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Friday, June 20, 2008

Networking and Touring for Songwriters... a Danish experience


This month J.Walker and I went to Denmark. Now, this country is not an ordinary hop skip and a jump for an Aussie girl who lives in Los Angeles, especially if one goes only for five days. That’s right, I ended up going for five incredible days, and the most fascinating part is I’d do it again 10 times over!
I was invited to come speak to the Songwriter Clubs of Denmark by Koda (the Ascap, BMI, Apra there), preceding the famous national Spot Festival that happened also on the weekend. The Songwriter Clubs, or Danske Sangskriverklubber, are a series of small but focused songwriter organizations around Denmark that support songwriters in their quest for exposure and learning. They are all independent, but the leaders all come together and meet, network and vote on various needs that Danish songwriters may need. I couldn’t understand their actual meeting component… it was all in Danish! But I spoke to the leaders (about 35) about an interesting topic to all of us artists really… how to network and tour… and specifically, how to network and tour overseas. My perspective was unique, yet very worthwhile for the Danish songwriters, as being Australian and going to the US to chase the bright lights of stardom, I knew I had kindred spirits in the room who see crossing shores as the way to “make it”.