Shows

Lessons from The Rutles – Songwriting Satire

This week we took a dive into the 1978 mockumentary – The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash – a satire of Beatlemania and the Fab Four. Aside from being one of the first mock-docs, it is also a very funny film featuring some Monty Python alumnae, a few famous faces from early SNL and …

Read more

Mike, Neel, Phil, and AV

Songs with a social stance with Ann Vriend

The two-time Maple Blues Award songwriting recipient and two-time Edmonton Music Award recipient is an internationally recognized musician known for her soaring vocals, socially conscious lyrics, and outstanding musicianship. With a vintage sound reminiscent of the Roots/Blues style of Stax Records and Muscle Shoals recordings, singles from the album have already found their way onto …

Read more

Phil, Neel, Mike, and Kari

Working with a Publicist: Bad Parade’s Kari Zalik

Bad Parade is a music publicity firm focused on bringing musical talent to every corner of Canada. Created by Canadian publicist, Kari Zalik, Bad Parade works to secure key media coverage for Canadian and international artists, working with broadcast (television, radio and podcasts), print, and digital outlets for maximum exposure. Kari’s artists have appeared in top media including the Globe …

Read more

Phil, Neel, and Mike

Mike Fuller and the Joy and Hard Work of SongWriting

Mike Fuller’s rock and roll roots run deep. The son of a church organist and a cover band singer/rock and roll enthusiast, it seemed only natural Fuller would follow the musical path laid by his parents and find himself writing a collection of uptempo, foot-stomping tunes. Mike spent much of the pandemic like many of …

Read more

Mike, Neel, Chad, and Jeffery

Storytelling In Song with Jeffery Straker

This week SongTalk welcomed Jeffery Straker a Canadian folk/roots singer-songwriter, who is based in Toronto, Ontario and Regina, Saskatchewan. His piano-based pop musical style has drawn comparisons to Elton John, Neil Young, Rufus Wainwright, and Kris Kristofferson. Straker grew up listening to country music on his parents Saskatchewan grain farm at the same time he …

Read more

Writing Harmonies with Quote The Raven

This week SongTalk welcomed Newfoundland Americana/Folk duo Quote the Raven. Jordan Coaker and Kirsten Rodden-Clarke have been bewitching audiences with haunting harmonies and East-Coast meets Americana songwriting for a decade. Their album Golden Hour (2018) earned multiple nominations including the 2019 ECMA Rising Artist and the award for 2019 MusicNL’s Group of the year. After …

Read more

Mike, Neel, Phil, and Greg

How to Write A Hit (or not) with Greg Wyard

This week SongTalk welcomed Pop-rock artist Greg Wyard – a singer-songwriter, guitarist and bass player who has been diligently working at his craft since he was ten years old. Greg moved to Canada from his native England at age 13 and settled in Toronto, earning a reputation as one of its most hardworking solo performers. …

Read more

Holiday Gift Guide 2021

Gather ’round kiddies for our Annual Holiday Gift Guide! with Special Guest Mike MacInnes! Full of stocking stuffers, friendly little gifts and great big wowsa! gifts. Buy them for the songwriter/musician in your life – or get yourself something nice, ’cause you deserve it. Is there anything that you’re hoping to find under your holiday-appropriate …

Read more

Freestyling with hip-hop artist D.O. Gibson

D.O. Gibson is a Guinness World Record setting rapper, author, professional speaker and music executive. He set a Guinness World Record for the longest freestyle rap ever (8 Hours and 45 Minutes). Gibson has coordinated tours for himself and his artists in Asia (Taiwan, Japan, Singapore), Europe (England, France, Netherlands), USA (NYC, Miami, Los Angeles) …

Read more

Lockwood Barr: Tips on Co-writing in Nashville

Songwriter Lockwood Barr stops by to share her experiences in co-writing in Nashville. We talked about: How to approach co-writing Helluva Habit Lyrics – Lockwood Bar We should Write Sometime co-writing app SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3E4HnLFuksywb7geo3uHa2 WEBSITE: https://lockwoodbarr.com/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/musicbylockwood/ Lockwood Barr is a powerhouse country artist tinged with a rocker edge. Based in Nashville, TN this …

Read more

Neel, Phil, Lexie, and Jordana

Voices Only with Jordana Talsky

We have a fascinating show this episode with our special guest, Jordana Talsky. Jordana is a singer, songwriter and vocal looper who fuses multi-genre influences into her own sound. She accompanies herself by voice with a Roland Boss RC505 loop station. Her ethos is to incorporate digital means into live performance in an organic way, …

Read more

Neel, Phil, Mike, and Marlon

Trusting in your producer with Marlon Chaplin

This week, Marlon Chaplin joined us again to talk about how trusting in his producer/collaborator made all the difference in creating a new direction for his new album, Synestalgia. Songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Marlon Chaplin is back with a brand new full length album, the first since 2018’s critically acclaimed rock record, ‘The Circle’. His …

Read more

Mike, Neel, and Phil

Music – the International Language

This week SongTalk tried something a little different. We brought in some our favourite songs sung in a different language than English. They say music is the international language so we thought we would put that to the test. Phil, Neel and Mike each presented three songs in a language other than English and we …

Read more

Mike, Neel, Phil, and Bradley

From Classical to Personal with Bradley McCaw

Bradley McCaw is an award-winning singer/songwriter. His career started with him singing classical music and touring internationally with the group THE TEN TENORS. A native of Australia, Bradley spent fifteen long years making good in every job a musician and writer could possibly have, ending his day with a stack of old vinyls by his …

Read more