Welcome to my website. I’m a passionate amateur songwriter, producer, photographer, videographer, and blogger. I write about my creative process, health issues, and just about anything else that strikes my fancy.
I’m a co-founder and co-host of the Song Talk Radio podcast and Meetup group; producer, drummer and co-songwriter of the indie-folk-rock band Beige Shelter; and I also release my own music.
I invite you to spend some time here, discover something, maybe learn something, have a laugh, and enjoy my musings. Thanks for visiting!
Words
On October 5, 2021, I had a heart attack. It happened at lunch time, as I stood up from my desk; I work at home. A sudden tension in my chest, tingling in both arms, and quickened breathing like I never felt before. My back seized up, and I mistakenly thought that was the problem. [...]
Shaving. Man, there’s a whole world of options and information out there. For decades, I was a Gillette guy. Easy, does the job, and I don’t have to think about it, like, at all. I learned early on to shave only against the grain, and suffered many years of razor bumps on the left side [...]
Recently, many of my friends on Facebook were "given the task to choose ten albums that have influenced my taste in music. One album per day for 10 consecutive days. No explanations, no reviews, just album covers." I did my part, because I like to contribute to society and make the world a better [...]
Music
In 2017, I wrote a song as a response to many of my female friends sharing their "Me Too" stories on social media, in the wake of powerful men in Hollywood and elsewhere behaving abhorrently. The song was called The Countless Few, and I recorded and released it on my Soundcloud page. The emotional content [...]
Why Do You Cry by Neel Modi Download the lyric / chord sheet. For the last three years on Song Talk Radio, we've taken on a songwriting challenge. This is a great way to jump start your creative juices and lend some focus to your songwriting process. For this year, we opted to write a [...]
I’m a fan of Andrew Huang, a great youTuber who talks about music theory, electronic music, and is a talented songwriter in his own right. On a recent video, Andrew expressed his long-time obsession with a rather tasty chord: A 13 chord with a sharp 11 and no 7. […]
Images
For the first time in a few years, I made a couple of visits to photograph cherry blossoms. They only come out for a couple of weeks in the spring, and peak times vary throughout spots in Toronto. For the first shoot, I found out about a small patch of trees near the CNE, and [...]
I released an EP of progressive electro-pop songs in September 2020. Ace Symmetry features odd time signatures, nonsensical lyrics, inventive beats, and catchy synth solos. It was an interesting and fun challenge to work on a focused project like this. I talked about the project and featured some of the songs twice on Song Talk [...]
Canadian Music Week is always a great time to see artists you're already a fan of, and discover some new talent. On this night, I went to see my friend Arianna Mae perform with her band, and got the pleasure of catching Alex Whorms as well. This was certainly a night of great talent, and [...]
