Award-winning and critically-acclaimed composer, songwriter, pianist, music educator and frequent Song Talk Radio guest, Frank Horvat returned to the show to talk about his latest project, The Thailand HRDs. Frank wrote 35 two-minute compositions for string quartet, where each movement was written for a Human Rights Defender in Thailand as part of photographer Luke Duggleby’s compelling …
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Patrick Ballantyne’s Canadian song picks
Popular guest co-host and guest on Song Talk Radio, Patrick Ballantyne dropped by the studio to share two of his favourite Canadian songs. “Help Me” by Joni Mitchell is a great example of her unique combination of melody, structure, and lyrics to evoke a casual conversational tone. Includes a great instrumental hook. Patrick’s other pick was …
Exploring non-standard time signatures & EDM with Neel Modi
Our very own Neel talks about creating non-standard time-signature based EDM music. Past guest and composer Frank Horvat co-hosted while Neel’s better half, Hema handled the social media. Some stuff we talked about: Dave Brubeck Goldie – Timeless Writing Better Lyrics – Pat Patison Frank’s webpage Dave Brubeck’s Take 5 One of a Mind lyrics No …
Electronic music creation with Audio Insurgency
Toronto-based virtuoso electronic music duo Audio Insurgency joined us for a second time to talk about their latest projects, including an album of inventive video game music covers. Audio Insurgency is made up of Alon Rodovinsky and Ivan Popov. The guys previously appeared on Song Talk Radio in early 2016. Patrick Ballantyne filled in for Bruce …
Jacob Moon a song writing star
With 10 albums over a 20-year career, Canadian singer/songwriter/guitarist Jacob Moon dropped into the studio to share a wealth of helpful tips and clear insights. “Live a Little” is a truly exceptional tune, a perfect marriage of lyrics, melody, theme and variation. “Is That All You Got” is a gutsy rocker that looks at calamity with defiance …
Talkin ’bout song structures
Bruce, Neel, Phil and Janice spent most of an hour on the subject of song structures with 4 different examples. We talked about: the prologue verse (I Left my Heart in San Francisco) writing for musical theatre (My Funny Valentine) the connection between segment style and lyrical content (Band on the Run) Sloan’s song with …
Get loaded on songwriting ammo with One in the Chamber
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 …
Exploring the art-rock strangeness that could only be Frank Horvat
Frank dropped by Song Talk Radio again, this time with songs from his recent release, Strange Machine. We talked about: using wikiloops for free backing tracks unconventional time signatures, and unusual uses of 4/4 the differences between art songs and pop songs a modern twist on the protest song Frank’s experimental writing process using Logic Listen to …