About

The Songwriter Core is like the artistic board of directors of The Grund Club. It is composed of 10 members, including the artistic director, the band leader and 8 senior songwriters (called "Core Songwriters"). This assembly meets 4 times per year and, according to club rules, makes decisions about the artistic content of the club. These decisions include: - Who will be invited as the new songwriter inductee (1 per show, 4 per year); - Who will be invited as lead singer. It can be a club singer or a new inductee (4 slots per year); - Which of the Core Songwriters will fulfil the role of show host (4 slots per year); - Which of the Core Songwriters will be the wing-person to the new songwriter inductee (4 slots per year); - Which of the Core Songwriters will fulfil the role of acoustic songwriter at each show; - Which club songwriter who is not in the Core will be invited back to the show (4 slots per year); - Who are the 2 new members of the Songwriter Core for the next year; - Which 2 Core Songwriters will leave the Core next year. - Which songs are to be performed. There are some decisions that are taken exclusively by the artistic director (who will be the backing singers, the date and venue where the shows take place, the hiring and firing of band musicians, etc) but most of the above are decisions taken by voting at the Songwriter Core meetings.

The Grund Club archive consists of three or four elements: an audio archive; a paper archive; a photography archive; and a video archive. The audio archive consists of the multi-track recordings of every Grund Club Songwriter Show. Each show features 18 song performances and there are 4 shows per year, so the audio archive consists of 72 song performances per year, or 720 per decade, if we think about the club correctly. Since these are multi-track recordings, each of those 720 performances can be studio mixed and mastered at a later date, giving the club an endless source of professionally performed, original material, written in Luxembourg. Even more interesting is the fact that the archive contains so many versions of the same song performed by different artists. Again, if we think in terms of decades, not years, the Grund Club releases 120 songs per decade,  and the recordings are fully professional, both in terms of performance and post-production (mix / master). The audio archive is also curated (managed) according to strict Grund Club rules. What this means is that we select 12 songs out of 72 performances each year for public release, and the remaining 60 songs go into a 10-year time vault, meaning they are not available to anybody. Nobody can listen to those recordings and they cannot be released. Once this 10-year period elapses, these recordings become available to the club for the purpose of extraordinary releases, meaning tribute albums to a particular songwriter or performer, or even extraordinary themed albums. In terms of "paper archive", the Grund Club's archive consists of the collection of Songwriter Show set lists (40 per decade), from which all of the club's history can be derived, including: - The Grund Club song catalogue; - The current song charts (top 40); - The Grund Club history of each song; - The Grund Club history of each songwriter; - The Grund Club history of each club singer; Once we add to all of this heritage and collected content a photography and video archive, it becomes clear that the sheer volume of content generated by the Grund Club community will eventually require its on museum, where the public can interact with our history, our songs, our artists, our photos, our memorabilia, and our video footage. People don't live forever, and the Grund Club will preserve the memory and music of some of our most prominent artists.

The Grund Club organizes a multitude of live events each year. Some of them are shows that we perform by request, with a variety of artist combinations, sometimes featuring our singers, sometimes featuring our songwriters, sometimes in acoustic and sometimes with a full band. However, there are 14 events each year that we call our “core events”, because they must take place each year, in order to fulfill our mission. These include 10 Open mic Sessions, which is where we audition new talent, and 4 Songwriter Shows, which is where we induct new artists and songs into the club, and where we collect the live recordings for our yearly CD.

THE GC OPEN MIC SESSIONS

We organize 10 of these sessions each year, one per month, excluding August and December. However, we often organize a Christmas Open Mic event in December for charity. Our Open mic sessions are like an unofficial audition for The Grund Club. There are always at least 2 members of the Songwriter Core in attendance, and their job is to report back to the 10-member assembly, making us aware of extraordinary talents and songs, and putting names into our invitation shortlist. The artistic director also attends frequently. In order to participate, artists must register in advance through our social media page (Facebook: The Grund Club Open Mic), by sending a message. Our sessions get quickly booked out and it is likely that you won’t be able to register for the very next session, as there is a waiting list. The sessions allow up to 2 people performing together during the acoustic part of the event. Artists can perform either cover versions or original songs, either alone or accompanied by another musician. However, it is important to know that we only consider individual candidates for the Grund Club, we do not accept duos or ready-made combinations. Essentially we are looking for good songs that were written by one single person, we are looking for extraordinary singers and we are looking for singer-songwriters who can do it all by themselves. The second part of the event includes a band. This is a band with Grund Club musicians and special guests. They perform club songs like a human karaoke machine, adding some live flair to the moment. This band is there to serve as a support for talented singers and songwriters who have already proven themselves in the acoustic session, in previous editions, so there is a natural progression, from a first-time performer (acoustic), to a featured acoustic performer, to performing with the band, to (hopefully) receiving the invitation to join the Grund Club as a new inductee and participating in a Grund Club Songwriters Show.

THE GC SONGWRITER SHOWS & RECORDINGS

The Grund Club produces 4 Songwriter Shows per year, one per season. All of these shows are multi-track recorded, adding up to 6 hours of live performances per year, which constitutes our audio archive. Each year, 12 of those performances are studio mixed and mastered for release. Our entire official history can be derived from the set lists of these shows. Every new catalogue song is inducted at these shows, as well as every new artist, whether they be a singer or a songwriter. The set lists tell the story of the progression of artists and songs within the club. For example, an artist can be inducted as a great new singer and then, some time later they can be inducted as a songwriter in their own right. From there, the artist can even become a member of the Songwriter Core, participating in the club’s decisions and choices. This is what happened with Priscila Da Costa, who came in as a singer in September 2014, became a new songwriter inductee in September 2015 and joined the Songwriter Core in January 2017. It’s the same story with a song. Every song is inducted into the club at one of our shows, performed by its original creator, usually in acoustic format. From that moment the song enters the official song catalogue and becomes available for other artists to perform. The band and the artistic director may also take an interest in the song and they may create a new band arrangement for the song. This new arrangement is often performed several times by a number of different singers and songwriters at the shows. It becomes more mature, more polished and better performed. The song may even be selected as one of the 12 songs to be released officially by the club each year. Typically, by the time a song makes it into an official release, our archive already contains several versions of the song, performed by a variety of artists. So our artists end up knowing each other’s songs and the community keeps growing, both in size and depth.

Ënnerstëtzt eis!

De Grund Club ass eng A.s.b.l. déi gréisstendeels op d’Efforten vun sengen Memberen an Contributiounen vun Privatpersounen & kulturellen Institutiounen ugewisen ass.

Mir sinn Deel vum kulturelle Patrimoine vum Land, an wëllen dëst och weiderhin bleiwen.

Fir eis dobäi ze ënnerstëtzen, kënnt dir eis en Don maachen. D’Zomm heivun ass Iech natierlech selwer iwwerlooss, genau sou ob et en eemolegen oder reegelméissegen Don ass. Mir soen Iech schon am viraus Villmools Merci!

Bank Donnéeën: THE GRUND CLUB LUXEMBOURG ASBL LU18 0019 5055 9856 2000

Ënnerstëtzt d’Musek zu Lëtzebuerg!

*Jiddereen, deen en Don vun 1.000€ oder méi mëscht, gëtt als offiziellen Sponsor ernimmt

English:

The Grund Club is a non-profit organisation that relies mostly on the benevolent efforts of its participants and contributions from private individuals and cultural institutions.

We are and want to remain an important part of this country's musical heritage.

You can help us in our mission by making a single contribution or making a monthly pledge of any amount you like Thank you

BANK DETAILS: THE GRUND CLUB LUXEMBOURG ASBL LU18 0019 5055 9856 2000

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*any patron contributing 1,000 euros or more per year can be listed as an official patron.