Music for the movement! Lyrics for liberation! Rhymes for resistance!
Does your organization, social movement or moment need a song to inspire, move to action or memorialize?
Are you a vocal artist or have singers in your group but want a songwriting collaborator?
I’d like to offer my 20+ years of songwriting experience to social and environmental justice groups at the following sliding scale:
- $0 – $30,000/year annual budget grassroots groups, networks, movements or collectives: No cost. Creative commons attribution license encouraged.
- $30,000-$200,000/year annual budget organizations or coalitions: some reasonable compensation for my time (likely under $500) or royalty agreement, depending on the project.
- Organizations with institutional backing, government or national foundation funding: $2000 flat fee includes lyrics, melody, chord progression, two sets of edits; 75% of fee will be donated to a fledgling organization related to the organization’s mission.
What it could look like:
- Initial meeting to brainstorm and set goals, timeline and agreements together.
- I do research, then interview key stakeholders and storytellers from your group or constituency.
- I offer a rough draft of the lyrics for feedback.
- We do 1-3 rounds of edits together.
- I draft melody, chord progression and suggested instrumentation, or collaborate on musical form, or pass off lyrics to another artist / band.
I write primarily in English, but can write in Spanish and Portuguese and conduct interviews in any of those languages as well as French.
My lyrics and music can be found at SongsOfLiberation.net, specifically here:
- An example of a movement anthem.
- An example of a specific topical song about fossil fuel extraction.
- An example of a satirical climate justice song.
- An example of a song in Portuguese I wrote and a band brought to life.
Interest form for songwriting or collaboration:
