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. …
jazz
Finding her own voice in Jazz: Nicky Schrire
Nicky Schrire is a British-South African vocalist and composer based in Toronto, Canada. Her work has seen her likened to vocalists Joni Mitchell and Esperanza Spalding with The Boston Globe’s Jon Garelick noting that “though her approach has earned her comparisons to Gretchen Parlato and Becca Stevens, the similarities are superficial. She’s got her own …
Keeping it simple (on purpose) with Jeremy Voltz
This week we welcomed the return of burned-out mathematician turned indie-soul artist, Jeremy Voltz with his new song, Like the Very First Time. Voltz’s music is inspired by thinking deeply about the people in his life and what he’d love to have the courage to say to them. Reminiscent of Jeff Buckley, Hozier, and Stevie …
Electro Jazz with Nabil Durzi & Michael Massaro and recording your library of songs
Nabil Durzi & Michael Massaro stopped by to talk about adding jazz to electro. We talked about: Phil’s Drumset update The drumset How do you record all your songs? How “finished” are they? Using a spreadsheet to keep tabs of your songs in progress Cakewalk gets left off of VST integrations Nabil, is a …
2nd Annual Songwriter Challenge: Listener Songs #2
This week we welcomed five more songwriters who sent us their answers to our latest songwriting challenge, to write a song with a single chord progression throughout. We got two protest songs, a song about social media, a rather tense relationship, and of course, COVID-19. We were so pleased to receive submissions from all over …
Tomato Tomato and How Writing Simple Songs Can Be Complicated
This week SongTalk welcomed John from Tomato Tomato to our virtual studio. They just might be Atlantic Canada’s most entertaining musical duo. The New Brunswick based pair – John and Lisa McLaggan – have built a reputation on a live show that is as much about their on-stage charisma as their musical multi-tasking and vocal …
Creating a Concept Album with Gilbert Neal
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 …
Making complicated sound simple with Alex Cuba
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 …