This Is Our Story
Shelly Poole and Paul Statham are multi platinum award winning songwriters with an established record of curating and running globally renowned songwriting retreats.
Shelly achieved 10 top 20 UK and European hit singles and 3 best selling albums as part of Alisha’s Attic with her sister Karen. She is a prolific and highly sought after songwriter with songs cut by RnB icon Janet Jackson, Roachford ,Belinda Carlisle and songs on Massive Attack’s top 5 album Heligoland also featuring Damon Albarn. She has cowritten tracks with UK no 1 album artist Jack Savoretti as well as new artists like CamrinWatsins and achieved iTunes country chart no 1’s with Ward Thomas and Wandering Hearts
She has a highly successful indie folk project Red Sky July and recently embarked on a sold out tour to promote the new album Shadow Birds
Her debut solo album ‘Hard Time For The Dreamers’ (co written and co produced with Paul) was the first independent album to top the iTunes independent chart. Whilst still successfully writing in the commercial pop arena
she has focused recently on the sync industry, becoming the first female composer for the BBC’s pride of Britain awards, and recently composed the music for Channel 4’s Sunshine Murders and Noel Edmond’s new TV show Kiwi Kingdom
She won a Cannes award for composing the music to the feature film My Old School,
a 2022 documentary directed by Jono McLeod on the subject of the Brandon Lee scandal.
She is director of a sync company Deep Syncers and has a very successful library music company Bells and whistles
Paul is an eclectic songwriter; from cowriting Didos breakthrough hit ‘Here With Me’ and the title track ‘No Angel’ from the 18
Million selling album of the same name, receiving an ASCAP award for the single as most played song on a US TV show. No Angel soon became one of the UK’s best-selling albums of all-time. Spending seven weeks at No.1 and over a year in the Top 10 ( US Billboard no 2 album), He cowrote 2 songs with Kylie Minogue on her international no 1 album Fever (US no 3) and on the other end of the scale has been gothic icon Peter Murphy’s co-writer for over 30 years including 7 cowrites on Murphy’s breakthrough album Deep inc the alt rock no 1 hit single Cuts You Up and this years comeback album Silver Shade feat Trent Reznor Nine Inch Nails . He has over 260 million Spotify streams on cowritten songs. He is currently writing with Scottish Rock band Simple Minds inc the latest
single Your Name In Lights.
He has had songs placed in Love Actually, Sliding Doors, American Horror Story and the theme to US sci fi series Roswell High.
He is a visiting professor at Leeds College Of Music, module leader on the new MA commercial songwriting at both ICMP London and also head of songwriting at Solent University
Together they formed SPPS Songwriting as an antithesis to ‘online’ songwriting courses and have curated and ran over 25 successful workshop weekends and retreats
"We love to share our passion and commitment to the art of songwriting in all its forms from the avant garde to contemporary pop.
We will write in small focused groups with varied themes from nature as narrative to pop hooks via dark murder ballads!
We are looking forward to being a part of your musical journey."
Songwriting is like a safe haven for your thoughts and feelings, a place where you can put your heart into words and melodies. It's a way to let out emotions that might be otherwise hard to express . When you write it’s therapeutic , you can find clarity in the chaos . The process of creating something beautiful out of your thoughts can be incredibly empowering, boosting your confidence and reminding you of your uniqueness. In those moments, it's just you and the music, a form of self-care that's both freeing and healing.
Why Collaborate
When songwriters collaborate, they bring diverse strengths to table, pushing each other to reach new heights. It’s the back-and-forth, the give-and-take, that sparks innovation and makes you challenge your default . It also means lyricists with less musical knowledge , melody writers with little production technique , or producers with no songs can get their work across the line .
With combined sales of over 40 million albums and 100's of millions streams Paul and Shelly are committed to curating creative and inclusive workshops and retreats and will be involved in the journey of the song from its inception to its initial performance!
Grammy Award Winning Songwriter Gabe Rhodes
Gabriel Rhodes is Fiery Blue's Austin-based music producer and multi-instrumental musician. He has played with or produced Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Emmylou Harris, Kimmie Rhodes among other artists, and is a Grammy-award winning producer.
"It was lovely to watch Shelly and Paul work with the songwriters at this camp. Through kind eyed encouragement and constructive criticism I watched the shy blossom and the best come out in everyone. By day 5 people were truly firing on a different level. magic begets magic!"
Actress/Singer Heather Peace
Heather Peace is an English actress, singer and LGBT rights activist. She is known for her roles as Eve Unwin in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and Nikki Boston in the BBC school-based drama series Waterloo Road.
'The writing retreat was more than I could have ever hoped for. It was a space to explore music with talented, like minded creatives. Every day it was exciting to get the brief and find out who you would be writing with. Then off we’d all go to write our songs that we then played to the rest of the groups in the evening. Shelly & Paul are masters of their craft and at various points would come and listen and suggest improvements; they invariably made the song better. Their expert ears were often the much needed inspiration if at points we’d gotten stuck.
To top it off, the little village we stayed in was isolated, calm, simple & perfect for the soul. Every day involved various little swims whilst looking out on incredible views of mountains and lakes and watching swallows dive in and around the surroundings. The whole week was blissful.
Thank you,'
Heather x
Testimonials
Such a privilege to be part of the SPPS writing workshops. I got to meet more of my tribe and write new amazing songs. The theme of using prose as a starting point was inspirational and enabled me to write in a completely different way
Jos McClaren
You need to do SPPS Songwriting workshops and retreats.
I’ve done various songwriting courses and retreats to learn the art of songwriting and they’ve all been great. SPPS offer the next step in the process. They take you deeper into the songwriting process. The emphasis is on the co-writing and they offer different ways of thinking about how to write a song, subject matter and inspiration.
The rapport between Paul and Shelly is great and they create such a friendly environment They have a vast wealth of knowledge which they are happy to share with everyone. Their positivity and encouragement can’t help but fill you with confidence.
I can’t wait for the next one :)
Kairen Caine
Before you even notice, Paul & Shelly get under the skin of your song, and with a few choice observations, lift it in to the stratosphere. I wouldn't do songwriting retreats with anyone else: they're world-class, fabulous and fun.
Mike Wheeler
The face to face bootcamp with Shelly and Paul last September, changed everything for me.
Collaborating in the same room, being heard and having ideas that made the final song was great. But watching and listening at how they individually come up with the magic was amazing to experience and be part of.
That week raised my bar and my standards … and I’ll never be the same again.
Rob Wright
Despite writing songs for 30+ years, I struggled with the confidence to call myself a songwriter! That all changed when I attended a weekend of songwriting with Shelly & Paul! They are amazing songwriters but, more importantly, they are warm, compassionate and supportive human beings!
They created a safe and secure space for a group of people who didn’t really know each other to confidently bare their souls and be creative - no judgement just 100% pure, unadulterated support!
But I don’t want to give the impression that it was an easy ride! They also challenged every participant to be the best they could be!
I would wholeheartedly recommend any of the events they run - I’ll be attending as many as I can! See you there!
Graham McGregor Smith
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
J.R.R. Tolkien