Writing for Cher with Paul Barry

A song of mine was pitched for Cher's 2013 album Closer to the Truth. It was a few years old by then and already doing well for my band, but now Cher was knocking at the door. Her team wanted it on the record, with some changes to fit her style.

The challenge

Cher and her team needed parts rewritten with her structures in mind, so we were paired with Paul Barry (if you don't know him, look him up: he's a living pop legend). We spent two days on every detail of the song, getting the most out of the chords, structure, arrangement, harmony and lyrics.

The result

Working on this with Paul Barry was amazing. The song had been part of my band's live set for years, so we couldn't imagine anything else coming out of it, but Paul has the ears of an old-school pro. He suggested sections and improvements all over, and between us we turned it into an even more interesting electro-pop song.