production

Neel, Phil, and Billy

Writing in a rock band with Billy Lunn of The Subways

Billy Lunn is the singer, guitarist, songwriter, and producer of the UK-based rock band The Subways. The Subways released their debut album Young for Eternity in 2005, and they’ve just released their fifth album, Uncertain Joys, on January 13, 2023. Billy grew up on a swirling mix of Motown, rock, disco, dance, hip-hop, and pop, …

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Neel, Phil, and Andrea

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 …

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Neel, Phil, and Mike

Songwriting Challenge 2022: The Hosts Revisit their Songs

We welcomed the return of our ex-co-host Michael Proudfoot, joining us to review our updated answers to the 2022 Songwriting Challenge. We talked about: Our new Songwriting Challenge webpage, featuring the original versions of our songs, plus listener song episodes The Song Talk Meetup Mashing up various styles and instruments Reaching out to other songwriters …

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Neel, Phil, and Vivek

Self-Healing Through Hip-hop with Vivek Mehmi

Mississauga-based hip-hop artist Vivek Mehmi talks about his creative process through hardships, beat-making, poetry, and his song Around Your Finger. We talked about: Hip-hop songs structures with verses and hooks Striking a balance between a hook’s catchiness, flow, and message Taking inspiration from the 80s – objectively, the greatest decade ever in music! (Please note, …

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Mike, Neel, and Darden

The multi-media mind of Darden Smith

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 …

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Lessons from The Rutles – Songwriting Satire

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 …

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