• I worked closely with electro-pop / dance songwriter Dokter Nomi for another catchy and cool track. Nomi sent me a scratch vocal sung to a beat. I expanded his melody to make it, well, more melodic, and laid down a chord progression on the piano to carry it. While Nomi’s melody suggested a clear I [...]

  • Neel, Tom, and Adi being interviewed by Kayla Douglas

    Beige Shelter had the pleasure of being interviewed on Passion Projects TV. I'm the percussionist, occasional songwriter, and producer for the band. Our host was journalism student Kayla Douglas. We talked about: the band name and where it came from our debut album, Rumours We Make, Paths We Take songwriting and collaborating performing cover songs [...]

  • Neel, Carole, Layla, and Bruce

    In September, I hosted a new event at my Meetup group, The Songwriting Supermarket. I invited members to get together and collaborate on writing a song in two hours. Three other talented songwriters showed up, and we had a blast writing and recording a new song, Don’t Fix Me. Before the session, I [...]

  • Light Your Way cover art - watercolour painting of tulips

    As part of the indie rock band Beige Shelter, we were approached to write a new song for a youth gang prevention event. Although we declined to perform for the event, we realized our new song was also a great message for mental health awareness and conversation. My friend and Beige Shelter frontman Adi Aman had [...]

  • A yellow flower in the snow

    I met singer-songwriter Shari Archinoff at one of my meetup groups. Shari plays piano, guitar, sings, and lives in the same neighbourhood I grew up in. The first time we met, I came up with a simple chord progression on the piano. Shari developed lyrics and a melody for a song about moving on from [...]

  • Beige Shelter album release November 14, 2016

    I first met singer-songwriter Adi Aman, aka Beige Shelter, at the Songwriter’s Cafe meetup. He appeared on Song Talk Radio in 2014. His songs instantly appealed to me for their 90’s alt-rock inspired style, and his often spiritually deep lyrics. On Song Talk Radio, I recall commenting how his songs are actually about something. Last [...]

  • sleeping giant in grass

    This summer, I wrote a little progression on the piano which was intended to be a gently flowing chord progression and melody. I repeated it twice in the recording.  Having nothing more to do with it, I sent it to my friend Sonja to see if she would be willing to put a lyric and [...]

  • I recently re-joined an online forum that I was part of many years ago called the Muse's Muse.  It's populated mostly by lyricists, and there's ample opportunity for musicians to collaborate with lyricists to complete songs.  There are also threads for posting your works in progress for peer review, and showcasing your finished songs.  I [...]

  • I got to play drums for another Song Talk Radio Backup Band jam session, this time with the show's co-host Bruce Harrott and his catchy feel-good song I Could Do Anything.  We had co-host Phil Emery on bass, and Eric Sorenson and Braeden Mitchell on guitars and backup vocals. We practiced and developed our individual parts [...]