Jacob Interviews…Josh Skinner, Part Three

 

 

In the final part of my exclusive interview series with Internet host and songwriter Josh Skinner…he talks about his songwriting career.

 

Jacob Elyachar: Did you always want to add songwriting to your resume?

Josh Skinner: No. I fell into it. It was the last thing on Earth I felt like I was going to do.  Six years ago, I went through a horrible break-up.  It was REALLY BAD.  It was a time in my life, that I would be driving and I would just cry and it shook me to my core and one day I was driving on the freeway crying like a crazy person and out of nowhere I wrote a song.  I was like what is this? I haven’t played the piano in ten years …I had these lyrics…I had a melody.

 

One thing lead to another and my friend recorded it on his computer and I gave the CD to a friend of mine who was the musical director of American Idol.  I asked him: “What do you think of this?” and he passed it to a few people and then, one day I got a call from this producer who said: “Hey! You are a great lyricist! I recently won a Grammy. Would you want to work on this project with me?”  I was totally insecure about it and six years later…I actually have a career.   Sometimes I prefer doing that over anything else.

 

JE: So you choose songwriting over host interviews for withJosh.com or act?

JSK:  Here’s the thing with songwriting: I can’t stop it!  Even if I was just hosting all the time-words, lyrics and melodies continue to come to me.  I can’t control it…it just happens.  I would say that songwriting is the most rewarding process for me because I can see instant gratification on people listening to it and it is cool to hear a song that you wrote being played at a McDonalds or when you get the royalties…Wow it was sung by this artist on this talk show.  I have two songs right now on an international soap opera airing in 140 countries and I can look at it every day on DirectTV and say: “I wrote that…that came from me.”   Songwriting is a form of therapy.  I am really blessed at hosting and the opportunities.  I do not know what the future has but songwriting will always be a huge priority to me.

 

JE: What goes through your mind during the songwriting process?

JSK:  Fear of failure; Fear of being unable to rhyme; Fear of being exposed.  Songwriting is very personal and it’s a form of therapy.   I recently went through a break-up a few months ago and I was in that relationship for almost five years.  When you look back on those songs that I was writing…it paves the way on where you were suppose to be.  So when you are in love or feeling hurt or if you know that you hurt someone.  I can look back to those songs as little marks in my life and I think there is a form of fear that comes from writing those songs because you are exposing yourself to the world.

 

I had to keep in mind that pain is universal and my story and what I am writing about is something that you have gone through or your readers have gone through.  There is so much joy when you hear the finished product but it is really scary.

 

JE: You have worked with three ladies in the past couple of years…Sara Lumholdt from Sweden’s A*Teens, Alessandra Rosaldo and Kimberley Locke from American Idol.  Could you tell readers about working with them?

JSK:  Sara Lumholdt was from the A*Teens, a group from the Nineties and the early 2000s, they sold like six million albums, and I was blessed to write her solo album and write three of her songs that are playing across Europe continuously.  Alessandra was part of a huge group called Sentidos Opuestos and they have also sold millions of albums and she did her first English album so I was so excited to work with a Spanish star and actually write for her in English and Kimberley Locke is one of my best friends so to be apart of anything for her…I would jump off a building for that.

 

JE: You have told me earlier that you wanted to break some exclusive news to jacobelyacharjournalist.com?

JSK: Alessandra Rosaldo and Sentidos Opuestos are doing greatest hits album, a reunion tour and a concert DVD with Warner Bros. and I have been asked to write the first three singles.  The first single I am writing with Alessandra and will be figuring out the other singles.   One of the songs that I have recently wrote was called “Returned” and we will be translating that into Spanish and it will be one of the ballards that would be on the album.   I will also be able to go to Mexico to see it sung live in front of 30,000 people for a concert DVD.  I feel so fortunate and it just shows you no matter what happens in your life and no matter what song you write…there is a purpose and you got to be tested through the fire before you can be whoever you want to be.

 

JE: What does it take to be successful in the entertainment business?

JSK: Never giving up on yourself and not listening to anybody.  Everyone has an opinion; you have to follow your gut.   You have to be polite and understand that it does not happen overnight everything is a process and you can’t go to any meeting, any audition or any interview thinking “This is it…this is going to be the one that is going to make me…” because you are the one that makes yourself through time and understanding who you are suppose to be.

 

To learn more about Josh Skinner, visit his Web site at: http://www.withjosh.com/