{"id":495091,"date":"2026-06-11T23:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T23:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495091\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T23:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T23:26:18","slug":"songwriting-is-easy-espresso-hitmaker-julian-bunettas-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495091\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Songwriting Is Easy!’: ‘Espresso’ Hitmaker Julian Bunetta’s Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWith hits under his belt like Sabrina Carpenter<\/a>\u2019s \u201cEspresso,\u201d Teddy Swims\u2019 \u201cLose Control,\u201d Gracie Abrams\u2019 \u201cThat\u2019s So True\u201d and One Direction\u2019s \u201cDrag Me Down\u201d and \u201cBest Song Ever,\u201d Julian Bunetta<\/a> has emerged as one of the most successful and influential producer-songwriters of this era \u2014 a status that has landed him on several Variety Hitmakers lists<\/a> and was recognized Wednesday by the National Music Publishers Association<\/a>, which honored him with its Non-Performing Songwriter Icon award at its annual membership meeting at New York\u2019s Lincoln Center.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrue to his craft, Bunetta \u2014 who comes from a musical family and is managed by his brother \u2014\u00a0stepped up with a speech for the ages on the life of a non-performing songwriter, who might work with superstars and have Grammy Awards on the shelf but rarely gets the spotlight for themselves.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe certainly got his flowers on this day: Amber Mark sang a soulful version of \u201cLose Control\u201d in Bunetta\u2019s honor, accompanied by two guitarists: Jaco Caraco and Bunetta\u2019s longtime friend and collaborator (and former roommate) John Ryan, who gave a gracious and grateful induction basically describing him as a big brother.<\/p>\n

\n\tBunetta began his speech by saying with a laugh, \u201cI\u2019m gonna leave my sunglasses on, because that\u2019s what all my favorite producers do,\u201d and then\u00a0asked for some audience participation: Every time he gestured to the audience \u2014 which was filled with songwriters, artists and the very top executives in the publishing world \u2014 we were cued to say \u201cSONGWRITING IS EASY.\u201d The audience, which knew all too well the irony of that statement, joined in with relish.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat speech follows below in full:<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSongwriting is easy. It\u2019s only notes and words. It\u2019s a skill that can be learned like any other craft. Songwriters know this. The more you write, the better you get \u2014 simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t(All) \u201cSongwriting is easy!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRejection is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tWatching years of songs go nowhere is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tWatching songs you think are the best you have ever written get released and do absolutely nothing is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdmitting to yourself the song was not good enough is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tLying awake at night wondering if your songs will ever be successful is hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t(All) \u201cSongwriting is easy!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTrusting your gut is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tTelling the truth is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tFighting for your idea at the risk of disturbing the peace in the room is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsking people to stay and rewrite something when everyone wants to go home is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tGetting people back in a room to keep working on something is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tFinding the time is hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t(All) \u201cSongwriting is easy!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPutting all your eggs in one basket is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tLosing a project is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tRejection is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tStaying the course is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tPersistence is hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut if one day you woke up, and you had parents like mine\u2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if you had a brother and manager like mine\u2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if you had a writing partner like mine\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if you had a wife like mine\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if you had daughters like mine\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if you had publishing partners like mine\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if you had mentors like mine\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if you had lawyers like mine\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if you had collaborators like mine\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you had a big family like mine\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tIf one day you woke up and had all that, I guarantee you would also say that \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t(All) \u201cSongwriting is easy!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With hits under his belt like Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s \u201cEspresso,\u201d Teddy Swims\u2019 \u201cLose Control,\u201d Gracie Abrams\u2019 \u201cThat\u2019s So True\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,212367,278,1834],"class_list":["post-495091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-julian-bunetta","tag-music","tag-sabrina-carpenter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}