Best known for his heartfelt love songs, songwriter Greg Wyard is about to surprise his audience with “Guns and Money,” a song that delves into significant global issues with a guitar-heavy rock sound. “Guns and Money” takes a more serious and thought-provoking direction than previous songs, taking inspiration from society’s obsession with wealth and weapons …
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Writing and Arranging Funk and Soul with The Commotions
Canadian Soul-Funk collective, The Commotions, are an all original 12-piece Motown-to-Disco era band that has brought the exquisite grooves from the famed Motor City all the way across the border. Celebrating their first decade as a band, founder Brian Asselin created the collective after spending six years with legendary musical group, The Funk Brothers; the …
Neel gets all nostalgic for his songwriting challenge answer
For our first host-answer episode for our Songwriting Challenge 2023, Neel shared the process behind his answer to the challenge to write a song in a mode. Our good friend Susan Cattaneo joined in – thanks Susan for your awesome insights! Download the lyrics to follow along. We talked about: SummerSongs songwriting retreat The Number …
Collaboration tips with Alex Whorms and Aaron John
Songwriters Alex Whorms and Aaron John met ten years ago at a youth talent contest in Oshawa, Ontario, where they both performed original songs and tied for first place. They quickly bonded over their shared love of Coldplay, Keane, and Sara Bareilles and went on to write music and perform together often. Aaron would later …
Susan Cattaneo and two of her favourite songs
Award-winning singer-songwriter and music educator Susan Cattaneo joined us to talk about two of her favourite songs and why they’re so great. Sherry Jacoby filled in for Phil Emery as co-host – thanks Sherry! Susan’s choices were Little Green by Joni Mitchell and The River by Bruce Springsteen. We talked about: The differences between classic …
Writing a long song with Civil Wray
Sparkle. It’s exactly what Civil Wray does on her brand-new single, appropriately entitled “Sparkle”. Civil Wray, the nom de plume of Toronto singer songwriter Andrea de Boer, worked with producer Matt DeMatteo (Danko Jones, Big Wreck, Ashley MacIsaac) in creating an ethereal, dreampop song, that may remind listeners of artists like Fiona Apple, David Bowie, and Tame Impala. It’s a song about …
Alex Whorms writes her first original Christmas song
While some artists work to master their chosen genre and others may even manage to define one, Alex Whorms crafts music that is essentially a genre unto itself. Seated at her beloved keyboard, the young vocalist and composer flows freely and flawlessly between styles and sounds, gracefully blending classic singer-songwriter pop, jazz, soul, rock, classical, …
All about bridges with Allister Bradley
Allister Bradley, Canadian singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and technical director of the Song Studio Songwriter’s Workshop in Toronto, and co-host of the Hooks & Ladders youTube show with Blair Packham, joined us to talk about three songs with great bridges. We talked about: How the bridge differs from the verse and chorus How a good bridge …