You may not have heard Evan Bogart's name, but you certainly know his music.
The 33-year-old songwriter has penned such hits as Rihanna's "SOS," Beyonce's "Halo," Leona Lewis' "Happy," and Enrique Iglesias' current hit "Dirty Dancer."
Bogart is now making the foray into reality TV with two of the biggest names in the business: Jewel and Kara DioGuadi. Their new singing competition, "Platinum Hit," debuts Monday night on Bravo. Bogart serves as executive producer, while Jewel and DioGuardi will judge 12 aspiring singer/songwriters to find the best songwriting talent in the country.
TooFab spoke with Bogart about the show, but it later turned into a dish session about some of the industry's top names.
TooFab: There are obviously a lot of music talent shows ("American Idol," "The Voice," "The X Factor") on. What makes "Platinum Hit" different?
Bogart: The biggest distinction is, you have a show called “The Voice” ... our show really could have been called “The Song." I mean, it's not about the voice, it's not about the performance, it's really about the song and it gives people a look into the world of songwriting that I don't think people really understand that exists. Even music fans don't realize there's a huge community of songwriters out there who are writing a lot of their favorite songs or even co-writing their favorite songs ...
TooFab: Yeah like One Republic's Ryan Tedder and Britney Spears ...
Bogart: Yeah! Without songs, there is no show like "The Voice," there is no "American Idol." What are they going to sing? I don't think people realize that. It's quite an obvious observation.
TooFab: How did you chose the 12 musicians?
Bogart: We had a big online casting, we also did open calls in Atlanta, Nashville, New York and saw thousands and thousands of songwriters and heard a lot of different music and put them through some song-writing challenges .. eventually whittled them down to twelve.
TooFab: So they are singer/songwriters, correct?
Bogart: Yeah, they're singer songwriters in the sense that they can sing their songs well enough to sell their songs to the judge. Some of them want to be artists, some of them were artists, some of them are pure songwriters. It's not about their artistry as much as it's about the song that they're writing. It doesn't matter if their goal is to write the song for themselves or pitch it for somebody else. If they write a good song, they win, if they write a bad song, they lose.
TooFab: Any drama or cat fights we can expect on the show?
Bogart: Of course! No just because it's on Bravo or it's a reality show but truthfully, when you are writing song with somebody and the show is mainly based on co-writing and collaborating with other people and you put your soul and your personal experiences and your own human nature into a song and your with somebody else who tells you that you're wrong and their way is right, I mean of course you are going to get drama.
TooFab: What was it like working with Jewel and Kara? What was the dynamic like between them?
Bogart: Amazing, they are incredible people. Jewel is an incredible artist and an incredible writer and going to be an incredible mom. She's just a nice person and she was just able to give so much back to these writers who had either made it as wanna-be artists or didn't make it as artists. Her being a writer and an artist herself and Kara being a songwriter first and also having her hand in publishing and developing and mentoring young writers, I mean even one of her writers that is signed to her company “Arthouse” was nominated for Producer of the year this year so she does this.
It's much more of a natural fit for her than "American Idol." She's a songwriter, she talks the game of songwriting and knows how to dissect songs as does Jewel and they both do it in such a way that even if you don't know anything about songwriting, you understand what they're talking about.
TooFab: Where do you get most of your inspiration from?
Bogart: I draw from personal experience, I draw from other people's experiences. I usually don't think. I come to a lot of sessions with concepts or in with like, funny lines and quirky little things I want to talk about but I usually don't give much thought to the inspiration before I go into a writing or recording session. I kinda just let the inspiration flow however it does to whether I'm writing with an artist or another producer or writer. I mean, it just somehow just comes to me.
TooFab: You have written for a plethora of artists like Britney, Rihanna, Beyonce. Did you write the music with the artists in mind?
Bogart: Sometimes ... "SOS: I did not write with Rihanna in mind, um, but could not have been.
TooFab: Who were you thinking of?
Bogart: Well, actually at the time, I wrote it for a girl group that I put together and never got signed. We ended up selling the song to Def Jam and they ended up giving it to Rihanna, who I had never really heard of at the time. I was kinda bummed out about it at first. [laughs] I was like “Who is this new artist? I've never really heard of her" and then a couple of months later, I was definitely not bummed out it. [laughs]
But like, Beyonce, we wrote with “Halo” in mind. Ryan [Tedder] from One Republic and I wrote that and we specifically crafted that mind, we were inspired by a song called “Shelter” by Ray LaMontagne. We really wanted to write that sentiment for Beyonce and Jay-Z to have that like, that kind of song between two people who are newly in love and at the time had been getting married but not married yet and I think, really, really have a vibe of being there for someone and always having their back and surrounding them with love and I think that's where “Halo” came from.
TooFab: Have you ever written a song for someone and someone completely different has ended up recording it? Like what happened with Rihanna?
Bogart: All the time! (laughs)
TooFab: Who was the most random?
Bogart: Um, what is the most random? God, that's a good question, I've never been asked that before, I have to think about it. You know what I can tell you, a song that Ryan wrote that I think is a crazy story, is “Bleeding Love" ...
TooFab: Ohhhh, Jesse McCartney!
Bogart: Yeah, he wrote it with Jesse McCartney for Jesse McCartney's album and it could not be more different from Leona Lewis! I think I was over at his place when they were writing it!
TooFab: And who would you love to write for -- dead or alive? Who do you wish you could have worked with or who would you love to work with?
Bogart: Oh you know, this is going to honestly sound like a weird and crazy answer but I would have loved to have made records with my dad but other than that somebody more well known. [laughs] There are obvious ones, The Beatles, I mean yeah, I'd love to get into a room with John Lennon and bang out a few songs for Ke$ha! [laughs]
TooFab: John Lennon and Ke$ha, what a combination!
Bogart: Yeah, that's my dream session, me, John Lennon, Ke$ha and Phil Spector.
TooFab: Who do you think the best performer is right now?
Bogart: In general? In the world? Beyonce. I don't think there is anyone in the world, in the whole world, who can f--k with Beyonce when it comes to performance. When I went to her last tour she did two hours straight non-stop singing and dancing, I think she's a robot or an alien or something because there is no one in the world that can have that much endurance. She should just go like, bike the Tour de France, climb Mount Everest, I don't' understand what stops her from doing anything, she's incredible!
TooFab: What do you think the best song ever written is?
Bogart: Man, that's hard. Someone asked me for my top 5 once and that was hard! Maybe “Imagine”? I mean you could arguably say “Thriller”? I mean it's just a hard question to answer!
TooFab: What is the most outlandish diva move you have ever witnessed?
Bogart: The most outlandish … I mean, they are all pretty outlandish, right? Um… I don't know, God. I got one! (laughs) This one's crazy! I'm not going to say who the artist is because I don't want to put them on blast (laughs) but he wouldn't come to the studio because his Bentley hadn't been shipped from Miami yet and he had four cars in LA. He had a car for everyday at the studio and he wouldn't go on Friday because that was his Friday car and so they cancelled the session five minutes before it started and ruined everyone's day because his Bentley hadn't got here from Miami. That's my diva story!
