10 HEADLINER
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ROXANNE
SEEM AN
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Santa Monica-based Roxanne Seeman has a hell of a lot of stories - most of them musical, all of them entertaining. I caught up with this super-accomplished singer-songwriter and producer in her hometown to talk hit records, collaboration, and how too many cooks can indeed spoil the broth. oxanne is somewhat of a purist as songwriters go. Her projects today are quirky and varied, yet at heart, she is an out-andout songwriter, and has been penning tunes on the piano and guitar for decades, with great success. But the game has changed somewhat, which often means thinking outside the box. “You definitely need patience,” she smiles, as we order coffee. I am becoming mesmerised by the Santa Monica coastline, wondering when I can move here on a permanent basis. “The way everything is done today is all very fast, and songs are no longer written to last, they’re written to get a quick hit. As a songwriter, you still need to make an album of songs before you go around pitching them, though
in some young writers’ eyes, you write one song, take it to a DJ, get him to do his thing to it, and get yourself a hit. But that just isn’t the case.” Roxanne’s credits are impressive to say the least, and span generations: Earth, Wind & Fire, Jacky Cheung, Bette Midler, The Jacksons, and the great Billie Hughes, also her songwriting partner from 1983, right up until his untimely death in 1998. Roxanne achieved massive success in Japan in 1991, writing and producing Hughes’ Welcome to the Edge number one single and album; it sat on Billboard’s Japan Top 10 chart for four months, and sold 520,000 copies. The pairing also received the number one International Single of the Year at the NHK Japan Grand Prix Awards, Japan’s equivalent of the Grammys.