About Me
Barbara Griffin is a songwriter, composer, producer and keyboard player signed to Sony/ATV. She studied classical piano (w. Gottfried Bittner) and organ (w. Otto Burba) at the Hoch Konservatorium in Frankfurt, Germany and then Piano performance (w. Judith Clarke) and Composition (w. Jack Body) at Victoria University.Barbara fronted a jazz quartet for a while before joining/forming a band called 'the Holidaymakers', whose single 'Sweet Lovers' topped the annual singles chart in NZ, out-selling the likes of U2 and Michael Jackson - no mean feat for an indie self-funded release, which the band tape-leased to indie label Pagan Records after being passed on by all the majors.The song, 'Sweet Lovers' was number 1 for six weeks, and was in the top 20 for three months. That year, the band won seven NZ music awards, scooping every category they were nominated in; Best Band, Best Single, Best Video, Most Promising Female Vocalist, Engineer of the Year, Producer of the Year, Most Promising Male Vocalist. Barbara co-wrote the band's follow-up single, which reached number 6 on the charts. The Holidaymakers also played support for U2 and BB King on the 'Love Comes To Town' tour in NZ.Hundreds of recording sessions followed. Barbara was hired for anything from singing, playing, arranging, programming to ghost-writing and composing, and learned her craft in the studio working with most of NZ's most prominent screen composers and producers such as Rob Winch, Soundtrax (Ian Morris, James Hall, Stacey Edwards and Callie Blood) and Wamo (Randall Brandon and John O'Connor), and Marmalade Studios (Nigel Stone, Simon Lister), in the process recording and often later touring with most of NZ's top artists.
Much fun was had playing with Annie Crummer supporting Michael Jackson, Sting (tour) k.d. lang (tour), and Paul McCartney.This led to songwriting with artists Annie Crummer (Warner) and Jon Stevens (Columbia) as well as a stint on the Harry M. Miller production of Jesus Christ Superstar (Deni Hines, Jon Stevens), where Barbara was hand-picked by David Hirschfelder to take over his role as keyboards and deputy conductor.After Superstar, Barbara moved to LA with Jon Stevens for 7 months, where she recorded Jon's album with legendary producer and Columbia Senior Vice President Randy Jackson (American Idol) for 7 months, with a host of session legends dropping in, including Virgil Donati, David Ryan Harris, and Greg Phillinganes.On her return from LA, Barbara signed publishing with Sony/ATV as a writer/producer. Barbara has worked with (co-written with/for, and/or recorded and produced) artists as diverse as Joe Cocker, Delta Goodrem (Sony) Nessa Morgan (BMG), Annie Crummer (Warner), Jon Stevens (Columbia), Leah Haywood (Sony), David Campbell (Sony), Stella-One-Eleven (Cindy Ryan), Jacqui Hunt (Single Gun Theory), Peta Morris, Jason Everly (US), Jordan Hill (US), myspace.com success story Chenelle, Tammin Sursok (Sony), Don Walker, Phil Buckle, Deni Hines, Marcia Hines, The Rockmelons, Ramesh (SongZu), Tom Snow (US), Robert Palmer (Pussycat Dolls 'Stickwitu' writer), Fingaz (UK ex Big Brovas) and many others.Barbara has written TV themes (Channel 9's 'New McDonald's Farm', now into it's third series), had a top 5 Popstars cut in Europe, sung a movie theme (Peter Jackson's 'Meet the Feebles') and her songs have had various synchs in US TV shows, ads and movies (Paperback Hero, Occasional Coarse Language), composed award-nominated telemovie film scores (The Love of Lionel's Life) and has long since recouped her first Sony deal, signing again for another term.Barbara says "As I had my 15 seconds early on, these days I'm in it for the joy of playing, writing, recording, and performing. I'm happiest 'creating' behind the scenes in various ways, leaving the promo to those who love the limelight and have the energy required to work their record. For me the best bit is writing the song. I love co-writing, I think of it basically as 'focussed jamming' which is the best fun.""Co-writing, for me, is an exciting synergy that's a different process and magic with everyone I work with. Ideally, cowriters can bring things out of eachother that may not have happened if each writer had worked on their own. I have met some artists who don't enjoy cowriting as they feel it's a compromise that dilutes their vision, but I see it more synchronistically. Personally, I love collaboration, and thrive on it. I think a good co-writer writing with and for an artist should try to get on that artist's wavelength and enhance it, you're effectively in service to the artist, as it's their name on the record not yours. Anyway, this is what I try to do and how I approach it and what makes it fresh for me every time. There's a certain accountability that happens when someone turns up at ten, and you're expected to have something by the end of the day - it does happen nine times out of ten!"Often Barbara's songwriter demos become finals as she is often asked to produce the tracks she writes for the artist. In 2003 Barbara was a finalist for engineer of the year for 'Love Not War' , produced for Annie Crummer, Warner. In 2004 Barbara won an APRA/AGSC screen composers award for the Qantas in-flight movie leader 'Taking off to the Movies'.Barbara composes and produces all sorts of music, from pop/rock/indie 'artist demos' and songs to short films, telemovies and ads.Barbara says 'Basically everything I do with an artist is to try to help them to get further with their career and goals, be that writing/producing potential songs for their album, or one step closer to a record or management deal.' Barbara was interviewed for and features in the book 'So You Wanna Be A Rock Star?' by Les Gock.Barbara plays live from time to time with ARIA-winner Alex Lloyd and rising star Shane Nicholson. She works from her harbour-front studio based at Sydney's historic Rocks district.
