At last year’s inaugural Next Level Music Conference, Sonoma County’s wealth of musical talent was treated to a full day of keynote talks, panel discussions from music-industry veterans and info on grants aimed to enrich and empower local bands to take their craft to the “next level.”

Hosted by the county’s artistically minded, economic development outreach agency Creative Sonoma, the conference returns May 7 with engaging speakers and another round of grant offerings for Sonoma County musicians.

The conference’s lineup includes local luminaries like Lagunitas Brewing Company founder Tony Magee and North Bay talent buyer and booker Sheila Groves-Tracey. In addition, Creative Sonoma is flying in professionals such as Glenn Lorbecki, a producer and engineer who has recorded everyone from White Stripes to Dave Matthews, and songwriter and producer Sam Hollander, whose résumé includes over 20 songs that hit the Top 40 pop charts.

“As a writer who’s dabbled in so many genres, there’s one unifying message that I want to get out there,” Hollander says, “and that is how important the shaping of a song is.”

Hollander grew up in an era of music that featured songwriting teams creating Motown and pop hits for other artists, and he says he always dreamed of pursuing that. However, he stepped into the music industry just as Nirvana changed the world, and suddenly no one was looking for songwriting teams.

Still, Hollander sweated away in the industry for a decade, and says things turned around when he worked with Carole King in 2001, co-writing the title track from her acclaimed album,

Love Makes the World. Since then he’s worked with Katy Perry, Weezer, Tom Jones and Michael Franti, to name a few.

“My job shifts daily based on who I’m working with,” he says. “The bulk of my time now is spent co-writing with artists, but that job is equal parts psychiatrist, editor or other heavy lifting.”

These days, Hollander excels at guiding the shapes of songs by knowing how to merge melody with lyrics, how to create sonic space and how to speak to diverse artists’ sensibilities.

He’ll share all of these tips and tricks with local musicians when he hosts a special pre-conference workshop on Saturday, May 6, and speaks at Next Level on Sunday.

“When I grew up, there was zero entryway into the music business,” Hollander says. “For me, any time I can go to a town where there’s all this undiscovered talent and inspire a dialogue is exciting.”

Andy Pohl was probably 13 years old when he first heard Fugazi. The prolific underground band helped define the Washington, D.C., punk scene in the mid-1980s with a mixture of noise and social consciousness that many dubbed art rock.

“Their whole idea of embracing DIY and having a strong sense of morality and responsibility to uplift everyone in the community was really inspiring to me,” says Pohl. “It stuck with me. And on top of that, their music is really good.”

Pohl credits Fugazi with getting him into music, and the North Bay bassist and guitarist of bands like Kalifornia Redemption, Good City Lie Still and SNIPERS!! always had it in the back of his mind to do a tribute album to the band.

This month, that longtime endeavor sees the light of day when

Everybody Wants Somewhere:
A Tribute to Fugazi is released on Pohl’s Sell the Heart Records label. Featuring 21 bands playing classic Fugazi songs, this massive collection includes 13 tracks on limited-edition vinyl and the rest offered as digital downloads.

“I was really encouraged by the fact that this many people were eager to be a part of this project,” Pohl says.

Tracks by several North Bay artists, including post-rock band the Down House, old-school punks My Last Line, ambient electronica outfit Identical Homes and songwriter Ryan Michael Keller, dot this genre-bending tribute album that also features bands from across the West Coast and beyond.

Everybody Wants Somewhere excels as a tribute by offering a wide array of bands, with diverse styles and genres, putting their own spin on Fugazi’s material and keeping things fresh and surprising throughout.

Some bands, like Berkeley punks Screw 32, stay true to Fugazi’s pulse-pounding energy on their entry, “Public Witness Program.” Others, like San Diego synth wave group Warsaw, who take on the track “Merchandise,” evoke the ethos of the material while reassembling the melodies to fit their personal aesthetic.

“I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised by what these bands came up with creatively,” Pohl says.

In the spirit of Fugazi’s ethics, this album also acts as a public service, in that all proceeds from the album will be donated to the San Francisco nonprofit Taking It to the Streets. The program helps empower homeless youth in the city by giving them a job cleaning up the Haight Ashbury neighborhood and providing mentoring, safe housing and other services to support self-sufficiency.

“I really love the concept and was compelled by what they’re doing,” Pohl says. “This is going to be an awesome partnership.”

‘Everybody Wants Somewhere:
A Tribute To Fugazi’ will be available on April 30 at local record stores and online at selltheheartrecords.com and sthr.bandcamp.com.