1. Be nice to people 

2. Perseverance, persistence and patience go a long way 

3. Song-writing is like storytelling; start with the end in mind 

 

Full podcast can be found HERE.

 

Who is Bill Padley? 

Bill Padley, originally from Paisley, Scotland, is an award-winning radio presenter, record producer and songwriter. He has recorded, producer and written for artists including Atomic Kitten, Shayne Ward, Sheryl Crow, Ronan Keating, Lulu, Blue, Gareth Gates, and many more. 

Bill describes his musical upbringing on What Do You Say? with Gavin. When he was only 3 years old, Bill’s uncle made and gifted a guitar to him. Bill never had any music theory training and wouldn’t describe himself as a technical musician in any way. 

However, he watched his father play the guitar when he was a child, allowing him to learn chords and master natural rhythm. Bill explains that he was able to recall any keys and chords from listening to a piece of music, which came in useful for the community and group renditions that Bill quickly became adept at.  By the age of 11, Bill had taken his performing to another level appearing on national TV show, Junior Showtime. 

At the age of 13 Bill had taken in interest in Radio initially helping during school leave at Radio Victory, though quickly moving on to presenting. By the age of 16 Bill became the Breakfast Show host, the youngest person to do so for a UK National station to this today. 

In 1983, Bill was headhunted by Richard Park from Radio Clyde in Glasgow, where he worked as a presenter and then also a music producer for 4 years. Working with perennial bands of the Scottish music scene such as Deacon Blue, Hue & Cry and Del Amitri.

 

 

1. Be nice to people 

During What Do You Say? Bill humbly advises, “be nice to people on the way up”. Be kind to the people you work for and work with; and explains that someday your kindness may pay off. 

When working for Radio Victory, in Portsmouth, Bill was friends with singer-songwriter Julia Fordham, when Julia was a Youth Opportunities Worker (a government work experience scheme). Julia sang jingles on Bill’s radio and they worked together in various musical capacities. 

After moving to Radio Clyde, Julia phoned Bill looking for a recording studio to record her demos in. Coincidentally, Bill had recently built a home studio, however, he realised he could not realistically take 6-8 weeks of holiday from work. Bill described a small voice, inside his head, to “go for it”. Bill resigned from Radio Clyde, the second largest radio station in the UK, where he was “earning a fortune and having a great time” to leave and get paid £500 (in total) to record and produce a record for Julia Fordham. Bill explains that taking this risk nearly left him bankrupts; despite the record being very successful, he didn’t earn much from it and states “that was the way it was in those days”. However, he reminisces and describes it as an “incredible experience”. 

Bill described the struggles he experienced after leaving Radio Clyde; explaining that “you’d think that once you’d produced one record, more would come”, however, this is not always the case. After working with Julia, it took Bill a while to get back on his feet. Nevertheless, Bill expressed how thankful he was for making his decision; he believes he would have remained working at Radio Clyde until even now, had he not taken the leap of faith with Julia into the world of production. He wouldn’t have had the successful song-writing career that he did.

Bill notes that sometimes there is no safety net and passionately states that you have “the balls sometimes”, to say “I’m gunna do this”.

 

Patience, perseverance and persistence go a long way 

In 2000, Bill started Wise Buddha Music; where, with a college, Bill would go on to put his production and song writing talents into practice. Through his contacts at Virgin, they were offered an unfinished song to work on. Maybe it could be successful? Bill took the afternoon to write melodies for the song - which was mostly spoken at this point. With developing new melodies, producing and with Bill singing, Bill and his co-writer presented the demo back to Virgin; and that song was ‘Whole Again’ by Atomic Kitten. However, the song was not released instantly. It took a while. The song sat around untouched for an entire year before its release. Bill tells What Do You Say? listeners that Atomic Kitten were actually dropped before the song were released. It wasn’t until the wife of the record company owner, Hugh Goldsmith, believed that they should release ‘Whole Again’ that it was revived. Goldsmith’s wife believed the song it to very different from previous music and could be “the one”. The single sold over 1.3 million records and stayed at number 1 for 4 weeks. 

One year later, Bill was commissioned to produce ‘The Tide is High’ for Atomic Kitten. Bill explained how he believed this to be an impossible task to compete with Blondie’s rendition of the song. However, with perseverance and using his imaginative creativity, Bill managed to create another successful hit while creating a whole new style of ‘The Tide is High’, setting it apart from Blondie’s rendition and from its original form by The Paragons, in 1967. 

The song goes to number 1 in the UK and Europe and remains there for 3 weeks. The song is also a massive hit in the US when it is used in the ‘Lizzie McGuire Movie’. 

As an example of demonstrating patience, That’s My Goal was held back for a full 12 months due to a disagreement between Simon Cowell and Steve Berntien. Bill never knew for sure it would be retained, fast forward 12 months it sold 1.1million copies and would go on to win an Ivor Novello award. Hear the full story of that here.

Bill’s prosperous career has also taken him to work with artists including Ronan Keating, Shane Ward, Blue, Westlife, Deacon Blue, Liberty X, Sheryl Crow, and many more.

 

Song-writing is like storytelling, start with the end in mind 

Within the What Do You Say? podcast, Gavin and Bill touch on the process of song-writing. Bill enthusiastically trusts in individuality when it comes to artistry and believes that there is not ‘one size fits all’ with regards to song-writing. 

Bill warns that people can get attached and obsessed with their lyrics, melodies and songs. The acid test though is: ‘can I sing this melody?’ 

When asked on how he writes songs, Bill enlightens podcast listeners that he views song-writing as his job. He keeps a consistent song-writing method throughout all of his work, regardless of the artist or genre. 

He like to work from a song title. Bill strongly believes that beginning with a clear image in your head is an effectively method to understand what your message is, much like storytelling. 

Bill exemplifies, “If your song is going to be called ‘my dog is dead’ then in the chorus you would write ‘my dog is dead, my dog is dead, oh dear, my dog is dead’.” He explains that in order for your song to make logical sense, you would need to state in the first verse that you have a dog, and, before the chorus, you’ve got to explain to the listeners what went horribly wrong for the dog. 

Effectively, you’re mapping out your song through storytelling with the beginning, middle and end.

1. The best way to have creative freedom in a marriage 
2. How song writing can be like giving birth 
3. Understanding people is a skill, practice like you would an instrument 
4. Understanding that ‘dominatrixing’ is like being a surgeon 
5. How to get better at asking for things

Full podcast can be found here.

 

 

 

Amanda Palmer is a singer, songwriter, playwright, performance artist, musician, author, blogger, director, mother and all-round inspiring woman, from New York. Palmer rose to recognition largely through the theatrical rock duo, The Dresden Dolls, her artistic career is known to be daring and unorthodox - tearing down traditional norms. Amanda is a familiar face among the arts fans all over the globe. Amanda is famous for the devote following she attracts, crowd funding $1.2m for her Theatre is Evil album before a note was event played.

 

The best way to have creative freedom in a marriage 

Amongst many things, the audacious performer is also the wife of English author Neil Gaiman. In the What Do You Say? podcast, Palmer describes how they support one another creatively; whether it is song or a book in working progress, Amanda believes the main ingredient is to: “not be critical unless very invited to do so”. She highlights the importance of giving each other their creative freedom to: “do their thing, be themselves and not get involved”. 

Amanda also comments that that the couple isolate themselves an artistic capacity, particularly when it comes to creative decisions. However, these statements surprised some listeners who believed creative couples would work indispensably on their latest material but not in this case, and perhaps not in many others. 

She exclaims: “we can talk all we fucking want about the dishes or how to renovate the bathroom”, but not if it comes to “I think you should or shouldn’t have written that song that way”. 

She explained that Neil did, however, help edit her book, The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help. Her book has been described by marketing guru, Seth Godin, as the book that will help “change the way you think about connection, love and grace”. However, Amanda further declares that she “trusts the shit” out of Neil because he has experience from editing his own books and undoubtedly respects him immensely as a husband and an author. 

They have worked together on “silly projects” together, but nothing in a professional capacity, which Amanda believes is important for their marriage. 

During the What Do You Say? podcast, Amanda was heading to a show in Edinburgh, where she was feeling nervous because her husband Neil was in the audience, apparently rather rare occurrence in their busy lives. 

Amanda’s recent material touches on intimate subjects including abortion, miscarriage and death. On the subject of giving one another creative freedom, Amanda facetiously added that if Neil were to see her backstage and say: “great abortion song, not so sure about the second verse, have you thought about perhaps...”, she would “clock him”.

 

 

How song writing can be like giving birth 

Before the recording of a song or an album, Palmer explains how fragile its state can be. “Like an infant”, it needs protection and coddling. She believes she isn’t alone with this feeling and trusts that many other artists are precious about their material when in its infancy. 

She says: “the last thing you want when you’ve poured your soul into something is have someone go ‘ah, it’s okay'.” 

She describes her song writing process as ever-changing. Often, she will discover a melody first and sometimes subconsciously discovers lyrics. Other times she will knowingly try to write a song with a topic in mind, such as Voicemail to Jill. She believes that: “a lot of creative things, when you look at the course of history, are random”. 

Before entering a recording studio, Amanda has already finished approximately 97% of the album, except small lyrical amendments and melodical tweaks. 

 

Understanding people is a skill, practice like you would an instrument 

Upon their meeting, Gavin compliments Amanda on being an out-going woman and is the Queen of Connecting. Amanda explains that she hasn’t always been this way and despite always enjoying people and their company, she spent much of her teenage years very insecure and afraid of others - a universal feeling that is prevalent amongst many influential figures. 

It is evident that Amanda enjoys the beauty in human connection and feels grateful to work in an industry that allows her to exercise and experiment in these areas. She humorously adds: “I had various choices of careers that I could go into, but I picked a career where I could look people in the eye and not get yelled at”. 

Amanda is a strong believer that understanding people is a skill in itself, and something that you must practice. She informs listeners that she had recently been taking less time practicing musical instruments in order to “practice people”.

 

Understanding that ‘dominatrixing’ is like being a surgeon 

Before becoming the extravagant female figure, we have come to know and love, Amanda was a student at Wesleyan University, Massachusetts, where she participated in the Eclectic Society. 

She discloses that she was a massage therapist, illegally, out of her dorm bedroom at university. “I liked touching people; I liked them trusting me; I liked being with people and being paid to do it.” 

Amanda adds: “I would have been a really good prostitute, but the stigma is huge. I was a good stripper”. Her song “Berlin” is about her time working as a stripper in a club called The Glass Slipper - Berlin being her stripper name.

“I was a good dominatrix”, Amanda tells listeners. 

However, Amanda expresses her worries about the risks involved in dominatrix activities and warns listeners, “Don’t do it without knowing what you’re fucking doing, it’s like being a surgeon”.

 

 

 

How to get better at asking for things 

In her 2013 TED Talk, Amanda explains through colourful storytelling how she came to be the daring artist she is today. From the early days busking as the ‘Eight Foot Bride’ human statue to touring with The Dresden Dolls, Amanda and her band did an abundance of Couch Surfing, where she met and stayed with locals. Palmer compares Couch Surfing and crowd surfing to ultimately being the same thing because, “You're falling into the audience and you're trusting each other.” 

The essence of Amanda’s book, The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help, is summarised beautifully in her TED Talk where she eloquently says, “I didn’t make them, I asked them”.

Reiterated in the podcast, people need to learn to ask for more. Particularly, British culture is renowned for its modesty, as Brits are typically ashamed for asking for things and when requesting favours, even from loved ones. 

Palmer exclaimed jokingly: “I’m married to one of you. It’s a nightmare... I love you, honey!” 

In order to “get over ourselves” and ditch the self-deprecation, Amanda begs us, “Just stop!”

She puts it simply. When requesting a favour or asking for something, take a moment to reflect on what exactly you have to lose by asking and why you feel ashamed to express this vulnerability.