Daily Discovery: Tony Memmel, “I Know We’ll Get There”

September 14, 2015 4:49 pm

Videos by American Songwriter

SONG: “I Know We’ll Get There”

HOMETOWN: Waukesha, Wisconsin

CURRENT LOCATION: Nashville, Tennessee

AMBITIONS: In an interview, the members of the band Spinal Tap put it well. “We toured the world. Toured the states… Toured the world and elsewhere.”

TURN-OFFS: Complaining.

TURN-ONS: Good music. Good food with good company. Travel.

DREAM GIG: Last year, I was commissioned to compose symphonic and choral arrangements of my music and had the opportunity to play accompanied by a full orchestra and chorus in a beautiful theater. If I could do that every day, I would.

FAVORITE LYRIC: “The body remembers what the mind forgets. Archives every heartbreak and cigarette. These reset bones, they might not hold, but they might yet.” Chris Porterfield – “Field Report”

SONG I WISH I WROTE: “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: Bruce Springsteen, Merry and Pippin (from “Lord of the Rings.” They seem like they’d be fun to hang with), Ernest Hemingway, and above all, my wife.

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: A few years back, I had a chance to see Jeff Tweedy at a small venue in Door County, Wisconsin. The show was really intimate – just Jeff and his guitar. Incredible show.

I WROTE THIS SONG BECAUSE…“I Know We’ll Get There” was written during the VH1 and Republic Records “You Oughta Know” Make a Band Famous Competition. After being narrowed down to the Top 8 bands in the New York City rounds, the contestants were challenged to write a new original song about “fame.” My wife and I had a matter of hours to write together overnight. We were in a room with the seven other bands, overlooking New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. The challenge really tested us, but we are very proud of the end result.