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The Verve Pipe's Donny Brown Gets Invited To Miles Copeland's 'Songwriter's Bootcamp' By Robert E. Martin Donny Brown in front of the Chateau Marouatte, Miles Copeland's castle in France where the Songwriters Boot Camp was held. Saginaw born & bred musician Donny Brown has been enjoying his own 'moveable feast' lately. The songwriter/drummer for The Verve Pipe recently wrapped up the group's third major label recording, entitled Underneath, and slated for a September 11th release. But even more impressive, Donny has just returned from a two-week stint where he was invited by former manager of The Police and IRS Records founder Miles Copeland to attend Copeland's annual Songwriter's Bootcamp. The idea is simple and brilliant. Each year Copeland invites 24 artists to live and record at his castle in the South of France. This year, in addition to Brown, Copeland invited Carole King, The Hanson Brothers, Ed Robertson from Barenaked Ladies, Tracy Bonham, Marc Copely, and former Saginawian C.J. Vanston, among others, to spend two weeks combining their creative appetites into different directions. "Each day I would write with two different people," explains Brown. "It was really great because everybody was totally into it and I was learning so much." The artists Brown was paired with include Bonham, Jez Ashurst, Dominic Ginaldi, Taylor Hanson, Damon Lee, Zac Hanson, C.J. Vanson, Willy Porter, and Ed Robertson. The five tracks that Brown co-authored and recorded were completed in one day each. "The castle itself was gorgeous and much bigger than you think," continues Brown. "Each day artists were placed into groups of three and we would write and record one song per day. Miles has been doing this for four years now. It's a great thing because you have a pastoral setting and a group of serious artists that you grow close to, living and working together. Dean Miller, who is Roger Miller's son also flew in from Nashville." According to Donny, Copeland assembles the 'Bootcamp' four weeks out of each year. The first two weeks are dedicated to artists involved with 'World' Music, while the second two weeks focus on 'Western' music. Similarly, the artists are all recorded by world class producers, such as John Barry, who is the producer for Faith Hill. Donny Brown with Hanson Additionally, if any of the 'Bootcamp artists' write a song at the Castle that goes to Number One, those artists become 'knighted' at the Castle. This year both Mark Hudson and Carole King received the honors. So how did Donny become fortunate to be selected for this year's Bootcamp? "It happened because of my writing on the new Verve Pipe album," relates Donny. "Our publisher, Evan Lamberg at EMI phoned and told me my name came up as a possibility because they were looking for somebody that could write Rock & Pop. I just got lucky. Actually, I was close to going last year, but the Verve Pipe schedule took me away. This year the timing was perfect. Our manager Doug phoned me and asked if I wanted to go, and I jumped on the opportunity. I didn't even know Hanson would be there until I arrived at the castle. " The Castle features three 16-track demo studios and three engineers. Each day the studios would close at 2:00 am, but the daily regimen quickly fell into a solid routine. "Every day they would wake you up and you'd have breakfast around 10:30," explains Donny. "They followed 'musician's hours'," he laughs. "So I'd wake up, shower, and have fresh orange juice & fruit, croissants, cereal, and then Mile's right hand man would explain who we'd be working with for that day." "My first day I was paired with Tracy Bonham and Jez Ashurst, and they told us we'd be working in the garden. So we'd go to the garden at 10:30 and I'd take my acoustic guitar and a book and start to write a song. We'd all work until we had an idea together, but the hardest part for me was writing lyrics." "After you're finished, you have lunch at 2 PM. The chef was a Cordon Bleu Master, and lunch was usually fresh greens, a quiche, and cheeses, and by that time we would usually have the song & arrangement down. Almost every day I recorded very late, usually from 11 pm until 2 am, but one day I did an early session - the last day I worked with Ed Robertson, which turned out great." "Dinner was around 8:00 PM and we would dine, drink wine, and on the second day they would play everyone's song during dinner that they'd worked on from the night before." Donny Brown with Carole King Needless to say, the Bootcamp was a lifetime thrill for Donny. "As a learning experience it was incredible. How many people get to do it? Once I was stressing with C.J. and worried that I wouldn't finish a song, and he's done about 500 more sessions than me, so basically he's yawning and saying 'Take it easy, it'll be okay', so in an important sense, I learned what to care about and what to let roll off my back." "Everybody was a really good musician and they all could play their instruments really well, so if you wanted a slide guitar for something, a person would be there to handle that," continues Donny. "What I really appreciated is the fact we weren't making music to release necessarily, so it allowed everyone to let their hair down, get a good blend, and develop a good vibe to the material." Given the fact that Donny has been busy producing recordings for 19 Wheels and The Atomic Numbers, not to mention the fact he penned half of the new material on The Verve Pipe album, does he now feel there is a 'formula' to songwriting, especially given his bootcamp experiences? "Yes," he answers, "you can apply a formula if you want, because music is math. But that's no way to write music. It's better to work with someone and have some kind of emotion develop in the room." Donny Brown with Miles Copeland "I'm still a novice. I mean, didn't Dick Wagner co-write Only Women Bleed with Alice Cooper? Now, that's a song I'd like to write because it's a great song. I also wish I would have written The Freshman, because that's another great song. I do like what I write, but a lot of it nobody hears because I'm constantly working on demos in my basement. It was a fortunate experience and some of these people I'm hoping to write with again." "It's ironic, " reflects Donny, "because for a guy like Miles Copeland, who is so wired-into business to make this happen, is amazing because the Bootcamp is not a business. But I think because it wasn't concerned with business, it turns out to be incredible business. I mean, how else would I have a chance to write with Hanson?" "Because of that fact, we wrote a great song, and I think they would agree," continues Donny. "Ed Robertson from Barenaked Ladies and I wrote a great song together called Never Love Again, and Willie Porter wants to put the song we penned together on his next album." After the Bootcamp, Don says he went to Paris to chill out for five days, preparing for the on-coming schedule for the Verve Pipe. Recently bassist Brad VanderArk quit the group, citing musical differences with Brown, but Donny is very enthusiastic about the new release. "Brad didn't want to do it, so nobody in the group has a reaction to his choice or his comments. It was his choice to leave." After listening to an advance mix of the third V.P CD, this writer can testify that the sound of the band is more upbeat, with shimmering guitarwork by A.J. Dunning, excellent vocals by Brian VanderArk, and confidently executed hook-laden material that will surely put the Verve Pipe back into the charts. "The new album will feature 11 tracks and we'll be touring after that," notes Donny. "We're supposed to cut the first video next month." "All-in-all, it's been an incredible year for me."
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