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I met Eddie Heinzelman early last year. I have listened to his music long before we met. I have the opportunity to meet this very talented Nashville songwriter and do an interview. This should be the breakout year for Eddie as he's making deep in-roads within the Nashville songwriting community. His songs are currently being pitched to all the big-name artist around town.
Kelly Dunn: I have been listening to your songs and you're doing really great out there!
Eddie Heinzelman : This year is more of the same really, focusing on songwriting. This is the year, I don't want to jinx it, but I've definitely seen some growth in my writing. I'm hoping this is the year that I step it up a notch. I moved to Nashville to a few years ago. I made trips a few years before that doing gigs, writing appointments. Then I was making trips from Cincinnati twice a month. So my wife and I decided to move back.
Kelly Dunn: ...to come down and make it your life...
Eddie Heinzelman : Well, I still have a day job but I'm moving closer to doing this full-time. That's the goal. I've always said that I want to make my sole living by music.
Kelly Dunn: How do you approach cutting your demo material...
Eddie Heinzelman : I have a home recording studio to make guitar/vocals demos. Then I go to full blown demos. Depending on whom my co-writers we record at different studio's. At the moment, it's been the preference of the co-writers, who are also the artist, so I'll record at whatever studio they are comfortable, different engineer's, and so on.
Kelly Dunn: How long have you been writing songs?
Eddie Heinzelman : (Laughter) Well, it's been about twenty years but there's probably three different phases to my songwriting career. I have really been focused on getting cuts in Nashville for the past eight years.
Kelly Dunn: Was there a moment you knew you were going to be a "Nashville" songwriter...
Eddie Heinzelman : That's a good question! I'd say about three or four years ago I decided to kick it into high gear. In Cincinnati I belonged to the NSAI chapter. They are a real active group. They would bring up hit songwriters every few months to our meetings. At about the same time I was thinking I better start making more trips to Nashville. One of the things that really sparked my coming back was the momentum.
Kelly Dunn: You must have been getting some positive feedback to make this happen too...
Eddie Heinzelman : There were two aspects; Jeffery Steele spoke about how he moved to Nashville and had to learn how to write songs. Then, Kerry Kurt Phillips, whom I greatly admire, we met back in 2003 at one of the NSAI meetings. I asked him a question about the things I had been reading on the message boards at different sites about how commercial radio is crap, selling yourself out, and all the stuff that goes on in-between, so I asked him about it. And he said, "I write mainstream Country music, that's it". It seemed to me to be a very conscious choice to write commercial Country music. So, I had to take a step back and think this through; Everybody says they want it but there's nothing in "wanting". You can want a steak on the grill but you're not going to have steak on the grill until you put it there.
Kelly Dunn: I guess that sums it up pretty well! (Laughter)
Eddie Heinzelman : Hanging out with Kerry Kut Phillips really helped me make the decision to be a songwriter.
Kelly Dunn: Is your wife behind your career, does she help you?
Eddie Heinzelman : I have the greatest spouse in the world. She understands. Completely. We've been together since we were in high school. We stated dating when we were fifteen. Moving back down here, she loves it down here. We have left a lot of friends but we have many friends here. I also play guitar for road gigs and she's supportive of that too. I make it a point that when I'm home, I'm home.
Kelly Dunn: I've seen a lot of couples where the other spouse views a career in music as a rival...
Eddie Heinzelman : (Laughter) This is not the type of career where you go to college, work thirty years and have the security. There's not the job security here like in other jobs. Which reminds me of our move down here. When we first moved down here, the thing that really struck me was the number of guitar players in town. I never felt like, "Oh great another guitar player in town". It's always been positive and everyone has been very supportive. The only downside is that we're trying to make the same dollar from the same artist. (Laughter) So the competition drives you to be better. But in general I don't see it as a negative. I went to college for music. I have a bone to pick with them though. They think the way to get better is to knock you down instead of encouraging you. So, to me, the education is learning the tools of the craft. Afterwards, you need to transcend looking at the rule book and just let it come out. Everything we experience gets put into the creation process. So I went from the rigid classical training to learning Jimmy Page and the improvisation. My degree is in Jazz guitar. Once I graduated though I really started going to back to my roots in Country music.
Kelly Dunn: Did you like Country music growing up?
Eddie Heinzelman : Well, I grew up on a farm. We listened to George Jones, Porter Wagner and Buck Owens. But, by the time I gradutated from high school I was a rock 'n roller. I was in some hard core heavy metal bands. But in college I dove into Jazz.
Kelly Dunn: That's quite a change!
Eddie Heinzelman : Well, to me it was just a big project. In college I just immersed myself in it. I was playing Jazz gigs and some rock cover bands. But once I was out of college I really wanted to pursue the stuff that was really moved me and that I liked to do. So I circled back around to the Country/Rock vibe of The Eagles, Jackson Browne and The Byrds when Clarence White was playing guitar for them.
Kelly Dunn: So you feel that your efforts were better spent doing this...
Eddie Heinzelman : I loved being exposed to all the different musical backgrounds and the ideas they were bringingngs to my material. One of the things that come to mind is my demo, "She's Water". I think that's one of those things, it's a little different. It's not straight ahead Country, it has some colorful chords.
Kelly Dunn: It sounds so easy when it's all done...
Eddie Heinzelman : (Laughter) Again, it's the nature of writing. I was having lunch with a friend of mine here in town, a publisher, and her comment to me was, "Be careful that you don't write the groove out of it". Don't lose the vibe. Like the Rolling Stones for instance. I love them! They really go with the vibe. Or like Jimmy Page, I would listen to his takes and even though the selected take had flaws he liked the groove. But, like Jason Blume, he has a different way of approaching songwriting which isn't bad, I just don't take it to that degree. I don't re-write forever. I do go back to make it better and make it clearer. I just move on and write the next one. And honestly at this point I don't object to starting from scratch.
Kelly Dunn: Do you have a pre-concieved idea of who your audience is before you write a song?
Eddie Heinzelman : Not necessarily, every time I sit down to write, I approach it with the intention of pitching the song. I'm not really concerned about writing a George Straight song for instance. I don't think about the artist until everything else is done. What I think about is the story, the melody and the feel of the song. To create something that is pitchable. But after it's finished, I begin thinking what artist it may be suited. Let's say the character in the song is about an older women, I wouldn't pitch that to Miranda Lambert for instance. So, you do go through these things afterwards. I did start a song with a Randy Travis/Josh Turner kinda vibe. I'm pretty happy with the song but it was more of the feel that we werer going after. Again, the key thing is to look for the holes, look for the things that you are not hearing. That's the key to writing a successful song.
Kelly Dunn: Do you have a hook book for your appointments?
Eddie Heinzelman : Sure! (Laughter) I have my hook book that I take to my appointments. During the songwriting appointments I'll throw out my hooks. Usually ideas start happening during conversations.
Kelly Dunn: One thing leads to another...
Eddie Heinzelman : Exactly, at some point there's those different kinds of vibes. Even if I don't like the idea we'll write the song anyway. Sometimes we'll take a break and go to lunch and kick around the idea. Then we go back and try it again. When writing a song I usually don't write the complete lyric. Nine times out of ten is it usually starts with the music. Once we have that groove going, then we'll flesh out the direction of the story. Once we have a structure then we dig into the song. And really that's how it goes a majority of the time.
Kelly Dunn: Where do you think the song, "She's Water, will end up...
Eddie Heinzelman : (Laughter) Well I hope it ends up on a record! I'm not sure who it's been pitched to but the song is making the rounds. There are certain artists that I hear for the song but again it's got a lot more color and Rock to it.
Kelly Dunn: Well, Eddie I can see that you have to go. I really appreciate you spending some time today. I hope we can do this again soon!
Eddie Heinzelman : Kelly, I want to thank you and SongwriterPro for this opportunity! Likewise, I have enjoyed this interview. Take care and we'll meet again soon!
www.eddieheinzelman.com
www.myspace.com/eddieheinzelman
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