Open and empty. That’s how singer-songwriter Darden Smith describes the Texas landscape that inspired his creative new multi-media project, ‘Western Skies,’ available now. Comprising a new studio record, a book of photography, lyrics, and essays, and an accompanying album of readings set to music, Smith’s ‘Western Skies’ is an immersive journey. It explores a world …
This week we took a dive into the 1978 mockumentary – The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash – a satire of Beatlemania and the Fab Four. Aside from being one of the first mock-docs, it is also a very funny film featuring some Monty Python alumnae, a few famous faces from early SNL and …
The two-time Maple Blues Award songwriting recipient and two-time Edmonton Music Award recipient is an internationally recognized musician known for her soaring vocals, socially conscious lyrics, and outstanding musicianship. With a vintage sound reminiscent of the Roots/Blues style of Stax Records and Muscle Shoals recordings, singles from the album have already found their way onto …
Mike Fuller’s rock and roll roots run deep. The son of a church organist and a cover band singer/rock and roll enthusiast, it seemed only natural Fuller would follow the musical path laid by his parents and find himself writing a collection of uptempo, foot-stomping tunes. Mike spent much of the pandemic like many of …
This week SongTalk welcomed Jeffery Straker a Canadian folk/roots singer-songwriter, who is based in Toronto, Ontario and Regina, Saskatchewan. His piano-based pop musical style has drawn comparisons to Elton John, Neil Young, Rufus Wainwright, and Kris Kristofferson. Straker grew up listening to country music on his parents Saskatchewan grain farm at the same time he …
This week SongTalk welcomed Newfoundland Americana/Folk duo Quote the Raven. Jordan Coaker and Kirsten Rodden-Clarke have been bewitching audiences with haunting harmonies and East-Coast meets Americana songwriting for a decade. Their album Golden Hour (2018) earned multiple nominations including the 2019 ECMA Rising Artist and the award for 2019 MusicNL’s Group of the year. After …
Described by UK critics as “one of the most innovative of their era” and that “even to this day they sound brave and fresh”, Martha and the Muffins emerged from the early punk/new wave/art pop scene in 1977 – which was centered around various clubs along Toronto’s Queen Street West and the Ontario College of …
This week SongTalk welcomed Pop-rock artist Greg Wyard – a singer-songwriter, guitarist and bass player who has been diligently working at his craft since he was ten years old. Greg moved to Canada from his native England at age 13 and settled in Toronto, earning a reputation as one of its most hardworking solo performers. …
This week, Marlon Chaplin joined us again to talk about how trusting in his producer/collaborator made all the difference in creating a new direction for his new album, Synestalgia. Songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Marlon Chaplin is back with a brand new full length album, the first since 2018’s critically acclaimed rock record, ‘The Circle’. His …
Bradley McCaw is an award-winning singer/songwriter. His career started with him singing classical music and touring internationally with the group THE TEN TENORS. A native of Australia, Bradley spent fifteen long years making good in every job a musician and writer could possibly have, ending his day with a stack of old vinyls by his …
For our second episode on tips for using your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) at home, we talk all about MIDI and the different ways it can be used to better your home recordings. We talked about: James Gordon Songwriting Retreat (Sep 9 to 12) what is MIDI and a brief history MIDI notes and velocity …
People think that pop songs have a standard structure – verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus – and many do. Mostly because that familiarity works. But some hit songs challenge convention, they chart their own path to great success. So this episode we thought we would find some recent songs that go against the …
Very excited to have the Juno-award winning songwriter, author of an international #1 hit song and the very first MuchMusic VJ join us on SongTalk. Christopher Ward has done all that and more. In our recent interview, Chris talked about his new release Same River Twice, its unique recording process and why he wanted to …
This week SongTalk dives into how to best use DAWs or Digital Audio workstations. Home recording is booming and it’s not just because of Covid. Musicians have long been using different software at home to do what used to cost thousands of dollars in a professional recording studio. How do make the most of your …
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 …
JUNO Award-winning reggae singer, songwriter, producer and social activist Kirk Diamond shared his new single “Let It Be Done” — available now. “‘Let It Be Done’ was written in light of the political climate and social unrest that has affected so many worldwide, myself included,” Diamond shares. “That’s directly, indirectly, or psychologically.” Holding multiple #1 …
This week SongTalk welcomed Jay Gordon Wright to our show. Jay a multi-instrumentalist songwriter and performer who has entertained audiences around the world. He is classically trained on violin, and has expanded his musical toolshed to include just about every instrument he can get his hands on. Writing songs at the piano or with a …
For our final show of 2020, Vancouver’s “Focus Your Audio” stopped by to talk about production and creating music as a couple. We talked about: The upcoming Song Talk Radio Songwriting Challenge Fluevog Shoes The importance of pre-production Networking Over There Lyrics https://www.warehousestudio.com/ https://focusyouraudio.ca/ https://www.instagram.com/officialfyamusic https://www.facebook.com/officialfyamusic https://www.Twitter.com/fyamusic https://open.spotify.com/artist/6w3jlOmjXGUk2GgNUYW5By?si=5cv6pr8XQribBzW6zvk9MA Vancouver-based duo Focus Your Audio’s latest …
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 …
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 …
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 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 …
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 …
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