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Hook(ist) is a music co-­‐creation platform for celebrated artists/bands and their fans that revolves around a collaborative songwriting experience. It is a series of month-­‐long, online songwriting EVENTS that create a much-­‐needed new income stream for artists and allow them to engage with their fans in a ground-­‐breaking way that is actually RELEVANT to their art and meaningful to their fans.

Below are the 1st two songs written and recorded using this type of fan engagement and collaboration. "DEJA VU" was the inspiration for "Doppleganger"  and "OUTERSPACE" was  the inspiration for "Disposable Words" . Both songs feature and were completed by 10x platinum, 3x Grammy nominated, Crash Test Dummies' frontman Brad Roberts.



For Immediate Release September 4, 2015 

LEGENDARY SONGWRITER, PAUL WILLIAMS, WRITES ANTHEM WITH FANS

Collaborative songwriting platform, Hookist, crowd-sources lyrics to create definitive anthem for recovery community

New York, NY, September 4, 2015– Today, Facing Addiction and collaborative songwriting platform, Hookist, launch a ground-breaking songwriting partnership in which Oscar & Grammy winning songwriter, Paul Williams will collaborate with the addiction and recovery community to write the definitive anthem for recovery. Then, on October 4th, Unite To Face Addiction will hold a concert and rally on the National Mall headlined by Steven Tyler, Sheryl Crow and Joe Walsh designed to ignite the recovery movement and recognize the 85 million Americans impacted by addiction.

Utilizing Hookist’s cutting-edge songwriting technology, Williams, president of the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP), will partner with Kasim Sulton (Todd Rundgren, Meat Loaf, Hall & Oates, et. al.) to create the first ever crowd-sourced anthem, meant to serve as a call to action and celebration of recovery.

Williams said, “If you’re going to do something this monumental, you’ve got to have a song to go with it. You need an anthem for people to sing, and that’s why I’m here. I’m a songwriter, but I’m not going to write this song. We have a beautiful melody, but we want the words to” come from the recovery community or anyone whose life has been touched by addiction, which is most Americans.

“Hookist will help move the addiction issue into the light by bringing together respected musicians who, themselves are in recovery, with those affected by this national dilemma. Together, we will help the healing process, bring an end to the stigma and share the joyous journey of recovery”, said Don Fertman, Subway CDO and member of the UTFA Event Host Committee.

Hookist will donate the profits from the collaboration, and, the proceeds from the song will provide long-term income for Facing Addiction, a 501(c)3 organization, in the same vein as the seminal “We Are The World”.

Each day, fans submit 1-2 line lyric ideas based on the theme of “recovery from addiction.” The community can comment and vote on the lyrics being submitted, boosting the best and most popular to the top of “The Charts” and “Popular” list. Williams & Sulton will choose the lines they think tell the story best, announcing them in periodic videos where they will also offer kudos and feedback, give insight into how they see the song evolving musically, and occasionally live-jam the song-in-progress.

Sonic Scoop called Hookist, “A glorious new use of the web to create art with great music artists” and 3x Grammy nominee Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies said, ”Hookist is a break-through concept for virtual artistic collaboration and a unique opportunity for me to connect with fans and songwriters - many of whom evolved as writers before my eyes. Everyone submitted meaningful lyrics from the heart and it was a privilege to be able to share my knowledge with people who really and authentically want to participate – and the song we wrote as a community is great!”

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For more information on Hookist, go to
www.Hookist.com


Fan Lyrics By:
Jerry Brace
Robert S. Hall
Ray Lonsdale

Sarah Lopusnikova
Daniel Evans
Brad Roberts

Doppelganger

A snapping twig, the blowing breeze

Darkness brings, a vague unease
The smell of rains, a flash of light
The scene is lit, turns back to night

A distant shout, of words that seem
Like dialogue, in a forgotten dream
Static signal, far and fleeting
A broken record, left repeating

Doppelgänger, known and nameless
Show yourself to me
Phantom, foe, forever faceless
Dark uncertainty


These memories, don’t feel like mine
 A diary that  got left behind 
Now ink runs, it starts to rain

Illegible, just a stain

A snapping twig, the blowing breeze
Darkness brings, a vague unease
The smell of rain, a flash of light
The scene is lit, turns back to night


Doppelgänger, known and nameless
Show yourself to me
Phantom, foe, forever faceless
Dark uncertainty  



Music By:
Brad Roberts

Recorded and Mixed By:
Terry Derkach

Fan Lyrics By:
Jerry Brace
Tod Hughes
Brian Hassett
Walker Todd Davis
Daniel Evans
Jessica Delfino
Shefik
Mary Anne Kent
Hamish Clarke
Jared Lekites
Dougalicious
Brad Roberts


Disposable Words

Some of us are pink, some are other colors 

All are born from gas clumps, call them our mothers
Some of are us are brown, and come from different folks 

Our DNA distinct, fueling cosmic hopes

We started long ago, painting desert caves

Building to the skies, digging out our graves
Made temples where we could honor our gods
  
Performing rituals, to better our odds

When the time comes to boldly go
Even if the voice is whispering
I hope I’ll be the first to know
I hope it tells me everything
With disposable words and reusable genes
We’ll live beyond our means

But now our odds grow slim, the planet torn asunder

Our science so advanced, we flirt with cosmic blunder
The gods are not responding, our temples mere facades 

Our odds have not changed, our beliefs were a fraud

I thought I saw a falling star and so I made a wish

But it was just a satellite, and I am just its dish
I wondered if these skies would be where we embark

A tired out humanity in a modern Noah’s ark

When the time comes to boldly go
Even if the voice is whispering
I hope I’ll be the first to know
I hope it tells me everything.
With disposable words and reusable genes
We’ll live our lives beyond our means

Thingamajigs to toil less, industrial revolution

Darwin unraveled all the rest, beastly evolution
We cast a spell of ones and zeroes

Tossed out leaders, welcomed heroes

Teaspoons in the ocean, dust among the clouds 

No cure or magic potion; just a restless, hungry crowd
Death and resurrection, do they add up to the same
Or have we spent our equity, playing some cosmic game?

When the time comes to boldly go
Even if the voice is whispering
I hope I’ll be the first to know
I hope it tells me everything.
With disposable words and reusable genes
We’ll live our lives beyond our means
The jig is up, the strings are snipped
We are set free, but without a script

Music By:
Brad Roberts

Recorded and Mixed By:
Terry Derkach