The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Natalia Bortolotti and Stefan Podell of Hope Child, an alternative band from Sunnyvale, were third place winners in the Billboard Magazine Song Contest.

Songwriter scores in worldwide contest

By Justin Berton

Natalia, a singer-songwriter from Sunnyvale, is already making promises.

The promises--which include the one she made to her boss--are for the moment her band Hope Child breaks into the big time.

"She's made me promise her I find my own replacement," Natalia said.

Natalia's boss may have good reason to worry: Last week the band placed third in a worldwide song contest sponsored by Billboard Magazine, the industry's leading trade magazine.

Deanie Williams, the director of the contest, said the competition drew close to 15,000 entries, split between eight different categories of music.

Hope Child's "Space I'm In" placed third in the alternative category, one of the most talent-rich categories, Williams said.

"To get third after the sheer number of applicants we received is quite an achievement," Williams said.

This isn't the first competition in which Hope Child has made its mark. Last summer the band won a spot on VH1's Big Break Contest and played at the San Francisco stop of a nationwide tour.

Stefan Podell, the band's guitarist and a programmer at a computer chip company by day, said he proudly shared Billboard's Web site with his co-workers so they could admire the results.

"Because everybody in my office knows," Podell said, "if we get signed, I am outta here."

Podell cowrote "Space I'm In" with Natalia, and said the song is a far cry from what it once was. Instead of the soft, acoustic guitar-laced ballad, it is now more of a funky heavy rocker.

"Maybe if we're on MTV's Unplugged," Podell joked, "we'll play it the old way."

Natalia said the inspiration for the lyrics behind the song were "partly a reminder to myself to enjoy the process."

To often, she said, she will accomplish one goal and move right on to the next without stopping to enjoy the fruits of her labor. "You have to be happy right here, right now," she said.

Lately, the industry representatives have been paying attention to Hope Child. The labels, Natalia said, are impressed by the band's ability to book, promote and distribute their own CD, "Lasting Impression," which was put out by their own label, Rapture Records.

"They can see we don't need a label to take care of us," Natalia said.

Natalia and Podell are working hard to get the major signing and leave the 9-to-5 lifestyle of Silicon Valley for a life on the road.

Natalia continually scans the Web in search of other contests that might give Hope Child the chance to make good on a few promises. On top of that, they perform live about four times a month and rehearse at least twice a week.

"If you're going to make it, it's not going to happen from your rehearsal studio," Natalia said.

Hope Child's next live performance will be at Club Cocodrie in San Francisco on Aug. 28

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Songwriter scores in worldwide contest

The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper