Canadian Songwriter Challenge creates diamonds under pressure

The Canadian Songwriter Challenge recently wrapped up its fourth year on P.E.I., creating some beautiful music in a hurry as part of the Canadian Song Conference.

The four-day contest pairs two songwriters from different provinces — on the first day they write two songs together, the second day they record them in a studio, then they're mixed and mastered. On the final day the pairs perform the songs in a listening session at Trinity United Church in Charlottetown.

"It's a lot of pressure, for sure," Rob Oakie of Music P.E.I. told CBC's Angela Walker on Mainstreet P.E.I. "And writing songs is really personal for most artists, so to sit down with someone you've never met before and open up and be collaborative — you can't be too possessive about your work, you want to be able to share, and that's hard for some people."  

This year musicians from six provinces travelled to P.E.I. to collaborate in the project — British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Some writers will have a line or a riff in mind for a song, Oakie said, while others will come in cold. 

'Wrote a couple of bangers'

Island electronic artist Russell Louder paired up with composer Steph Copeland from Ontario, Oakie said, and already had a lot of preparation done as they worked with producer Colin Buchanan at The Hill Sound Studio. 

"Colin was blown away by how much work was already done and how professional it was and how good it sounded," Oakie said. They produced a sophisticated, melodic song called Who You Gotta Love and a grittier bass-driven track, Showdown.  

"Right out of the gate, we had a lot of the same musical sensibilities, and we used the same software," said Copeland in a Facebook video from the concert. "We had so much fun working on it ... it just really flowed very well."

"We wrote a couple of bangers, it's great," said Louder as they introduced the songs.

Unusual pairings

P.E.I. folk artist Catherine MacLellan was paired up with R & B singer Reeny Smith — a bit of an unusual combination, but Oakie said "they came up with two beautiful songs," I Got a Feeling and Keeper of My Heart. 

P.E.I.'s Danny Drouin and Shantaia Poulin of Saskatoon, both country artists, took only four and a half hours to write their two songs, Oakie said.

"I said 'What do you mean, you're done?'" Oakie laughed about receiving the early call from Drouin. The pair also recorded their songs in record time — Not This Time and Back Out of My Head.

Josh Carter of P.E.I. band Calm Baretta wrote and recorded with Sean L.B. from New Brunswick, who came up with Age of War and Miracle Mile. 

To hear all the songs of all the participants, check out Soundcloud here. 

The studios involved in the recording and mixing including Buchanan, Studio Dimanche in Miscouche, P.E.I., and David Rashed's Studio at the Guild did a top-notch job with the music, Oakie said, and deserve much praise. 

The listening session where the songs were performed was attended by delegates of the Canadian Song Conference including Sam Diaz from CBS Studios in Los Angeles, who finds music for television shows including the globally-popular NCIS.

"No doubt that there's going to be a lot of work come out of this," said Oakie. 

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