I’m a creative and intellectual guy first and foremost. I’d much rather be writing songs, playing piano, reading, watching great movies, and learning new things than going for a jog or doing a workout. I feel like this is hard wired in me, so I have to hack my way to engaging in physical activity. [...]

Mental health and taking care of your emotions is so essential to everyone. It’s a great feeling to learn about yourself to the point of knowing the things that work for you and give you joy. I’m still on my journey, and have a long way to go, but here are a few things I’ve learned so [...]

Sometimes I have an easier time around women than men. I’d rather talk music, philosophy and health than sports, cars, or tools. Of course, these are just stereotypical interests of the genders, based on conventional views of gender identity. I like to think I’m neither stereotypical nor conventional in my thinking. I’ve been told, only [...]

The Other Side by Neel Modi In late 2020, on the Song Talk Radio podcast, we decided to do another songwriting challenge; this was our second challenge in two years. Songwriting challenges, or prompts, are a great way to jump start a song and give you focus while writing. In fact, songwriters do this all [...]

This year, I’ll have written a holiday song every year for the last six years. Two weeks ago, I had decided not to write one, but finally took a moment to ponder and reflect upon the current state of the world and came up with the title “Silent Christmas.” I wanted to express [...]

My older brother turned 50 this year. Don't worry, my time is quickly approaching too. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, any plans for a big birthday bash were cancelled. My sister-in-law reached out to family and friends to invite everyone to send in video messages instead, and shared them with my brother on his birthday. [...]

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 [...]