production

It’s a Christmas Extravaganza!

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.… Read the rest

Best Songs of the Decade Special

by Neel Modi

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!… Read the rest

David McLachlan: That Nashville sound.

by Michael Proudfoot

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.… Read the rest

Heartfelt blues (and no trucks) with Steve Strongman

by Neel Modi

Juno-award winning recording artist Steve Strongman joined us to talk about his take on the blues. Steve is a multiple Maple Blues Award winner, 2019 International Blues Challenge Best Guitarist (solo/duo). He’s opened for BB King, Buddy Guy, Joe Cocker, Johnny Winter, and toured all over the world.… Read the rest

6-Year Anniversary Special

by Neel Modi

We celebrated six years on Song Talk Radio with a little reminiscing, a few songwriting tips, and some random stuff. We talked about:

Muse Songwriter’s Forum as a great online community for lyricists and songwriters (formerly known as the Muse’s Muse)
What does voicings mean?

… Read the rest

Beige Shelter: How To Write Within A Band

by Michael Proudfoot

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.… Read the rest

Songs by the Hosts: how we wrote ’em

by Phil Emery

For this host’s show, Michael, Neel and Phil brought in a song each and discussed how we wrote and some cool approaches in the songs. AND, Vanessa was in the house!!! What a fun episode!

Listen to the Episode

What we talked about

The 2nd Annual Holiday Gift Guide
Blog post: Creating Lyric Sheets that Don’t Suck
Neel’s process behind writing “The Wicked Queen”
Suggestions for Song prompts
Listener input requested: What do you think about the Taxi and SongTradr placement services
Song hooks: How do you make sure your song has ’em
Different approaches to choruses
The Wicked Queen lyrics
Pull Me Away From You Lyrics – Noise
Not Edwin lyrics
Writing Better Lyrics – Pat Pattison book on Amazon
101 Songwriting Wrongs & How To Right Them: How To Craft Songs That Sell on Amazon
Cubase Elements – Phil’s DAW of choice (tho he uses the Pro level)
Cakewalk by Bandlab – Neel’s DAW of choice

… Read the rest

Steve Koven – Play Piano, See The World

by Michael Proudfoot

This week, SongTalk welcomed jazz pianist and teacher Steve Koven. Steve is a composer, performer, producer and educator. He has one of the longest standing trios in Canada, performing, touring and recording together for over 26 year. Aside from performing and recording with his trio – Steve Koven Trio – Steve also has other recording projects such as the Koven Collective and Koven & Law as well as Lazersuzan

We talked with Steve about:

his process for writing
how he communicates his song ideas to his bands
the touring opportunities available through consulates and embassies
where he finds inspiration for his music
what improvising can bring to songwriting

http://www.stevekoven.com/thetrio/… Read the rest