#197 Hear Your Song

---

Rae Leigh chats with Dan Rubins and Sofia Campoamor from American based charity 'Hear Your Song' opening up about the healing work they are doing with children who are sturggling with illnes and complex needs and how the power of this work is impacting the kids and volenteers in a positive way.

Hear Your Song, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that empowers children and teens with serious illnesses and complex health needs to make their voices heard through collaborative songwriting. Kids living with significant health challenges need the chance to show the world — and sometimes to hear for themselves, too — that they are more than their diagnoses.

In live, collaborative songwriting sessions, Hear Your Song volunteers work with children and teens to guide them through the process of writing their own song lyrics. Using the kid songwriter’s ideas for musical style, melody, instrumentation, and tempo, volunteer composers and musicians then set those words to music and record the song to be heard, celebrated, and shared.

Hear Your Song partners with pediatric hospitals, camps, schools, and other nonprofit programs that serve kids experiencing serious illnesses and complex health needs. Hear Your Song’s volunteers collaborate with kids through campus-based chapters and at the organization’s national level. All of our programs are available to our families and partner organizations free of charge.

Connect with Hear Your Song HERE

---

Transcript

Rae Leigh: Welcome to a special songwriter Tryst with Dan Rubins and Sophia , which I'm just learning to say, um, here to talk to us about the beautiful charity. Hear your song. And we're gonna find out more about you guys and what you are doing and how, what you're doing is impacting lives.

And at the start of every podcast, I talk about songwriting being a very powerful tool that saved my life. I do think it's a form of therapy and a way of connecting ourselves to each other and ourselves. So I wanna hear how this got started. Tell us a little bit about who you are and where you come from and how this whole thing began.

Dan Rubins: Yeah. So my name is Dan Rubins and, here song began, when I was a sophomore, a second year undergraduate, at Yale university in new Haven, Connecticut. My co-founder Rebecca and I were looking for ways to really bring the musical community together on campus, um, and really find ways. Physical talents together in ways that felt collaborative and not competitive, really using our music for good, rather than competing against each other.

 I had already had some experience, doing some music with kids with serious illnesses in hospital, like settings. We sort of hit upon this idea of starting a program where we.

a program would work with kids with serious illnesses and complex health needs, and help them write songs about anything they wanted and come up with all of their own lyrics, and then take their musical ideas for instrumentation and melody and, musical style back to campus where musicians would sort of bring the song to life exactly as the kids.

Had envisioned it. Then after we graduated, we went, our separate wave in the program, continued after us, folks like Sophia taking it over. And then, at the start of the pandemic, we realized that the moment had really come to expand it to a wider population. So we began expanding nationally and now internationally.

So now we work with kids all over doing that work with lots of different populations. And yeah, so that's how I got into that work and sort of where the organization came from initial.

Rae Leigh: incredible. What, what were you studying at Yale?

Dan Rubins: so I was an English major, actually, English literature. I started thinking I was gonna double major in music and then wanted to have more freedom to take different music classes than sort of the major would've allowed me to.

And then I also did an education studies program. So I taught an elementary primary school, for a few years between, undergrad and, and taking on here song full time.

Rae Leigh: Wow. Very cool. And, and Sophia, how did you get involved?

Sofía Campoamor: Yeah. So I was a couple years behind Dan in school. So I first heard about hear song in my first year of university. And I had been writing songs since I was about 10 or 11 years old, and felt really excited about the opportunity to. Use those skills in a way that was gonna be helpful to some other people.

And so I, throughout my time in school would take on composing or songwriting assignments from the group. They had a email list where they would let us know what had come out of a session, what the lyrics were about and what kind of music they wanted. And whenever it was a good fit for me, I would try to sign up and help compose or record that song.

And. I was studying music at Yale by, by my sophomore year and focused on composition really so that I could practice my songwriting and practice arranging and, and orchestrating my songs as well. And so it was, it started for me as a, a real musical connection. And then I. Did when, when the group became national, after my graduation, during the pandemic, I stayed in touch and kept, kept writing and started volunteering as well in person in some of the sessions and, and have now been the music director for the last couple of months.

Rae Leigh: Wow. So we've established essentially that you both have, some of the biggest hearts I've met, and, and love giving and love music as well. I'm interested to know, like Sophia, you said you started music at 10 years and songwriting at 10 years old. Where did the love of, um, music come and you can both.

Share this I'm sure it's probably different, but also similar stories. When did you fall in love with music? What was your inspiration and, and why was that something that you became so dedicated to, to the point that you went and did a degree on music? Yeah.

Sofía Campoamor: Yeah. So I started, I think my, my love of music started around musical theater and singing and playing piano.

Um, the rehearsal space was something that I really felt at home in and felt really excited to dedicate myself to and work hard at. But the songwriting piece really came in. As a way to make school assignments more fun. So when there was a project in school in middle school that I could find a way to turn it into a song, my first song was, um, I was trying to write some medieval music in the fifth grade.

Um, and then in sixth grade it was about the, the adverbs. Like I had a grammar assignment that. Thought would be more fun if I wrote a song and then in science class, we had to present on an element from the periodic table. So I wrote a song about the element platinum, because that was a much more fun way for me to deliver all that information.

Um, and so that's how it started just finding, finding a lot of fun in it. Um, I love moving words around on the page and, and loved singing already. Um, but then in high school it really became a way for me to sort through my feelings. a way for me to cope with anxiety or different stressors in my life or things I was excited about or distressed about.

Um, it just became a really personal thing at that point as I was growing up and, uh, a real way of processing for me. And so by the time I.

Rae Leigh: By the time I

Sofía Campoamor: Got to college. It was sort of a thing that I, I was always doing, regardless of whether someone told me to. And there was kind of a moment that clicked for me, where I was really involved in acapella and, and music and other forms.

But the songwriting piece of it realizing that, oh, this is the art that I'm gonna make when, when no one asks for it, um, that I need to make because there's songs that I need to hear that don't exist yet. That's when it really clicked for me. Yeah, this is something that, that I have to offer. And that's important to me to do.

Rae Leigh: That's beautiful. I love that story and well done for realizing that and allowing yourself to, to go down that path. Cause I know I've had those moments and I've gone straight away. You know, the, the Fred in my head has gone. No, but people don't make money doing songwriting or like, you know,

Sofía Campoamor: I can't say I've made any money, but.

Rae Leigh: yeah. I literally remember going to like my careers counselor in high school and saying I liked music. And they're like, yeah, but no, you need, like, what do you wanna do as a real job? and like, I hate that's, that's actually a thing that careers counselors in quotation marks say, and it's like, you know, if someone likes music, like that's that's okay.

that, that can be their job. Anyway. Dan, what about you? Is it, what was

Dan Rubins: Yeah, actually.

Rae Leigh: were doing English, but music was your passion.

Dan Rubins: I mean actually hearing Sophia's story quite a lot, quite a lot of overlap. My, my family was very, always into musical theater. My dad used to be a musical theater composer, and I was sort of raised to write musicals as, as one does. I like Sophia, uh, did a lot. Writing songs and sort of mini musicals for classroom assignments in elementary school and middle school all the way through college, I guess.

So Sophia will have to do a, a concert for each other of all of our SI I did, like, I did also once about amino acids and, uh, the organelles of a cell, so we could do a whole science. For me, I think, I was always really driven and still am, I think by storytelling and using music. as a storytelling device.

So, um, was really,

Rae Leigh: really.

Dan Rubins: um, sort of like music theater or like opera sort of genres. Um, and actually it's funny, I was, uh, I've realizing that only in the last year or so have I started writing sort of standalone songs, kind of for myself for sort of expressing things that I, rather than a character I'm actually feeling.

And I think a lot of that has come from both.

Rae Leigh: both,

Dan Rubins: Working with so many kids who are sharing so much about themselves in a vulnerable way, and sort of modeling that for me, and also working so closely with songwriters like Sophia and others in our com here, song community who are doing that on a professional level and just sort of learning all the different ways that you can use your music to tell stories about yourself, which is something that I.

Really encountered it. I found like on the sort of personal craft level, cause I was, I've always been so focused on sort of like long form musical storytelling. Um, so that's been a, a great education for me too.

Rae Leigh: I love it. And storytelling is a really, an ancient form of therapy that don't know. Everyone's known from the Dawn of time. That's what we do as humans. We tell stories and songs are a beautiful way of doing it.

Tell me how did the, the concept cuz you, you talked about it starting from university. Why did you start working with the children? And like, what was it that kind of went? Yeah, this is like a really good idea. You know, you have an

Dan Rubins: Yeah. Um,

Rae Leigh: then, so something would've happened to go, okay, we gotta make this like something proper. Yeah. How was that process? What happened there?

Dan Rubins: I think it was a couple of things. The backstory to the backstory is when I, when I, when I was in fifth grade, my fifth grade teacher decided, that our class would partner with, this program in New York city for, for kids that was a pediatric resident for kids with very severe. Health and very complex health needs.

And we would be sort of a buddy program for kids in this program. And it was sort of the first time that I had spent a lot of time with kids with really severe health needs and a lot of whom were nonverbal and, sort of getting to know them just as human beings, not in like one day, but over the course of a year.

And as friends I think was really stuck with me in a really transformative way. And that was the organization that we decided to partner with first, cuz I already had. A relationship. I had done a little bit of volunteering with them in high school as well. And my buddy, when I was in fifth grade was a girl named Melissa.

 Really totally by coincidence the first child or at that point, young adult whose lyric we. Began we set to music was Melissa's own, own words. Um, I guess like 10 years later. Um, so that was sort of just a Mo and we got to then go back and meet with her and play the song with her and for her.

 And I sort of got to know her again 10 years later, and that was sort of a moment of realizing that. I guess in, in that instance, sort of getting a chance to see what it could look like to have relationships with the kids that we were working with over a long period of time. Even though we didn't start off in that capacity and I.

Realizing that there, there was something special about the impact of this work. Not only on the kids we work with, but we also saw that as we returned to, to that facility in particular that the people who work there and the kids came to know each other's songs and were singing it. When we were, when we were walking through that, they were walking by, they'd be singing someone song that they had written.

 And to know that that it could sort of be. A way for kids who are in that community. And in so many of the ones that we work with, kids who are so. Defined by other people, a way for them to really define themselves, , and have songs that really spoke to exactly who they wanted to be seen as, um, whether that's someone who loves pasta or someone who's overcome a lot of obstacles, but to make that choice for themselves and, and for us to be able to facilitate that be became very quickly, something that we all saw as incredibly rewarding and fulfilling sort of on all sides.

Right.

Rae Leigh: It's so beautiful. And as human beings, we all need to feel seen and heard. Right. And being creative is one of those ways that we express ourselves. But I feel like what you've done is like, you know, we could do a painting, but it considered our garage. I feel like, you know, That feeling that you get when someone takes your artwork and puts it up in an art gallery somewhere, it's kind of like what you guys have done is someone's, you know, they've written songs, but you've, you've put them into a way where they can be seen and heard and be, be proud of who they are and their expressions.

Like, I can't even imagine. I'm, I'm trying to imagine what Melissa would've been feeling when she heard her song and like, How did that transpire? What did she, was she able to express how that helped her? Were there doctors or nurses that were able to give feedback on the response that it's having or the impact it's had on those people?

Dan Rubins: Yeah. I mean, I think we, the vast majority of the. Um, that we work with are very verbal. hyper verbal often. But actually this past, this past week, two of my, uh, two of our volunteers, and I were at a camp program in New York called w H ranch. And they have a special week for kids with really severe respiratory conditions.

Many of whom are nonverbal. And we talked a lot about as a, as a group about. Sort of the, the way that we can respond to kids who aren't necessarily able to create every word and every piece of the language themselves, which is really so much of our programming is driven by making sure that every word is honoring is the kids.

And that every word they say is honored. But I think it's very challenging to sort of adapt that to, to kids who are semi verbal or nonverbal, and really learning from the people who know them best and who are experts. In them, um, how they communicate and what, and how they can share language and sort of getting, seeing how they respond to music, the musical choices we're making, uh, getting their approval on, on the words we're singing, and sort of seeing how they respond, and learning from the people who love them, how, how best to communicate with them.

 But really centering them and making sure that we're always talking to them and, and honoring their. However they communicate, and, and sort of learning their language and then being able to translate it into, into song, definitely takes patience and practice, but, is something that we're always excited to do, to sort of stretch our, our listening skills too.

Cause I think that's so important to what we do sort of with any popul.

Rae Leigh: Absolutely. Can you tell me, like, gimme an example of something you guys have worked on and, and how it all transpired and what the process was like and what the outcome was?

Dan Rubins: Yeah. Sophia. Do you wanna just share a story?

Sofía Campoamor: Yeah. Um, I'm trying to think of some of our, our peer songwriting people or if there is, um, yeah. Could, do you wanna, if there, if there one that, that comes to mind for you,

Dan Rubins: Sure.

Sofía Campoamor: Dan, from like start to finish.

Dan Rubins: Yeah.

Rae Leigh: Yeah. just one that kind of, you know, you think about that goes, yeah, this is, this is why I do this, you know?

Dan Rubins: yeah, absolutely. So over the summer, last year, we led some programming with the Crohn's and colitis foundations camp program.

 And two girls Elliot who's 11 at the time. And Charlotte who was 10 at the time, uh, met through our songwriting session, and they each wrote their own songs, Elliotts about sort.

Rae Leigh: Elliots about

Dan Rubins: What it's like to have an invisible illness and then discover invincibility and sort of a word plan, invisible invincible, this beautiful song.

And Charlotte wrote the song, heartbreak and healing, um, which is sort of like an upbeat, uh, almost D code number. That's about, having your heart broken and also sort of overcoming obstacles, sort of lightly touching on her medical experience too. But they met each other.

Rae Leigh: at 10, did you say 10 and 11?

Dan Rubins: Yeah, 10 and 11.

Rae Leigh: there's some intense topics at

Dan Rubins: yeah, they're really extra extraordinary kids. Um, and they met each other in the chat on zoom and then immediately became best friends and have, I think talked, uh, every night since it sounds like. And then reached out to us to say they were writing a song together about hear your song and how it had brought them together and creating their friendship.

Um, and, and they are. Sh they, and I think they have shown us so clearly both through that process, but also just in the way that they engage with us and with other kids in the community that hear song really has the potential, cuz we're a very young organization. We sort of began expanding about two years ago.

To really create community that is really meaningful and, and isn't necessarily in person, but sort of spans, they live half, half of the United States away from each other and have never met in person. Um, but they, when they, we have these pure songwriting groups with other kids and the way that they.

Talk to other kids about the songs that they've written, that they listen to religiously. Um, and the way that they I'm sure they'll be listening to this, they Elliot told me like, oh, Charlotte found this podcast. You were on like months ago. um, so, so they really feel that here, your song is a community that is meaningful for them.

And not only one that does things for them, but also that they can sort of give to the community and sort. Support other kids, um, and collaborate with other kids. And that they recognize the value of being fans of other kids' music and the songs that other people are creating. Um, so that's been really a beautiful friendship to see evolve and also to see them grow as songwriters too.

I

Rae Leigh: songwriter.

Sofía Campoamor: Yeah, absolutely. I, I wanted, I was thinking of both of them, but it's, it's better for Dan to, to start that story just because, um, I, I wasn't with that program last summer, but getting to meet them through our peer songwriting group this spring and, and summer has been really amazing because I, I had known their songs, but getting to.

See the them talk to each other in the way that the space, um, of the peer song writing group is so natural and, and so easy. It seems where, because of this common purpose, where they're all excited to be talking about one another songs and, and cheering each other on, there's a really easy flow kind of between.

Talking about the music and then sometimes talking about the medical experiences that they have in common and kind of seeing the shared understanding that's there that exists alongside the shared goals around music is really exciting to me. Um, and really meaningful to me too. I happen to have Crohn's disease as well.

And so I didn't have that when I was their age, but seeing the way that.

Rae Leigh: the way that,

Dan Rubins: you

Sofía Campoamor: I wish that I had more people to talk to about it sometimes and seeing the way that they're able to do that in such a casual, but genuine way in this setting, um, has, has been really powerful to watch.

Dan Rubins: It's

Rae Leigh: That's so beautiful. And you said that it was online. So is it in all, is all of it online for, for these guys?

Is that because of COVID or other circumstances? Is it like a Facebook group? How does it

Dan Rubins: Yeah. So, um, we, it is now starting to look lots of different ways. So we have. Partnerships most we meet most of our kids through partnerships with hospitals, through partnerships, with organizations that are diagnosis specific, like the Crohn's and colitis foundation, and then also through camp programs.

 So most of our programming up until now has been virtual because of COVID. And we're now starting to do in-person hospital work, some in person school and camp programming. Um, but what's really been wonderful and would never have happened. Without COVID one silver lining has been that we've been able to create this sort of international community.

We did a sessions with a camp program in Ireland. We partnered with an organization in London, would certainly love to connect with anyone in Australia.

 So the virtual programming has both allowed us to reach kids wherever they are. And so often kids. Who are dealing with serious illnesses, are home for long stretches of time anyway, and couldn't participate in, in person programming.

So we can sort of reach them whether they're in the hospital or whether they're at home, recovering from something or whether they're immunocompromised. Um, and also sort of create that community. And we're also then able to really mentor our volunteers who are working with the kids in a much more in depth and, and reflective way than we would be if they were sort of scattered around the country doing work locally.

So that's allowed us to really deepen our community sort of in every way. So we're planning to absolutely continue to grow and maintain and deepen our virtual programming. Even as conditions, hopefully get safer, sort of every. Yeah.

Rae Leigh: And do you guys fully rely on, the generosity of donations and like how, how do you guys fund these program? I mean, it's incredible work, what you're doing. It's, there's no doubt. Just from the small stories that I've heard so far, that it's having a huge impact on these kids. How do you guys, fund all the projects that you're doing and, and make this available for children?

Dan Rubins: So all of our programs are free of charge for kids and families and the organizations we partner with. So we're funded through individual donations through our website, which is here song.org, as well as through grant from foundations, and some corporate sponsorships. And then also we have a, a really huge community of volunteers who.

So much of their time, which Sophia, if you want to talk more about that, is sort of Sophia's domain on the music side.

Rae Leigh: on the side. Yeah. How

Sofía Campoamor: Yeah. So we have volunteers on sort of two ends of the process. First off, we have session facilitators who are leading the songwriting sessions, where kids write all of their lyrics and describe the songs as they'd like to hear them. And so, and we have some volunteers who do both, but that's kind of the first stage where, we.

All, all of these interactions where, where the kids are getting to write the songs themselves are time that's given by amazing people in, in our volunteer community, whether they're musicians themselves, or just people who like talking to kids. That's how that part. Gets done. And then from there, once the session has concluded, we get sent or I get sent all the information from that session.

So that's all of the words that the child or teen wanted in their song. Exactly. As they wrote them down, you know, we don't try and. Make things rhyme that don't want to rhyme or make things, have any particular structure, any particular length, we really try and take it exactly as they wanted it to be.

And then I also look at what they asked for with regards to the music. So sometimes it'll just be a general genre. Sometimes there'll be reference tracks to artists that they might like. And sometimes it'll be really specific. Maybe they've even come up with a melody during the session, or they. Talked it through if, especially if the volunteer from the session was a composer themselves, sometimes they'll test things out and send us a bit of music to start out, but then they'll name five other instruments that they want to put on their track.

And so then we have this whole community of musician, volunteers who work on recording the tracks. So. We have some volunteers who are composers and producers and who will fill in any musical gaps that, that need creating or are filling in from the session. And then we have some volunteers who are additional players.

So if as today we got a request for harmonic and some beatboxing, then I'll reach out to a volunteer who plays harmonica and someone who I know can beat Fox and ask them. We'll send them at this point, it's mostly remote. We'll send them a web link where they can add in their part to the song and then we'll mix it all together.

And that's how the, the full track gets done. So that's also lots of musicians volunteering and giving their time. And we do, we also did get to start. Working with the New York public library, which has a studio program as well, where there's a, a studio that you can get trained to use and book two sessions per month.

So we did just have our first in person session, which was, was really helped out by the, that studio time that the library offers here in New York. So that's another resource, but it really is the, the volunteer time that, that makes all these songs possible.

Rae Leigh: That's incredible. And these days, especially during COVID, I feel like a lot of musicians got used to doing their session work from home. So like, I know so many session MUO that just got, you know, got all their equipment at home and their studio set up and then they're just continued work as usual just from home.

 Which makes. Doing stuff like this so much more, cost effective and easier to be able to say, yeah, like sweet. I can do that. I know I can just turn on my computer, do some recordings and send it through to you. Whereas before it's, you know, time outta the day, it's petrol it's, it's more than just sitting down on the computer for however long it takes to do to do that.

 And then it, and then, musicians. Have had a bit of a rough go if, if they weren't session MUO. But I mean, everyone, everyone in the music industry has been impacted via. COVID have you found that that's been something that people have has been like a common ground for the volunteers who have come together through this and through COVID

Sofía Campoamor: Hmm. Yeah, that's a great question. I I'll ask Dan first, since, since you started this out in the, in the thick of the pandemic, but.

Dan Rubins: I mean, I think early on it did feel like our impetus for, for starting it sort of truly in March, 2020. So like right in the, in the first heat of the moment was both recognizing that the community of kids that we were going to be serving were in need in a way that they had never been before because of isolation and risk and all of that.

But also that musicians were really in need. Collaboration and community in a way that they maybe were, had never been before. And that, for so many musicians, I think collaboration is so essential and vital, and that we were able to offer a, a way for musicians to connect with each other and, and with these kids, that sort of, I hope for a lot of people lent some meaning.

I sort of certainly heard from a number of our volunteers. Many of whom were really are really extraordinary professional musicians that the, the song they worked on in 2020 or 2021 was like the, the highlight of their musical year. So I think that definitely the Def for sure, the people who, who showed up and said, this is something that I want to spend my time on.

We're sort of United by. A sense of looking for that sort of musical community in a moment where it just didn't exist, in any in person spaces.

Sofía Campoamor: Yeah, that was certainly actually true for me in, in that I, I was still a volunteer in 2020 and the, there was this song. Called below me now that I ended up working on while I was not working a musical job at that time. And so I was working many hours at a non-musical job and having that assignment in a really difficult time in all of our lives, which was.

A song really about the, the chorus that goes, you know, I was down, but not defeated. All my hard work was not for nothing. That kind of sentiment and getting to sing that and record that and, and have a little bit of, you know, needing to be accountable to something, to someone to get that song to. Be done and to happen in a beautiful way, ended up being, being super healing for me as well. That was definitely, definitely one of my musical highlights of that year as a volunteer.

Rae Leigh: love that. I, if you, I don't know if you can, but I'd love to be able to share a bit of that song with people or is there some way that people can go and, listen to it?

Dan Rubins: Absolut.

Rae Leigh: Is it

Sofía Campoamor: Yeah. It's out on, on YouTube.

Rae Leigh: on YouTube, YouTube. All right. Well, we'll put the link of that into the description of the podcast so that people can go check it out, I wanna see it.

I'm sure if I wanna see it, I'm sure there's people listening who wanna hear it.

Sofía Campoamor: Mm-hmm

Rae Leigh: I'm curious for, for everyone listening, but also from you guys working in such a different way in the industry, than just, you know, doing your own music and trying to get your own stuff out there, but just coming from such a different, point of view and just everything you're doing and the people you would've worked with, what would you say is the advice that you've learned, or maybe that you give to kids even as to.

You know what to do when you're thinking about writing a song, but how do you have that conversation?

Sofía Campoamor: I can talk about that to start if you want Dan. Yeah, it's, it's interesting for me because this, you know, working with hear song is something that I do part of the time. And a lot of the rest of the time I am working on my own music and songwriting. And

Rae Leigh: So

Sofía Campoamor: so.

Dan Rubins: interesting. A lot of concern. And so.

Sofía Campoamor: It is such a good space for me

Rae Leigh: for me,

Sofía Campoamor: to learn from in that way.

 In that for people who, for kids who are not necessarily writing a song every day, although some of them write lots and lots and lots of songs, which is amazing, but just the idea for me of there's always something to write is in itself, something that is really. Grounding for me as, as a musician, that everyone has something on their minds or has something to say, and there's no shortage of kinds of songs that can be written and nothing is, is too silly or too serious to get into.

And. I think when, when we have our sessions, we, we ask questions, you know, about what, what matters to people or what they're interested in. And I think it's really just the sense of permission that I think especially kids have access to of, you know, they haven't had as many thoughts yet of, oh, there aren't songs about that.

Or I can't write a song about that because why couldn't you, I don't know if that's really advice, but that's kind of the, the learning that I do that I get out out of the program. Yeah.

Rae Leigh: that's brilliant. I love it. That there's always something and there's always something to write. Like you said, there's actually, it's art. There is no limit. And, um, I love that. Dan,

Dan Rubins: yeah, I mean, I think sort of building on that, I think for me, as we're now getting, I think, close to 300 songs that kids have written with us, um, it, it always wows me that there really are not two songs that sound the same. And I think the reason for that is, is partly because we're, we're so fastidious about.

honoring kids, exact language, so that the way that their language ends up being set and, and sits on the music, um, or if they're writing their own melodies is always so unique to them. Um, and also just because every kid's imagination is so completely different, that if you're really listening to them and really responding to them, every song will come out completely different, cuz they're all completely different people.

And you've never met two kids who are exactly the same. So you won't meet two songs that are exactly the same either if they're coming from two different kids. So I think what I take away from that as a songwriter is sort of to trust that your own voice is unique and that your own voice is worthy of being heard.

And even if you think you're sounding too much like someone else or, or what you wanna say has been said before, um, By people who you feel like are more talented than you, that like you have an authentic specificity in your perspective and your storytelling that is worthy of being heard. And I think that's a really hard thing for a lot of grown up singers, who to, to, to remind themselves of.

Having a full time job that is reminding kids of that, um, is definitely, really empowering for me as well to keep.

Rae Leigh: well to keep yeah. Sort of lesson

Dan Rubins: I think that's sort of the, the biggest sort of lesson that I feel like I can give based on the work that we've been doing these years, and this happens

Rae Leigh: Awesome. One of the things that I really like to ask my artists, or anyone that comes on the podcast, and this is really more to do with, your inspirations and people that you look up to.

Doing what you guys do. Sophia, you know, you, you do both and, and Dan, like just what you're doing is incredible, with what you are doing at the moment. If you could work with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why,

Dan Rubins: I'm gonna do one alive and one dead. I've always been incredibly inspired by Jacob Collier. As someone who I think is just sort of infinitely creative and just like sees creative opportunity everywhere. And just like hears the world musically in a way that I, I can't even wrap my mind around.

 So that would be someone that I would. To get involved with hear your song. So if he's listening, please, please reach out. And then I also, I mean, this may be a weird one. I mean, I guess not cuz she's incredible, but obviously, um, but I was just listening to, um, Aretha Franklin's cover of look to the rainbow from the musical Finns rainbow, um, which is obviously not in, was not written in the style of most of her songs initially, but the way that she found her own.

I mean, OB it was from like the seventies or something. So a, a time when she obviously had her own style very clearly, but then applied it to the song from a different era and with a sort of a different, totally different context. And it's just like the most extraordinary performance and it's just completely, uh, genuine to her sound and her moment, um, that I feel, I mean, uh, I feel like sort of the, the way that we.

Like are hoping that we can listen to our, our kids and, and hear, um, sort of this like infinite creativity in them. I feel like she also just sort of embodied that spirit where she had such a, such a clear UN UN, uh, forgettable and sort of UN unparallel sound and voice and clarity about who she was as an artist, but then also was able to sort of.

Bring other arcs and other sounds in like within the umbrella of her, like that her artistry was wide enough to encompass sort of any music anywhere, any sentiment. I think that sort of creativity would, is just like unbelievable to me.

Sofía Campoamor: Hmm.

Rae Leigh: I be her artist wide enough to just sort of, I love that. I agree. yeah. Incredible. All right. That's sort of, most of my official questions. Was there other stories? Cuz we talked a little bit before we started about wanting to make sure that we share, you know, examples of work that's um, been going on.

What have you got that you'd like to share with

If you've got anymore or any ones that stand out that you really would like to share with everyone, otherwise, you know, I mean, I'm gonna put the links so that people can find you as well, but is there somewhere specific to people, either for volunteers or people who just wanna find out more about what you're doing or donate or get involved?

Um, where should they go?

Dan Rubins: Yeah, so people can visit www dot, hear your song.org, where you will find the link to donate, to support our programs, which are free. For kids everywhere. As well, if you know, a child, uh, age six to 18, who would like to write a song with us, you can sign up at hear song.org/connect, where you can also find information about volunteering as a composer or musician or songwriting session leader.

 Or even if you're an undergraduate starting your own chapter at your local university. And. We'd also love for people to follow us on social media, because that's how kids know that their songs are being heard, on Instagram and a Facebook and TikTok and Twitter at hear song hys as well as our YouTube channel, which is hear your song.

 So those are all the places that you can find us.

Rae Leigh: they're falling apart or the mistake. Sorry, I don't know what was happening there. I was going, I was trying to, I was gonna try and make sure that we'd followed you, but while you were talking about it, that's embarrassing. Sorry. Keep going.

Dan Rubins: I think those are all the, all the way,

Rae Leigh: the, okay.

Dan Rubins: ways to get involved. Um,

Rae Leigh: I will put the links in the description of the podcast and there'll be a special blog as well on the, our website song, editor.com. So, um, it'll be one click. For all of the socials as well as for the website. Um, and I wanna go, you know, YouTube and have a look at those. So with, um, with the songs that you are, you know, you're producing for these kids, they're all available.

Do you've always released them or is it something that is like a select process? How does that, um, work?

Dan Rubins: So we always release songs if we have permission to do so from the kids, which we almost always get, because I think kids,

tend to want to, to be heard. Um, and when they see the ways that other kids are being heard, and actually we've had really interesting conversations with kids. We recently worked with a girl in London who wanted to write about.

Having sickle cell and, um, sort of started out saying like, this is kind of a weird topic. I'm like not sure about this. And then sort of hearing that there were other kids who had written as advocates about having epilepsy or having Crohn's, um, or having cerebral palsy realized that there were sort of already a community that existed of kid who were telling their stories for the same reasons in the same way.

And then she sort of opened up and was excited to, she sort of just jump in and share all the things that she. She already knew that she wanted to say about herself and her experience.

Rae Leigh: Yeah, that's awesome. So I'm just wondering as well, like with publishing, do you guys help, um, kids understand the music world and, and how, when they write songs, what their copyright is and that sort of thing, do you guys help them understand more about the music industry in that way?

Sofía Campoamor: has not

Rae Leigh: That's a good I,

Sofía Campoamor: been a huge. Of the process up until now and please correct me, Jen, if I'm wrong. However, in our peer songwriting group, more recently, we tried to keep it pretty open ended for how these kids wanted to use their time. So that. That means that rather than just doing one session, about one song with one kid, we gathered, uh, a number of them together to meet and have kind of some ongoing conversations about the songs they were writing.

And there was actually a lot of interest, more towards the music industry side about, you know, how do songs get heard and how do we promote songs and how does that happen for the songs that I listen to and how can I connect that to what I'm doing? So while that is sort of a newer area for us, I think.

There is some interest in that direction. And I'm excited to, to be sharing more about that with those who, who want to learn about.

Dan Rubins: Yeah. And I guess I would also say sort of along those lines, um, something we haven't sort of highlighted particularly yet, is the fact that, especially because we've been remote largely, so many of the kids are now recording their own vocals or recording their own instruments, um, and actually getting to do some of the mixing or producing themselves as well.

And that's something that we're able to, to teach them or schedule actually Sophia on Friday has a session with another. Volunteer, um, who at who we worked a couple weeks ago with, uh, a kid who was writing a song about wrestling and he wanted a hip hop track. Um, and I said, I can't really do that, but Sophia can help you build that.

So we scheduled a session just to work on producing the track. Um, and we've had many kids who have recorded their own vocals. We've done some like voice lessons with kids when they wanted to sort of make sure they felt solid before recording. Um, so we're really looking to sort. Help show kids that they can engage in sort of any part of the process that they're excited about and that we are able to facilitate that.

And then also when they're, when they're ready to say, like, that's, as far as I, as I wanna take this song and maybe next time I'll, I'll go a step further. Um, then we can sort of have our community, take it from there and then come back to them for feedback and things like.

Rae Leigh: that's incredible. Well, I, I love what you guys are doing. I think it's absolutely incredible. I wish as a child, I had people like you in my life, you know, to, to say that loving music was okay. It's just such a powerful tool, , to learn about the, the business of, of music and understanding that even at, at a young age, I think is a gift because it's not something they teach in schools, but also just giving people a voice and, and songwriting, when it comes to music as, as a.

As children, songwriting is usually the thing left to the last or it's something that people are expected to work at on their own. And I think that it's so beautiful that you've got such a focus on helping people feel heard and focusing on those words and what they wanna express. And I love it.

So, thank you so much for coming on here and sharing everything and what you're doing, and we just wish you absolutely the best for the future and hope to see it grow and just impact more and more lives. Is there anything else that you guys would like to say before we finish up?

Sofía Campoamor: I don't think for me. Thank you so much for having us. It's been a lot of fun. well,

Dan Rubins: , I would just say that, um, since Sophia, didn't say it about herself, that, Sophia's like one of the most extraordinarily talent. Songwriters I've ever met. So it's very cool for

Rae Leigh: and humble, obviously.

Dan Rubins: So it's very cool for me, uh, to just get to work with people who are supremely talented. And sometimes I feel like my job is just like gathering the most talented people I can find in a room and having them sort of.

So, um, and that's

Rae Leigh: that is a talent in

Dan Rubins: yeah,

Sofía Campoamor: Absolutely.

Rae Leigh: people together is no small feat , but I.

Dan Rubins: um, but I feel very lucky to be able to work

Rae Leigh: well, you guys have a great attitude. And like I said, at the beginning, huge hearts. And I just think it's absolutely beautiful and I wanna support you in any way that I can. , and I hope that there are people on here that are hearing about you and learning about you for the first time and wanna support you as well. But with that, thank you very much and all the best.

Sofía Campoamor: you. So.

Rae Leigh: Oh, all right. Are you guys.