News

Burt Bacharach’s place in the songwriting pantheon was cemented decades ago, but that didn’t stop him conjuring those uniquely intricate, affecting and memorable melodies well into his 90s.

When we were lucky enough to chat with him (and his recent collaborator Daniel Tashian) back in the summer of 2020, it was evident that, in spite of his advancing years, he was still as passionate about and engaged with his craft as he’d ever been.

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We arrived at Manchester’s Palace Theatre one September day in 2018 fully aware that we might have to be on our mettle, as the great David Crosby was not one to suffer fools gladly, to say the least.

Consequently, our excitement to meet him was tempered by a mild wariness. However, to our considerable relief he seemed to take a shine to us and was a relaxed, charming and generous interviewee (as anyone who’s heard the finished episode will attest).

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As well as our own podcasting exploits, we’ve done our fair share of guest appearances on other shows too. Now, for the first time, we’ve gathered them all together into this handy list, should you wish to listen to us answer questions rather than ask them for a change:

Songwriter Trysts
–#200 Sodajerker (Aug 28th, 2022)

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As one of the preeminent songwriters of the Motown era – or, indeed, any era – Lamont Dozier was dizzyingly high on our wishlist from the start. We attempted to book him a few times in the first few years of the show, but to no avail.

Then, in the summer of 2015, we heard he was to grace our hometown of Liverpool for a live ‘Record Producers’ event at the Epstein Theatre off Hanover Street. Figuring we had nothing to lose, we once again contacted Lamont’s manager (who also happened to be his wife, Barbara) and to our delight were told he’d agreed to speak with us.

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Our podcast has been recognised as an honoree at The Webby Awards this year. Alas, our parents taught us that winning is all that matters, but we’d like to say thanks to those that listen and support us!

The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts and technology innovators.

Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor,” the award is one of the oldest Internet-oriented awards, and is associated with the phrase “The Oscars of the Internet.”

To celebrate 10 years of the Sodajerker podcast, we sat down for a special tin anniversary Q&A hosted by podcasting megalodon and very nice man Adam Buxton. In this lively ramble chat, we answer listener questions and talk about everything from our favourite guests and their songwriting tips to PR shenanigans, TV’s breastfeeding boyfriends and more!

Special thanks to Dr Buckles for his kind participation. You can find The Adam Buxton Podcast wherever stellar content is streamed.

October 15th 2021 sees the release of a remixed special edition of Let It Be, the final album by The Beatles. To celebrate the occasion, Simon and Brian sat down with the excellent Giles Martin to talk about his work remixing The Beatles at Abbey Road Studios, the songwriting of Lennon & McCartney, his work on Peter Jackson’s forthcoming documentary series The Beatles: Get Back, and memories of his father, Sir George Martin.

For more information on what’s contained within the physical and digital expanded editions, visit The Beatles.

Like so much of Paul McCartney’s vast post-Beatles catalogue, it took those outside of his devoted fanbase quite some time to appreciate the eccentric brilliance of 1971’s RAM. For many, me included, it remains his greatest solo achievement. Actually credited to ‘Paul & Linda McCartney’ – making it unique in the Macca oeuvre – RAM sees Paul firing on all creative and musical cylinders; from the opening strains of ‘Too Many People’ to the triumphal fade of ‘The Back Seat of My Car’, he sounds buoyant, vital and – perhaps spurred on by the lukewarm response to his first solo effort, McCartney, released a year prior – determined to deliver the goods. And boy does he deliver the goods.

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Happy new year to you all! A few recent appearances to tell you about.

A couple of months ago we guested on episode 337 of Jeremy Dylan’s My Favourite Album podcast to discuss Paul Simon’s classic 1975 LP, Still Crazy After All These Years. This was a blast, and we hope you’ll listen in.

We also had fun reminiscing about our formative years in music with Steve and Ben on episode 18 of the Songs From a Padded Envelope podcast. That one even contains an old demo of a song we wrote called ‘Sweet Tea’.

Print-wise, if you live in the North West of England there’s now a nice multi-page spread about the show in the January 2021 edition of Lake District and Lancashire Life magazine, thanks to Jeremy Blackmore for putting that together.

In November of 2021, the podcast will turn 10 years old, so we have some exciting stuff planned this year. Hopefully you’ll celebrate that anniversary with us when the time comes.

Something rather nice that happened during the first UK lockdown: the Sodajerker On Songwriting podcast was added to the British Library’s Sound and Moving Image catalogue. Search for it on their website.

Delighted (and not a little humbled) that our work will be preserved for posterity as part of such an amazing archive.

On the fourth anniversary of his passing, we’ve dug into the Sodajerker vault to find an unreleased bonus episode from a couple of years ago in which we sat down for an hour to talk about one of our all-time favourite artists – Prince!

We couldn’t resist bookending it with a Prince-inspired jam we found along with the recording. Enjoy!

Pictured are Simon and Brian attending Celebration at Paisley Park in 2017.

Big thanks to Dorian Lynskey for kindly including us in his feature on the best music podcasts in the current issue of Q Magazine (published April 7, 2020), which is out now.

The issue also includes a 25th anniversary celebration of Morning Glory by Oasis, plus features on Jason Isbell, Flohio, Ghostpoet, Kooks, Avalanches, Mark Lanegan, Princess Nokia, Jarvis Cocker and Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien.

You can visit their website to find out more about the issue.