Big names sit on the jury: including the British pop-rock band Coldplay, the Italian pop singer Laura Pausini and the American pop singer Bebe Rexha. The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) is one of the most important songwriting competitions in the world. It was developed to promote the musical talent of songwriters. The special thing about this year: In addition to numerous musicians from all over the world, this year two musicians from Würzburg are in the finals with their songs.
Advertised without great expectations
“Hannah & Falco” are the singer Hannah Weidlich and the singer and songwriter Falco Eckhof from Würzburg. The two describe their songs themselves as a down-to-earth, modern mix of folk and Americana, which is characterized by a very close look at one’s own inner life, the relationship to one another and to others. When they applied, they hadn’t expected that they would have reached the final: “To be honest, we applied without great expectations, because we were just curious whether we would have a chance,” says Eckhof. “So it was a big surprise and we were very happy.”
The artists apply for the International Songwriting Competition themselves. There is an application phase in which you can send in your own songs. You apply for a category depending on the genre, including blues, children’s music, country, folk / singer-songwriter, instrumental or jazz. After the application phase is over, the first jury will select the semi-finalists. A selection will then be made and the finalists announced. Well-known jurors then choose the songs that win in the end.
A song that is about hope
Hannah & Falco’s song “Blind for the Moment” is now in the last round and thus among less than one percent of the more than 29,000 entries that are in the final. “For us, ‘Blind for the Moment’ was always a song that ultimately revolves around hope,” they say. “About a difficult phase, about sadness and hopelessness, but in the end about that glimmer of hope that is inherent in all of this.” In the song there is the image of a fire that is actually out, where there is only a little embers left, but which still throws individual sparks into the air and can flare up again. “I wrote the song a few years ago when I had the feeling that nothing was really going on or going as I imagined, and it’s still a hopeful song for me to this day,” explains Eckhof. “In the song there is also the line ‘we are too young to give up yet’, that actually hits the message pretty well.”
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“I wrote the song a few years ago when I felt like nothing was really going on or going the way I imagined it would.”
Falco Eckhof, Songwriter–
The winners in the individual categories will be announced by the beginning of May. That means wait and see for the Würzburgers. On the ISC website it is written that in addition to cash and goods prizes, the winners will benefit from an advertising campaign that aims to make their songwriting achievements internationally known and to draw attention to them.
“Whether we will actually be among the first three places in our category in the end, no idea, but even if not, we are already happy with the result,” said the duo. The fact that their song made it to the finals in such a large, international songwriting competition makes them both proud.
Markus Rill has been submitting songs for 15 years
The song “Inside the Wheel” by the Würzburg singer Markus Rill is nominated in the Americana genre. The singer and Main-Post editor is one of the most famous German Americana artists since he studied for a year in Texas over 20 years ago and inhaled American folk music. Since 2005 or 2006 – Rill is no longer sure – he has submitted two songs a year to the ISC. At that time he recorded a few records in Nashville, where the competition was recommended to him.
With the exception of last year – Rill made it to the semi-finals – he had one song in the final every year. “Once I won the so-called stocking stuffer special award. Only songs that were submitted within a certain period were rated,” says the 50-year-old. He is very pleased that he made it to the final again this year. “I also checked straight away whether Falco had progressed and was happy for him.”
“There is a chance to get feedback on your songwriting without your name or your status playing a role,” says the singer, explaining his annual applications. He is particularly pleased that he has come so far in this competition as a non-native speaker in text-heavy genres such as folk or Americana. “And it’s amazing to know that a genius like Tom Waits will hear a song from me as a member of the jury.”
In recent years Bonnie Raitt, Jason Isbell, Robert Smith from The Cure and Ray Davies from the Kinks have also been jurors and heard songs by Rill. “It’s a fantastic feeling. I’m still waiting for one of them to call and say he’d like to record one of my songs.”
Markus Rill does not believe in a profit
Then Markus Rill talks about the creation process of his nominated song “Inside the Wheel”. First he had the refrain, “which asks about the meaning of the big picture and states that we are all just little cogs in the big gears.” However, so that the song doesn’t become too moralizing, the musician wanted to move away from the linear narrative in the verses. “So this is going to be a bit surreal, maybe an attempt to evoke images like David Lynch’s.” He gives the first line as an example, it deals with the appearance of a court jester in the corner of an oval room. “That posed the challenge for me to stay at this language level. The educated middle class in rock’n’roll, actually a contradiction. I’ve probably heard too much from Dylan.”
Rill doesn’t believe in winning, after all, he has already had around 15 songs in the final and none of them ever made it into the top three of its category. But: “I have a good one in the making that I will submit this year,” he says. So the high hopes are on the next ISC.
A third Würzburg made it to the semi-finals
A third, still rather unknown, Würzburger was also in the semifinals. Even if it wasn’t enough for the final, Nick Paschenda alias FinnFinn is happy that he has come this far and feels “as if I had climbed Mount Everest.” The 37-year-old songwriter actually works as a psychotherapist and has his own practice in Würzburg. As a teenager he did the songwriting “every now and then”, but never followed it seriously. Everything changed when he started his profession. “In the evening I needed a balance to the sometimes very intensive conversations during the day,” he says. Music gave him this balance. Paschenda usually writes songs for his family or friends and gives them away. “So I actually like the seclusion and tranquility of this hobby. Here I can switch off completely and be with myself.” The songwriter was nominated in the categories “Pop / Top40” and “Unpublished”.
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