• 7 ways to bring variety to your collection of songs

    electric guitar, headphones, and notebook on the floor with the caption 7 ways to bring variety to your songs

    When writing a collection of songs, whether for a album release or in general, we sometimes end up playing it safe and resorting to tried and true motifs and ideas for every song. For myself, when I become a fan of an artist or band, I like to hear a variety of songs. Sometimes the differences [...]

  • Do you write songs from the heart or from the head?

    head vs. heart graphic compass

    Often on Song Talk Radio, this question arises.  Sometimes, it’s fun for the hosts to try and guess.  “Your song sounds very cerebral,” or “Your song sounds very intuitive.”  The guests themselves tell us how well considered every decision in their songwriting process is, or tell us “It just came to me.”  This question of [...]

  • Song Talk Radio articles

    I'm a regular contributor to Song Talk Radio's blog and newsletter, with writing original content on topics of interest to our songwriter audience. Check out my articles at the Song Talk Radio website.

  • What does it mean to be an “amateur” songwriter?

    On Song Talk Radio we have a wonderful variety of guests and songwriters, and one way to group them is whether they are professional or amateur songwriters. Often, when we refer to amateur, there’s a negative connotation that implies a less polished, unsophisticated, or otherwise lesser craft. When we talk about being professional, it implies [...]

  • Evolution of my home recording studio

    I recently purchased a new audio interface for my studio, after the mic inputs on my old one starting giving me static or no signal at all. I thought it would be interesting for others to see how I went about making the choice of which interface to buy, within the framework of the evolution [...]

  • Brave Daughters

    I had a strong reaction to the 2012 gang rape case in India, which made international headlines in December. Revolted as I was from the crime, equally unsettling was the call from the Indian public for violent retribution upon the accused (not yet tried or convicted) men. I read several articles from different sources, and found [...]

  • I Am

    It's been more than 25 years since I started writing music, and over 10 that I've been writing songs with my own lyrics. This is my very first published song for which I did my own singing (thank goodness for pitch correction). I Am started out as the lyrics to accompany the music I had [...]