SHELDON LOUDBy Nicky Baldrian
SHELDON LOUD
By
Nicky Baldrian
Another top female artist to keep your eyes open for is Canadian
singer/songwriter Sheldon Loud. or "Shelly" to those
closet too her. Shelly's music is poppy AOR with influences
baring similarities to Pat Benatar, Robin Brock, Melissa
Etheridge and Heart. Shelly began to write songs at the age of
fifteen, "I would lock myself up in my room for hours and
play and experiment with different rhythms and fool around with
my Tascam Portastudio...I used foot pedals from my electric
guitar for effects on my vocals...the Boss Chorus worked really
well.....Necessity is the mother of invention...."
At the age of 17 Shelly entered a songwriting contest called
"The Real Jam" with some original song "I decided
to enter with some original material...I was nervous as hell and
really didn't think I had much of a chance, but thought it would
be a good experience and a way for me to meet up and network with
other songwriters." expalins Shelly, the contest included
participants from her home town "Guelph", London,
Kitchener, Hamilton and Toronto. Shelly continues "I
actually won the contest and received recording time at Phase One
Recording Studio in Toronto...I entered the contest the next year
and also won.
I began taking my songwriting seriously and tried to learn as
much as I could." At age 19 Shelly flew out to L.A and
auditioned for a band..again..not thinking that she would get the
gig.... Shelly was offered the job of fronting a rock band on the
L.A circuit.
"I initially went out to visit family and lucked into the
audition, I got cold feet and ended up flying back to Toronto
where I again...auditioned for a rock band that was touring 51
weeks a year all over Canada ("Selection").....I landed
the gig." she enthuses.
Whilst touring with Selection, she met up with guitarist Earl
Merrick who is Roger Whittaker's guitarist, Shelly was contracted
to do studio work and the duo wrote together for approximately 1
year. After touring with Selection for four years Shelly began to
feel like "I was wasting time doing cover material and
decided to go with another band by the name of Random
Chants."
Random Chants wrote approximately 50% of all material performed.
The band did a gig with Gowan and also Cats Can Fly.
Shelly continues "I was beginning to get burned out and
really needed to get off of the road so that I could focus on my
songwriting and production in the studio. I stopped touring and
joined an r&b (14 piece) band called Toronto Harbor that
played mostly on the airline strip in Toronto on the weekends
allowing me the luxury of writing and recording and also
studying."
During this time Shelly began vocal studies with Edward L.
Johnson and learned the "Bel Canto Technique". If you
have listened to her debut cd "1000 miles"...you now
know where the power comes in her singing, considering she is
only 5"3", the voice is defintley larger than the
woman.
Shelly then completed writing and recording 1000 miles at Wave
Records in 1998. Two of the tracks off the cd received heavy
rotation from stations in Canada (1000 miles and Jessie).
Another track off the cd entitled "If it doesn't fit"
was awarded and award of achievement from UNISONG 97. Meat Head
Records (Canada) will be including "If it doesn't fit"
on their 10th compilation cd box set due to released in March
2000 featuring Canadian artists.
Shelly in the meantime continues to write material for her second
cd, one of the selected songs to be featured on her next album
will be co-written with Toby Darling entitled "Crazy
Feeling". The song has already been picked up and launched
on Midems compilation cd in 1999.
"I teamed up with Tony Darling and made available a demo of
our songs at the MP3.COM site. Two songs off the D..A.M. cd
(Halloween and Crazy Feeling) were among the top ten in their
genre at the MP3.COM June 1999 site for two weeks. I have studied
with Harriet Schock (Grammy award writer of "Ain't no way to
treat a lady) and am currently studying with Pat Pattison from
the Berkeley College of Music. (his students have included Sting,
Melissa Etheridge, Phill Collins etc..)
Shelly also writes a column for Independent Songwriter Magazine
" The column is entitled "Song Scene", and
collaborating with songwriters from across the world. I have
recently formed a publishing company entitled "Right Track
Music Publishing (SOCAN). This company represents my song
catalogue along with sub publishing contracts in the UK, USA and
Canada. Right track music publishing is also representing
songwriter's world wide. Recently we have merged with Canadian
record label "Wave Records". Associations I am
affiliated with include: Songwriter's Association Of Canada,
SOCAN, SongLink, The international songwriter's association and
The Nashville songwriters association international."
Shelly's inspirations come from all walks of life "Most of
all...my family inspire me. My little man (6 years old) and my
little girl (1yr) give me so much inspiration..sometimes it
hurts! Their honesty and innocence are such gifts..it's so
amazing to look through the eyes of a little one. It makes you
realize what really counts in life. They keep me grounded. I draw
ideas from almost everywhere I go...I'm like a sponge. I get
ideas from bookstores, movies, newspaper..etc... ", she
pauses for a second and then continues "I find if I do my
creative writing exercises in the morning before I start my
day....I wake up my creative side and it basically monitors
everything I hear and see throughout the day.
As far as actually writing a tune....I usually find a title that
grabs me ( I've got a book just for titles and phrases that I jot
down) and then the rest of the tune usually follows." Shelly
explains about her cd "1000 miles" The title track
"1000 Miles"(track 1) was written for my son. It's a
song that tells him no matter what he does in life, what he
becomes, who he is, I will love him unconditionally and always be
there for him. "Old Too Soon, Wise Too Late"(track 2)
was a song I wrote after the death of my father in law. I loved
that guy to pieces and was really crushed when he checked
out...It's about evolving in life. "All I Want"(track
3) deals with the daily struggles of the old mighty rat race....
"Jessie"(track 4) is a fun rocker tune...."Some
Dogs"(track 13) is a tune that is typically a day in the
life of Shelley (that's me...;-) If you knew me, you'd know that
there is never a dull moment. "If It Doesn't Fit"(track
14) This song was written in fun about ending a dead end
relationship.....it was meant as a joke really.
Of the future Shelly hopes to keep improving her craft "I
hope I never loose focus of what really counts "The
Song". Establish and expand my publishing company with
gifted writers from all over the world and achieve success by
placing quality material with talented artists. To get a tune
into the top ten on the Billboard chart so that my mother in law
will stop asking me.."Have you made any money yet?"
To contact Shelly send an email shelljac@nomin.norlink.net