Madelyn Paquette, named the grand prize winner of this year’s John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the Country category, has been awarded a prize package that includes a Solid State Logic Complete Bundle of plugins.
Paquette, a songwriter since the age of 10, graduated from the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU Tisch in May 2022, where she worked extensively on an SSL analog console. She was also selected for Summer Accelerator, an intensive, summer-long networking and mentoring experience co-led by the Clive Davis Institute and Katie Vinten of Columbia Records and Black Diamond Artist Group.
“I loved the tone and color of the EQs and preamps on the SL9000K console at Clive Davis Studios, and I can hear that SSL sound in these plugins,” says Paquette, who works in Apple Logic Pro X on her laptop when not in the recording studio. “I love the SSL Vocalstrip 2 plugin. It’s a one-stop shop for essential processing — EQ and DeEssing. This is a go-to for me and usually the first stop on my vocal processing.
“Another plugin from the SSL Complete Bundle that I love and am using is the X-EQ2,” she continues. “I put the X-EQ2 after the Vocalstrip 2. With the X-EQ2 I can really go granular and focus on target frequencies. It’s easy to use and I feel like I have a lot of control. It sounds stunning and sounds true to the SSL console at NYU in both color and tone. I did most of my work in the SSL suite at NYU’s Clive Davis Studios prior to the pandemic, then I was home for a year and a half and bouncing around other production suites. It is so cool to have this available in my DAW.
“The sound of the SSL plugins really does elevate my projects and my songwriting. It just makes the sound better. It gives me a more professional sound that is noticeable and evident in all of my favorite music that is out there.”
Paquette’s John Lennon Songwriting Contest win for her song “Move In,” a contemporary country anthem about wanting to be with a lover all the time, is far from her first award. She was nominated for two American Songwriting Awards before her 15th birthday; became a National Young Arts Foundation Winner by age 17; was selected as a 2018 Presidential Scholar in the Arts Finalist by age 18; and won an Independent Music Award before turning 20. In 2021 her songwriting was also recognized by the BMI Foundation.
Paquette has been entering her songs in The John Lennon Songwriting Contest for many years, she reports, having initially been made aware of the competition by her vocal coach back home in the Boston area. “The John Lennon Songwriting Contest has been a big inspiration to me; they do a lot to spotlight aspiring songwriters and the reputation this contest has in the songwriting world is ginormous,” she says. “Prior to earning a Grand Prize for ‘Move In’ I had submitted other songs in the past, one of which was selected as a finalist. Getting a grand prize was kind of crazy and a great lifelong dream moment. It’s a huge honor to win.”
The winners of the annual Lennon Award, which honors the top song in each of the 12 categories from the year’s 24 winners according to online voting, receive an SSL 2 audio interface. The song receiving the most overall votes is further crowned Song of the Year and that winner receives a $20,000 cash prize plus more audio equipment, including an SSL Fusion analogue coloration processor. The 2022 contest is now open and features an array of SSL products. Visit jlsc.com for more info.
