SOCAN Pays Honour To Chad Kroeger's Four-Chord Fortunes

By Nick Krewen

If you don't think Chad Kroeger has a Midas Touch when it comes to both songwriting and business acumen, think again.

At the 30th Annual SOCAN Awards, hosted by CBC's Amanda Parris at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto on April 1, the Canadian performing rights organization decided to commemorate the three decades since the merger of CAPAC and PROCAN by naming its most popular songwriter, song and score composer.

Guess who was involved in two out of the three categories?

With his Alberta-based hard rock Nickelback selling in excess of 50 million records on the backs of such irresistible earworms as  "How You Remind Me," "Someday" and "Gotta Be Somebody," it may come as a surprise that Kroeger usurped contenders such as Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance, and Shania Twain as SOCAN's most popular tunesmith.

But his 604 label - co-owned with lawyer Jonathan Simkin - also financed and released "Call Me Maybe," SOCAN's most popular song in the past 30 years that became the monster hit that launched Carly Rae Jepsen' career into the pop stratosphere (albeit with a helping hand from Justin Bieber who heard it in his hometown and started plugging it on social media).

The Vancouver-based label also signed Marianas Trench, the band whose leader Josh Ramsay was a co-writer on "Call Me Maybe" and heck - even Dallas Smith, the country singer who transitioned from rock band Default and performed "How You Remind Me" in tribute to Kroeger at the three-and-a-half-hour awards ceremony, owes a career debt to Chad.

Only film composer Jack Lenz, the author of the "Let's Go Blue Jays" cheerleading anthem, who has provided scores on over 300 TV and film productions, has remained immune to Kroeger's creative touch.  But, as SOCAN's most popular screen composer since 1989, a future collaboration isn't out of the question.

The fact he's generated more action for his songs than Canadian icons such as the Adams/Vallance team, and Shania Twain's body of work co-written with Mutt Lange, was not lost on Kroeger last night.

"it's just absolutely humbling," Kroeger told FYIMusicNews on the red carpet. 

"When you work so hard on something - these aren't just four chords that throw themselves together. We put in great effort and time to creat what we hope will be heard as great songs. And when done, you're literally gigglng, going, 'I can't wait to play this for someone. I want someone else to feel what I'm feeling right now.'"

No doubt that the other songwriters and publishers in the 700-capacity room could relate, gathered to celebrate the vehicle that is the key to all music life: the song. 

And since SOCAN collects royalties from all over the world, that has led the PRO to another record year. Specifics include  an 11% increase in overall revenue, to $374M; a 15% increase in international royalties, to $87M; an 8% increase in domestic revenue, to $282M;  a 27% increase in Internet music licensing revenue, to $62M. All of which has resulted in a net payout of $315M to its 160,000 members.

In other words, Canadian songwriters are kicking ass...all over the world.

And lest you thought that Kroeger dominated the night, he didn't. That honour went to ATV/Sony Music Publishing Canada, represented last night by VP, David Quilico. With more than 10 winners in the night, from no-show Drake and no-show The Weeknd to no-show Shawn Mendes, Quilico should have had his own table tucked on stage somewhere  near the podium to expedite his stage returns as he collected a stack of  plaques  on behalf of his missing writers.

But those songwriter-artists who were present certainly made for an entertaining evening, as guests enjoyed a sit-down dinner of honey roasted chicken with veg, chased down with complimentary bottles of Jackson Triggs to satiate them until the post-dinner dessert and coffee bars opened.

In between award presentations were performances by the Carly Rae Jepsen/Josh Ramsay/Tavish Crowe trio, Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine, rapper Anders, a Buffy Sainte-Marie tribute featuring Whitehorse's Melissa McClelland, Josh Q and Fred Penner; Meghan Patrick with Kelly Archer, and, to cap things off, Barenaked Ladies.

The storied and decorated Sainte-Marie, author of such classics as "Until It's Time For You To Go," the Academy-Award-winning "Up Where We Belong" and the politically relevant anti-war anthem "Universal Soldier,"  remains artistically vibrant at age 78. Inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame by George Stroumboulopolous, she talked of her take on the craft of writing.

"I have so much respect for the art of the three-minute song, " Sainte-Marie told a rapt audience at the Sheraton Centre banquet. "It's like writing a newspaper article instead of a big book.  It has to be brief. It has to be focused. It needs to be engaging and it needs to be charming because that's what songwriters do."

Barenaked Ladies' co-founder Ed Robertson brought some levity to the stage in describing how he wrote the 22-second anthem to the biggest scripted TV series The Big Bang Theory, for which he recieved the Culture Impact Award.

"I told my wife, 'I'm supposed to do this conference call at 10 a.m. for a song I haven't written yet,'" he  recalled. "She said, 'Who's it with?'" "Chuck Lorre." "Chuck Lorre - Google him."  So I wrote in the shower and send it to Chuck Lorre 10 minutes before the call."

Robertson said Lorre loved the song and asked for one minor change.

"And we were done!" he exclaimed.

Another gold Robertson nugget:

"I was writing songs when it was exciting and new and when the only reason I was writing them was to impress my bandmates. Then I got to write songs when I had hits. When you were writing them to feed 50 crew guys who were depending on you, and a drummer who will not fucking stop renovating his already perfect house. And now I write songs to have fun again, and I write to impress three people - the guys in our band."

Jessie Reyez kept it real as she accepted her award for Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year, spending the last 365 days landing projects with Eminem, Calvin Harris and Sam Smith.

"I'd like to thank my parents for not freaking out when I was writing dark emo poems as. a child," Reyez quipped. "And thank God for inspiration, wherever it comes from. And for those who broke my heart and allowed me to combust on a page: Thank you, you motherf#@$%*."

There were some serious moments, too. Guitarist and producer Bill Bell gave a speech about the importance of the Unison Fund, mentioning that it was a year ago in April that he suffered a breakdown and that the Benevolent Fund helped him find his sanity, find sobriety and how it "quite literally saved my life."

On the pre-gala red carpet, songwriter Josh Ramsay, who co-wrote "Call Me Maybe" with Carly Rae Jepsen and Tavish Crowe, explained to FYIMusicNews that the biggest reward he got from the hit was helping out his ailing mother.

"If I'm totally being honest, I think the most important thing to me with that song is that my mother's not well, and I can (now) afford to take care of her," Ramsay said.

And that's the positive vibe of what great, appealing and successful can bring you: Fun, freedom and the ability to heal and help whenever you're able.

No wonder music is so potent: it's why creators should be given their due.

Here are the 2019 SOCAN Award winners:

CANADIAN SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME

Buffy Sainte-Marie

MOST PERFORMED SONGWRITER in the history of SOCAN

Chad Kroeger

MOST PERFORMED SONG in the history of SOCAN

“Call Me Maybe”
Performed by Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly Rae Jepsen/Jepsen Music Publishing

Josh Ramsay/ Regular Monkey Publishing

Tavish Crowe/Crowe Music Publishing

Universal Music Publishing Canada,

BMG Rights Management Canada Inc.

MOST PERFORMED SCREEN COMPOSER in the history of SOCAN

Jack Lenz

CULTURAL IMPACT AWARD

Ed Robertson

"Big Bang Theory"

INTERNATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Shane “Murda Beatz” Lindstrom

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Ralph Murphy

SONGWRITERS OF THE YEAR - Performer

Drake

Producer

Adam “Frank Dukes” Feeney

PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR

Red Brick Songs

POP MUSIC AWARDS

“Pray for Me”

Performed by The Weeknd & Kendrick Lamar
Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye

Martin “Doc” McKinney

Adam “Frank Dukes” Feeney

Kendrick Duckworth (ASCAP)

Anthony Tiffith (BMI)
Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd. Canada

EMI Blackwood Music Canada Ltd.

“Better Now”

Performed by Post Malone

Adam “Frank Dukes” Feeney

Kaan Gunesberk

Louis Bell (ASCAP) 

Austin Post (BMI)

Carl Rosen (BMI)

William Walsh (ASCAP)
EMI April Music Canada Ltd.

“Never Be the Same”

Performed by Camila Cabello

Adam “Frank Dukes” Feeney

Camila Cabello (BMI)

Rami Dawood (SESAC)

Jacob Olofsson (STIM)

Jonnali Parmenius (STIM)

Alexandra Yatchenko (BMI)

EMI Blackwood Music Canada Ltd.

“In My Feelings”

Performed by Drake

Aubrey Drake Graham

Noah “40” Shebib

Caresha Brownlee (ASCAP)

Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter (BMI)

Kinta Cox (ASCAP)

Stephen Garrett (ASCAP)

Orville Hall (ASCAP)

Darius Harrison (ASCAP)

Jatavia Johnson (ASCAP)

Renetta Lowe (BMI)

Adam Pigott (BMI)

Phillip Price (ASCAP)

James Scheffer (BMI)

Benjamin Workman (BMI)

Rex Zamor (BMI)
EMI April Music Canada Ltd.

“Ain’t Easy”

Performed by Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine

Elijah Woods

Jamie Fine

Camila Cabello (BMI)

Thomas Mann (PRS)

Zachary Skelton (ASCAP)

Ryan Tedder (GMR)

“In My Blood”

Performed by Shawn Mendes

Shawn Mendes/Mendes Music

Geoff Warburton/Gerty Tunes

Scott Friedman (ASCAP)

Teddy Geiger (BMI)

Sony/ATV Songs

“Jackie Chan”

Performed by Tiësto & Dzeko featuring Preme & Post Malone

Julian Dzeko

Raynford “Preme” Humphrey

Luis Raposo

Louis Bell (ASCAP)

Austin Post (BMI)

Tijs Verwest (BUMA)
Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd. Canada

“Not a Love Song”

Performed by bülow

Jamie Appleby/Blue Dream Songs

Megan Bulow/Red Riding Hood Publishing

Alyssa Reid/Wax On Wax Off Publishing

Elizabeth Lowell Boland/GalleryAC

Nathan Ferraro/ MusicHeart and Art Music,

Brenda Mullen/Hyvetown Music Publishing

Michael Wise

Karl Wolf

BMG Rights Management Canada Inc.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada

LICENSED TO PLAY AWARD

Bell Media

BREAKOUT SONGWRITER AWARD

Jessie Reyez

HAGOOD HARDY AWARD

Ernesto Cervini

JAN V. MATEJCEK NEW CLASSICAL MUSIC AWARD

Vincent Ho

SCREEN COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

Keith Power

FOLK / ROOTS MUSIC AWARD

Colter Wall

DANCE MUSIC AWARDS

“One Kiss”

Performed by Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa
Jessie Reyez

Dua Lipa (ASCAP)

Adam Wiles (ASCAP)

BMG Rights Management Canada Inc.

“Promises”

Performed by Calvin Harris & Sam Smith
Jessie Reyez

Samuel Smith (PRS)

Adam Wiles (ASCAP)

BMG Rights Management Canada Inc.

“Body”

Performed by Loud Luxury featuring Brando
Joseph Depace

Andrew Fedyk

Nicholas Henriques

Cassio Lopes (ASCAP)

Marlon McClain (ASCAP)

MRD – Music Revenue Data

Ultra International Music Publishing (Canada)

RAP MUSIC AWARDS

“God’s Plan”

Performed by Drake

Aubrey Drake Graham

Noah “40” Shebib

Matthew “Boi-1da” Samuels

Daveon Jackson (BMI)

Brock Korsan (BMI)

Ronald La Tour (ASCAP)

Sandra Gale (ASCAP)
EMI April Music Canada Ltd.

Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd. Canada

Sony/ATV Tunes

“Nice for What”

Performed by Drake

Aubrey Drake Graham

Noah “40” Shebib

Shane “Murda Beatz” Lindstrom

EMI April Music Canada Ltd

Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd. Canada

Warner Chappell Music Canada Ltd.

“Call Out My Name”

Performed by The Weeknd

Adam “Frank Dukes” Feeney

Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye

 Nicolas Jaar (BMI)
EMI April Music Canada Ltd

 Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd. Canada

“OTW”

Performed by Khalid, Ty Dolla $ign & 6lack
Anthony “Nineteen85” Jefferies

Tyrone Griffin Jr.

Idan Kalai

Brian Morgan

Khalid Robinson (BMI)

Ricardo Valentine

EMI April Music Canada Ltd.

“No Limit”

Performed by G-Eazy feat A$AP Rocky and Cardi B
Matthew “Boi 1da” Samuels

Belcalis Almanzar (ASCAP)

Jay Fort (BMI)

Gerald Gillum (ASCAP)

Edgar Machuca (BMI)

Rakim Mayers (BMI)

Klenord Raphael (ASCAP)

Allen Ritter (ASCAP)

Earl Taylor (ASCAP)

Jordan Thorpe (ASCAP)

Sony/ATV Music

R&B MUSIC AWARDS

“Best Part”

Performed by Daniel Caesar featuring H.E.R.
Ashton Simmonds

Daniel Caesar

Matthew Burnett

Jordan Evans

Riley Bell

Gabriella Wilson
Robinson Heart Publishing

Sony ATV Songs

COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS

“Good Together”

Performed by James Barker Band
James Barker

Gavin Slate

Travis Wood

ole

“Walls Come Down”

Performed by Meghan Patrick

Meghan Patrick/Iron Songbird Publishing,

Kelly Archer/Jackoby Songs, ole, Downtown Music Canada

Justin Weaver (ASCAP)

“Who’s Gonna Love You”

Performed by Tebey

Tebey Ottoh

Ryan Lafferty (BMI)
BMG Rights Management Canada Inc.

ROCK MUSIC AWARDS

“T-Shirt”

Performed by The Beaches

Leandra Earl

Eliza Enman-McDaniel

Jordan Miller

Kylie Miller

Nicole Morier (ASCAP)

“S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun)”

Performed by The Glorious Sons

Brett Emmons

Jay Emmons

Chris Huot

Adam Paquette

Chris Koster

Tom Peyton (BMI)

Shannon Poole (BMI)

Ryan Spraker (BMI)

Frederik Thaae (KODA)

Black Box Songs

BMG Rights Management Canada Inc.

“The Mountain”

Performed by Three Days Grace

Gavin Brown/ Inside Pocket Inc., 

Neil Sanderson/Purple Planes Publishing

Barry Stock/ Mean Music Publishing Inc

Brad Walst/ Riot Express Publishing Inc,

Matthew Walst/ Baby Cats Music Inc.,

Johnny Andrews (ASCAP)

CCS Rights Management

Wixen Music Publishing Inc.

Hyvetown Music Publishing

DOMESTIC TV MUSIC AWARDS - FICTION

Murdoch Mysteries

Robert Carli
Shaftesbury Music

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada

Heartland

Keith Power

Seven24 Films Inc.

Dynamo Films Inc.

DOMESTIC TV MUSIC AWARDS – NON-FICTION

Border Security: Canada’s Front Line

Greg Fisher

Derek Treffry

eOne TV

Unscripted BC Inc.

ole

DOMESTIC TV MUSIC AWARDS – ANIMATED

Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood

James Chapple

Graeme Cornies

David Kelly

Brian Pickett

Super Why

David Conlon

Peter Coulman

Steven D’Angelo

Rocco Gagliese

Terry Tompkins

ole

ACHIEVEMENT IN MADE-FOR-TV FILM MUSIC

My Daughter’s Disgrace

Michael Nielson

ROP Musique

Newlywed and Dead

Michael Nielson

ROP Musique

INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC AWARDS

Trolls

Jeffrey Morrow

Jean Beck (SESAC)

Universal Music Publishing Canada

Storks

Jeff Danna

INTERNATIONAL TV SERIES MUSIC AWARDS

Paw Patrol

James Chapple

Graeme Cornies

David Kelly

Brian Pickett

Big Bang Theory

Ed Robertson

ACHIEVEMENT IN FEATURE FILM MUSIC

Maudie

Michael Timmins

Trolls

Jeffrey Morrow

Jean Beck (SESAC)

Universal Music Publishing Canada

Sportsnet Central

Stephan Moccio/Sing Little Penguin

Murray Fleming
Rogers Sportsnet Inc.,

Universal Music Publishing Canada