Yes, I have the same experience with emails. It's funny, I hear songwriters in the big metropols, no matter where in the world, are collaborating over email and Skyping - even if they live in the same town. There are even people collaborating in the radiowaves over Music Row! Of course some US cities like New York are so big, that if you live in each end, it's like living in each part of Denmark :-)

So the big dominating paradigm is the band and same room thing, much because of the immediate response (on Skype we very often say "do you like that?", but I still think long distance collaboration can make great things happen. Sometimes when you reach 40 you don't want all the crap from young guys either, but still think they are talented, so long distance collaboration can be an option for us old jokes laugh

I've heard a lot of A 'level' musicians who really can't write a lyric, and no matter how great they play, their songs just ain't happening. There are a bunch of great players who just have those elitist ideas about music being about virtuoso techniques, and fail to acknowledge the amount of skills and talent involved in great lyric writing. And they are killing their career IMO. And by great, I don't mean the divine 10 minutes of flow experience, but the skills involved in telling a compelling story, crafting a lyric around a concept, and have the clout to make it appropriate for and artist and a genre.

I think this thread somewhat have forgotten the A talent SONGWRITERS, over 20, that'll never will get a record deal, and are miscredited as B level talent or worse, just because they are not session level players.

Those hidden people are the ones to collaborate with, if you are looking to make great recordable songs, I think.