current as they are. So I’m constantly reinventing myself, really trying to put myself out there and just say, Hey guys, I’m still here as well. and I can work on your projects just as much as the new guys that are coming up. So that’s very important.
dealing with my accounting,  very, very important. if you’re not on top of the business side of things, if you’re not on top of doing your taxes  and your accounting and your invoicing and all things like that,  then it just piles up like crazy. It’s just like a massive mountain that, that is really hard to, to get through. So, dealing with accounting, I do lots of interviews for radio, for print, for podcasts. I just did two this past week in, in that nine to 11 space, chasing down money that you’re owed.
Unfortunately, that happens in this business. It happens in any business, really. You know, just where people are, are, are promising that they’re gonna pay and they don’t. And, you need to find ways to, to get that money. it’s important  communicating with your publisher. If you do have a publisher, then communicating with your publisher on at least a weekly basis. very important. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s good to just like your lawyer, just like your manager. It’s good to contact your publisher and say, I’m here and I’m ready to work on some stuff.
What do you have coming down the pipeline that needs to be worked on? are there any artists coming through town or anybody who’s looking for new material? All of that. And it’s great to just sort of plan out your week or plan out your day or whatever it is. organizing travel for work outside the country, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. These are all things that go on in business in the morning. And this is definitely part of the life of being a hit songwriter, is taking care of the business. And I can’t stress that enough. Taking care of your business is very, very, very important.
 But once that’s all done,  then it moves on to, oh,  yeah, there it is. There’s my notes right there. As you can see, being a songwriter is not just songwriting. Taking care of business is super important. It becomes a mountain of work if you don’t attend to it daily. But once it’s all done, like I was just saying, then life becomes, what did I say before? Party in the afternoon, there it is my favorite part.  So here’s all the things that happen within party in the afternoon,  traveling to your writing gig or preparing your own home if you’re writing from there,  preparing ideas and inspirations that could work for the session.
 Partnering up with proper lyricists for the gig required, just because for me, I’m more of a track person. I’m more of a music and melody writer. so I will always partner up with a, with a dedicated lyricist, with a top liner for the gigs required coming up with, a song from scratch  or song doctoring, a song that’s already been started.
