I am Stuck on Bandaid and Bandaid’s Stuck on Me

I am stuck on Bandaid and Bandaid’s stuck on me! Remember that one?

This week’s challenge is from Heather Gardner, Music Supervisor at Vapor Music. She is asking for a 60 second piece for an advertising campaign that captures the spirit of a child.

Heather writes that “Writing a song specifically for advertising is a unique beast — a songwriter needs to find the delicate balance between being authentic, but yet appealing to a variety of demographics, musical tastes and, ultimately, products to sell.”

The creative brief is as follows:

Creative Brief:

The spot features a child so we’re looking for something child-like, light and playful, fun, capturing the moment and that captures the spirit of a child. However, we don’t want to be emotional or heart-stringy — we’re looking for something that’s purely fun. You can definitely be somewhat quirky, while appealing to a mainstream TV audience.

A few references they’ve given us in terms of tone are The White Stripes’ “We Are Gonna Be Friends”, “On The Radio” by Regina Spektor, Sheryl Crow’s cover of “Sweet Child O Mine”, “Big Yellow Taxi” or “Mushaboom” by Feist. We also like something along the lines of Karen O’s tunes for ‘Where The Wild Things Are’. We’re open to different instrumentations.

Lyrics don’t have to be perfectly on spot on thematically, but speaking to childhood (in a fun way, not in a nostalgic or longing way) is great. Female or male vocals are A-OK.

The spot is 60 seconds in length, with 30 and 15 second cutdowns, so your submissions need to be at least 60 seconds long, but be able to capture the same sentiment even if only 15 seconds was being used. Including the full length track is always best as it allows the editor the maximum flexibility in hitting the right points in an ad with specific lyrics or musical moments.

Ok, I have kids. I can do this right? Not so fast chump. I search through my tid bits of music and lyrics and chat with Gordon Wong. We promise to write with each other each week. Each week we break our promises. This week we will commit.

I find co-writing tough. I don’t want to hurt feelings, mine are hurt so easily. I don’t like being wrong. My ideas are good but so are theirs. Can our ideas co-exist? Do I have the right to judge? I think I’m right. I am not.  I learn to let go. It is an exercise in life.

My band almost breaks up but disaster is averted. We will perform this Tuesday night because my band is kind and generous and what was my problem anyway???? Are you finding this cryptic? Perhaps. I mention it because we are all dealing with many things at once and sometimes we react poorly or are inattentive due to other circumstances not the ones that are immediately before us.

I listen to the week 3 songs by the other challengers. Big mistake. They are so fun and fabulous. They are so witty and wonderful. They are beautiful. I am sad for not living up to their wonder. I am even sadder for Gordon. He had such faith. I have let him down. I hope he forgives me.  He has done such a great job as my collaborator but have I done enough for him?

http://www.kathrynberry.ca

https://soundcloud.com/hook-machine/oh-i-love-you-katheryn-berrygordon-wong