Former Xenomania songwriter Carla-Marie Williams (most recent co-writes: Mini Viva's "One Touch" and "Left My Heart In Tokyo", Sarah Harding's "Too Bad") was the tutor in a workshop about songwriting. There's a video on YouTube with a bit of footage from the workshop:
Important things you'll learn from the video:
Having less vocal ability allows you to focus on the song: "it's not about the sound, it's about the feel of the song".
There are no rules in songwriting, but the milkman and the housewife need to be able to whistle the tunes.
For the whole two and a half years that she was at Xenomania she would write nearly every day.
The important thing is having motivation - once you see that your name is on the records you just keep going.
The latest issue of Flavour Magazine has an interview with Carla-Marie Williams, formerly one of the three top-line songwriters at Xenomania. Over the past 18 months, she has achieved five top 10 hits, including BRIT-award-winning number one single "The Promise".
Carla-Marie also contributed with guest vocals on Crookers' "Put Your Hands On Me" and sang with Neil Tennant on Pet Shop Boys' "The way it used to be".
She has now set up a joint venture production/management company called Big Mouth Entertainment, with Richard Griffiths and Harry Magee. They are currently launching a new girl group named Ruff Diamondz (RD).
In the interview, Carla-Marie talks about songwriting, the Xenomania system and more. A few quotes from the interview:
«At Xenomania we do it differently compared to probably everyone else within the industry. The idea of it is that every part of the song has to be a hook. Whereas other people build into hooks, we take the best of everyone's different melodies and make the strongest song. For me what makes a good song is if you can pick up its melody straight away, and also having a great concept.»
«I write a lot in my sleep. I wake up and I've got my Dictaphone by me at all times. My brain doesn't stop - it just keeps going - so I'll wake up and record melodies. Naturally, I'm quite an emotional person, so a lot of the songs I've written prior to being at Xenomania were emotion-led.»
«I want young people to know that you can still be cool and maintain "being black"... I mean, people didn't expect someone like me to write for Girls Aloud. So I'd like to inspire others to show them it's all about how you conduct yourself. You don't have to change.»
«I was prepared at 26, I wasn't prepared at 20. If I wasn't prepared in terms of the experience that I've had of all those years of trying to write songs, I probably wouldn't have got through the doors. It's also about building relationships. I'm quite a strong person and quite direct. I don't do that two-faced thing.... (...) «Pitching songs is probably one of the hardest things to do, so if you can try and put together your own product - as in artists, or work with them directly, this will be a vehicle for your songs.»
List of Xenomania songs co-written by Carla-Marie Williams:
Girls Aloud: Can't Speak French, Fix Me Up, Fling, Love Is Pain, Revolution In The Head, Rolling Back The Rivers, Sexy! No No No..., The Promise
Alesha Dixon: Cinderella Shoe, Cos Of You, The Boy Does Nothing
Alex Gardner and his guitarist Tommy are on the road on a radio tour. They are going to be on the road until next Monday and going through Manchester, Stockport, Birmingham and Liverpool (stations include The Pulse, Rock FM, Wish FM, Key 103, Real Radio North West, Juice 107.6, Imagine FM, Radio City in Liverpool, Signal One and BRMB in Birmingham).
A girl auditioned on American Idol with "Something Kinda Ooooh" by Girls Aloud. After she finished singing, Simon Cowell said, sarcastically, «One of the most meaningful lyrics ever written», to which fellow judge Victoria "Posh" Beckham replied: «Better than zigazig-ah?». Watch the audition video here. At one point you can even see Cowell singing along to the lyrics ("ooh").
The lovely Florrie Arnold (drummer in Xenomania's house band JFK + singer + songwriter, etc.) has set up a website. Soon you'll be able to watch videos with drumming lessons from Florrie. For now there's a few pictures and funny out-takes and bloopers filmed by Xenomania's sound engineer Toby Scott. You can also find Florrie on Facebook and YouTube.
Fred Falke said in an interview that he really enjoys collaborating with Xenomania: «I really enjoy my time spent with at Xenomania, a writer and production team based in Kent, England. I get to work in a team of brilliant people, with them for Mini Viva recently was a wonderful experience.»
Former Xenomania singer/songwriter Carla Marie Williams has set up a joint venture production/management company called BigMouthEntertainment. They are about to launch their first act, a new female collective called RD (aka Ruff Diamondz). With Xenomania, Carla-Marie co-wrote several Girls Aloud songs (including "The Promise" and "Sexy! No No No..."), Alesha Dixon's "The Boy Does Nothing", Mini Viva's "Left My Heart In Tokyo", Sarah Harding's "Too Bad" and many others. She also sang with Neil Tennant on Pet Shop Boys' "The way it used to be".
Mini Viva will be DJing at two upcoming nights in the UK: The Nightingale in Birmingham on 13th March and a TBC venue in Leicester on 22nd February. Keep checking their MySpace for the confirmed Leicester venue.
Gabriella Cilmi's "Hearts Don't Lie", the only Xenomania-produced track on her new album, has leaked in full. The Beat Review has reviewed the song: «It kind of redeemed her identity back after that gruesome 'On A Mission' (...). 'Hearts Don't Lie' doesn't escape the 1980's sound Gabby's trying to achieve. Although it doesn't sound anything like 'On A Mission', 'HDL' is more of a soul-dance-jazz fusion.»
Girls Aloud's "The Promise" is nominated for "Best BRITs performance from the last 30 years". You can vote here.
"Jump Off" by the Banned of St. Trinian's has been remixed by Almighty. Click here to listen to the previews and buy the remixes. "Jump Off" is one of the eight Xenomania tracks on the St. Trinian's II soundtrack.
NiteVisions are beingtipped as "ones to watch" for 2010. Here's what CityLife says about them:
«Calling NiteVisions ‘the Duran Duran Juniors’ isn’t merely an aesthetic and musical comparison – for members Andy and James Taylor are the sons of (respectively) New Romantics Andy and Roger Taylor. In their former guise as The Electric City, they even had Simon Le Bon’s nephew on drums. With sharp suits, a great look and killer hooks, stardom seems to have been hardwired into the pair’s DNA: you can’t help but think they came out of the womb holding hairspray and pouting (possibly thinking: ‘This is like the Girls On Film video’).
«Britain’s premier hit-factory Xenomania (Girls Aloud, Mini Viva) are currently helping the duo straddle the shiny high-wire of genius pop: the retro-nouveau disco-pop of Fire, for instance, blitzes forth like a more high-energy Cut Copy, and is so ridiculously danceable, it makes you wonder if at Xenomania’s Kent HQ, they’re putting amyl nitrate into their Glade Plug-Ins. Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos has declared himself a fan. You will be too.»
•Carla Marie Williams appears on Crookers' new single "Put Your Hands On Me". Carla-Marie is a Xenomania songwriter - she has co-written songs for Girls Aloud and Alesha Dixon and sings on Pet Shop Boys' "The Way It Used To Be".
She contributes with guest vocals on Crookers' "Put Your Hands On Me", along with rapper Kardinal Offishall. The single will be released on October 5th, on Southern Fried Records - you can listen to a clip of the song here.
"Put Your Hands On Me" is the first single to be taken from Crookers' debut album Tons Of Friends, out in January 2010. Other collaborators on the album include Kelis, Soulwax, Major Lazer, RadioClit, Spank Rock, Pitbull, Tim Burgess and Róisín Murphy.
• Xenomania collaborator Fred Falke has been putting out another series of highly-acclaimed remixes. Falke's remixes are being praised for being breezy, soaring and dancefloor-ready, sounding a whole lot better than their original form.
Falke has recently remixed songs from Mike Snow, La Roux, Example and Miami Horror. He has also released a solo EP titled Chicago - you can buy it on Beatport.
• Sacha Collison's latest project is out now. The Unclubbed album is a collection of stripped back, acoustic covers of classic house tracks.
The album features covers of hits like Moloko's "Sing It Back", Deee-Lite’s "Groove Is In The Heart", "Missing" by Everything But The Girl, "You Don't Know Me" by Armand Van Helden, iiO's "Rapture", and many more. The songs are re-sung, rearranged and reinvented, performed by vocalists such as Katherine Ellis, Abigail Bailey, Rosie Gaines, Roachford, Sam Obernik, Sweet Female Attitude and more.
Unclubbed includes 14 covers, a few original interludes and a version of Sacha Collisson's own track "Mezmerized". You can stream the album here.
Xenomania is a songwriting and production house based in Kent, England. It was founded by songwriter and producer Brian Higgins.
Since 1996, Xenomania have written, produced and remixed tracks for a string of successful artists including Girls Aloud, Pet Shop Boys, Sugababes, Dannii and Kylie Minogue, Saint Etienne, Cher, Gabriella Cilmi and many others.
