theme show

Writing an album in a month with Mark Ippolito and FAWM

Singer-songwriter Mark Ippolito talked about his experience with February Album Writing Month (FAWM), challenging himself to write a full album of songs in 28 days. Check out his album on Bandcamp.

We talked about:

William Shatner to Record a Heavy Metal Album Featuring Covers of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden
Our Song Talk Meetup
The wonderfully supportive community of songwriters at the FAWM website
The diversity of genres, instrumentalists, and approaches at FAWM
Opportunities for collaborations between lyricists and musicians
The organizers propose weekly challenges to prompt individual songs (e.g.

… Read the rest

DIY Music Distribution with Paul Gallagher

by Neel Modi

Our longtime friend of the Song Talk Meetup, Paul Gallagher, joined us to talk about everything he learning getting his latest EP out on streaming services, community radio, and other digital services.

Download the extensive and handy documents Paul provided for this episode:

We talked about:

Getting all your ducks in a row before releasing music, including written agreements with your co-writers
Capturing a wider breadth of places for your music, beyond typical digital distribution services
Registering with SOCAN for both reproduction and performance royalties – see this video about the new live music performance royalties and our episode about registration with Allister Bradley
The importance of preparing and submitting metadata to various platforms
Make sure your final master recordings are the best they can be
How IRSC codes are the unique identifiers for your songs and are needed (and free) for tracking your songs on streaming services
Paul also submitted individually to a ton community radio stations, or you can also use the !earshot

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Spotify, Rush, and our upcoming songwriting challenge

by Neel Modi

For this special in-the-family episode, we talked about recent changes to artists terms at Spotify, the breaking news about Canadian rock band Rush, and how we’re progressing on our songwriting challenge answers.

We talked about:

The changes to artist terms with Spotify – and it ain’t good…
Recent news about Rush going on tour in 2026 and playing with a new drummer
How Neel and Phil are progressing on their songwriting challenge answers to write a song in an odd time signature

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Mistakes that “amateur” songwriters make

by Neel Modi

For this special theme episode, we reacted to the Song Town podcast video “10 Mistakes that Peg You as an Amateur Songwriter.” We were pleased to have singer-songwriter Jessica Stuart join us as co-host. We covered a few of the mistakes, but be sure to check out the entire Song Town episode below for more.… Read the rest

All about cadences

by Neel Modi

In this special episode, Phil and Neel talked about cadences, or the different ways to bring resolution to your chord progressions.

We talked about:

The Nashville numbering system and why it’s important to understand and use when talking about cadences
Modally interchanging chords – e.g.

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The Apps and Resources Show 2025

by Neel Modi

For this special episode, Phil and Neel talked about their favourite apps and resources for songwriters and musicians. Let us know what yours are!

We talked about:

Our songwriting challenge to write a song in an odd time signature.

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Remote collaboration tips with Mike Rudquist and Neel

by Neel Modi

For this special episode, we talked about a collaboration Neel did with Mike Rudquist, a singer-songwriter he met at the At Home Songwriting group for a songwriting challenge.

Mike Rudquist is a songwriter from Red Wing, MN who writes songs in Americana, pop/rock, and country.… Read the rest

Songwriting Challenge 2025 Launch: Write a song in an odd time signature

by Neel Modi

Our songwriting challenge for 2025 is to write a song in an odd time signature. Award-winning composer and educator Frank Horvat joined us with his pick of odd-time-signature songs. Thanks Frank!

We talked about:

Our re-discovered Patreon Page – thanks for your support!

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