Ep. 91: Glen Ballard

And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan

And The Writer Is

Unknown, Music Interviews, Songwriting, Music, Songwriters, Education, Interviews, Music Creation, Artists

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2020

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

He is a six-time Grammy Award winner and one of popular music’s most accomplished producers and songwriters, whose records have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. During his diverse career, he has worked with the biggest names in music, from Barbra Streisand and Aerosmith to Dave Matthews and Katy Perry. He wrote and arranged “Man in the Mirror” for Michael Jackson, and co-wrote and produced the Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated song “Believe” by Josh Groban for the feature film ‘The Polar Express’. He has written and produced songs for Quincy Jones, Aretha Franklin, Shakira, Idina Menzel, George Benson, George Strait, Wilson Phillips, Van Halen, Chaka Khan, Patti Austin, Al Jarreau, Andrea Bocelli, and many others. And his production credits include producing and arranging records for Annie Lennox, No Doubt, and POD. Also quite notably, he produced and co-wrote Alanis Morissette’s ‘Jagged Little Pill’ which sold 33 million records worldwide, earned four Grammys and was named Best Album of the Decade by Billboard Magazine. The album also inspired the musical called ‘Jagged Little Pill’ which debuted on Broadway in November 2019 with Diane Paulus directing and a book by Diablo Cody. Expanding on his successful theater background, he wrote original lyrics and music for ‘GHOST the Musical’ (now in its eighth year of world-wide presentation), and presently he is co-producing and writing original music and lyrics for a stage adaptation of 1985’s ‘Back to the Future’. The musical, in collaboration with film composer Alan Silvestri and director John Rando, premiered in Manchester, England at the Manchester Opera House in March 2020 to glowing reviews just before performances were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His work in film includes composing original songs for ‘Charlotte’s Web,’ ‘Beowulf,’ ‘A Christmas Carol,’ ‘The Croods,’ ‘The Mummy Returns,’ and ‘Valentine’s Day.’

Today his production company Augury is currently developing original, music-driven content for television, film, and stage. His most recent project is a Netflix Original series called ‘The Eddy’: a music-driven and multicultural drama about a jazz band trying to survive in chaotic modern-day Paris, for which he serves as executive producer and has written and composed original music for the show as well. And The Writer Is...Glen Ballard!

This episode is sponsored by BMI.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a passenger announcement. You can now book your train on Uber and get 10% back in credits to spend on Uber eats.
0:11.0	So you can order your own fries instead of eating everyone else's.
0:15.0	Trains, now on Uber. T's and C's apply. Anne the Writer is. I'm your host Ross Golan. I've written with
0:37.7	hundreds of artists and writers over the years and my favorite part of each session
0:41.8	is the first hour when we catch up about life, the
0:44.4	industry, politics, composition, whatever.
0:47.9	So this is a journey of learning why people write songs, how people write songs, and most importantly, who the people are who write the songs. I'm producing this with
0:57.5	the great Joe London, Big Deal music publishing, and mega house music
1:01.6	management. If you want to listen to the songs we discuss in this
1:05.4	podcast, follow us on our socials, find out about special live events, or buy that
1:11.5	merch, aka that hat I always wear, go to our website
1:15.0	W.W. and the writer is.com. For a little bit of context, we just wanted you to know that a lot of these were recorded before quarantine.
1:26.4	And as we know, a lot has changed in 2020.
1:29.7	So again, please stay safe out there and enjoy the new episodes of And the Writer is.
1:37.0	This week's episode is sponsored by BMI.
1:41.0	At BMI, music moves their world just like it moves mine.
1:45.0	BMI is my performing rights organization.
1:48.0	They're the bridge between people who create music like me and the businesses that bring it to the public.
1:55.4	They make sure I get paid when my music is streamed on apps or shows, played on radio,
2:01.1	at live shows or in bars, gyms, basically anywhere where music is played.
2:07.1	And they do this for over 900,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers publishers with more than 14 million songs across genres.
2:17.2	But it's more than that.
	...

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