Songwriters Hall Of Fame Hal David – HuffPost 12.30.11
Mike Ragogna: How does it feel to be receiving your Visionary Leadership award tonight?
Hal David: It’s exciting. It’s the first award that I’ve gotten that has nothing to do with my writing. This one is for my leadership, and I’m very flattered.
MR: What advice do you have for new writers?
HD: Just keep writing. People will turn you down, but people turned me down years ago as well. Just keep working and, if you’re good, something will happen along the way.
NARAS President, Neil Portnow
Mike Ragogna: So, what do you think of the event tonight?
Neil Portnow: It’s really something. It all begins with a song. From the Grammy perspective and the recording academy, many of our members are songwriters. So, we realize that it’s very important that songwriters get acknowledged. It’s a very wonderful community. This is a very heartfelt night and there’s just a wonderful respect for those that have come before and those that are coming up. It’s particularly gratifying for us because we opened our Grammy Museum a few years ago, and we partnered with the Songwriters Hall Of Fame so there’s a section in the museum for songwriters allowing us to pay homage properly to the songwriting community.
MR: Do you have any thoughts on indie music and its necessary DIY approaches to marketing?
NP: Well, the world has changed, not only in music, but in business as well. You have to educate yourself. It’s not enough to be a really great artist, you also need to know how to market yourself and put yourself out there. However, I don’t know if that’s unique to today. In years past, you still had to have that vision and duality as a business person to have success.
MR: Do you see the Grammys taking a step towards recognizing that duality in artists?
NP: We acknowledge recordings, and any recording that has commercial distribution and isn’t just a vanity project that you made out of the trunk of your car is eligible in our process and we welcome it. As a matter of fact, over 50% of our entries and winners are independent.
MR: What would be your advice for a new artist?
NP: Well, new artists have to be focused on honing the craft. But the most important thing to an artist is to have a vision and a sense of themselves–who you are, what you want to say, what your approach is to things. Those who really develop those things and have a strong sense of self are the ones that have long wonderful careers. We’d love to have as many great songwriters as are available because it’s a wonderful business, and music is truly the universal language.