Netflix’s Hitmakersdocuments the process ofan elite group of hit-making songwriters as they work through their intense creative process at a songwriting camp, who chatted with Screen Rant about the show.Hitmakers,released on Netflix in July, follows a group of massively talented songwriters who have already achieved success, and are looking to continue to excel in their niche field.
While songwriting isn’t simple, it can be a fascinating process to watch. Creatively, some songwriters gel quickly and work together often, while others clash and can’t find a way into each other’s talents.Hitmakersbrought together a group of multi-faceted songwriters to watch their intense process,spurred on by reality TV super-producer Adam DiVello, creator of iconic shows likeThe Hills,and EP Harvey Mason Jr.
Whilethe talented artists onHitmakershave all been able to find success outside the show, their intense time on the series was specific. Their demos,which went on to be pitched to talent like John Legend, Shaboozey, Usher, and Lisa, brought raw talent into the mix.Screen Ranthad the opportunity to chat with a few key cast members about the series.
Screen Rant: Trey, being both an artist and a songwriter, where does that boundary lie when you’re in a camp under so much pressure like this? Is there a line you won’t cross?
Trey Campbell: So I think that all of us are artists first and foremost. Of course. I like am really just owning that officially. Not that I want to do an artist project, but just being able to associate being an artist with myself. We’re artists because we create art. So there is no like line between like the artist and the songwriter. It’s just about finding how to like bring yourself to the session in a way that it elevates the room, elevates everyone that’s in the room or elevates the artist that you’re writing for.
Screen Rant: Beautiful. Tommy, you’re open about your past - your hustle days. What kind of lessons have you brought from that hustle culture into camp settings like this?
Tommy Brown: I think for me, what I bring from my past and my hustle was if you want it, you’re going to get it. You usually don’t have to give advice or information to people who truly want it. Whenever I see whenever I surround myself with the people, especially people that’s like in this camp, we never really had to give advice to them because they wanted to go get it. We wanted to come and we got on TV and we wrote the songs no matter what we were going through personally. I feel like that’s what true hustle is.
Hitmakers Features Songwriters Like Jenna Andrews, Who’s Written With Ed Sheeran
Emotional Pop Hits Can Come From Unexpected Places
Screen Rant: Jenna, you’re really known for your emotional pop hits. How do you kind of deal with that vulnerability being out there in a high-pressure situation like a camp?
Jenna Andrews: I think typically the way that I like to write is like, you know, it’s like a lot of times it’s the artist, right? And then you feel it’s like a therapy session. I always call it that. You know, you feed off of that. And again, I said this earlier, but like the first 20 minutes you kind of know like, okay, we have something. But in terms of really digging in for the most part, I think it’s afterwards. Like you get the skeleton of what the song is, but you go and you really focus on what’s going to tell the story. And I think when the words come, there’s something that happens in your heart and you feel the words and you know it’s right, you know?
So I think it’s the time spent and all those things to realize. So sometimes it’s hard to do that quickly. I mean, it has happened. I think, you know, Super Lonely was probably the fastest song I’ve ever been a part of. We probably wrote that in an hour, to be honest. So it’s crazy, but that’s typically not how I’ve ever written a song. So I mean, I think that’s basically a fluke, but yeah.
Trey: What a beautiful fluke.
Screen Rant: Stephen, what is the emotional trigger that you lean on the most when you’re feeling that pressure in a camp setting like this? How can you get yourself going?
Stephen Kirk: I mean, I’m going to be real with you. I’m not trying to steal what you said a little while ago, but I don’t feel the pressure per se because I’m doing what I truly love to do. So for me, it’s like it doesn’t matter what’s going on in my personal life. I do really lean on my emotional state. You know what I’m saying? I just feel what I feel and I say what I feel. But when it comes to music making, it’s like if I was brokenhearted, I’d be making music. If I was the happiest person in the world, I’d be making music. If I had zero dollars, I’d be making music. And if I was the richest man in the world, I’d be making music. So I’m just doing what I would be doing regardless of what situation I’m in. So I just do it.
Screen Rant: These camps are fascinating to see, and I can’t imagine they’re anything less than deeply uncomfortable at times for you all, emotional and draining a bit. Have you ever flipped a frustrating moment in a writing camp into an unexpected breakthrough?
Ben Johnson: Oh man, yeah. I think actually I was at a jelly roll camp one time and it was like not going very well and then we like rearranged the rooms real quick and then like immediately ended up writing one of the biggest songs of my career. So yeah, I think sometimes that pressure is a really, really good thing and if it wasn’t in that scenario of a camp, you know, you wouldn’t really have had that opportunity to like attempt to rearrange rooms and stuff.
Mentorship Is Part Of The Hitmakers Process
Everyone’s Consistently Learning From Each Other
Screen Rant: Sevyn, I want to go to you. Are there any mentor instincts that you’re passing to younger writers throughout this camp or other camps that you’ve been through?
Sevyn Streeter: Well thank you and honestly, you know, believe it or not, I come into these situations to be a student, you know. I think that that is the biggest takeaway for me. Yes, I have things that, you know, I guess I pass down like not really being aware of it, you know. People see me lay a melody or whatever the case may be, they go, oh that’s dope. But for me, it’s much more of a, oh my god, I’m learning from you, you’re learning from me type of thing and that’s why I love being a part of this show. You know, obviously I’ve written my own albums and my own songs and singles, but I say all the time my artistry could not exist without my songwriting and they feed each other so much that I, you know, when I’m in this part of my creativity, I am a student.
Yes, I’m still Sevyn the artist and that’s amazing, but I love like being able to learn from these amazing creatives, like I’m a student again. So, and we just kind of share things back and forth. That’s just kind of how we create, that’s how we make the best records and I think that that’s what makes you a sharp songwriter is your ability to like go, huh, okay, like that’s a great idea. Let me add that tool to my tool belt and, you know, it makes you sharper. So for me, there’s things that I’ll, I guess maybe there’s some things people get from me, but for the most part, it’s very much so, you know, it’s mutual, you know.
Screen Rant: Blu & Chi, how did you guys develop such a close, like in sync kind of bond under that like pressure of a camp like this? Like how do you guys work so well together when it is crunch time?
Denisia “Blu June” Andrews: Just a mutual respect, a mutual respect for, you know, what we do, our strengths and our weaknesses. I mean, we’ve been working together for so long and it’s just a trust, you know, at this point, you know, we don’t even have to think about it.
Brittany “Chi” Coney: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like you said, we’re so good at what we do. We just don’t question that. I know, like you said, the strengths and weaknesses that we have and we just feel each other, you know, wherever we’re lacking, the other one just picks it right up. And so it’s been good. And I feel like I knew her in a past life.
