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 …
collaboration
Songs with the same chords throughout
This week on SongTalk we look at a simple songwriting technique that may be more complicated than you think – songs with one chord progression. That’s right, no guest this week just the SongTalk team – Phil, Neel and Mike – talking about the ways songs with just one series of chords repeated over and …
Throwback Thursday Themeshow: The Song Talk Meetup
In this throwback from 2017, we talked about the benefits of attending the live Song Talk Meetup (formerly the Songwriter’s Meetup, formerly the Songwriter’s Cafe). This month’s meetup (May 2020) is online (and will be for the next while), so wherever you are in the world, you can attend. We hope to see you there!
Tips for Songwriting in Isolation
For our first podcast while in self isolation, we talked about things we can do as songwriters while in isolation :). We talked about: Taking the Song Talk Meetup online – stay tuned for details on April’s meetup The We Should Write Sometime app Frank Horvat’s project: Music for Self-Isolation Neel’s working on productions for …
Songwriting Duos. Guitar Pedal building and stuff with Blair Packham
Blair Packham joins us to talk about Songwriting Duos and other stuff. What we talked about: Phil’s FET-1 Pedal kit Build BuildYourOwnClone.com FET PreAmp Kit BlairPackham.com
Anatomy of a Song: book review and tips for songwriters and producers
I recently finished reading a great book by Marc Myers entitled Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits that Changed Rock, R&B, and Pop. Myers interviewed the people involved in historically significant songs from the 1940s to the 1990s. He ended his examination in 1991 because, as he explains it, you …
Keeping It Real with Blair Packham
This week SongTalk welcomed our old friend Blair Packham to our studio. The Toronto-based artist, first gained attention for his work with ’80’s power pop band The Jitters. He is now an acclaimed solo artist and musician. Blair released two strongly-reviewed solo albums before shifting his focus to composing music for TV and films, teaching …
How Featurette add emotion to Electro-Pop
This week SongTalk welcomed FEATURETTE to our studio. The Toronto-based duo FEATURETTE, formed by singer Lexie Jay and drummer, Jon Fedorsen, makes emotionally-charged, heavy-hitting electro-pop music that has been met with international critical acclaim. After receiving their first full recording grant from FACTOR Canada, the duo released their debut LP CRAVE in October, 2016. The …