October 31, 1998

Publication title: Canadian Press NewsWire, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Toronto
Writer: Unknown

Ex-drummer sues McLachlan over songs on first album

A judge starts a crash course in rock musicology Monday when he begins hearing evidence from a man who claims he co-wrote four songs on Canadian superstar Sarah McLachlan’s first record album.
Darryl Neudorf, 34, a former drummer with the band 54-40 who now is a Vancouver-based record producer, maintains he was never properly paid for spending three months in 1988 helping produce the album and developing the songs McLachlan eventually recorded.

At the time, McLachlan was 19 years old and had never written a complete song before so her managers hired Neudorf to work with the budding star, the suit says.

Neudorf said Nettwerk Productions Ltd. of Vancouver, the company that signed McLachlan in 1987 to a recording contract, wanted to promote her as a singer-songwriter, so Neudorf was not given songwriting credits on the album.

He is seeking damages for copyright infringement, breach of fiduciary duty and his share of royalties for co-producing the album Touch, released in 1988.

The defendants, McLachlan, Nettwerk, Nettoverboard Publishing, Mark Jowett, Ric Arboit and Terry McBride, deny the allegations.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge is expected to listen to the demo tapes of the songs and compare them with the finished versions on the CD, which went on to sell about 500,000 copies worldwide.
The court case will hear witnesses testify about song structure and elements of songwriting arrangement, including syncopation, rhythm and “haunting piano lines,” court documents say. McLachlan has been served a subpoena to testify at the trial, which is scheduled for three weeks and is expected to hear from two dozen witnesses.

Neudorf has retained as an expert witness U.S. musicologist Gerald Eskalin, who received two Grammy Award nominations for his work as conductor of the L.A. jazz choir. Eskalin has testified in similar cases for Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.

The music expert retained by the defence is local singer-songwriter Bill Henderson, formerly with the bands The Collectors and Chilliwack and currently a member of Ulrich Henderson Forbes.
Henderson’s report, contained in court documents, states that each song on a CD is worth seven cents in royalties.

He analysed Neudorf’s contributions to the melody and structure of each song and found he contributed 16.6 per cent to the song Vox, 8.3 per cent of Steamy and 25 per cent of Sad Clown.
In total, the royalties would be three cents an album, which is split 50-50 between writer and music publisher, so Neudorf’s share would be 1.5 cents an album, Henderson concluded.
Court documents show Neudorf claims McLachlan’s managers tried to portray the recording artist as the sole songwriter of songs that were co-written.