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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
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 …
We talked about protest songs way back in 2016, and things still didn’t get any better. Here’s a throwback to dissension through music. Here’s the original show page if you want the lyrics.
This week SongTalk welcomed Donna Linklater to our studio. Soprano and composer/songwriter Donna Linklater studied opera with Sylvia Richardson at Brandon University. Toward the end of her studies, she began to focus on new music and was especially taken with the aleatoric music of John Cage which gave her greater freedom of creative expression. Her …
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 …
This week SongTalk welcomes… Christmas into our studio. For our Xmas Eve show, we all brought in our favourite Christmas songs and had a good chat about what makes them so great. Featuring some classics and some new songs that you may not have heard before. So pour yourself some Rum and Eggnog or …
Super-fan of the show Mike MacInnes joined us for our final live show of 2019, and indeed of the decade, for our personal takes on the best songs of the last 10 years. We also created a Spotify playlist of all the songs! We talked about: Neel’s 2019 holiday song, and Phil’s re-mix Our songwriting …
This week SongTalk welcomed David McLachlan to our studio. David McLachlan is a prolific songwriter with 7 albums released, one in the can, for release next Aug 2020. Several years ago David ventured to Nashville to record with some stellar A-list players. He found that experience to be so rewarding it changed the way he …
Amanie Illfated is a South Sudanese born, Toronto based singer/songwriter working in a dynamic fusion of R&B, Reggae, Afrobeat and Trap. She was born in what is now known as South Sudan and immigrated to Saskatchewan with her family as refugees in 1992. At the age of 16, she left her family to pursue music …
Beige Shelter is an ambitious and eclectic five piece band from Toronto that brings fire, passion and a political conscience to their music. Through electrifying live performances, the band showcases both original songs and interesting twists on cover songs. Beige Shelter is currently working on their 2nd EP release. Lead singer and vocalist Adi Aman …
Stark Naked and Eugene Ripper of Stark Naked and the Fleshtones joined us to talk about their heyday in the early 80s as an awesome live band in Toronto. We talked about: how songs are shaped by band dynamics working with the “right” producer the punk music attitude live vs. recorded music Listen to the …
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