Name: HARDY’s Advice to Young Songwriters
Uploaded: 2023-03-22T16:30:37.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'HARDY’s Advice to Young Songwriters' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-03-22. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'HARDY’s Advice to Young Songwriters' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-03-22. Transcript available.

I moved to town to be a songwriter. My goal was to write hits for people. I was
not a very good
student, but I excelled randomly in writing. I always had a really good knack
for it, whether
it was like essay, you know, like short stories, whatever you had to write in
school. And I just
had a knack for it and I was obsessed with it. Like knowing that I had the
ability to create a
story or make something up or say something in writing was always like really
important to me
for whatever reason. And now I know why, like that was just like, that was the
gift that
God gave me, I guess was my interest in writing or whatever. And, um, but so I,
I, that's,
it was always writing. And then, um, the record, like the, the artist thing,
you know, people
say doing the artist thing that came around the time, like Morgan's up down was
a hit like
that, cause that was my first number one as a writer and it was his first
number one as
an artist. And he was at big loud and I was writing other songs for other
people at big
loud. And that's when they kind of came to me and they were just like, if, you
know,
do you want to do the artist thing? If your shit like pops off, like it, that
your life
changes, you, you understand. I mean, like your life changes forever. And, and
I just didn't
know, like I had an offer on the table and I sat with it for months cause I
didn't know
if I wanted to, to do it. I was, I'd had some success as a writer and I was
like, man,
you get to go write a song and then go play golf every day or something. And,
and, uh, I just got
done reading the alchemist and that book, it talks about opportunities and omens
and stuff like
that a lot. And, and, and so I had that in my head cause it, they kept kind of
getting brought up
of like, you know, like, are you gonna sign this record deal and blah, blah,
blah. And then I finally
just said, I'm going to do it cause I didn't want to regret it later. You know,
having turned it
down or whatever.
I think it's awesome that you, that you did choose that. I mean, you know, like
Mississippi
has a lot of great writers, you know, I mean, over time, some of the greatest
writers are
from Mississippi and, um, yeah. Eudora Welty, I think she's from Mississippi,
right?
Yeah, I think so. Um, dude. And then you've got Elvis. Oh yeah. Robert Johnson,
who arguably
created rock and roll with the blues. Both my parents went to state. We're a
Mississippi state
family, but I moved to Nashville when I was 19. I went to one semester at a
junior college
called East central community college in Decatur, Mississippi, but, uh, no, I
didn't go to state.
I actually went to, uh, middle Tennessee down here in Murfreesboro. And you got
your degree
from there eventually? Yeah, I did. Yeah. Commercial songwriting. Dang. Really?
Yeah. So you just
went and took a class on it. Yeah. I mean, it's like a poor man's Belmont, you
know what I mean?
Yeah. Um, like all the kids, all the belt, the kids that didn't get into Belmont,
which is
like, you know, the big music, I mean, literally sits at the end of music row
down here. Um, but yeah,
I mean, and the songwriting class was like, whatever. And I've said this before
and I feel
kind of uncomfortable because I know there's people watching it probably that
go to MTSU
there, but like when I was there, it was like, there was no filter. So it was
like a bunch
of people that just weren't very good. And so like, it was like, okay, today we're
going
to learn about writing a verse and it's, there's gotta be structure and each
line has to rhyme.
It's just stuff that like most people knew, but there were a couple of kids in
there that
like got it. You know what I mean? Like you were, you like, you had to play a
song you wrote
every week and they'd critique it and talk about it and this and that and the
other.
Yeah. And, and there was some people in there were horrible and, but there were
some kids
in there that were really good, but you could tell like, that was what I took
away was like
the people that had it, had it, but you can't like learn it. Like you can't, in
my opinion,
like, I don't know if you could like say, man, I owe all of my songwriting
success to the
songwriting class at MTSU. Cause it's like songwriters, it's like any other
form of writing.
It's like everybody has that weird internal voice and that's how they write and
stuff. And I feel
like people are just born with that. Yeah. I think you can hone things and you
can like fine
tune them. You can whittle them. Right. You know, you could put a little bit of,
you know,
you could put something in a cross, you know, you could put a icing on
something,
but you got to have something. You got to have the natural kind of thing, I
think. But I learned
a lot about the industry there and like record deals and publishing. I mean, I
learned a ton about
all that stuff and like even recording studio stuff. Like I got all of that,
all of that stuff from
MTSU. Yeah. And then the first time you hear those things in business, it's not
the first time
you've ever heard them. You and Lainey wrote Wait in the Truck. No. So I, so
she, she did not,
she did not write it. Okay. Yes. So you write the song with other writers.
Right. Okay. Yep. Um,
just it's like going to work and you just, you know, go in a room and throw out
your ideas and
sit around and write a song. Now say you walk in a room, right. And you see the
other writers in
there. Is there sometimes you're like, all right, I'm gonna put a certain ideas
and sometimes I'm
keeping some in. Totally. Ooh. Yeah. Oh dude. Like if you're, this is like, if
you have a
like balling ass, bad-ass idea, like I'll sit on that until I know I'm in a
room,
because if you throw it out, especially in Nashville, like LA, it can be a
little greasier
where like people will take back ideas, but you just don't do that really in
Nashville. And like,
like, uh, it's not as dog eat dog. Let's just put it that way as it is in LA.
And
but like, I'll wait until I'm with some of my buddies or people that will
completely grasp a cool
idea. So, you know, you're going to nail it. Cause I've made the mistake of
throwing out a really good
title with some people that could, that just couldn't latch onto it as well as
maybe other
people could. And you just kind of ruin the idea. And then you can't really
write it again, or you're
an asshole. Right. Because then other people are attached to it and that sort
of thing.
Right. And you get, then, then that's when like, you'll, you know, then if you
did write it 10 years
later, then you got to add these people because they were there when, you know,
and they're like,
well, I said that line and you use that in this song too. But yeah, there's
definitely times like
wait in the trucks, a perfect example. So Hunter Phelps is like one of my best
friends. And I wrote
that with him and Jordan Schmidt, who's also one of my best friends. You know,
I'm pointing that way
because Jordan lives right down the road. Okay. Um, and Hunter and I kind of
came up with that idea
together and we knew Jordan was a really incredible writer and that that was
the time to bring that idea
out and write it with somebody. Definitely. That's wild, man. That's cool. Yeah.
It's interesting.
Cause I guess in the beginning you might go in and just put all your eggs out
there
and the other two people, one of them shows up hung over. One of them, you know,
is pre,
you know, not pre, it could be, they just found out they're pregnant. Right. So
the day is
fucking ruined. Yeah. Exactly. Uh, and then you're like, damn, man, you just
don't get it to fruition.
Yeah. And it, dude, it, it breaks my heart when I have a great idea and that
you kind of ruin it.
Cause then you're just like, fuck, I just missed out on like $200,000 because I
had a hit idea and
I just ruined it on, on these people. It happens, dude. And you still kind of
beat yourself up about
it and like this and that. Some people even go home and completely rewrite the
idea and make it better
and be like, send it back to the people you wrote it with. And you're like, I
like this. You guys can
be on the song, but I read completely rewrote the song or whatever. Does that
happen sometimes where
somebody will write it to other people were in the room and they get a part of
the credit and that's that.
Yeah. The, the rule in Nashville is drop a word or say a word, take a third,
you know,
like it doesn't matter if you're having a bad day and that there's like, it
always evens itself out.
Cause like you go into a room with two other people and one of the guys sits
over there and doesn't
say a word, he's still on the song. He still has a third of the song.
Like tricking boo wordly over there. Yeah. Radley. Yeah. Like, uh, sitting over
there,
like fucking, I don't, just not saying a damn word, just staring at his phone
or something.
But then there's times where you might not be on your a game and somebody else,
two of the other guys are guys or girls are killing it. And yeah, you know, you,
it's just like a Nashville rule. I know in LA, like they have lawyers and
people like sitting in on
rights, like paying attention to who said what. And then they like get in and
they try to like
negotiate who contributed the most. And that's like the percentage they get
that hasn't made it
here yet. I hope it doesn't miss. Sounds stressful. Oh, it ruins everything. LA
will ruin anything.
Please keep writing and making cool music, man. Hope you enjoyed that video and
you can watch another
and you can watch this one. You can watch this one, different options,
different choices. Some guy just
brings you a one option, not this guy, two options. Watch one, this one or this
one.
And I'll see you next time. I'll see you next time. I'll see you next time. I'll
see you next time.