Funky Fruit

The Daily Song is an idea for a live, interactive songwriting show that I had in 2006, and which just wouldn’t go away.

Wouldn’t it be great fun to write a daily song about current news stories, with audience contributions and participation? I thought. I knew I would find it interesting and challenging to produce the show, or to be a songwriter, but with such scope for drama – improvisation, emotion, wit, performance, competition, and the pressure cooker situation of a limited period of live airtime, it could be compulsive viewing and listening. The UGC element of communal songwriting gave me a concept of building in charitable giving to the process – as much as people gave us, we would give away.

In 2007, the idea gestated and early 2008, with the active support and shared passion of fellow-writer Dan Brittain, we piloted the show as Rise and Shine. It worked both as entertainment and as a fundraiser. With another week’s Da Capo for Christmas 2008, which included more writers, we pretty much knocked the format into perfect shape.

Now for the hard work. We have Daily Song and Rise and Shine both registered and trademarked, and have completed enough market research to know we have a commercially viable show. But, the map is not the territory, and since the economy is tanking, and starting a new kind of entertainment show takes money and is an obvious risk, we’ve already completed and scrapped business plan one, and moved onto numbers two and three.

The live appeal we have proven. Responding the news, and incorporating audience suggestions, improv-style, is a formula which we know is a winner. Variety of songwriting is the key to keeping this song show alive.

Some people assume the songs will all be comedy, and although they can certainly be tongue in cheek and sardonic, they certainly ain’t necessarily funny. You can see this especially if you go back and listen to the strong songs which have already come out of the project – “The Other Side”, a poetic muse on mortality (video below), the extremely spooky “Three Feet off Gabriola” and Sexy Underwear, which deals with sexual exploitation of students by Parisian landlords. Already, the oeuvre is branching out and extending into perenially interesting musical territory, and as a writer-producer, I find this inspiring. As a businessman, I can spot a real opportunity. We have something which can operate beyond the (currently limited and struggling) bounds of the old-fashioned music business and which can produce real revenue from cultural excellence and relevance.

Optimistic capitalists: contact songs \at/ riseandshine \dot/ tv

Read what people had to say about the Rise and Shine show