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?

* Our Holiday Gift Guide show on November 19 – send us your gift ideas and check out last year’s Guide!

* Our upcoming Songwriting Challenge! Send us your idea and you can be just as famous as we are!

* The VIA Rail Artists on Board program for singer-songwriters

* Our favourite episodes this year:

* Frank & Lisa Horvat on Fundraising

* Adriel Smiley and approaching community radio

* Blair Packham on developing new songs

* Our movie review shows like Bohemian Rhapsody and Yesterday

* Awesome guests like Robert Ball, Richard Underhill, and Alex Whorms

Frank Horvatt joined in on our Favorite TV Theme Draft show, where we chose our fav TV themes of the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, 2000’s and the 2010s.

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. Lead singer and vocalist Adi Aman dropped by to talk about the progression of their sound – and other stuff. Beige Shelter’s drummer was already here, ’cause he’s our co-host Neel Modi!

We talked with Adi and Neel about:

* how the band translates Adi’s ideas

* where the lyrical ideas come from and how they connect to the causes the band supports

* which comes first – lyrics or music?

* the difference between the first album and the upcoming new release

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

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

The Trio

 

 

This week singer-songwriter and Hamilton Arts Award for Emerging Artist winner (2019) Alex Whorms joined us to talk about her sophomore EP, Burgundy, and two of the songs.

We talked about:

* FACTOR grants and Canada’s Music Incubator (check out our episodes on grants and music royalties)

* how long to take to get to the chorus

* finding the right amount of instrumental activity when you’re singing

* how Alex always gets through the skeleton of a song right away when writing

Listen to the show

Download the lyrics to follow along:

Too Many Love Songs

Birds

Emmanuel Lopez, movie blogger and Social Media Wingman, joined Phil and Michael to talk about the latest Danny Boyle movie, Yesterday where a struggling songwriter wakes up in a world where the Beatles never happened. Is he the only one who remembers all those great songs, and what should he do.

We Talked About:

* Emmanuel Lopez on Song Talk Radio

* SocialMediaWingman.com

* www.MoviesForMotivation.com

* Yesterday Movie on Wikipedia

* Blinded By The Light Movie

Listen to the show

Cool Stuff to buy

Buy The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook on Amazon

Here’s a super deep dive into The Beatles Music

Buy The Beatles – Complete Scores on Amazon

 

 

This week, professional singer/songwriter, voice actor & co-founder of Silverthorn Studios recording, Taylor Abrahamse joined us in the studio at SongTalk World Headquarters.  Taylor was a Top 40 finalist on Canadian Idol, has performed on stages across Ontario, has also written & produced musicals, and music for animated series and viral internet music through Corus, DHX & Super Planet Dolan.

Taylor is on the verge of a breakout moment in a promising career. After creating a spontaneous performance opportunity on the conference floor of Canadian Music Week, Taylor was contacted by Grammy-winning producer and engineer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Carly Simon, David Bowie, Michelle Branch & many more), who wanted to produce & develop Taylor. Now close to the release of his debut record of original songs, Eddie describes Taylor as ‘A true artist, and songwriting genius’.

We were very excited to have Taylor drop by so we could catch up and hear  his talent for ourselves.

 

Writing Better Lyrics – Pat Pattison

FangBone cartoon. theme song by Taylor

Todd and The Shadows on YouTube

Nick Lowe – Cruel To Be Kind

 

Stark Naked and Eugene Ripper of Stark Naked and the Fleshtones joined us to talk about their heyday in the early 80s as an awesome live band in Toronto.

We talked about:

* how songs are shaped by band dynamics

* working with the “right” producer

* the punk music attitude

* live vs. recorded music

Listen to the show

This week SongTalk welcomed our pal Matthew Reid to our studio to talk about movie soundtracks.

We chose our favourites and talked about why they made the cut and what were the runners up.

 

We talked about:

* what are the criteria of soundtracks – are they a collection of songs from other sources, are they custom music made specifically for the film project or is there a grey area in between?

* how soundtracks are created

* the avant guarde composers used in soundtracks

* Here are our selections and other items we discussed

Movies have songs too. Here’s our favourites.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/nine-minutes-that-changed-the-world-1.4138404