Today's guest is a multi-Latin-Grammy-winning songwriter and producer with a wall of platinum records — and one of the few people in music willing to say the quiet part out loud. He came up as an actor and a rapper, moved to LA broke, stumbled into songwriting, and turned it into the kind of career most writers spend a lifetime chasing. He's also built one of the sharpest voices in the room as the host of his own show, Good Luck With Gino.
This is one of the most honest conversations we've had about how the music business actually works in 2026 — not the clean version, the real one. Why roughly 75% of working writers now survive on K-pop. How the pitch song quietly died and took the professional songwriter down with it. Artists taking songwriting credit on songs they didn't write — and exactly how labels split the writers up to play them against each other and shave points. Gino lays out the one rule every songwriter needs before their next cut, when it's worth standing on business, and when you "roll over like a dog" because the record's too big to lose.
And The Writer Is... Gino The Ghost!
In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on:
• How he came up — actor, rapper, broke in LA, then stumbled into songwriting
• Treating every podcast episode like an album of singles
• Why ~75% of working writers now live off K-pop
• What pitch records used to be — Clive Davis, Barry Manilow & the lost art of outside songs
• The death of the professional songwriter (and why talent-show winners get nothing now)
• Artists taking credit for songs they didn't write — and how to combat it
• The "$15K buy-me-out" story & when to stand on business vs. roll over
• The split shakedown — how labels pit writers against each other, and the rule that beats it
• Why generosity makes you more money than being a prick
And much more...
🔓 This is only part of the conversation. The full extended, exclusive interview is on our Patreon — where Gino goes even further:
• The Bryan Cranston mindset that changed everything for him: "I don't need this role"
• The craziest stories he's ever had in the studio (the fight, the NDA, the booth writer)
• Drugs, weed, and vices — and why the "it makes me more creative" thing is a myth
• His no-apologies case for AI in music — and why he calls the backlash performative
• The synesthesia call-out nobody else will make
• How you actually break in (it's not the biggest rooms)
• Why songwriters deserve points and fees — and the fight to make it happen
Get the full uncut episode and every extended conversation at www.patreon.com/andthewriteris.
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FINAL CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS (YouTube — public cut)
0:00 "Have you had to learn to be fearless?" — actor, rapper, broke in LA
0:39 Building the podcast — and why they resisted video for 200 episodes
2:35 The clip era: treating every episode like an album of singles
4:10 Music Monday–Friday, podcast at night — and learning Spanish for Latin music
5:15 Sessions in 2026: "I only do stuff I'm having fun doing"
5:42 Why ~75% of working writers now live off K-pop
7:19 What pitch records used to be — Clive Davis, Barry Manilow & outside songs
8:14 The death of the professional songwriter (and why talent-show winners get nothing)
10:24 Why artists should collaborate with professional writers
11:43 Artists taking credit for songs they didn't write — how to combat it
12:06 "Buy me out" — the $15K publishing story & when to stand on business
13:41 The split shakedown: how labels pit writers against each other
14:46 The rule every songwriter needs: talk first, start a chain
16:13 Why generosity beats being a prick once everyone's good
17:11 The craziest studio stories… (continued on Patreon)
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