Jazz Collaborators Alex Bird & Ewan Farncombe

Over the last few years, Alex Bird & Ewen Farncombe have become two of the biggest names on the Canadian Jazz scene. With praise from around the globe, this talented team has created timeless and heartfelt originals for a modern audience. They have produced something that is completely unique; three original albums in three years.

Bird and Farncombe’s latest album, a duo record, dropped as a surprise of 11 originals entitled, “Songwriter”. Kira Grunenberg at DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE wrote, “Impassioned messages sung and played from one’s heart but worn on a well-dressed sleeve. “Songwriter” is an elegant, romantic, and well-executed gem of a record.” The album was nominated for “Best Vocal Jazz” at the 2024 JUNO awards.

Alex joined us to talk about their song This Song Is Ours. Download the lyrics to follow along.

We talked about:

• Phil’s new furnace (editor’s note: you’d think this is the least songwriting topic ever, but then, there’s this to consider)
• The Song Talk Meetup
• How do you explain to someone how to write a melody?
• Call and response melodies
• Bringing together melody and lyric with a jazz pianist to create a unified song
• Learning to trust your instincts as a songwriter
• How Alex re-wrote most of the lyric the night before recording
• Exploring options as a way of finding out what not to do
• The value of having another viewpoint/person on your song