Composers 'Fight' For Clay

Matt Bronleewe, the co-writer of Clay's new song Compromise (which we first reported last week) sheds some insight into the tough competition song writers face to get onto Clay's sophomore album. Matt wrote this in his blog in May after attending a ASCAP songwriting conference.

I just got back from a big song meeting (ASCAP Pro Songwriter Conference in Nashville, TN) regarding Clay Aiken's next record. In the room were fifty (50!!!) of some of the biggest songwriters in music today, all vying for a spot on his record. Wild stuff. I think even those of us in the music industry didn't realize the level of competition on this record. The cool thing is that quite a few of us in the room are good friends, and right away we all talked about how we could help each other get some songs together for the project.

After the festivities had subsided, I got together with a couple other songwriters to discuss the spectacle we had just witnessed. One of the guys was completely bummed out. I asked him why. He said it was because he just found out, in front of everyone, that the song he had pitched for Clay's album had been rejected. Ouch. I consoled him with my story of once having a song of mine rejected by the Muppets - and let me tell you, when you are rejected by foam puppets, you've reached the bottom of the rejection pile. Oh well. You just have to dust off your boots and press forward, because right around the corner can be something AMAZING. Anyone in the creative industry has to quickly get used to rejection. For the creative professional, it's not just a common occurrence, it's a li