The Songwriting Podcast

The Songwriting Podcast is a monthly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, with the help of a guest songwriter or some other music industry professional.

But this show is a BONUS episode featuring an interview with filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig, the director who made the must-see music documentary “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” (2005).

Jeff Feuerzeig is an award-winning director, non-fiction filmmaker and screenwriter. Jeff won the top documentary directing honors at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival for his film “The Devil and Daniel Johnston.” This film also won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.

Our theme for this episode is Motivation: Creating Art for Art’s Sake, and we discuss Jeff’s documentary “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” and its titular subject, songwriter Daniel Johnston, to illustrate our conversation.

Your hosts are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams (though he’s absent during this episode) and Jason Pyles. The Songwriting Podcast posts new episodes on the first day of every month — and we’ll be posting Episode 8 here on April 1.

For more information on Jeff Feuerzeig and his films, including “The Real Rocky,” “The Dude,” “The Devil and Daniel Johnston,” “Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King” and other upcoming films, visit his site at www.JeffFeuerzeig.com.

You can hear another great podcast interview with Jeff Feuerzeig regarding his film “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” on The Documentary Blog Podcast, Episode 1. This interview covers more of the filmmaking background and more interesting information about Daniel Johnston. Highly recommended!

Here are some other links to check out relating to Daniel Johnston:

The album that Jeff Feuerzeig highly recommended: “It’s Spooky”

A Few Daniel Johnston YouTube Videos:
— Story of an Artist
— Some Things Last a Long Time
— True Love Will Find You in the End
— I Live My Broken Dreams

Hi How Are You.com

Daniel Johnston Web Store: HiHowAreYou.com

A decent Daniel Johnston discography (with individual song listings)

We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

This bonus episode of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on March 14, 2012, and it’s dedicated to manager Jeff Tartakov.

The Songwriting Podcast is a monthly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, with the help of guest songwriters or some other music industry professionals.

Episode 7 features two Songwriting Podcast listeners and senders of the wildly popular, hit song “Hiding in the Basement” — Nate Johnivan and Cole Hansen.

Find their Facebook fan page here: Nate and Cole Find a Radio.

Back in Episode 5, Nate and Cole sent their song into our show to be critiqued by Corey Graham and us. We were so impressed with their taste, style and musicianship, that we had to invite them onto the show as our guests. We’re grateful they accepted before they become ultra-busy, run-away rock stars.

Our topical themes are Writing Quote-Worthy Lyrics and Adding Tasteful Harmonies, among other things. We take an in-depth look at the lyrics of Nate’s song, “Moving Day” — as well as “Hiding in the Basement.” If you listeners will be patient with our rambunctious tangents, I think you’ll find that this is a revealing episode where we have two musicians that share some powerful and personal gems about their songwriting.

And of course, this episode also features specialty segments, such as Send Your Song (where Jason has placed one of his darlings on the chopping block), Don’t Do the Dumb Things That Jason Did and Moving to Nashville, which features “Nashville” Steve Rempis. We also have an announcement about the Craig Can Write segment. Grant Adams was unable to join us this month, so his Grant’s Rants ... and Raves! segment is missing, sadly.

Moving to Nashville: This month Nashville Steve Rempis teaches us about the NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International).

Send Your Song: The hosts of The Songwriting Podcast invite budding — as well as seasoned songwriters — to send their songs to us, and we will critique them on the show, giving constructive feedback, which consists of positive and negative points, and is merely based on our opinions. Since Jason took part in critiquing Nate and Cole’s song, he thought turn-about was fair play. So, Jason shares a rough demo of his song, “Wheeling,” to get some help on this work in progress. Feel free to contact us about sending your song at [email protected].

Nate and Cole Find a Radio Soundcloud page:

Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams and Jason Pyles. The Songwriting Podcast posts new episodes on the first day of every month. To contact us or to send your feedback, you can leave a voice mail at (801) 382-8789, or as noted above, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And you can also find us on Facebook.

We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

Most of Episode 7 of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on February 22, but we had to plug in some post-production segments on February 28 and 29, as well.

The Songwriting Podcast is a monthly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, with the help of a guest songwriter or some other music industry professional.

Episode 6 features songwriter and performer Cory Mon, the front man behind Cory Mon and the Starlight Gospel. Our discussion topic theme is Paying Your Dues and Touring, among other things. We take a closer look at Cory’s tune, “Hold,” and of course, this episode also features our specialty segments, Send Your Song, Craig Can Write, Don’t Do the Dumb Things That Jason Did, and Moving to Nashville, which features Steve Rempis.

During this episode, Cory Mon talks about his label, My Forlorn Wallet Records. Visit this article to learn more about this label and to read some interesting Q&A’s with Cory Mon. You can also find Cory Mon and his music on iTunes, CD Baby and Amazon.com.

Moving to Nashville: Nashville Steve Rempis gives us the gripping conclusion to last month’s report. And as promised, here are the critiques from Big Tractor:

BIG TRACTOR PUBLISHING’S LIST OF REQUESTED CHANGES TO “40”
1. Too negative- cheer it up
2. Too specific- would have to be pitched to someone around 40 years old
3. Make the protagonist more likable- listeners don’t want to pity the singer
4. Lose the long “hard E” in the choruses (40...) for something more “sing-able”
5. Too fast- reduce the tempo by 10% or so
6. Too “wordy”- try and say more with fewer syllables
7. Lose the vocal bridge- replace with a guitar solo

Send Your Song: The hosts of The Songwriting Podcast invite budding as well as seasoned songwriters to send their songs to us, and we will critique them on the show, giving constructive feedback, which consists of positive and negative points, and is merely based on our opinions. For this episode, Robert Iutzwig and Tim Marshall of “Life Is Hard” sent their song, “Fly With You,” for this review segment. There is a video for this song here.

And by the way, we found out that the exceptional female vocalist featured in this song is Sheree Howard (here is a video of her). You can find this very professional group on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Soundcloud and CD Baby, where you can purchase their music. (And by the way, while “Fly With You” is a modern pop love song, there is also a contemporary Christian, crossover, sister song titled “Fly Away,” and that video can be found here.) Feel free to contact us about sending your song at [email protected].

Grant’s Rants ... and Raves
Rants — Snow Patrol released its sixth album, “Fallen Empires,” a few months ago. If you know their music, you’ll notice how the CD is a sort of a departure from their past sound, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, generally, but in this case it is. It’s just a matter of preference, but I liked their earlier, more bare-bones sound from the first album. I’m sure the album will get a mixed reaction from listeners, but for me it’s a Rant.

Raves — Nick Lowe has always set the standard for smart pop music. You know him for his hit songs: “Cruel To Be Kind” or “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding,” of which the best-known version was recorded by Elvis Costello. His latest album, “The Old Magic,” continues Lowe’s late-career evolution with what some have called his best yet. Mojo placed the album at No. 31 on its list of Top 50 Albums of 2011. “The Old Magic” features three ballads, three c...

The Songwriting Podcast is a monthly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, with the help of a guest songwriter or some other music industry professional.

But this show is a BONUS episode featuring a 38-minute interview with songwriter Jacob Sproul, the vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the rock band Rose Hill Drive. He has played with such bands as The Who, Stone Temple Pilots, The Black Crowes, Wilco, Queens of the Stone Age, Gov’t Mule and Aerosmith. The artwork pictured above is the album cover of “Americana,” and the photograph was taken by Jacob Sproul.

Your hosts are Craig Tovey (though he’s absent during this episode), Grant Adams and Jason Pyles. The Songwriting Podcast posts new episodes on the first day of every month — and we’ll be posting Episode 6 here on February 1.

For more information on Jacob Sproul and Rose Hill Drive, you can visit the band’s Facebook fan page.

We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

This bonus episode of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on January 9, 2012.