It’s been suggested to me, by a few people, that this blog should actually have been a podcast. It’s a fair point. On the grand scheme of things, podcasts do get more recognition than blogs.
Maybe my problem is that I’m just not a casual podcast listener. I think if I had a traditional, daily commute, I probably would be, but seeing as my commute most mornings is from the bathroom to the spare bedroom to write, record, do lesson prep, post, and all the other stuff that being a musician entails, it’s not really a thing. I also started writing this blog to try and become a better writer. A podcast seems like a somewhat less direct route to achieving that.
Podcasts for me have to be dedicated time that I switch off from everything else. That doesn't happen often but it is worth it when I do, so I’m going to clue you in on one particular podcast I enjoy delving into every now and again. It’s called ‘Sodajerker’. I don’t know why. It’s a podcast on songwriting and music by a duo of Liverpool based writers, Simon Barber and Brian O’Connor.
Despite over 10 million downloads since the podcasts launch in 2011, the enterprise is entirely independent, and ad free. The podcast has been featured in magazines such as Esquire, The New Statesman, The Guardian, NME and The Telegraph, and in 2020, the episodes were added to the British Library in London for posterity.
At the time of writing there have been 272 podcasts, and the archive forms one of the greatest and most relevant records of audio interviews of modern musicians in existence.
So who are we talking about then?
Some of these names may be familiar. Sir Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach, Paul Simon, Sting, Tori Amos, Elvis Costello, Nile Rodgers, Jon Bon Jovi, and very recently, Sheryl Crow.
The podcasts are not purely about songwriting. A lot of the context is autobiographical, which as you can imagine for some of these people is endlessly fascinating. So if you’re on holiday right now, and you fancy something new to listen to, I can heartily recommend checking the site out.
As I mentioned, Sheryl Crow was one of the most regular intervals, so I’m going to share that link with you directly. Enjoy!
And if you’re interested in this kind of thing but you’d prefer a little less chat and a bit more music, I recommend this : a recent interview with Sheryl Cole by Jason Isbell from The Art Of Music series held at The Metropolitan Museum in New York.
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