Your
writing career has spanned decades. How have changes in your life changed your
writing?
Dean: I think when I came off the road with the band
I was part of in the 80's and got my first staff writing deal I started to look
at the whole thing a lot differently. I started to go to Nashville a lot and did
what ever I could to get better at my craft. Nashville is a very lyric driven
town and I think I learned a lot about the art of lyric writing in the first few
years I spent time there. There are guys there that write 150 songs a year and
there are guys that write 10 or 20 good ones. I tried to go the quality route.
Who was/were the most inspirational to you, your music and how?
Dean:Other
songwriters have always inspired me the most... Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Paul
Simon, just to name a few. I can remember going to the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville
and hearing Gary Burr sing a few of his tunes for the first time and coming out
of there as inspired as I have ever been in my life.
They say, you can't write what you don't know, but if that were true we wouldn't
have Sci fi ... so considering that, how much of your songs are a product of your
imagination and not your experience.
Dean: I think one of the
great things about being a songwriter is you get to put yourself in any situation
you can imagine. If I wrote only what I knew my catalogue would be very small.
There was a time a while back when most of the cuts I was getting were by females
and about female situations.... last time I looked I wasn't a woman so I had to
get in touch with my feminine side which I must tell you was very exciting.
Be honest, what is your worst song topic?
Dean: MANY years
ago I wrote a campaign song for David Peterson and the liberal party of Ontario...
big mistake.... the baby needed new shoes.
Did you have any surprise hits?
Dean: In this business
anytime you have a hit it should be a surprise there are so many things that have
to happen just right in order for a song to go up the charts.. things that are
for the most part out of the hands of the songwriter. For example first you have
to get it to the right artist and then he or she has to record it and then the
record company has to love it and then they have to get it on the radio...After
doing this for as long as I have I just try to write them as well as I can and
hope for the best after that.
If you knew then what you know now... how would you guide your career differently?
Dean:
I've made mistakes like most people in this industry I've given my publishing
away when I shouldn't have in the early days, did some things for the wrong reasons
but for the most part I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out. I never
had a real hit until I was in my forties and I dare say that if I had been more
successful earlier I would have done something really foolish with the money.
If you were asked to teach a course on songwriting, what would be your top
3 do's and don'ts.
Dean: I have spent a lot of time co/writing
over the years so I am very much an advocate of that. I find you will always learn
something by knocking ideas around in a room with another songwriter even if it's
that you will never be in the same room with that writer again. Also I think that
if you go into a writing situation with preconceived guidelines you may be setting
yourself up for failure. I have worked with people who are so caught up in the
" rules of writing" that it gets in the way of the creativity..... more time is
spent on what shouldn't be said then what should be said. Rules are there to be
broken or at least bent from time to time... those are all the do's and don't
I have. | 
