Theme Song Contest

In January, we (Tim Babler and Drew Sonnenberg) will be releasing the Hearts & Hands Podcast. This weekly podcast will continue the conversation that was started at the 2018 Hearts & Hands Workshop. Each week, we will interview many of the presenters and attendees from the Workshop to gain their insights in various areas of art, worship, and creativity.

We will also be starting new conversations, we will talk to many who were not at the Workshop. We may even talk to artists outside the WELS (gasp!). But without all of you, none of this means much, it’ll just be two guys sitting at their computers having a conversation that nobody ever hears. So we hope that we are able to create something that you find valuable and worth your time.

But we also hope it will be something that you actively engage in. We hope you will comment on episodes as we post them. We hope that you will send in emails with questions and ideas. We hope that you will ask us to interview artists you want to hear from.

This podcast is about starting a conversation, but it’s also about building a community. It’s clear from talking to many of you at the Workshop that this community is something that is important to you. While we will work very hard to make valuable contributions to it, our hope is that our contributions will pale in comparison to what all of your end up contributing. So before we even start the podcast, we wanted to provide an opportunity for some of you artists to contribute.

And to show you that we’re sincere about our desire to see everything that you have to contribute, we’re putting our money where our mouth is. We need a theme song for our podcast, and we want to see what you guys can come up with. The winner gets $50 of our own money. Or maybe more?

If you’re not a composer or musician, but want to show your appreciation for the arts, would you consider contributing to the prize pool? $5? $10? $20? If you’re interested in contributing, let us know at heartsandhandspodcast@gmail.com (Also, for you poets, painters, sculptors, graphic designers, and creatives of all other mediums, don’t worry, we have plans for future contests to highlight the amazing work you guys are doing too.)

You can find the contest details below. Thanks for being here. We’re excited to see what we can build together.

Contest Guidelines:

1. The contest period opens on November 1, 2018 and closes at 11:59 pm EST on November 30, 2018. 

2. Songs submitted should be a minimum of 30 seconds.

3. Songs should have no lyrics or words.

4. Songs should be completely original, not a cover or an arrangement of an existing piece.

5. Songs can be any genre (solo piano, surf rock, ska, emo, skiffle, baroque, delta blues, samba, house, chiptune, anti-folk, funk, dance-pop, nu metal, ragtime, etc.). However, 12-tone serialism will not be allowed. I repeat: All 12-tone entries will be discarded immediately.

6. Songs can be completely electronic or recorded audio.

7. Songs do not need to be professionally recorded, but should have decent audio quality.

8. By entering your submission in this contest you are releasing the rights to this recording to the creators of the podcast to be used in whole or in part in each episode of the podcast. You will still own the rights to the composition itself, but we will have the rights to this particular recording.

9. One (1) first prize winner will have their song chosen as the official theme song of the Hearts & Hands Podcast and will be the winner of an Amazon Gift Card in an amount no less than $50 (sponsored by the creators of the podcast).