Tina Shafer needs no introduction. She’s penned songs for artists like Celine Dion, Sheena Easton and Donna Summer, she’s been a vocal coach for top artists such as Vanessa Carlton and Avril Lavigne and she has been producing and directing the New York Songwriter’s Circle (NYSC) since 1991. Shafer’s vision to create a community where songwriters could come to be inspired, share their craft and express their creativity with others seeking the same has become reality as the NYSC is now in its 19th year and has begun to expand to other cities around the country and overseas. Not only has the NYSC created a forum for songwriters to convene, but it has also exposed major talent throughout its two decades of existence including Norah Jones, Jesse Harris, Lisa Loeb, Gavin DeGraw and Chris Barron as well as many others. The NYSC began an annual songwriting competition which is currently in its fourth year and just as submissions were due in late October, Shafer took a few minutes to speak with Relix about how the Circle has evolved since its establushment, and what live music means in today’s digital age.

Can you can you give me some background of your history in the music industry and how you got involved?

Well I’ve been in the business since 1987, I was signed to Warner Chapel in 1989 and I went on to cut with Celine Dion which was on her Let’s Talk About Love album which sold 33 million records, the one with the Titanic song on it ( “My Heart Will Go On” ).

So you wrote songs on that album?

Yes. One song was called “Love Is on the Way,” also a song for Bette Midler’s film The First Wives Club, the montage piece.

I actually think I went to see that movie in the theater.

I love that movie. I can say that turned into a real life story for me – so many other people, Sheena Easton, Billy Porter. I’m also a vocal coach in New York City. I’ve worked with Vanessa Carlton and Avril Lavigne and that’s really how the Circle started. In 1991 when Kenny Gorka, who is the manager of that club, came up with the idea with a woman by the name of Randi Michaels of bringing the round in the Bluebird Café in Nashville to New York, because there was no community here. And so they started to do a couple of those circles, and Randi moved to Nashville, and asked if I could run the Circle while she was in Nashville and I said, “Sure!” That was almost 20 years ago, so she’s in Nashville and since then, the Circle has grown beyond my wildest dreams and a lot of these students that I teach start out at the Circle: Vanessa got signed out of there, Norah Jones started out there, Jesse Harris was also a vocal student and went on to write her big hit “Don’t Know Why I Didn’t Come.” It really started as me trying to go full circle and bring back inspiration for writers, and book the Circle with one really well-known writer and then some other up-and-coming writers so that people could see how it was done and could be inspired and learn from people that have had success. And for the up-and-comers, just to be seen and heard, but that’s a brief history in a nutshell on how the Circle got started.

What are some benefits that a membership to the circle can offer?

It’s a true brand of music; you think of John Mayer, Norah Jones, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell. When people come there, they know what they’re getting. It’s a real brand and they can always expect to meet other artists of like kind, to network, a lot of industry people come there. Also, there are now circles in major cities throughout the United States, when people go there they know what they’re going to be seeing and they know that they’ll be able to hook up and meet with people in that circle, in that home, that community.

The song writer’s competition is in its fourth year. Can you tell me how many entries you get and the quality of the submissions?

I haven’t told the count finally because it’s not the end of the week, but it’s roughly around 4,000 to 5,000 submissions. We have a wonderful team made up of songwriters and producers who I love and respect. They do a listening with me not only every day online and we rate, but we also come together in live meetings and we discuss and listen very carefully and often have very heated discussions about people’s favorites.

How long does it take to go through that many songs?

Well, because of the way the Web site was beautifully designed this year, it wasn’t like the hell we went through the past few years where we were listening to every song. What we’ve done now is parleyed different songs to different people so that everybody gets a group that they listen to, and we come together with our top pick. And that way, it’s not like we all have to go through and kill our ears. It wasn’t fair, in a funny way, after you listen to so many songs, it’s better to have it spread out amongst people.

Is there any live performance aspect involved in the contest?

Everything we do is based on being live, we do have the two nights of the finals where we choose the top twelve, the first night is a blue ribbon panel of judges, and they come two nights in a row. The first night, they listen to 12 and they vote for five on silent ballot. The second night, we announce those five, those stay, and then out of those five, the top three will be announced.

Once the winner is decided, are there any contractual obligations to the Songwriter’s Circle?

Well the terms and conditions are on the Web site, they’re very clear, they’re very low key. Basically, we’re partnering, we’re not owning. We do partnership where we have a certain amount of time for the winner, we ask them to give us 18 months to try to do a third party to do a record deal or a publishing deal. Some that have made it to the top, we have a music supervisor in place both here and the west coast that will be trying to find a home for these amazing songs. So it’s more of a partnership, we don’t own publishing or anything like that.

Do the songwriters that don’t win still benefit from the competition?

Yes they do. We flag everything that we love, because sometimes you have a quickie little amazing song that would just never work as the final, but it would be great for some ad on Apple. Every year we come out with a CD that usually features some of the people that have been at the top at the Circle. Our past winner Kate Voegele, she’s on One Tree Hill and she went on to become pretty well known. She’ll be on the CD as well as our other second year winner who is now on Wind-Up Records. That will be coming out this November, so that’s another great exposure opportunity for everybody.

You’ve said that the thing missing from the music business was the real meaning behind singing/songwriting. Today with the Internet, singers/songwriters can now express and share their work with large numbers of people with the click of a button. In what ways do you think the Internet has helped or hindered the music industry for singers/songwriters?

I really feel that as wonderful as the Internet is, there is nothing as great as live music. The fact that we have live venues still creates a community of live music, and that never changes. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that could ever be replaced.

So you think the Internet is more of a tool for exposure?

I think if you can make it work as something that is a partnership as opposed to the only way to listen to music, because you know as well as I do that some of the stuff you hear online, some of the pictures you see online of people are not who they are when they show up necessarily, so the live venues really give us a chance to hear and see these artists in raw, pure form.

You’re trying to expand the Circle to other cities. Are you seeing the same kind of success that you’ve been seeing in New York?

Yes, it’s been an amazing adventure. Our first year will be with Boston, and we’ve partnered with Berklee College of Music, and that has been incredibly successful because it’s all singers/songwriters and they’ve been so embracing of what we’ve been doing. And then in Chicago, this will be the second Circle, which will be coming up in November, and that will be held at Schubas, which is one of Chicago’s top clubs, it’s much younger. I find the group is mostly college kids because it’s such a college town, it’s been really successful. We’ve only had one show, we’re going to have our second show so the jury’s still out. Philadelphia has been amazing, that’s at the World Café. And that’s been a mixture of well-known writers and up-and-coming writers. Another one we have, which is a very different circle is in L.A. and that’s run by Suzanne Cook who is a publisher and she claims that the only way people come out in L.A. is if you have high profile writers. So the circles in L.A. are primarily top hit writers, and I went to the first one and it was true, it was very interesting and a very different vibe because people in L.A. travel so far to go anywhere. It’s not like New York or Chicago, so they do come out for a different reason which I found interesting. We’re opening up in February in Milan, so I’ll let you know.

I’m sure it will be a drastically different experience in European cities.

Completely. Actually, an interesting thing is that the people that are going to be running that, one is a manager and one is an artist and they contacted me via Facebook, very grassroots. They are so excited about having this concept there, that they’re actually getting the consulate involved, it’s more like a very prestigious, cultural event and they’re going to be having more of their famous top, Italian writers. They’ll definitely be the brand of singer/songwriter.

The Songwriter’s Circle has discovered a lot of successful talent over the years. Who, in your opinion, has been the most successful?

As far as record sales go would be Norah Jones. When I met her, she was on her second day in New York, I was teaching her co-writer, Jesse Harris, he was then my student, and we all decided to do a circle together. I asked her what her fears and fantasies of having just arrived here from Texas. She responded by saying that she wanted to get in a Volkswagen van, sell 10,000 records and be a jazz singer.