im just a songwriting geek from cleveland.

PART A

i am from cleveland,
cleveland is a good city,
hard working people,
honest and simple,

but there is no city in the world farther from europe.
maybe there is technically,
but im speaking about the people and way of life.

ive always had a weird infatuation with europe and europeans.
especially france, and french girls.
i mean i saw amelie in the theaters 17 times.
not sure why it is,
my infatuation with europe,
but when you come from a place like cleveland,
its easy to fall in love with.


PART B

i am also a huge song dork.
ive always loved melodies.
people like paul mccartney and brian wilson were my heroes.

i always loved the pop of du jour,
and was outspoken about the pop craze of the 90s.
max martin is a genius.

true, i always had one foot in the indie world,
but had the other dancing and tapping in the pop world.

there is something about songs,
and songwriting that i love.
each one is a little puzzle,
a problem that has endless possible endings.

so thats what i do,
i write songs.
all the time, writing.


PART A + PART B = THE POINT OF THIS BLOG.

THE POINT OF THIS BLOG.

every year there is a competition in europe
its called the
eurovision song contest.
basically for the last 50 years,
many countries in europe have battled each other
not with bombs or tanks
but songs, and melodies.

its only open to european countries,
and the way it works is each country asks a bunch of artists or writers to submit songs.
those songs are judged until one song is picked to represent the country,
then all the final songs from all the different countries battle each other.
in front of the largest television audience in the world.

now normally,
there is no other competition that i could be less eligible for.
i mean, im from cleveland.

however,
one of my main writing partners is norwegian
boots ottestad,
and the great country of norway asked him to submit a song for consideration.
he then chose a song called
"colliding"
which he wrote with ...
you guessed it, me.

so now, in a weird twist of fate,
i might have the chance to represent the great country of norway
in the greatest song competition ever.

our song has made the final ten in norway,

funny huh,
people from scandinavia always tell me i look norwegian,
but in reality,

im just a songwriting geek from cleveland.