They were DANCING!

Last Thursday night I went to the Hotel Cafe to see Ed Sheeran. He was really quite special, he knew how to work the audience, he had them singing along, literally, helping him out with harmonies both on stage and off. Normally the acts there are nervous and unformed, beginning their careers. But the hundreds of gigs Ed’s played paid off. It was like seeing "Outliers" in action.

But the highlight of my day was hanging at Atlantic Studios.

Mike Caren is a white Jewish thirtysomething, but his forte his hip-hop. He had a studio in his home, but with people coming and going at all times of the day, even when he was out of town, Craig Kallman gave him permission to move his equipment to Paramount. Where success begat more success and they ended up moving the whole operation to a space on Cahuenga previously occupied by Babyface. There are four studios, three with a Mac Pro and Mackie monitors. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First we sat in Mike’s office, in the building, b.s.’ing. And that’s when he started complaining that the new stuff wasn’t on Spotify. Not the legitimate new stuff, but the mixtapes, that drove his business. I spoke of the illegality, and he coughed up the story of Don Henley, how he’s trying to eviscerate that "Hotel California" track from the Web.

Huh?

Turns out someone rapped over "Hotel California". Despite Don’s efforts, Mike had no problem pulling it up on YouTube. It’s the ENTIRE SONG! I was unimpressed, thinking it was just a cheap shot, but it turned out this guy had a whole catalog of tracks, some of which Mike admired, and Mike made the point that most of the audience had never heard "Hotel California".

Mike started going through the chart on YouTube, not the one with all the official Vevo hits, but the one peppered by the self-produced projects. He pulled up this good-looking guy from Tufts who drops tracks every week. He’s got a following. It was like going down a rabbit hole and finding a world that everyone knows about but you.

And then we toured the studios.

The deal is they’re free. To songwriters. There are two eight hour shifts. There’s soon to be a third. But the songs can’t leave the complex. To ensure that Atlantic gets first dibs. Atlantic acts can come in and work ad infinitum, they’ve just got to pay the engineer. It’s a veritable hothouse of creativity. The songs are put in Dropbox and Mike gives feedback and they tweak them to the point where…

Flo Rida cuts one.

Yup, three of the studios are simple.

But one still remains in its Babyface incarnation. At least on one side of the glass, the recording room has been carved up. And behind the door…

Was the party.

Now bankers have all the money. They say they can buy fun.

But they could never buy this.

The music is blasting out of the speakers, Flo Rida is sitting there composing lyrics and behind him are those tall skinny girls, with Gumby insides, grooving to the music. There were a few guys and some food and I didn’t want to leave. It felt like this was the epicenter, where everybody wanted to be. All those listeners out in radioland, if they could only get inside this studio.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t say Flo Rida had no idea who I was, but was still extremely friendly. And how he’d heard this track composed at the studio and had to record RIGHT NOW!

Now you might be saying this music, with its beats, isn’t gonna survive. But Mike made an interesting point… His two year old is iPad fluent. Not only navigates apps but burns out on them and demands more. What are the odds he’s gonna pick up a guitar and put in seven years of practice down the line? With this computer fluency, he’s going to make electronic music.

Fascinating point.

But the more fascinating one is that L.A.’s the place for songwriters. They can’t afford to live in New York, they’ve all come to L.A. And the best come in and work at Atlantic Studios. They just want to be part of the action, they want to participate, they want to create greatness.

And sure, they want to get paid.

But it was like the Brill Building. The hothouse atmosphere both inspired collaboration and a desire to top one’s competitors. It was creation in action, and very exciting.