Interview Conducted by Micah Jacks
The Songwriters’ Forum, a student organization at USC, published their first album Volume I just months after the club was founded. The Nuance team was able to speak with co-President, JaJa Tong, about starting the coalition and completing a group album despite working together from afar. JaJa now has released her debut single, “Listen” with her twin sister JoJo under the name Goldlove.
When was the Songwriters’ Forum founded?
I started the application process last fall since at USC you have to start applying for the new organization in the fall and then once you get approved you can only officially start running in the spring. I was taking a songwriting class at the time, which I was really fortunate to be around all those musicians with common interests. We started out as a group of about 10 people from my class and we got the application process rolling and then I reached out to all the other teachers, found a faculty advisor, then had all the teachers email out to their students seeing who was interested. Eventually we had a sign-up list of about 40 people without even having really started so that was amazing. From there, we had an [executive] board team and once we got the application approved, we began fully running in the spring.
How did you determine that a need for the Songwriters’ Forum was present on campus?
I think the whole idea first came from what I thought needed as a musician and what I thought many of my peers needed. I remember when I first got to USC for school, having grown up in a small town in South Carolina, making my own music being a songwriter and producer myself, it was super hard to find anybody who was interested in music at all. So when I got to USC, I was so excited and I thought, “I’m gonna find my people, I’m gonna find my niche,” but there wasn’t any organization focused on making music. I remember when I first got to school and went to the involvement fair and looked at the clubs. There were music appreciation, a cappella groups, or music industry clubs but I couldn’t find anything dedicated to creating music. I thought for a school that was so arts-heavy with so many talented musicians, why wasn’t there an organization to bring everybody together?
How many members are currently in the organization?
When we first started we only had about 5 people on the e-board, our leadership team, but as we grew, we expanded it to 10 people. There’s about 45 very active general [members] but in total we have about 105 sign-ups.
What is everyone’s role within production?
We have a lot of different divisions like the Co-Presidents, social media team, operations team, promotions, and the creative department, so that’s how the e-board is broken down. Other than that, everyone else is a general member. I mean, most of the people in the club have multiple talents, so they’re not just a producer or just a writer, many of them play multiple instruments or can sing and write. I think other than the e-board, it’s all really flexible.
How does the Songwriters’ Forum come together to refine one another’s songwriting skills?
I think there’s always that difficulty when you’re working with other people and the different viewpoints. I think one thing we do at the beginning of the club that really helps is that we have everyone show their songs and we have members of the club give feedback and critique each other’s songs. During the process of making the album, there’s usually teams of 2 or 3, so while each team is writing their songs they bounce ideas off each other and if one person doesn’t like the song they’re going to say so because when it’s released it’s under their name. In the process of releasing the album, the e-board also listens to the music at every stage and gives feedback on things we might not think are the best or things that might have a better option. I think the whole collaborative aspect really helps refine everyone’s songwriting skills and it keeps everyone putting out their best work.
Can you talk about your thought process when deciding to publish an album?
From my experience, everyone can write and produce music if you want to but not everyone can go and put out a song. I think from the beginning we just always knew we were going to publish an album because we wanted something to come out of the club. We didn’t want to be a bunch of people writing music that no one ever heard. We wanted to make something we could show the world and really use to represent our organization.
You mentioned that the album was a collaborative effort, how did it actually come together?
JaJa now has her debut single, “Listen” out under name of Goldlove
At the beginning of the semester, we had a lot of meetings to let everyone mingle and we wrote who was a producer or singer and we had everyone introduce themselves and we let those connections happen naturally. So if two people felt like they really vibed, they could work on a song together. If they didn’t vibe, they didn’t have to. I think we have a mix of songs that were from scratch by people who really connected at the meetings, and then from other people who already had part of it made but just wanted to put the finishing touches on [a song] and someone in the club happened to have that skillset that they needed.
What challenges did you face while publishing your own album?
I think the biggest obstacle we had was the whole pandemic that happened and when we all got sent home halfway through the year. I think when we were all sent home it was right at spring break and most of us only had the initial demo, no one had a fleshed out song yet. We had to fully record it but when everyone went home, so many people didn’t have microphones, people who were supposed to sing and record their songs didn’t have the means to anymore, so a good 3 or 4 songs didn’t end up happening because people didn’t have the proper equipment that they needed. A few of the songs were actually recorded on voice memo on a phone so we processed those a lot. It was really awesome how well those actually turned out, but I think not having the equipment was a big problem. Then there was coordinating time differences. Like when people are doing internships and doing classes and then you still have to work out when you’re going to write this song together? But then someone’s on the West Coast and someone’s on the East Coast and someone’s halfway around the world, you can’t really coordinate a time to co-write. I think we actually got it done really well, though, and I’m really proud of the club for what we achieved, given the crazy semester we had.
Publishing an album shortly after founding the Songwriters’ Forum was an ambitious goal, and yet it was achieved! Can you talk about your goals for the future?
We actually have a lot more projects going on right now since the music doesn’t stop and being stuck at home, everyone has a lot more time to make it. So, depending on how many songs get done, we might actually be releasing another album before the next semester ends. We do have a song called “Hold On” that we entered into this competition for college students. The song was made by 7 members of the club so that’s exciting, and we were planning on making a music video for that. In the future, we want to have a concert at the end of the year; hopefully a regular thing for the club will be that every semester we release an album and then have a concert to showcase all the music. But, evidently, since events are being limited to about 20 people for the next half-year or so, that’s not really possible. But eventually, we hope to be able to release an album, have a concert, and then also enter contests or hold events if we have the opportunity to.