{"id":148815,"date":"2011-06-22T14:37:42","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T14:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socancom100stg.wpenginepowered.com\/how-thomas-tawgs-salter-became-a-professional-songwriter\/"},"modified":"2011-06-22T14:37:42","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T14:37:42","slug":"how-thomas-tawgs-salter-became-a-professional-songwriter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/how-thomas-tawgs-salter-became-a-professional-songwriter\/","title":{"rendered":"How Thomas \u00ab\u00a0Tawgs\u201d Salter became a professional songwriter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les traductions pour les articles avant l\u2019automne 2013 ne sont pas disponibles pour le moment.<\/b><\/p>\n

Thomas \u201cTawgs\u201d Salter still gets goosebumps every time he writes a song.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there’s anything better than writing a song, recording it, listening to it, and seeing people reacting to your idea,\u201d he says. \u201cYou write a song and hopefully you transfer the emotions from your songs. Whether it’s a dance song, or an introspective look inside, good songs transfer emotion from the speaker to the listener.\u201d

Whether it’s a dance song, or an introspective look inside, good songs transfer emotion from the speaker to the listener.\u201d<\/div>\n

Salter started dabbling in the songwriting when he was 16, though he admits these first attempts weren\u2019t very good. It wasn\u2019t until 1999, at age 23, that he wrote the song that first got him noticed. He was signed to the record label Sony Music Canada with his band Dunk, but didn\u2019t have a publishing deal. The band never took off commercially, and Salter’s wife was then pregnant, so he thought he needed a publishing deal to achieve some financial stability. He got a $1,800 loan from his mother-in-law, bought a computer, and wrote the song \u201cSilver Lining.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was strong enough to impress Gary Furniss, president of Sony ATV Music Publishing Canada<\/b>, who asked Salter to join his team of songwriters. Twelve years later, Salter’s still working with Furniss and vice-president David Quilico, and still enthused about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey allowed me to continue songwriting,\u201d he says. \u201cEven in the lean times, when I didn\u2019t have much coming in, I didn\u2019t have to go out and get a normal day job. They allowed me to turn into a songwriter and let my ideas blossom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Salter germinates his ideas at his home studio in Ridgeway, Ontario, working up to 16 hours a day. In return, he’s had some songs placed with some major-league artists, having written for everyone from Lights<\/b> to Colin James<\/b> to Josh Groban. It was the song \u201cYou are Loved (Don\u2019t Give Up)\u201d \u2013 which he wrote for Groban\u2019s Awake<\/i> album\u00a0 in 2006 \u2013 that gave him his biggest break (and a big challenge).<\/p>\n

\u201cMy publisher had heard Josh was looking for songs,\u201d Salter recalls. \u201cI’d written a string of songs years before that. In a one-week period, I wrote about 10 songs. One, \u2018You are Loved,\u2019 they decided to submit. I didn\u2019t think anything would happen. But out of 175 songs, they called me back, said they loved it, but they wanted rewrites.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time I had, like, $1,000 in the bank, two kids, and it was a crazy time,\u201d he says. \u201cI worked for two months straight and rewrote the song three times. I remember getting off the phone with the A&R person and she said it needs a melody that is more classical \u2013 When writing for an artist like that, you need to think about the lyrics with nice open vowel sounds for big, long notes. As soon as I hung up the phone, I had the verse melody in my head. I spent a lot of time working on the lyrics and most of it came out. It really opened a lot of doors for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Track Record<\/b><\/p>\n