But as I discovered in the interview, Brian was staying very busy. He worked as Dave Koz’s music director, kept writing his own material and he is still going strong today. One thing that stuck out in the interview was that Brian said the format needs more original material. I’m paraphrasing: “ It needs to evolve, otherwise it’s going to die, and the only way to do that is by introducing more new original material.” That is a sentiment I whole-heartedly agree with. Brian went on to say that he always works on writing as much new and good material as he can, and when he runs out of ideas he approaches other songwriters to supply him with tunes.

Brian has been doing well in the last years since this interview. He just released a new CD entitled “Out of a Dream”. And I am happy to see him in the charts. True to his believes he approached various songwriters to help him and collaborate on the CD. I was one of them. The opening track “One of a kind” was my contribution. Brian took my idea and put his own spin on it. The result is a nice mix of Nils’ upbeat grooves and Brian’s sensual piano playing.

Brian recognized that the key to an artist’s resilience is flexibility and good original material. This attitude has served him well. Every great artist I can think of is associated, if not defined by an original song.

I have been writing more songs the last two years alone, than in the 5 years before. I expanded my work into producing new and upcoming artists, as well as writing songs for established artists. Of course I try to keep the best stuff for myself. And therefore I feel that my upcoming album, to be released later this year, will be the strongest work I have done in years.

The only advice I can give is to write as much as you can. Realize that not every song is going to be a masterpiece. But if you keep writing eventually you’ll come up with something great. And if you can’t and need more material to make your album stand out, give me a call.

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About 3 years ago I started noticing that my Soundexchange checks are surpassing my ASCAP checks. Soundexchange collects money from Digital streams, digital radio etc and pays the performer, ASCAP also collects money from radio and internet performances and pays the writer. So I can make more money playing anybody else’s music than writing new songs for somebody else.

But herein lies the problem. If we reward the live performance, but not the creation of new material, who is going to write the melodies we love for the next generation of fans. Do we really want to regurgitate old classics over and over? Nothing against a good cover tune, but if that’s all we do, I believe the art form will die.
I am a producer, a writer and a performer and I think the writing of songs is the most important part of the industry we call music. Without a good song a brilliant production is pointless. And even the best executed performance will never stick in your head like a good melody can.
I take a great song whistled onto an old tape recorder any day over the the greatest production and performance of some horrible composition. It always starts and ends with the song. The production can make it shine. The performance can make it a classic, but only when the song is truly great. So shouldn’t we make sure, that the writers are compensated and incentivised?

I recently started producing and writing for a number of contemporary jazz artists. I have a song coming out with Nate Harasim on Woodward records, featuring myself and Dave Koz. I have the first track “One of a Kind” on Brian Simpson’s new CD “Out of a Dream”. I produced the new album “Always in Motion” for Reggie Codrington (a fantastic project if I may say so myself. You can check it out here) I wrote some of the songs for it, and co-wrote with Reggie on the material . And I wrote/ co-wrote half of the tracks for Keith Andrews CD “Adventurous Soul”. his first single just cracked the Billboard Smooth Jazz Top 20 . Al DeGregoris latest release “All in good time” was produced by myself and Jeff Lorber.

All in Good TIme CD cover

I co-wrote the first single and wrote the second one as well. Granted the new artists are just happy to get some chart action for the first time. But even with Brian and Nate’s projects, I can’t expect a big publishing check anymore.

So why do I do it? I did hear the little voice in my head saying, “keep the songs for yourself !”

Two reasons:

First of all I want to keep writing. Writing songs is like working a muscle, you get stronger when you keep doing it. I never think a song is the last or best I’ll ever write. There are songs , I know that have hit potential and others are more eclectic. I try not to judge while I’m writing, I just do it out of habit.

Secondly, when I write songs for artists that I work with, it’s because I want any project that has my name attached to it to succeed. Not all artists are great writers, so if a song is needed I will provide. It’s not ego, it’s just good business.

From an economical point of view I could just pick a cover and re-record it. But as an artist I am not interested in re-chewing old tracks. I want to define my identity with the material I write as much as with the way I play it. Maybe I’m an idealist, but I’ll keep on writing….