Q&A: SongHubs’ curator Simon Lewicki on APRA’s new EDM focus

This year, APRA AMCOS’ SongHubs initiative will have a new focus: electronic dance music. Taking place in LA this week, the songwriting program boasts a huge calibre of dance music pioneers including The Aston Shuffle, Yolanda Be Cool, Static Revenger and Kilter.

Curated by dance music veteran Simon Lewicki (aka noughties’ house sensation Groove Terminator), the event is sure to inspire collaborations and spawn a new collection of dance releases. TMN speaks to the multi-ARIA award nominated DJ on his hopes and plans for SongHubs, and his personal take on the Australian dance music scene.

How did you land the role of curator for SongHubs, and how did the discussions come about?

I was approached to become an ambassador last year, and the conversation started simultaneously about APRA wanting to be more involved in the electronic music community and me being sort of an ‘elder statesman’ of the scene. SongHubs has been going really strong for the last couple of years and it’s just getting more of an electronic focus, basically. And because it’s such a new thing, when I first started having the conversations with artists wanting to be involved, everyone was like “it’s a what?’ Where?” – cause everyone’s already writing or touring all the time anyway. But to put an official ‘thing’ on it, it’s very special. It hasn’t really happened before, ever.

Why the focus on ‘EDM’, then?

I actually hate that word. But it’s my forte – it’s what I live and breathe for – and it’s what they feel like to have a focus on. They’ve a had a couple of pop ones, Nashville one […] in the electronic scene, [Australians] are really on our own playing field and on our own level worldwide in the scene. We’ve got some amazing electronic artists doing so well internationally and it’s just a really nice way of going “hey, we’re actually doing some really amazing stuff’.” Part of the manifesto of SongHubs is to connect with international writers, and with Los Angeles being the ground zero for music – it seems like every DJ lives there – it’s a good place to do it.

What can artists expect from you, as curator?

I think the idea is to trust in me to have a really good idea of each particular artist’s skill sets, and knowing that I’ll get some really good combinations. Coming from the profit side of things – being an artist myself and being a publisher – I want results. People are taking time out – especially during the northern hemisphere summer touring schedule – to spend a day at the studio writing. I want them to have a record at the end of the day that they can release. So that’s my agenda – to make sure they’ll be working with people that they’ll get really good results with, and with people they would not necessarily have thought they’d work with before.

How do you plan to kick things off?

It’s a very secretive thing, I’m not allowed to share it with anyone – but I kind of put together all the combinations, 18-20 people. There are a couple of last minute additions that might jump in at the end, a couple of American writers. But that’s part of my job – to get those magic combinations happening.

A lot of electronic music has moved towards the pop structure for radio accessibility – is that what SongHubs will aim for?

Yeah, I guess. I mean, we’re going to be working with singers and songwriters, and then you’ve got more producer-artists such as the Aston Shuffle and Hook n Sling, and people like that. I don’t think any of those guys aim to be on the radio. They want tracks they can play in their sets, but they want ones that optimise the possibility of going into radio because that means more gigs, and selling records. But I don’t think anyone – or at least, I don’t know anyone – who sits down and goes, ‘I’m making this record deliberately to get on radio’.

Really? No one does that?

I mean, there are records that you hear and go, “that’s going to work on radio.” But I think if you sit down wearing your song writing hat, and go in with that mindset – it’s usually going to come out as a piece of crap. You just gotta write with your gut and go with what feels good at the time.

The songs created during SongHubs – will they be made available for the public to hear?

Yes. It’s such a fluid thing that happens. The collaborations and the connections that happen during Songhub – there’s things done two years ago which are just coming out now. It’s different in that world because when you’re writing a song, you give it to a publisher, they pitch it to an artist and the album may not come out for two years. What’s been different with this – and I specifically worked it this way – is that pretty much every artist has a record deal or an avenue to release records straight away.

Apart from being established in the dance music scene, what were some of the other criteria you considered when handpicking artists for SongHubs?

It’s also people that have not necessarily collaborated with other people and I think would really flourish in that situation. There are one or two people I just really wanted to see work together, and then there’s the sheer level of talent on this particular group that’s absolutely astonishing. I really am excited to be hearing what’s happening and to be in the studio, peeking into all the rooms and listening in – it’s going to be great. I think there’s one or two people that need a helping hand to mix it up a bit more, and there’s other people who need to be given their time to shine. And there are some other people in the program who are just absolute guns and they can smash every session they’re in.

Do you know any of these artists personally? Do they know each other?

There’s a bit of that. Everyone hangs out at festivals. There are only a couple of people who don’t know each other. A majority I’m either friends with or got records with. It’s just the nature of the industry – we’ll collaborate and work together a lot and some of these people I go back years and years with. I’m quite old and I’ve been doing this for a long time, and also with my day job as a publisher I’m working with people all the time. But just looking at the list, it’s great – I can see so many smash records coming out of this.

Other than smash records, what do you hope that SongHubs will achieve?

Ideally, for these people to keep in touch, keep collaborating and to grow their network. I think you’d want to keep pushing yourself as an artist and I think the whole idea is, the minute you stop doing that is the minute you stop evolving as an artist. There’s a whole thing about sitting in a room with another producer – everyone’s got their particular way of working. And that’s the great thing about collaborating – you’re always picking up great tricks off someone else.

What do you hope that you yourself might take away from this experience?

I didn’t actually put myself down in any of the sessions. I don’t think I’m allowed to – I might sneakily steal someone and do a bit of writing on the side [laughs]. For myself, I think the process as a whole has been a really interesting one. I really enjoyed it and I definitely want to keep doing this. Having now been through this process, I think we’d be looking to do other similar things like this in Australia as well… I think there might be one at the end of the year. This sort of thing is really special, and I feel like there needs to be more of these in the future.