Songwriter Interview: Pam Sheyne

Pam Sheyne

The following is an interview with Pam Sheyne (pronounced “Shane”), co-writer of “Wonderland”, “The Extra Mile” and “One” from Pokémon 2000.

Where are you from, and how did you get into writing music?

I was born in Auckland, New Zealand and relocated to the UK when I was seventeen years old. I started out singing and playing guitar in a hotel band in London then eventually moved into doing session work and touring. I toured as a backup singer for the Pet Shop Boys in 1991 which was an amazing experience but a real cross roads for me as I didn’t want to continue being on the road. In 1992 I decided to concentrate on writing songs full-time and got my first publishing deal. (My husband Nigel Rush was my first publisher which is how we met). I wanted to be an artist but I started having success with songwriting first and realised that it was more suited to me. I am most definitely at home being in the studio writing and producing.

What were some things you worked on before Pokémon 2000? 

I love collaborating and particularly enjoy working with a producer and artist in the room. In the mid-90’s I teamed up with Eliot Kennedy (Spice Girls/Bryan Adams/Take That) and we co-wrote/produced for Rebbie Jackson (Michael’s big sister). She came to London to work with us after we recorded “Yours Faithfully” for her in LA. My first big success in the UK was with an artist called Billie Piper and a song called “She Wants You” which went to No. 3 in the charts and from there I went on to work with a bunch of acts like Louise who was in girl band Eternal, Norwegian girl duo M2M and Haley Westenra from my home country New Zealand. I started doing more regular writing trips to LA, New York, Nashville and Stockholm to broaden my network and eventually moved to LA in 2008.

How did you get involved with writing songs for the movie?

It was on a writing trip to LA that I had a meeting with Darren Higman at Atlantic Records for the first time. Darren mentioned he was looking for songs for the upcoming movie soundtrack and he asked me if I wanted to write something for it. When I went back to London I called writer/producer Matt Rowe as we had been working together on a few projects. Darren sent us the visuals to write for one spot in the movie.

What was your experience with Pokémon prior to this?

I had never watched Pokémon before and had only seen the huge impact it had on kids and how popular it was all over the world. 

What was the writing process like?

Matt and I wrote “Wonderland” and “One” specifically for the film and soundtrack. I remember us sitting in the studio with a blank page and watching the film without music for the first time with these cute little characters all falling down these tunnels and thinking, “I love working to picture, this is going to be a blast!”

How did “The Extra Mile” get written?

“The Extra Mile” was written with Tina Arena and Andrew Frampton originally for the Sydney Olympic Games as Tina was asked to sing a song at the opening ceremony. She didn't end up singing the song at the games but Laura recorded it for her Italian and Spanish albums and then it additionally made the Pokémon Soundtrack album.

Were the songs intended to be used in the movie, or just inspired by it?

“Wonderland” was written for a specific scene in the movie and “One” was just written for the soundtrack.  “Wonderland” was not used in the film itself however because there were publishing clearance issues.

Two of the songs (“Wonderland” and “One”) have Spanish versions. Were you involved in either of those?

My husband and I flew to New York to produce the vocal with Angela Via at the Sony Studios (it was actually originally intended for Dream Street, but was changed at the last minute). We then flew down to LA to produce the Spanish version with the translator Jorge Piloto, and then flew back to New York to mix full length versions of English and Spanish versions. Vocals for “One” were produced by David Foster-he added to Matt’s production and produced the Spanish vocals (translated by Claudia Brandt) with Denisse Lara at 143 Studios near LA.

Was an Italian version of “The Extra Mile” ever considered? Also, what was recording that song like?

There was talk about doing an Italian version but they wanted it to be only English language songs on the record for some reason. Nigel, Ben Robbins and I flew to Milan to produce Laura Pausini’s vocals. It was such a pleasure to work with her and she was very detail-oriented and such a trooper- we spent hours getting the pronunciation right. The mix was done at RG Jones in Wimbledon in the UK.

What else have you written?

I co-wrote “Genie in a Bottle” for Christina Aguilera, “He Loves You Not” for Dream, “Irresistible” for Jessica Simpson, “When It Happens To You” for Corinne Bailey Rae, “You Get Me” for Seal, “Old Blue Jeans” for Miley Cyrus (as Hannah Montana) and “For Love Alone” for Cece Winans. Others include songs by Demi Lovato, the Backstreet Boys, and Lindsay Lohan.

You recently spent some time in Europe teaching music composition. What was that like?

I was asked to mentor at a songwriting retreat with and for my friend Martin Sutton (The Songwriting Academy which is based in London) at the end of May this year. Martin has been doing this for a few years now and on this occasion we were four mentors and 32 songwriters. We didn’t teach composition as such but did masterclasses on the craft of songwriting and lent our experience on the business side of it. It was a week-long camp in co-writing sessions with the songwriters each day and because we were all staying in the same place we also got to socialise and hang out so it was a lot of fun. I have also been mentoring a lot of artists from South Africa and some have travelled to LA to work with me over the past couple of years. I am looking at doing more of this in the future as I enjoy working with young artists and teaching them some tricks in writing songs. Watch this space!

Where can folks find your web site, and do you have any social media that you post on?

My website is www.pamsheyne.com, and I’m also on Facebook and Twitter.

Special thanks go to Pam’s husband Nigel Rush for helping verify information for this article.

New music for the week of 8/10/2015

Three new songs this week. Two from the Hoopa movie:

-It's Still Early
-Hoopa's Also a Part of the Family

And one more track:

-Mt. Coronet

This is a jazz rendition of the song from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. You can check it out here:



Happy listening!

New Pokemon TCG Ancient Origins interview following tomorrow's Top 25

At a recent Pokemon TCG Ancient Origins Prerelease, I had a chance to interview a player about a couple of cards in the set. We discussed the cards mechanically, as well as artistically. That interview will debut following tomorrow's Top 25 Countdown, which starts at 4pm Eastern/3pm Central.

If you like, you can also get it here:

Or, if you want the audio-only experience:



Cards discussed:

-Mega Tyranitar EX
-Gardevoir
-Gyarados (Prerelease Promo)

Transcript:

Steven: Hi, I’m Steven Reich, here at Pegasus Games in Madison, WI, at one of the Pokémon Trading Card Game Ancient Origins Prereleases. I’m here with Joel Henry, who is one of the participants in the Masters Division of today’s prerelease tournament. And Joel, we’ve picked out a couple cards, this is what we usually do, and we’re going to talk about them.

So, the first one you’ve picked out is Mega Tyranitar EX. Obviously, it will evolve from the regular Tyranitar EX. It’s got one of those Ancient Traits. What does it do, and what else do you like about the card?

Joel: The Ancient Trait is a [Theta] Double, so it allows you to put two Pokémon tools on it. Which, definitely will be a big help. And, the attack, Destroyer King, it does 60 more damage for each damage counter on your opponents active Pokémon. So, I think that can be a huge advantage just to knock out Pokémon, just one after the other.

Steven: Yeah, I could see this potentially working as sort of a sweeper in some sort of a spread deck, potentially. The main thing it has going against it though, is its attack requires four energy there. What kind of strategies do you think people might use if they want to use this card in a deck to sort of get that much energy in there?

Joel: The Double Colorless Energies would help it out a lot.

Steven: Yeah. Mega Turbo is also potentially useful here. But, only time will tell. The next card he’s picked out is the Gardevoir from this set. We’ve seen Mega Gardevoir before, but this is a regular old Gardevoir. It’s got a couple different things on it. What do you like about it?

Joel: I like the ability, which is Bright Heal. So, once you’re in your turn, you can heal 20 damage to it. Also, the attack, Telekinesis, which does 50 damage to one of your opponent’s Pokémon. It’s 3 Colorless. So, I think that can be a huge advantage. For example, if you have a Fairy/Psychic deck, or something, you can easily stack it up and attack with it.

Steven: Yeah, it potentially is splashable in some cases, as well. But, with 3 Colorless Energy cost. Of course, Bright Heal, that will stack if you have multiple ones out. So, that’s something to watch out for. Alright, the next, and last, card we’ve picked out is Gyarados. It also has Theta Double. This is actually the prerelease promo, if you’re going to one of these prerelease tournaments. So, it’s not too hard to find. You really like the art, don’t you?

Joel: Yeah, definitely.

Steven: What do you like about it? What qualities to it really stand out?

Joel: It looks hand-drawn. So, I really like that about it. It’s also got like a little fisherman in the corner, trying to catch it. So, it adds a little humor to it.

Steven: They definitely put some effort in there. It may see some play. The full retaliation lets you do damage based on how many damage counters are on your Magikarp in play. Which, is a pretty risky play. So, it may not see too much tournament play. But, the art is absolutely stellar on this one. Definitely, at least, a good choice for the prerelease promo, if you ask me. Alright, well, thank you very much, Joel. This has been Steven Reich from Pegasus Games in Madison, WI, at the Pokémon Trading Card Game Ancient Origins Prerelease.

New music for the week of 8/3/2015

As the recent unboxing may have suggested, this week we get our first music from the eighteenth Pokemon movie:

-Super Hoopa Appears
-Legendary Pokemon

Happy listening!

Unboxing the Pokemon Movie 18 Score

The score to the latest Pokemon movie may not come with a poster or a Tretta chip, but there are still some neat things to look at.

Pokemon: The Johto Journeys - The Complete Collection Releases November 10th

Amazon has recently put up a listing for Pokemon: The Johto Journeys - The Complete Collection to be released on DVD November 10th. "The Johto Journeys" is the third season of the Pokemon anime, which originally aired in the US from 2000-2001. This set follows the Orange Islands collection released earlier this year.

Review: Roaring All Stars + Tweedia

Following up on last week's unboxing, this week I do a review of the recently released Japanese Pokemon singles. Do these songs from the 18th movie measure up favorably?

Transcript:

Hi, folks. Steven here with a review of Roaring All Stars and Tweedia, the two new Japanese Pokémon music singles. In case you don’t know, last weekend I put up a video of an unboxing, which I recommend you definitely take a look at. I’ll put a card in here. But, the thing is, they come with some really interesting stuff, you know. The Pokémon editions of those singles. And, really, do want you to take a look at that. Here, we’ll be just doing a review. And, just so you know, I’m not claiming to be a professional music reviewer. I don’t have any training or anything like that. But, give it my best shot here. And, I should also point out, in case you didn’t know, I have very limited Japanese knowledge. So, I’m not really appreciating these songs on a lyrical level, so much as just listening to them as music and sort of judging things there. So, with that said, let’s go on to the review.

Let’s start off with Roaring All Stars. In case you didn’t know, this is the current ending theme to the Pokémon TV show in Japan. It’s also associated with the short from the 18th movie. The first time I listened to it, I really didn’t like it all that much. It just seemed a little dizzy and loud. It really just did not strike my fancy, I guess you could say. But, I thought about, what is it about this song that makes me not really like it? And, what I did is I thought, maybe it’s too loud. It might be percussion and instruments. So, what I did is I went into Audacity and I took the regular version, instrumental version, lined them up and made it so that the instrumental version would cancel out the regular version. And, I just sort of played with the volume and stuff like that to get some of the instruments removed. And, it actually struck me a lot better there. I’m not sure exactly what it was. Maybe the vocals started to come out more and that’s what I like. Because, I think Little Glee Monster did a good job singing it. That may have been just enough to make me appreciate it a little bit more. It was kind of interesting. And, as a result-this is not currently on the station, yet-but, I am experimenting with releveling it and seeing what I can do there to make it, maybe, a little bit more radio friendly. At least, in my opinion.

The only other real criticism I have of this song-I think it’s good overall, especially, like I said, with the releveling to bring up the vocals a little bit more-is that there’s this speed up sequence towards the end, where it sort of repeats and then gets faster and faster. The song’s kind of over at that point. I think we could cut out maybe one or two of those and the song might be a little bit structurally better for it. Otherwise, like I said, first impression wasn’t that great, but I think it’s a little bit better in my mind now. So, definitely glad to hear some of that.

Let’s move over to Tweedia, which is the ending song to the 18th Pokémon movie in Japan. It actually kind of reminds me, now that I’ve listened to it a couple times, of ONE from movie 12. You may remember, that was the Shaymin movie, in case you’re forgetting. But, that was the Japanese ending song. And, they have kind of similar, I guess you could say, space with instruments sound. Where they have the vocals, of course, and then there’s sort of this ambient— ONE uses more strings, whereas Tweedia uses strings, but also there’s a piano part, and they both have drums and all that stuff.

Overall, I would say I like ONE better. I think it has better flow and a more interesting melody, and it’s more catchy. Definitely more energetic. And, at the same time though, I don’t feel like Tweedia is redundant or not needed, or something you don’t need to really care about. I think it’s still worth listening to. Tweedia is on the station right now. We’ll see what folks think of it. In any case, I don’t have a whole lot else to say about Tweedia. That’s sort of the main point of comparison I could come up with. Not too much that really stands out, not much that really detracts from it either. I think that it’s an overall good song.

But, of course, part of the point of putting this video up, I want to know what you think. Do you like both songs? Do you have similar criticisms? Do you have different criticisms? Please, let me know. Post a comment. Or, give us an email. And, like I said, if you listen to this station, go ahead and rate the tracks that are on there. It really helps me determine which tracks stay around and get promoted, and stuff like that. Alright, folks. Thanks.

Pokémon VGC US Nationals 2015: Seniors Winner Interview

Ben Piercy

The following is an interview with Ben Piercy, winner of the Seniors Division of this year’s Pokémon VGC US Nationals.

Where are you from?
I’m Canadian, from Calgary, Alberta.

How did you get into Pokémon in general, and competitive battling in specific?
I started Pokémon when I switched schools before the start of grade four, where many of the kids on the school bus had one of the early generation four games (Diamond/Pearl/Platinum). I would spend most bus rides watching the other kids play, until I got my own DS and Pokémon Pearl for my birthday. As for competitive battling, I knew I wanted to try it after watching the 2013 World Championships online. The thought of playing for a crowd excited me, and the prospect of having actual commentators and interviews seemed interesting.

What was the team you used at nationals?
My team at nationals was Mega Salamence, Focus Sash Breloom, Expert Belt Scizor, Sitrus Berry Volcarona, Choice Scarf Latios, and Life Orb Nidoqueen.

Why did you choose your uncommon Pokémon?
The problem with common Pokémon in VGC is that opposing teams become very intent on working to find ways to reliably beat them. The solution to this, in my opinion, is to use obscure Pokémon that are still competitive when run properly. Nidoqueen is a good example, as it has tons of potential, but still sees very little use. Opposing teams will have no pre-planned counters to my Nidoqueen, and oftentimes they are completely unprepared to face off against it-most opponents won’t remember base stats for these Pokémon going into battle, and I’ve also had more than one opponent tell me during the game that they forgot Nidoqueen’s types (Ground/Poison) and thus can’t predict its move set or know which types are super-effective against it.

What was your overall strategy for the finals?
After seeing his team, I knew that I immediately had to target his Breloom. Breloom knows Spore, and should be faster than four of my Pokémon. It also often carries Focus Sash, meaning it can’t be taken out in one hit. I decided he’d recognize Breloom was important and send it out as a lead in game one. I was able to take it out from game one before it could get any serious damage off, so I decided going into game two that he wouldn’t lead Breloom again, so I sent out Nidoqueen and Volcarona, which had a bad matchup against Breloom, but can take out any combination of his other five. Luckily I was correct, as he led Kangaskhan and Thundurus, without using Breloom at all.

Are there any improvements you might make if you used this team again?
One of my Latios’ moves was Heal Pulse, which wasn’t helpful. Not only did I never use it in the tournament, I never even used it in practice. The move I wanted was Draco Meteor, but I didn’t have time to acquire it in-game, considering I had to play through Omega Ruby just a few days before to even get Latios at all. I also should have replaced Salamence’s Dragon Claw with Dragon Dance (a fact I realized about a month before nationals). The only problem is that Dragon Dance is an egg move for Salamence, and I decided I would rather just use my Dragon Claw Salamence instead of breeding for and raising a new one with Dragon Dance.

Unboxing Roaring All-Stars + Tweedia CDs

Earlier this week, I had a chance to unbox "Roaring All-Stars" and "Tweedia",the two latest Pokemon CD singles from Japan. In addition to the CDs themselves, there are also a number of extras included with the music:

New music for the week of 7/13/2015-Bonus Edition!

One more new song:

-Tweedia

This is the ending theme for the Japanese version of the 18th movie.

Happy listening!