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.…
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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.…
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BEHOLD! The triumphant latest release – Seven Seas of Sleaze – from Canada’s legendary rock armada White Cowbell Oklahoma – now in it’s 20th glorious year!
WITNESSETH! The 70s-inspired boogie-prog army’s seventh full-length release, featuring seven blistering tracks, brought to you by seven heavily-perspiring musicians.…
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Did you love the new movie Bohemian Rhapsody? Hate it? Something in between? Listen as Bruce, Neel, Phil, Michael, and Vanessa let loose! Hear their takes on the Bryan Singer helmed Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic released in late 2018. While they found much to criticize, they had a few raves too.…
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OK, so we’ve got a thing for the cowbell. Or maybe that was just Phil. In any case, the under-appreciated cowbell gets the most love it’s had since Christopher Walken’s fever.
We talked about:
- the history and distinctive sound of the cowbell
- the heyday of the cowbell in 70s rock
- syncopated vs.
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Talented teen singer-songwriter Jules joined us again, after her first appearance over a year ago. In the midst of writing songs for her sophomore release, Jules talked with the Song Talk Radio Action Team about:
- FACTOR grants for Canadians, and why you should hire a grant writer
- Unsigned Only Songwriting Competition
- writing from a title
- writing lyrics that are open to interpretation
- working on a lyric until it’s perfect
- collaborations
- what a band brings to the songwriting process
- how teens are feeling about issues and putting them into songs
Listen to the whole show:
Watch the live performances:
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For our latest theme show, we take a look at some of our favorite Protest Songs and try to figure out what makes an effective one. We looked at River Runs Red by Midnight Oil, Eve of Destruction by P.F. Sloan, and Phil talks about how his band The Parkdale Hookers, went about writing their punk-anthem Multi-Media Word and talked about how not to date a protest song.…
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The always entertaining singer/songwriter TC FolkPunk returned to the show and played a couple of punky solo electric guitar songs and talked about playing solo without a band with just an electric guitar.
Some Stuff We Talked About
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One in the Chamber (Mike Baise – vocals, rhythm guitar, Cecil Eugene – lead guitar, vocals, Christian Dotto – bass, Gerrod Harris – percussion) join us to discuss their songwriting process as a band. We talked about:
- bringing a song to the band to be fleshed out
- singing lead vocals with lyrics written by a bandmate
- to be or not to be wordy
- abstract lyrics
- rock and roll
With influences streaming in from all eras of rock, One In The Chamber is a unique, modern rock outfit.…
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Bruce, Neel, and Phil overcome many obstacles to present a song each, and then glorify each other with mountainous heaps of unqualified praise.
Neel presents a song inspired by a songwriting webinar held by songwriting coach Alex Forbes, Bruce plays his classic hit “Survivor” live in the studio, and Phil talks about writing on bass and what it means when you’re writing to a 1-3-5 chord pattern for his first song with the Parkdale Hookers.…
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The God No!s bandmembers Peter, Sandy, Alon, Subhayu, and Rachel talk about their collaborative approach to songwriting, where each member brings a song to the band and together they refine and finish it off, in a “no-free” zone. See, democracy works after all.…
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Song Talk Radio co-host Neel Modi releases his first album, Counterfeit Lampshades, on the show. He presents three songs from the album, with an electronic industrial rock attitude.…
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Blair shares the very first song he ever wrote, and talks about the difference between writing from the heart and writing from the head. And the Monster Mash.
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Kash rocks it out on the show with his band, Liquid Identity. Check out the video of their performances!…
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Song Talk co-host Neel talks about his sci-fi epic song “Telepathic Androids” and his use of unusual time signatures.…
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Vincent returns to Song Talk to talk about the difference and collision between Broadway styles and pop styles.…
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We moved the show to a one guest format so we can delve deeper into songwriting. Alon plays a great track, freshly recorded!…
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Gary gives some background on Modes, and Bojan plays a kicken’ track from his new release.…
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Nicole and Dom come out for the first show!…
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