As SPOT Festival kicks off with a weekend presenting more than 200 acts and events, the songwriting camp Aarhus Calling is taking shape. Talents and established producers are working together for an intense and productive week.
A string of top-notch producers like Kendrick Dean, Kara Dioguardi and Damon Sharpe, who have worked with numerous American superstars including Usher, Jennifer Lopez and Chris Brown, are currently in Aarhus as part of the second edition of Aarhus Calling. Through the help and counseling from such big-name producers focus will be on exporting songs worldwide and breaking down international music barriers – a gateway for talented songwriters and producers from all over the world to work with songwriting at a high level and to export songs to markets around the world.
As a result the team behind Denmark’s biggest songwriting camp has put together a spectacular team of influential players in the business. One of them is the american award-winning producer Kendrick Dean, who has produced the work of e.g. Chris Brown and Usher. For him it doesn’t seem that unnatural to be working on new music for a week in the city of Aarhus:
– Music is universal, and we are universal communicators of emotions through music. So the things I feel when I’m on the western side of the world or the US are the same kind of emotions.
Also, Kendrick Dean is very much into the workflow at Aarhus Calling, where established acts are working side by side with the growth layer of talented songwriters and producers:
– Everybody here is working together – it’s like a big family. Even beyond this week we are making friendships for life.
On the basis of applications 12 talented Danish writers and producers have been selected to be part of the camp. They all seem proud and honored to have made the cut, but they’re also very impressed by the progress they’re making when working with such skilled coaches. One of these chosen talents, Daniel Mirza Salcedo, points out just how intense it is to work under these settings for a week – creating music in an inspirational environment in cooperation with some of the very best in the industry.
The Danish top-producer Mich ‘Cutfather’ Hansen follows up by adding that these intensive ways of working can be helpful when you want to achieve something unique:
– When you’re in the studio there are no rules – it’s all about creating the right vibes and atmosphere. But of course we want to make something that can break through internationally.
And in that sense it’s safe to say that “Aarhus got talent”, according to the legendary Danish producer. Of course everyone wants to make a number one hit and break down these barriers to an international career, but as Kendrick Dean puts it on the matters of his expectations for Aarhus Calling:
– I expect to get what I give. It’s not about having, it’s about delivering one hundred percent of myself, and focusing on the present.
It’s going to be exciting to see what comes out of this intense week of songwriting at Aarhus Calling. As a bonus it will be possible to get a first-hand impression on the proces at Saturday in Magasin, when everyone is invited to a meet-up with both talents and Kendrick Dean, together with an open session. Read more here.
