The Life And Times Of A Producer 1

More than once bitten, forever shy

This morning I was alerted by a fellow editor that a submission I had edited and published some time ago was not an original piece of work. A subheading was added by my colleague indicating who the true author was. And this situation set my mind thinking back to a time not too many years ago when a certain young lady attempted to effectively steal a piece of my work by publishing it in her name. Here is the story of what happened.

I was teaching the father of a young girl who I shall call Victoria. Victoria's father, Daemon, asked me to teach English and piano to Victoria. Soon after we started classes I realised that Victoria had quite a good singing voice and a great sense of rhythm.

At about the same time I was working with a very well known producer who had produced some of the biggest names in pop music over the past thirty years. Jimi Hendrix, Bon Jovi, Ramones, Talking Heads, Frank Valli, Gloria Gaynor, Englebert Humperdink.....the list goes on and on.

We decided to give Victoria a shot at the big time. Lance, the producer, and I co-wrote a great song and set about recording it for Victoria to sing. A great many hours and days were spent recording the backing tracks between the South of Spain and Florida in the USA.

Eventually we got Victoria to do her part. I have to say the whole production was a great job, one I am very proud of to this day. However, the song never came out due not only Victoria and her father's attitude, but also due to problems with a replacement singer's father.

People in the music industry get a bad name, but let me tell you, the worst of the lot are precocious wannabe artists and their pushy parents. First off, we decided to make a video of Victoria to go with the song. In the middle of the shoot Victoria's father turned up to give her a good telling off for being home late the night before. Thankfully we got past it and resumed shooting the video.

The next problem was that Victoria's father demanded to know the contact details of the solicitor I had used to draw up a contract between me and Victoria. I suspected Daemon was up to no good from the start, and he didn't disappoint.

The next thing I hear is that Daemon went to see my solicitor and demanded that the contract be between me and him, not his daughter Victoria! He told my solicitor that that was what I had personally agreed with him, which was a total fabrication. Of course, I refused to play along with this. There was no way I was going to contract this arrogant fool as a singer and leave me and Lance unprotected in terms of our investment in Victoria. Again, we got past this bump in the road.

The next thing was that Victoria asked for a copy of the almost finished song solely for her own pleasure. Lance and I agreed on the understanding that it must not be posted anywhere in public as this might compromise our work. Victoria and her father agreed.

Less than a week later I got an email from Victoria with a link to Youtube. One click and there was a home made video of Victoria prancing about on her father's balcony with the as yet unfinished song playing along to her jiving and miming. I went ballistic.

I called Daemon and demanded the video be taken down immediately asking him who the hell he thought he was. Daemon accused me of over-reacting but did as I bid. Again, we got over it.

In the fullness of time the song was mastered and we gave Victoria permission to put the video back up on Youtube. It did well in garnering a great deal of attention, and this gave Lance and I the confidence to go further and record two more songs with Victoria.

Unfortunately, that little bit of Youtube success went to Victoria's head and she demanded a very large sum of money before she would do any more recording. Having already invested thousands of pounds in production, and about to lay out double the amount in further production costs, and not yet having seen a penny in return, Lance and I refused point blank. That was the end of that, but not quite.

I told Victoria I had no further interest in her and to please remove the video with our song from Youtube. Victoria dug her heels in and refused stating "It's my song, I sang it and published it. I am not taking it down."

I threatened Victoria and her father with some pretty heavy legal action from the USA, we were going to sue her for damages to the tune of a million dollars. Still the little madam refused insisting on her ownership of the song.

I had no other option than to contact Youtube and demand the removal of the video or we would take legal action. Youtube did as I asked and the video was removed. Victoria was not a happy bunny.

The next thing I came across was a highly defamatory and insulting post about me on Facebook. Again, I asked Victoria to remove the offending material or face legal action. Happily this time she complied, albeit it reluctantly.

At a later date Lance and I re-recorded the vocal track using the daughter of a lifelong friend of mine. Unfortunately, during the recording of my own third album (Lost and Found) this so called friend started to make demands for credits on my album that he was not entitled to. This lead to a permanent fall out and so once again, the song we did with Victoria, and then this friend's daughter, suffered a fate of never seeing the light of day.

It is my hope that one day we can get that song out, even if its style becomes outdated. It may never have gone anywhere anyway, but it was still a labour of love that more than deserves to be heard.

This story is one of three or four I will be recounting over the next day or so as a warning to others who hear the call of being a producer to new young talent. It is just not worth it. If there is one thing I do not need in my life it is arsey kids with pushy parents. Of course, much of it was my own fault, I should have pulled the plug a lot sooner. You live and learn, I guess.