{"id":8842,"date":"2022-02-28T08:35:56","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T08:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=8842"},"modified":"2022-02-28T08:35:57","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T08:35:57","slug":"sidetracks-and-detours-heres-to-the-ladies-2022-an-inaugural-in-print-festival-diane-warren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2022\/02\/28\/sidetracks-and-detours-heres-to-the-ladies-2022-an-inaugural-in-print-festival-diane-warren\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidetracks And Detours. Here\u00b4s To The Ladies 2022, an inaugural in-print festival DIANE WARREN:"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sidetracks And Detours.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u00b4s To The Ladies 2022, an inaugural in-print festival<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DIANE WARREN<\/strong>: a gathering of those who sing her songs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman Warwick learns from Dorian Lynskey through The Guardian<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The prime source for this article was a piece written by Dorian Lynskey, for the Guardian<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorian is a music writer for the Guardian and Observer as well as magazines including Q, GQ and Mojo. He is the author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs (Faber). He is one of a chapter full of writers I have come to respect and trust over the past couple of years, richly enhancing my music-reading. one of his most recent, and most impressive, article, written for The Guardian is about a song-writer stepping out on to centre stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00b4At the end of the 20th<\/sup> century,\u00b4 he said to open his piece, \u00b4Diane Warren was the unrivalled queen of the power ballad and her music publisher presented her with a quartet of gold discs and a plaque hailing her as \u201cthe career saviour of the nineties\u00b4. The discs celebrated the windswept mega-hits Warren had written for Toni Braxton (Un-Break My Heart), LeAnn Rimes (How Do I Live), Celine Dion (Because You Loved Me) and Aerosmith<\/a> (I Don\u2019t Want to Miss a Thing), the first two of which are still among the bestselling US singles ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be imperial in one pop era is usually to be defined by it for evermore, but Warren has been writing hits for almost four decades, notching up nine US No 1s and 32 Top 10 hits. In 2015, Til It Happens To You, her potent Lady Gaga collaboration for a documentary about campus rape, made her once again the pop equivalent of the striker you turn to when you absolutely have to score a penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Six of her 12 Oscar nominations have come in the past seven years and one of those songs, for the documentary RBG, prompted a thank you note from supreme court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself. Warren provided a theme song for the Biden-Harris campaign called The Change, a feminist anthem for Michelle Obama (left) called This Is For My Girls<\/a>, and Here\u2019s to the Nights<\/a>, a lockdown pick-me-up for Ringo Starr with backing vocals by Paul McCartney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s 8 a,m.  in Los Angeles and Warren is chugging coffee like she\u2019s filling up a car. Wearing a grey top, a checkerboard scarf and large horn-rimmed glasses, she has a buzzy, fast-talking energy, like the salty best friend in a Nora Ephron movie. We are joined intermittently by her cat Rabbit, who jumps on Warren\u2019s lap, uses her leg as a scratching post, eats paper and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe likes attention,\u201d<\/em> says the songwriter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her owner? Not<\/strong> so much. Growing up in Van Nuys, California, Warren admired songwriters more than performers. \u201cNone of it appealed to me,\u201d<\/em> she says. \u201cI have stage fright. I would hate to be on the road. Some of these artists I work with can\u2019t even walk down the street. I have a great gig because a lot of people don\u2019t know me. I\u2019m like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren literally has a green curtain behind her, prohibiting any glimpse of her surely fabulous home via Zoom. As soon as we finish talking, she\u2019ll be off to work on a song at \u201cthe Cave\u201d, the Hollywood Hills office she has used since 1985. Even though she\u2019s wealthy enough to have bought an entire building in the same street for her Realsongs publishing company, Warren still rents the Cave because she\u2019s a creature of habit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really dirty and comfortable. I\u2019ve basically lived in there more years than not.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren is \u201cobsessed with writing songs, more so now than ever\u201d.<\/em> She writes seven days a week when she\u2019s in LA and has never had writer\u2019s block. She does occasionally take a holiday but six days is her limit. Almost uniquely in modern pop, she prefers to work alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, when there\u2019s 12 writers on a song, what exactly they\u2019re doing,\u201d<\/em> she says. \u201cAre they getting the coffee? Coming up with a hi-hat pattern in the bridge? I don\u2019t need a writing camp. I am a writing camp.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 65, Warren is now released her debut album, The Cave Sessions Vol 1. A while back, she took a ballad called Where Is Your Heart to John Legend<\/a>, who recorded it but didn\u2019t release it. After some back and forth, she figured: why not release it under her own name? Back when she was writing such songs as I Don\u2019t Want to Miss a Thing for Jerry Bruckheimer blockbusters (\u201cgirl songs for boy movies\u201d<\/em>), she would work to a brief, but usually she writes for herself, so that when a request comes in there\u2019s always something in the vault. This means, she says, \u201cSome of my best songs have not been heard yet.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Warren designed the album \u2013 which features previous clients Celine Dion and Paloma Faith alongside newcomers such as G-Eazy and Ty Dolla $ign \u2013 to showcase her range. There\u2019s R&B, hip-hop, country and Latin, as well as the expected knockout ballads. While she can carry a tune well enough for a demo, she knows her limits: \u201cThe good thing about me singing is that nobody will ever say, \u2018Wow, I wonder if I can sing that as good.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every singer she approached said yes, but that is not always the case. When someone turns down a song, does she, as the world\u2019s most successful female songwriter, ever think: \u201cIt\u2019s great, don\u2019t be an idiot?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She cackles. \u201cWhenever someone doesn\u2019t get it, I kind of think that. I\u2019m like, \u2018I know what I\u2019m talking about, just do the song.\u2019 Sometimes I talk someone into it and I\u2019ve never been wrong.\u201d She mentions <\/em>Cher<\/em><\/a>, (left)<\/strong> whose initial response to If I Could Turn Back Time was: \u201cI fucking hate it.\u201d Helped by its none-more-80s video (battleship, buttocks), the song ended up rebooting Cher\u2019s career. \u201cA suit might look weird,\u201d says Warren, \u201cbut once you try it on, it might be the coolest fucking suit you ever wore. You just didn\u2019t picture yourself in it like I did.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren, whose last romantic relationship ended in 1992, doesn\u2019t claim to pour her own experiences into every song. Her appeal to singers and listeners is the universal imprecision of her lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not somebody who sits and writes about my life because how fucking boring would that be? My songs are super open. They could go in a million different directions.\u201d The Change, for example, wasn\u2019t political until she gave it to Biden-Harris, and Numb was about losing her mother before the Pet Shop Boys (left)<\/strong> reinterpreted it as post-9\/11 anxiety, only to inadvertently return it to the source with a video using old Russian newsreels. \u201cMy mom\u2019s family was from Russia,\u201d Warren explains. \u201cIt was emotionally devastating watching that video.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twilight <\/strong>director Catherine Hardwicke has talked about making a biopic about the songwriter\u2019s early life. As an unruly teenager, Warren was sent to juvenile detention for smoking weed and once stayed with a bunch of heroin addicts when she ran away from home. Nothing grabbed her like song.writing did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got kicked out of schools, I hated school, but on my own I would really study the Brill Building writers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her insurance salesman father was right behind her (Dion\u2019s Because You Loved Me was a tribute to him disguised as romance) but her mother was sceptical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mom used to say, \u2018That song\u2019s really great but take it to Ralphs [supermarket] and see if they\u2019ll give you groceries for it.\u2019 It\u2019s not that she didn\u2019t believe in me, but how do you make a living as a songwriter? It\u2019s a one in a million thing to be successful and to be as successful as I am is one in a billion, probably.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren didn\u2019t get her first sole writing credit, for Debarge\u2019s Rhythm of the Night<\/a>, until she was 28. Thirty-six years later, she is still delivering the goods. Has she ever felt like she\u2019s cracked pop\u2019s code? She shakes her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery song is cracking the code really. It\u2019s its own solar system. Whatever works in a song only works in that song.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge of proving herself over and over again is what keeps Warren going and although she would emphatically love an Oscar, she enjoys racking up the nominations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI am now the only woman in the history of the Academy Awards to be nominated this many times without winning, which I\u2019m kind of proud of. If I could have won one time and then not ever been nominated again, I would definitely choose the longevity game.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The business of song-writing has changed a lot since she started, though. To avoid plagiarism lawsuits, the credits on some hit songs have as many names as a football squad, expanding to include anyone whose own song sounds vaguely similar. \u201cUptown Funk got a new writer every week! It\u2019s a strange place we\u2019re in.\u201d Then there\u2019s the emergence of investment funds such as Hipgnosis, which snap up song catalogues for eye-popping sums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I would never do,\u201d<\/em> she says with finality. \u201cIf they\u2019re paying you 20 times what your catalogue is worth, I could see why people would do it, especially if they need the money. I don\u2019t need the money. This is my soul and my soul wouldn\u2019t be for sale at any price.\u201d Could someone feasibly live off the proceeds of just one of her songs? She pauses. \u201cProbably. You could live pretty good on How Do I Live. It depends on how you live, right?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren finds the process of marketing songs these days a drag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cTo me it\u2019s like, \u2018This is a great song, let\u2019s get it on the radio!\u2019 But it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, no, you have to build a story.\u2019 Fuck that. If the Beatles or Prince existed now, I have no idea how that would have worked. They would have had to do TikTok campaigns and if that didn\u2019t work,<\/em> the label wouldn\u2019t push their music. Who the fuck knows? But it still comes down to an undeniable song. I still believe that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m guessing that interviews aren\u2019t her favourite activity either. I can sense her itching to get back to the Cave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been about showing up and fucking working,\u201d<\/em> she says. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to have dreams and aspirations, but without the work it doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world\u2019s most successful female songwriter bids me an efficient farewell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNice meeting you. More coffee!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The prime source for this article was a piece written by Dorian Lynskey, for the Guardian<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our occasional re-postings Sidetracks And Detours are confident that we are not only sharing with our readers excellent articles written by experts but are also pointing to informed and informative sites readers will re-visit time and again. Of course, we feel sure our readers will also return to our daily not-for-profit blog knowing that we seek to provide core original material whilst sometimes spotlighting the best pieces from elsewhere, as we engage with genres and practitioners along all the sidetracks & detours we take.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was collated by Norman Warwick, a weekly columnist with Lanzarote Information and owner and editor of this daily blog at Sidetracks And Detours.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman has also been a long serving broadcaster, co-presenting the weekly all across the arts programme on Crescent Community Radio for many years with Steve, and his own show on Sherwood Community Radio and regulalyr guested on BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Lancashire, BBC Radio Merseyside and BBC Radio 4.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a published author and poet he was a founder member of Lendanear Music, with Colin Lever and Just Poets with Pam McKee, Touchstones Creative Writing Group (where he was creative writing facilitator for a number of years) with Val Chadwick and all across the arts with Robin Parker.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Monday to Friday,<\/strong> you will find a daily post here at Sidetracks And Detours and, should you be looking for good reading, over the weekend you can visit our massive but easy to navigate archives of over 500 articles.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The purpose of this daily not-for-profit blog is to deliver news, previews, interviews and reviews from all across the arts to die-hard fans and non- traditional audiences around the world. We are therefore always delighted to receive your own articles here at Sidetracks And Detours. So if you have a favourite artist, event, or venue that you would like to tell us more about just drop a Word document attachment to me at <\/strong>normanwarwick55@gmail.com<\/strong><\/a> with a couple of appropriate photographs in a zip folder if you wish. Beiung a not-for-profit organisation we unfortunately cannot pay you but we will always fully attribute any pieces we publish. You therefore might also. like to include a brief autobiography and photograph of yourself<\/strong> in your submission. We look forward to hearing from you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sidetracks And Detours is seeking to join the synergy of organisations that support the arts of whatever genre. We are therefore grateful to all those share information to reach as wide and diverse an audience as possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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songfacts                                           en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/SongFacts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTo me it\u2019s like, \u2018This is a great song, let\u2019s get it on the radio!\u2019 But it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, no, you have to build a story.\u2019 Fuck that. If the Beatles or Prince existed now, I have no idea how that would have worked. They would have had to do TikTok campaigns and if that didn\u2019t work, the label wouldn\u2019t push their music. Who the fuck knows? But it still comes down to an undeniable song. I still believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8842"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8852,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8842\/revisions\/8852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}