The Songwriting Podcast

For those who have been saddened by the end of The Songwriting Podcast, we are pleased to announce that our very own Nashville Steve Rempis (who previously did our “Moving to Nashville” segments) has now launched his own songwriting podcast:

COMMERCIAL SUICIDE SONGWRITING PODCAST

With the knowledgeable help of his co-host, Marie Perry (another listener of The Songwriting Podcast), Nashville Steve will bring you educational segments, such as “Notes and Bolts,” “Under the Microscope,” “Steve’s Phone,” “Marie’s Academic Moment,” “Legendary Songwriter Salute,” “What the @#%$&!?,” “Local Scene Report” and “The CSSP Mailbag.” (For a description of these segments, visit Commercial Suicide Songwriting Podcast.com.

In an attempt to inform The Songwriting Podcast subscribers about Steve and Marie’s new podcast, we have sent their first episode down The Songwriting Podcast feed. But that’s the only episode that will be delivered through The Songwriting Podcast! So, be sure to subscribe to COMMERCIAL SUICIDE SONGWRITING PODCAST on iTunes: Subscribe!

Here are the other Links for COMMERCIAL SUICIDE SONGWRITING PODCAST:

COMMERCIAL SUICIDE SONGWRITING PODCAST.com

Follow CSSP on Twitter: @CSSPod

Commercial Suicide Songwriting Podcast: RSS Feed

Nashville Steve Rempis

Marie Perry

And for those who want to keep up with Jason and his movie review and TV show podcast:

The Songwriting Podcast wishes Steve and Marie the best of luck with their new podcast. We’ve already listened to their first episode, and it’s going to be an exceptional source of information and entertainment for songwriters around the world. We are subscribed, and we will be listening!

Jason

Episode 17 is our final episode of The Songwriting Podcast. We’re sure that this news will probably come as a shock and a disappointment to many of our faithful listeners, so Jason will give you his reasons as you listen to this episode.

Jason also has Craig, Grant and Nashville Steve Rempis with him to help give you a warm and loving send-off with the possible hope and prospect of a potential sister, spin-off podcast that’s very similar to this one… (But believe it or not, Listeners, that’s kind of up to you… Pay attention to everything written in red below.) More on this new songwriting-related podcast during this episode…

Here is a rough agenda of what we cover during our final episode:

II. “Moving to Nashville” segment by Nashville Steve Rempis

III. Mesake’s Tunes: Introducing Mesake’s first song, “Fine Lines”

IV. Answer e-mail backlog and Send Your Song reviews

DAEVA

ACADEMY STREET MUSIC

LIFE IS HARD

HENRIC OF RUBICON

JOHN MALLOY, singer-songwriter from Portland, Maine

V. Golden Nugget Songwriting Advice From Our Guests and Hosts:

– Jeremy Batten, Michael Stewart and Bill Barnes

– Fred Ingram

– Matt Call of Lewis

– Bryan Odeen of Little Bluestem

– NASHVILLE STEVE REMPIS

– CRAIG TOVEY

– GRANT ADAMS

– JASON PYLES

Our special thanks to these very close friends of this podcast:

We also wish to thank The Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

The Songwriting Podcast was a bi-weekly music podcast where three hosts reveled in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting. You can find all our episodes at SongwritingPodcast.com Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast were Craig Tovey, Grant Adams, Jason Pyles, and Steve Rempis.

Episode 17 of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on October 10, 2012.

In Episode 16, Grant and Jason interview Tim Bruns of Churchill. We talk about “The Emotional Side of Songwriting,” among other things. Listeners should check out Churchill’s YouTube Channel. ***And for those listeners who are in the Denver area, Churchill will be performing at the Bluebird Theater on September 29 and September 30, 2012. Churchill on Facebook

The listeners are always free to contact us at [email protected] or call and leave us a voice mail at (801) 382-8789.

The Songwriting Podcast is a bi-weekly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, with the help of guest songwriters or some other music industry professionals.

Jason Launches a New Movie Podcast on October 1, 2012:

And if you’re a TV person who digs J.J. Abrams… there’s a new television series on NBC called “Revolution.” Jason and his wife Natalie have a new podcast about this new show. We’d love it if you checked out Podcasting Revolution, as well.

Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams and Jason Pyles.

We’d like to thank Tim Bruns of Churchill for appearing on The Songwriting Podcast. We also wish to thank The Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

Our next episode: Watch for Episode 17 to be released on October 15!

Episode 16 of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on September 17, 2012.

In Episode 15, The Songwriting Podcast interviews a four-piece band called Danger Button, which consists of Ryan Garey (primary songwriter, lead vocals, additional keyboards), Eric Snyder (synths), Andrew Hills (bass) and Parker Abegg (drums and backing vocals).

In this episode you’ll hear Danger Button talk about collaboration in a band setting, as well as in the recording studio. And we wax a little philosophical as we discuss, what Jason calls, the “New Art Standard.” We’d love to hear your thoughts on this concept. Please e-mail us at [email protected] or call and leave us a voice mail at (801) 382-8789.

Links for Danger Button:

Before we forget … Click here to take Jason’s one-question survey. Please!

The Songwriting Podcast is a bi-weekly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, with the help of guest songwriters or some other music industry professionals.

For Episode 15, we featured the Send Your Song submissions of Ben Orner and Kevin Qualls. (Thank you both for being so patient with us.) Ben Orner’s song is called “Don’t Let Them Tell You You Can’t Fly.” And Kevin Qualls submitted a song called “Nobody Knows,” off his “Come to Me” EP.

You can hear more from Ben Orner at his SoundCloud page.

And you can check out Kevin Qualls’s recording set-up on his music blog. You can also listen to his album.

Thank you to both Ben and Kevin for sending your songs. Feel free to contact us about sending your song at [email protected].

Grant’s Rants … and Raves!

For Modern Soul (or Neo-Soul), I recommend artists like Maxwell, Jill Scott, and my all-time favorite, John Legend. For fun we listen to “Rolling in the Deep” remixed by Natema, an electronic music project based in London. And finally, you might remember me ranting about Pandora in a previous episode. Well, I’ve found a good alternative: It’s called NeverEndingPlaylist.com, and it only plays the artist you want to hear.

In addition to our Send Your Song segment and Grant’s Rants and Raves, we also have another Moving to Nashville segment, starring “Nashville” Steve Rempis. (And by the way — seriously — if you’ve never heard Steve’s full story yet, please listen to Episode 9 of The Songwriting Podcast. It’s truly inspiring.)

Other links for this episode:

Be sure to check out the new music video for “10 Miles ‘Till Empty,” a song by Life Is Hard, former guests and friends of the show whose episode on Internet marketing is priceless. We want you to check out this video in particular because Life Is Hard hired our very own Craig Tovey, who is also a filmmaker, to shoot their video. Nice work, Craig!

Craig’s Indiegogo Campaign:

Dan Korhonen invited Jason to appear as a guest on his songwriter’s show, The U.P. Music Scene Podcast. He asks about some behind-the-scenes info regarding The Songwriting Podcast, but we primarily talk about my journey as a podcast producer and podcast production, in general. So, if you’re thinking about starting your own podcast, then check out the episode here: Jason appears on The U.P. Music Scene Podcast

And if you’re a TV person who digs J.J. Abrams… there’s a new television series on NBC airing on Monday, September 17. It’s called “Revolution.” Anyway, if you’re planning to watch that show, please check out Jason’s new podcast that he’s doing with his wife, Natalie, about that TV show. It’s called Podcasting Revolution. Jason would be honored for you to give it a listen…

2. If you didn’t do it above, please answer just one poll question for me, and be totally, brutally honest: I’m thinking about creating a digital tutorial product where I (Jason) give instruction, beginning to end, on how to write songs. It would be a professionally produced, audio-visual tutorial that’s accessed online. The votes are anonymous and you could potentially prevent me from making an unwise investment of time and money, if this is something that our listeners aren’t interested in. Click this to answer ONE question… Thanks. JP

Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams and Jason Pyles. The Songwriting Podcast posts new episodes on the 1st and 15th of every month. To contact us or to send your feedback, you can leave a voice mail at (801) 382-8789, or as noted above, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And you can also find us on Facebook.

We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

Our next episode: Watch for Episode 16 to be released on October 1!

Episode 15 of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on September 12, 2012.

Though there is no fanfare during this episode, one year ago today exactly, we launched The Songwriting Podcast on September 1, 2011. Our podcast is one year old today.

For Episode 14, Jason interviews music therapist Bryan Odeen, who is one half of the duo Little Bluestem, with Liz Montgomery. Jason and Bryan discuss music therapy as an occupation, and they talk about the cathartic uses for songwriting, both for others and for one’s self. They also discuss spiritual songwriting. In this episode you’ll hear some tips for writing effectively yet tastefully expressive songs. Don’t miss it!

The Songwriting Podcast is a bi-weekly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, with the help of guest songwriters or some other music industry professionals.

Feel free to contact us about sending your song at [email protected].

Links for Bryan Odeen and Little Bluestem:

Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams and Jason Pyles. The Songwriting Podcast posts new episodes on the 1st and 15th of every month. To contact us or to send your feedback, you can leave a voice mail at (801) 382-8789, or as noted above, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And you can also find us on Facebook.

We’d like to recognize Aaron Thomas as the photographer for the Little Bluestem photo shown above. We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

Don’t forget to watch for Episode 15 on September 15!

Episode 14 of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on August 30, 2012.

Jason Pyles and Craig Tovey give two, in-depth album reviews on Billy Joel’s first solo album, “Cold Spring Harbor” (1971), and The Shins’ “Port of Morrow” (2012), respectively.

In these reviews, Craig and Jason discuss various concepts, such as the phenomenon of having to warm up to a new album — even from a band you already love; how vocal quality and range change with age; the importance of writing memorably repetitive melodic themes; how to add additional “lifts” to your song when you’ve already maxed out your crescendoing dynamics — and many other nuanced topics.

Links from this episode:

Craig recommends: Port of Morrow by The Shins

Jason recommends: Cold Spring Harbor by Billy Joel

Dave Eaton’s new podcast: All About Autism Podcast

Follow The Songwriting Podcast on Twitter: @SongPodcast

Send Your Song: The hosts of The Songwriting Podcast invite budding — as well as seasoned songwriters — to send their songs to us, and we will critique them on the show, giving constructive feedback, which consists of positive and negative points, and is merely based on our opinions. Feel free to contact us about sending your song at [email protected].

The Songwriting Podcast is a bi-weekly podcast that posts new episodes on the 1st and 15th of every month — and we’ll be posting Episode 14 here on September 1 (which happens to be our one-year anniversary). Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams and Jason Pyles. To contact us or to send your feedback, you can leave a voice mail at (801) 382-8789, or as noted above, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And you can also find us on Facebook.

We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

This bonus episode of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on July 11, 2012.

The Songwriting Podcast is a monthly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, typically with a songwriter guest.

In Episode 12, Craig and Jason were honored to interview Matt Call, the frontman for the Asheville, North Carolina-based band, Lewis. Matt is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, percussionist — as well as several other musical titles. The primary theme for this episode is Recording and Producing Your Own Music. We also discuss evolving as a musician, and we listen to Matt’s song, “Straight Jacket,” in its entirety and hear about his method for writing it.

On Bandcamp.com: Lewis music

Matt Call and Lewis videos: YouTube channel

We also dip into the proverbial “mail bag” and address a listener voice mail and some e-mails:

After the listener feedback section, we delve into our famous Moving to Nashville segment, by “Nashville” Steve Rempis. In this month’s report, Steve gives us a Part 2 on Nashville’s open mic venues, including the Commodore Bar & Grille and the Douglas Corner Cafe. Nashville Steve also included this link for the listeners: A List of Nashville Open Mic Venues by NSAI. If you haven’t heard the Steve Rempis episode yet, be sure to listen to Episode 9 of The Songwriting Podcast. And you can find more from Nashville Steve at Steve Rempis.com.

Next we move into our new songwriter segment called Mesake’s Tunes. This month Mesake describes his audition on The X Factor, when he sang before the likes of Simon Cowell and Britney Spears.

And in this episode, we have two Send Your Song submissions:

Daeva

Find Daeva on Facebook

Find Daeva on YouTube

Feel free to contact us about sending your song at [email protected].

Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams and Jason Pyles. The Songwriting Podcast posts new episodes on the first day of every month. To contact us or to send your feedback, you can leave a voice mail at (801) 382-8789, or as noted above, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And you can also find us on Facebook.

We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work. And by the way, for those interested in all things Autism-related, check out Dave Eaton’s new podcast, the All About Autism Podcast, which airs on August 13 and is produced by Jason.

Episode 12 of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on July 25, 2012.

The Songwriting Podcast is a monthly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, with the help of guest songwriters or some other music industry professionals.

Episode 11 features our very own Grant Adams addressing the theme Finding Your Strengths as a Songwriter and Playing to Them, as well as an in-depth look at songwriting method and other topics.

Grant and Jason also talk about the sacrifice required for greatness as a musician, the inception of song ideas, the optional practice of pre-visualization planning, tips on writing bridges, the rewriting process, processing feedback and the secret to writing a terrible song, as well as the secret to writing a great song.

Grant also shares and discusses his featured song, “Baby, Please Part 2.”

This bonus episode also features a Send Your Song segment, where we discuss a song submitted by The Jenny Pilots (Joe Furnari and Mark Nuzzi) called, “I Wouldn’t Change a Thing.”

Bandcamp Page: The Jenny Pilots

Feel free to contact us about sending your song at [email protected].

Other links for this episode:

Grant’s book recommendation: “Strengths Finder” by Tom Rath

Billy Joel documentary: “Shades of Grey” (VHS)

Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams and Jason Pyles. The Songwriting Podcast posts new episodes on the first day of every month. To contact us or to send your feedback, you can leave a voice mail at (801) 382-8789, or as noted above, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And you can also find us on Facebook.

We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

Episode 11 of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on May 30, 2012.

The Songwriting Podcast is a monthly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, with the help of guest songwriters or some other music industry professionals.

Episode 10 features singer-songwriter, guitarist Frederick Ingram. In this interesting episode, Fred talks about What to Write About, and How to Write About It, as well as other songwriting topics.

Fred shares his most infamous song, “Snake Girl,” and explains the fascinating story behind writing this exceptional tune.

And of course, this episode also features specialty segments, such as “Moving to Nashville,” by “Nashville” Steve Rempis. In this episode, Steve talks about open mic night at The Bluebird Cafe. Learn more from Nashville Steve during his feature-length guest appearance on Episode 9 of The Songwriting Podcast.

We’re also happy to bring you a “Craig Can Write” segment, where we discuss some insightful e-mail feedback from listener Daniel Korhonen. We also debut a new theme song for “Don’t Do the Dumb Things That Jason Did,” which was written by this same Mr. Korhonen.

Stay tuned at the end of this episode to hear Jason’s song, “The Last Thing on My Mind,” for an example of a song whose concept was planned ahead of time and then executed, as discussed during this episode.

Since Grant Adams is not with us during this episode, we do not have “Grant’s Rants … and Raves,” nor do we have a “Mesake’s Tunes” segment this time around. But we do bring you a double dose of our Send Your Song segment, where we discuss Bryan Odeen’s song, “Be More.” Second, we review a song called “Redemption,” by Rhysing. Feel free to contact us about sending your song at [email protected]. See these artists’ links below:

Bryan Odeen and Liz Montgomery’s duo, LITTLE BLUESTEM links:

RHYSING links:

Other links for this episode:

Live “Wilderness” performance: Featuring Fred’s silent guitar or “thong guitar”

“The Best Is Yet to Come” lyric attempt

Daniel Korhonen’s The U.P. Music Scene on Facebook

Fred Connors’ OV Cold Cases.com

Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams and Jason Pyles. The Songwriting Podcast posts new episodes on the first day of every month. To contact us or to send your feedback, you can leave a voice mail at (801) 382-8789, or as noted above, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And you can also find us on Facebook.

We’d like to recognize Ann Pensiero-Norment as the photographer for the Frederick Ingram photo shown on this episode post. We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

Don’t forget to watch for an amazing BONUS episode that will be released on June 15 — starring Grant Adams himself!

Episode 10 of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on May 23, 2012.

The Songwriting Podcast is a monthly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, with the help of a guest songwriter or some other music industry professional.

But this show is a BONUS episode featuring a 70-minute interview with singer-songwriter Glen Phillips, who is the frontman of the ‘90s alternative rock band, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and he’s a successful solo artist, as well.

Glen talks with us about his songwriting process; which instruments he prefers to write on; how songs were written as collaborations in Toad — including some background info on the writing of “Walk on the Ocean” and “I Will Not Take These Things for Granted.”

Glen also talks about what he values in a co-writer; whether he finds it easier to write for an assignment; the background for his collaboration with John Askew on “Secrets of the New Explorers” and “Remote Tree Children.” We also ask Glen for his thoughts on writing lyrics and avoiding cliches.

Toad fans will be interested in hearing Glen briefly speak about the new album that Toad the Wet Sprocket is working on, and the style and flavor of the new songs he’s been writing for that album. Oh, and we include a speed round of about 20 random questions on Glen’s various preferences that aren’t necessarily musically related.

And as always, we play an entire song by our guest. Glen chose his song, “Rise Up,” and he shares a very personal story behind the writing of that song.

This bonus episode also features two guest hosts and songwriters, Bill Barnes and Chris Barragan — along with your usual hosts, Craig Tovey and Jason Pyles. And Grant Adams graciously agreed to sit out during this show, since we had so many interviewers. Thanks, Grant. We owe you.

Links from this episode:

GLEN PHILLIPS.com

Purchase Music: Glen Phillips on Bandcamp (also see Jason’s recommendations below)

Glen’s Facebook fan page

Glen on Twitter: @GlenPhillips

See Glen perform live: Tour Dates

Watch Bill Barnes sing “Walk on the Ocean” with Glen Phillips at the Club Cafe in Pittsburgh, Pa., Summer 2006.

A must-own recommendation from Jason: Glen’s “Abulum” DVD. (This features live, solo-acoustic performances and interviews. Buy it!)

TOAD THE WET SPROCKET.com

Toad on Twitter: @ToadWetSprocket

Toad’s Facebook fan page

Glen’s favorite Toad album: Dulcinea

Jason’s favorite Toad album: Pale

Other Glen Phillips CDs that Jason recommends:

Winter Pays for Summer

Mr. Lemons

Unlucky Seven

Abulum

Live at Largo

Other Toad the Wet Sprocket CDs that Jason recommends:

In Light Syrup

Coil

PS: A Toad Retrospective

Some Live Glen YouTube Videos That Jason Recommends:

“Windmills” (live)

“Released” (live)

“Rise Up” (live)

“Comes a Time” (live)

“Train Wreck” (live) Listen to this lyric-writing!

“Marigolds” (live)

The Songwriting Podcast posts new episodes on the first day of every month — and we’ll be posting Episode 10 here on June 1. If you aspire to be a professional musician and you haven’t heard our previous show, Episode 9, featuring “Nashville” Steve Rempis, then this is a must-listen podcast episode. (And by the way, if you dig horror movies, Craig and Jason host a horror movie podcast called HORROR METROPOLIS. Check it out!)

We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

This bonus episode of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on May 2, 2012.