Indie Connect Magazine

Great artists have great songs. There is big difference between being a commercial songwriter where you are writing songs specifically to pitch to other artists, and writing songs to perform yourself. In this video, hit songwriter, Rand Bishop discusses the differences in writing styles, the rules you need to follow and the liberties you can take when you’re writing for yourself.

Rand Bishop is a Grammy-nominated, BMI Award-winning, Million-play songwriter with well over 200 cuts to his credit—by such artists as Beach Boys, Heart, Cheap Trick, Indigo Girls, Tim McGraw, David Ball, Peter Noone, Richie Havens and Vanilla Fudge—among many others. Bishop’s My List, recorded by Toby Keith (co-written with Tim James) spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard country singles chart in the spring of 2002 and, according to industry bible Radio & Records, ended that year as country radio’s most played song. Public response to the Keith hit inspired Bishop and James to co-author what became a profitable companion book, My List (24 Reflections on Life’s Priorities), published by McGraw-Hill in 2003.

In his nearly 40-year career, Bishop has filled just about every role in the creative end of the music business: recording artist, songwriter, studio vocalist, producer, recording engineer, A&R/talent-development exec and publisher. Other notable credits include Bishop’s screenplay, The Tin Roof (First Place, The National Screenplay Showdown, 2004), and the stage play, The Viewing, which debuted at Nashville’s prestigious Darkhorse Theater in 2006.

Rand’s Website: www.makinstuffup.net

Videotaped 02/02/09 at Pie In The Sky, Nashville TN
Length: 46:31

Here is part 1. Length = 15:38 min.

Here is Part 2. Length = 13.31 min.

Here is Part 3. Length = 17:22 min.

- Return To Table Of Contents -