Blog Me Maybe
Much to the chagrin of most of those around me, I am going to write a blog. I think they are chagrinned because I have demonstrated a talent in the past for putting my foot squarely in my mouth on social media! But that is why I am going to use a blog when it comes to certain topics. The only social media I use it Twitter. It is great for my ADHD brain. Quick sharp short bursts of language sent from brain to the net in a matter of seconds. Think it. Tweet it. It is not a reflective forum, but when it comes to certain topics, it is nice to be able to stretch out and present a story or argument in a more thoughtful way than can be adequately expressed in 280 characters. It is hard to present the full context of complicated ideas in 280 characters or less. So I will blog when the impulse strikes, which it has now done.
Today is the 10th anniversary of the Carly Rae Jepsen international smash Call Me Maybe. All the good things, bad things and other things that flowed from the release of that song were set into motion 10 years ago today! it is a song that changed lives, created relationships, destroyed relationships, made fortunes, and ultimately made history. It generated and continues to generate an insane amount of money. I have been lucky in my career to have been involved with many big hits. But this one topped them all, in terms of everything from money to radio, to sales, to award nominations and award wins.
For those on the outside, Carly seemed like an overnight success who didn’t exist before Call Me Maybe. Understandable when a song makes someone who was basically unknown outside of Canada – and known but not a superstar in Canada – into a household name across the planet. Call Me Maybe was the culmination of a lot of work and effort, by Carly and by those around her, but it was not Carly’s first success. It wasn’t even her first hit song! But let’s start at the start.
My first meeting with Carly would have been in late 2007, after the completion of her stint on Canadian Idol Season 5. I remember going into my first meeting with Carly with a very cynical attitude. The only thing I knew about her is that she had come in 3rd on Canadian Idol, and the truth is the Idol series is something I considered a negative. I was turned off by the artists I was aware of who came out of that show. Canadian Idol contestants seemed like talent-challenged desperados. I know that is not fair, and clearly it is not always true, but any time I encountered an artist who had been on the show, I assumed the art would be shitty. But more relevant to this story, I assumed an Idol contestant would not have any strength as a writer. And I have always been drawn to writers, for many reasons. Successful writers have great financial upside than non-writers, certainly, but it is more than that for me. It was also a function of my own personal musical tastes. I have always loved artists that write their own music because it really gives one the feeling that you somehow know that artist. The songs are a map to their psyche, a puzzle to be figured out. I learned later in life that there is a very big difference between the art, and the artist that creates the art. I’ll save that for another blog. But still….the thought that someone with some thought and effort can create intellectual property that affects people so deeply is profound to me. And the power that one song has to change people’s lives is very real. I am always fascinated about the story behind a song. Plus, a writer can write his or her way out of a jam! So that was, and is, my bias.
The first time I met Carly, it was with the guy I originally co-managed her with, as well as with Carly’s father. My immediate impression upon first seeing her was that she was shockingly beautiful, but not in a typical way. She would have been 22 or 23 then, but had I not known that I would have assumed she was much younger. There was a childlike innocence to her appearance. But as soon as we started to talk, it became apparent immediately that there was much more to her. She was charming, funny, self-effacing, energetic, intelligent. But also scattered. Not in a bad way. She had a million ideas about what she wanted to do with her career and she was all over the place as she tried to convey those ideas . That meeting was a long time ago, but that’s how I remember it today. She was like a frenetic musical pixie! So she was impressive personality wise. But I have always been about songs first, so I was not fully sold.
At some point during the meeting I asked if she did any writing. She very enthusiastically said yes and said that she had a CD with a bunch of her writing demos that she would be happy to drop off. And that’s what she did, the very next day as I recall. I think I actually still have that demo somewhere, but having not heard it in more than a decade, my recollection may not be 100%. What I recall is that it had some of the songs that ended up being on her first album, Tug Of War. Or at least some of the ideas that ended up in songs on that album. But what I definitely remember was that I was super impressed with the writing. I wasn’t expecting that, due to my own anti-Idol bias. But the songwriting was very strong. The lyrics in particular struck me at the time. Carly is an artist who has always had an ability to masterfully dissect adult relationships in her lyrics: the contradictions, the pleasures, the anguish, the guilt. She dissects relationships in a song the way scientists dissect frogs for research – with the precision of a surgeon. That is what struck me then, as it still does to this day: her ability to deconstruct the mechanics of relationships. To my ears, she was an artist who could be a modern day Carly Simon. Someone who music was very adult in theme, but could also reside in the Pop Top 40. Aspiring to that was something Carly and I discussed often. Defending her as a writer (as opposed to a “pop star”) was a recurring theme throughout the time I managed her. I already thought she was great and marketable, but the songs are what convinced me beyond a reasonable doubt that I needed to work with her. And that is where the journey began.
Next up…..Tug Of War and Canadian success.