5 Things That Made 2022 My Best Music Year Yet

1. Becoming The Artist. Run by my friend, mentor and singer of considerable pedigree and career, Bernii MacDonald. She has been a rock throughout 2022. Whenever I have had doubts I have been able to speak to her and get honest responses. The group of musicians she runs as a community are absolute belters, one and all. All so diverse in genre, temperament and approach, the things we share are drive and talent in considerable measures. Becoming The Artist has been such a blessing to be involved in
2. Rosie Bans and Radical Songwriting Academy. Rosie changed my songwriting forever and upped its quality by many times. Another long term friend from the SongSmith Bristol days, a ball of energy and creativity though also these days an oasis of calm. My songwriting journey with her started at a live retreat in 2019 co-curated with Becci Wallace, to Sunday Songwriters (also with Becci) that helped me not only survive the pandemic but thrive and flourish in my songwriting, onto SongSeeds (again with Becci) and finally to the Radical Songwriting Academy where I am a proud alumni. It contains such a wealth of songwriting talent and is such a safe and supportive environment as well as providing a wealth of co-writers, session musicians and along with the Sunday Songwriting group such a lovely bunch of people.
3. Modern Musician and Rick Barker – in the necessary evil of marketing these guys are my top picks. Rick is straight talking, funny, and full of creative ideas to help me sell my music. Modern Musician has great tools that integrate and can be run from one place to fulfil nearly all my marketing needs. A fan community, campaigns for email etc, revenue management, NFTs, and a Patreon-like, platform plus much more coming down the pipeline. The product is constantly evolving and is a cost effective way to access the software for musicians. Both supply great training too! Often free!!
4. SongChasers – run by Full Circle music. When I decided that I needed to engage with the monster market of US I stumbled across these guys and have never looked back. Very different from RSA and at times for me an uncomfortable place. Nevertheless there is some great training and community around songwriting, particularly for collaborations, and also now for Music Production. It challenges me in a way that I need and there are some wonderful people involved in it. It also has given me a reason to go to Nashville and participate in their Boot Camp where I plan to be at the end of April for a second time. Money from songwriting is a real opportunity for me, realistically being a artist will be much harder for me. These guys have the US contacts to help me break into synch and even commercial writes there.
5. Friends, family, colleagues. Some endlessly patience. The handful that like all my posts. And a talent pool of peer musicians and support. I hope you know who you are and how much I appreciate you all.