Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine- The Smeezingtons' Songwriting Success Story
Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence, and Ari Levine form the songwriting and productions team known as the Smeezingtons. In 2012, they took the time to share how their collaboration led to the chart-topping success of Bruno Mars and other artists.
Most Music Artists With Record Deals Have To Do Everything Themselves
Many people do not realize that for most people who get a record deal, long gone are the days when record companies like Motown take the time to develop artists. Bruno Mars was 18 years old when he signed with Motown Records. "I was wet behind the ears, I didn't know what I was doing and figured out that you really got to do it by yourself. You got to do everything. It's not like in the movies when you get signed and all of a sudden you're working with Timbaland and hit songs are coming your way. Plus I was trying to do something different. It was getting frustrating for me to explain the kind of music that I wanted to do. Instead, I just needed to do it."
Team work And Understanding How to Make Money In the Music Business
The deal with Motown did not work out for Bruno Mars. Despite the setback, he met Philip Lawrence, put being a recording artist on the shelf, and began writing songs. "We figured out that in the kind of songwriting that we do, where we go bounce around from different producer to producer, there is no real money in songwriting unless you write some big hit...Even then you know how things work, you got to get residuals so we were like, yo we can't even afford gas to go to the studio to write these songs. We need to start producing because that's where the money is... At that point they combined forces with Ari Levine. Explaining further Bruno said, "We started going to his place and started being like a one stop shop. we would produce the record and write the record and we could pay rent."