Mentor Spotlight: Meet Joe Ginsberg

Joe Ginsberg joined us at Songathon in December, 2019 in Nashville for a Q&A session.

Joe Ginsberg is a producer/songwriter based in Nashville. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a Jazz Studies degree in upright bass. He then signed a record deal with WBR and toured the US, UK, and Europe for several years and artists before signing a publishing deal with BMG Nashville. Joe co-wrote the Miranda single, “Little Red Wagon” which launched him into a full-time songwriting career. As a producer/songwriter he has penned songs for major label artists Miranda Lambert, Carly Pearce, Bailey Bryan, Larry Fleet, and many more.

He joined us at Songathon in December 2019 in Nashville to share some of his career insight and approach to songwriting. Here are some takeaways from the Q&A session at Songathon:

What does it take to breakthrough as a songwriter in 2020?

“There are a lot of greats songs. You need to write special songs, especially when you’re a newer songwriter. Music is an art but it’s always been driven by technology. I think the songwriting world is in a good place right now. So to me it’s like, show up everyday, give it 110%, because 99% of those songs are going to live on a hard drive with no one to hear. But you never know when you show up that one day and that one is the one. It’s a lottery ticket but you still need to show up everyday because you never know which day is going to be the one that works out.

What’s your approach to co-writing?

“It’s different everyday. It really depends on what the room wants and what songs are in the room that day. Some days are acoustic and some days I am pretty heavy into the track as a producer. These days I usually like to start from the ground up, simply because I want to find whatever the inspiration is in the room that day. Sometimes it’s there and really easy to find, sometimes it’s hard to find. Sometimes you have to write a crappy verse-chorus to find the new song you’re going to write.”

“There is no success or failure in the music business, there is only giving up or never stopping.”

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?

"“My publisher at BMG told me: You need to keep doing what you do and eventually someone is going to figure it out. Believing that can be a daily struggle. Every songwriter I know, including some of the biggest songwriters in this town, show up and are like “I don’t know what I am doing, is anyone every going to like this?”. We all go through that. You just have to persevere and remember you’re doing what you love.”

“One of the things that’s cool about Nashville is that you don’t have to live here to be successful here."

What do you think makes Nashville special for songwriters?

“The song is king here. This town was kind of built on the publishers almost. Publishing feels like such a community, the songwriting world here is such a community. I make a choice to write on music row because for me that atmosphere is less competitive but more like “I want you to win, and you to win, and you to win”. People are hustling which just make you want to push harder and be a better person. Nashville is an incredible community. It’s pretty tight-knit, but one of the things that’s cool about Nashville is that you don’t have to live here to be successful here. Another thing that’s really cool about Nashville, is as genres start to blend, Nashville sees that happening, and they are looking forward to it. There’s crazy cool hip-hop and pop stuff happening here. It’s just a wonderful community of songwriting, songs, and people that are supportive of each other. Sure, it’s cut-throat and people are competitive because there isn’t a lot of space. But I think deep down most of the people that are winning want other people to succeed too and I love that about this town.”