BBC Radio has called Melanie, “Mary Poppins with a broken heart” and that is just part of her appeal. Besides her beautiful voice, Melanie is a terrific songwriter with lots of great songs to prove it. Her tune “Christmas Breaks My Heart” was a finalist in the Great American Songwriting Contest. And now Melanie has …
Singer-songwriter and Jitters frontman Blair Packham joined us for our latest annual Holiday Gift Guide. We talked about gift suggestions in every price range. Happy shopping for the musician in your life, for yourself, or for your favourite songwriting podcast host (hint: that’s Neel). Thanks to our listeners Don Thomspon, Lorenzo D. Policelli, and Matt …
We talk about the songwriting do’s and don’ts as well as: The 2nd Annual Songwriting Challenge The Annual Holiday Gift Guide Songwriting Dos and Don’ts on Discmakers DO: Write a cool opening line DON’T: Make your chorus melody too much like your verse melody DO: Write interesting titles DON’T: Be afraid to rewrite DO: Polish …
This week SongTalk welcomed Doktor Nomi to our studio. Admittedly Nomi is not a real doctor but he does have a unique and interesting way of creating music. As a topliner and lyricist, Nomi frequently works with other collaborators to create his music. Most recently, he and SongTalk’s own Neel Modi have been working together …
This week we welcomed The Sun Harmonic (aka Kaleb Hikele) back to the show to share his latest single A Dream I’ve Had with us. Kaleb was challenged to write, record, and release a song in 48 hours, and he totally did it! We talked about: Our latest songwriting challenge and how our listeners are …
Having just released both a French and English version of her latest single, “Self-Talk Session”, Montreal based pop/funk singer Izabelle reached #1 on Quebec’s Niky radio charts and has spent weeks within their top ten, secured four consecutive victories in the Canadian Beats Weekly Beatdown, and has had the English version of her hit single …
This week SongTalk featured a few songs from our listeners. And it was loads of fun. We chose three of our listeners’ songs to take a closer listen to. Stuart Cook – near Manchester, England penned a delightful song inspired by the view from a hill near his home. Earthbound, his song has a traditional …
This week we were saddened by the passing away of guitar icon Eddie Van Halen. We talked about his amazing talent and some more stuff. We talked about: Mandolin Orange cover version of Bob Dylan’s Boots of Spanish Leather, and songs with two different points of view (thanks to Jeff from Michigan for the email) …
Neel plays a track off his latest EP with special guest Lexie Jay from local TO Duo, Featurette. Ace Symmetry is Neel Modi’s experimental EP of progressive electro-pop. Odd time signatures and nonsensical lyrics are combined with inventive beats, cool synth sounds, and catchy keyboard solos to create a unique and fun sonic experience. The …
This week Song Talk Radio welcomed Gilbert Neal to our studio. A master song craftsman, Gilbert Neal – on his latest release Mistakes of Memory shows the depth and diversity of his influences: Leonard Cohen, Pink Floyd, ELO, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Stephen Sondheim. Relying on his mastery of musical theatre and zeal for classic …
Rosh Grove is a R&B singer and songwriter from Toronto, ON, Canada. As an artist, Grove is a dreamer, believer and driven to be an achiever of success in the music industry. His music tells his story of perseverance and overcoming adversity regardless of circumstances. Grove is driven by passion for the art, and telling …
Actor, playwright, filmmaker, and musician, Michael Louis Johnson shares his experiences with his improvisation bands Rambunctious and Little Rambunctious, 13-member and 5-member brass bands, respectively. We talked about: Michael’s approach to improvising a lyric for a song title suggested by an audience member How to create lyrics based on who’s in the audience The value …
Canadian Juno and Latin Grammy winning artist, Alex Cuba joined us to talk about his songwriting process and perform a new song, Solo Mia, live on the show. We talked about: Alex’s first visit to Canada as part of his father’s band How a melody-first way of songwriting tells Alex what the song is about …
Jeff returns to our show to talk about scoring for films and how you can start on your own journey. From Pickering, Ontario, he has written music for film, worked as a session keyboard player, orchestrator and arranger in Toronto, and has released his own original album Great Expectations, which received airplay across Canada. We …
On this episode we are talking about the great John Prine. This American treasure, perhaps a modern day Mark Twain, a peerless songwriter and chronicler of the lives of regular folk sadly passed away recently – one of the many victims of the Covid 19 pandemic. Since his death, many of todays music’s stars have …
Jacob Moon returns to show you how to use a looper pedal to create and perform full songs – great stuff! Stuff we talked about Inexpensive starter looper pedal TC Electronic Guitar Ditto Looper Effects Pedal The looping system Jacob uses Boss RC-300 Loop Station JacobMoon.com
Song Talk Radio is happy to welcome our good friend Blair Packham to the studio. This episode, Blair is talking about his songwriting and the latest songs that he is working on. In fact, he will preview one of the songs he is considering for his new collection/album. Blair talks about his new songs and …
Michael talks about what it’s like being an established musician but being a beginner at home recording. Actor, playwright, filmmaker, and musician, Michael Louis Johnson has lived in Toronto since 1990. He spent seven years as right-hand man to Big Rude Jake; he blowed-up on the silver screen in cult hit Bride of Chucky and …
Kitchener, Ontario-based singer-songwriter and storyteller Jesse Parent talks about the danger of his song “For a Moment” becoming a conventional love song, and how to avoid that! We talked about: How to do banter well when you’re performing How Jesse went from one-draft songs to editing all the songs “Write with your heart, edit with …
So are people still writing protest songs? How do the protest songs of the ’60-’70s compare to the songs by Childish Gambino and Kendrick Lamar? When you start songwriting and your goal is a protest song, how do you start? Vanessa stops by to lend her views. We talked about: Do protest songs chart? Abstract …
In this throwback, we chatted with musical book writer Stephen Witkin about songs with a pride theme, with song examples. Check out the original show notes.
One of our favourite guests drops by to give practical advice on performing. Blair Packham – songwriter, teacher, performer and 80’s hitmaker – talks about the best practices to entertain and present your songs to an audience, live or on-line. Blair also shows off his dulcimer, which is very impressive. Blair is the host and …
This week we welcomed Kitchener, Ontario-based singer-songwriter and storyteller Jesse Parent to the show to talk about his COVID-19 pandemic inspired song, Learning to Live Apart. We talked about: Our new podcast format for 30 minute episodes How valuable it is to play and study cover songs Why you should record your ideas right away, …
Ooh and ahh and doo and doe your way back to 2017, where we talked about songs with non-verbal hooks. Check out the original show post.
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