Guidelines:

As most of you know, I like to use independent music in my productions. As a storyteller, finding the right piece of music to augment my stories is very important to set the mood, make a transition, or to underscore a point.

Recently, I’ve been contacted by a few musicians who’ve asked me to review their work for possible inclusion in a future Griddlesode. In order to make it easier for other musicians, here are some “Submission Guidelines.”

If you’d like to submit your music for future consideration in a Griddlesode:

• Send an email to griddlecakes[at]gmail.com. Please put “Music Submission: (name of artist)” in the title. This will help me categorize the request for future reference.
• Griddlecakes Radio only plays Podsafe Music, which allows us to legally play your music royalty-free. Adding music to the
  such a network is easy, instant, and free! We highly reccomend The Podsafe Music Network.
• Instead of sending music files as email attachments, please provide a link where I can hear your music. For example, the address for streaming audio on your website,
  your Podsafe Music Network page, or at your MySpace page.
• Lastly, although I can’t promise to use your music in a future Griddlesode, I can promise you that I’ll listen and offer it to the muse.

How I find my music…or how it finds me:

First of all, Griddlecakes Radio is not a “Music” show. I’m not a DJ that looks for music that appeals to me and then plays songs in their entirety. Rather, I’m like a film/television music supervisor, who’s trying to align music with content in order to tell a better story. If you are an artist considering submitting your work to Griddlecakes Radio, it’s important for you to understand how I choose music for the show.

My “system” for choosing music falls into two categories: hunting and farming.

Most of the time, I write my stories first, and then go hunting for music to accompany them. I go to podsafe music sites and then use keyword searches which are directly related to the content of my story. For example, in the story “The Shoulders of Giants,” in which I describe the Challenger Accident, I searched for the word “Rocket,” and came up with “Rocket to the Moon” by Jimmy Golding. The song, which describes a kid growing up watching the space program was a perfect fit to open up the story.

But, as I’m hunting for specific songs using specific keywords, I always end up finding music and artists that I like, yet the songs just don’t fit with the story that I’m working on at the time. So, instead of discarding them (I am a perpetual pack-rat), I catalog these songs (and artists!) for future griddlesodes. This catalog then becomes fertile ground for farming — either identifying artists that I think will eventually work with my storytelling format, or as inspiration for new ideas. Sometimes I build an entire story around one of these discoveries, as the title or a phrase or something triggers a memory and sparks a new story.

To me, it’s a very exciting creative process and I have NEVER been able to predict exactly how the final product will come out. All I know is that as I’m editing, that the story and the music start to collaborate with one another. Two artists, a storyteller and a musician, without even knowing one another, are collaborating with their art to create something new.

And none of this would happen, without the artists who support this type collaborative work. Thank you for all that you do.