#havenotz

I had planned to spend 3 weeks in China this Christmas, but honestly, I was much more interested in building this new project. I cancelled my trip. My Mom STILL thinks I'm nuts, but she's used to me.

I brought the rough version of Party Life home with me from L.A. I felt it was a hit record, but didn't want to spend any money unless I had confirmation from others that they also thought it was a hit. I played it for friends, radio promoters, DJs, and a few rapper friends. It's a hit!! Even the guys who HATE pop music said "Wendy, you've got one!"

I took the song to Roc City and asked them to write me a hit record. They did (as they always do for superstars). [sidenote: see http:www.PTFAO.com if you don't know who these songwriters are. They are amazing artists and even more amazing hit songwriters!!]

The more I listened to the song on the way home, the more excited I got. I sent the song to Sardar, and he hated the second verse. He loved what they'd done to it (simplied it, put in catchy words and phrases, and mentioned booze). He spoke to the guy and asked them to make changes. They tried but just couldn't make the song any better. They thought it was a hit just as it was (it was, but the second verse was too simple and too ABC for a skilled rapper like Sardar to accept).

I asked local 'Hood and Blues R&B writer J Harden to take a stab at it. He wrote a great party song. The label loved it, but the artist and his crew didn't love it.

The day after New Year's, I was on the first plane to L.A. to hit the studio with Sardar to record the new version of Party Life. We still had no second verse, so we brought his crew into the studio to help out. They developed a second verse right there on the spot. Aces.

All in all, it was a great experience. Within 30 days we changed a brand, renamed everything, hired a new team, created a hit song (it was a hit to begin with, we just made it more poppy), launched a project, wrote a plan and budgeted the costs, and began moving forward to secure radio.