News

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.

With the brilliant Adam Schlesinger’s tragically premature passing, the music world has lost an uncommonly gifted songwriter who, outside of his pivotal roles in Fountains of Wayne, Ivy and Tinted Windows, could turn his hand to seemingly any kind of project – TV, film, theatre – with unfailingly well-crafted, melodic and catchy results (and had sundry awards and nominations to prove it). The diversity of his resumé and consistent quality of his work (most recently showcased on the Emmy-winning US TV series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) speaks volumes for his talent.

Read more

We were deeply saddened recently to learn of the sudden passing of the wonderful Neil Innes. We are all the poorer for the loss, but we were so lucky to have him. He was an exquisite musical and comedic talent, a truly gifted songwriter, and a lovely man. Much like the four legendary Liverpudlians whose oeuvre he lampooned so well, his work had a truly universal appeal, delivering joy in spades.

Read more

In all our years doing the show, we’ve found that certain guests, when discussing their process, have an energy about them which gives us an extremely keen sense of what they must be like to work with creatively. Allee Willis certainly falls into that category.

As anyone who has worked with or interviewed her can attest, she was larger than life, a singular force of nature that swept you up in a whirl of positive energy. She was certainly a flamboyant character, but make no mistake, behind her colourful appearance was the mind of a searingly intelligent and thoughtful songwriter.

Read more

Huge thanks to everyone who attended our special event at the Meltdown Festival with Nile Rodgers and Merck Mercuriadis on August 8, 2019! It was such a pleasure to record the live episode at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, and we’ll release the episode soon so that those who couldn’t attend can hear it.

Read more

We were recently interviewed about Sodajerker On Songwriting by Caroline Crampton and Amanda Litherland of BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Podcast Radio Hour.

Our chat is now available to hear as part of a special Liverpool-based edition of that show. You can also hear it on the BBC Sounds app.

(Our segment starts at 33:40).

The 26th Meltdown, a festival packed full of exclusive collaborations, world-wide one-offs and unmissable nights, takes place at the Southbank Centre, London between August 3-11, 2019. This year, the festival is curated by legendary songwriter, producer and guitarist, Nile Rodgers, and will feature a live podcast recording with Sodajerker.

Read more

Last month, just a couple of days after interviewing Sting at his London home, we were lucky enough to be among the attendees of the 64th Ivor Novello Awards ceremony in London. (Quite a week for us!) The event honours the great and the good of British songwriting and was held at Grosvenor House on London’s Park Lane on 23rd May. If you’d like to hear more about the experience, check out our mini bonus podcast episode here:

 

Read more

Back in 1993, as fourteen year old schoolboys taking their first faltering steps into the world of making music, we came across an album called Shame. The band’s name was (curiously) Brad. This album would never have entered our orbit but for the fact that amongst Brad’s number was guitarist Stone Gossard, moonlighting from his day job with Pearl Jam, and we were huge Pearl Jam fans. Stone, Eddie and co were (and remain) restless artistic spirits to say the least, and seemed to be constantly plowing their creative energies into a myriad of side projects, of which Brad was one.

Read more

We’re very excited to announce that we’ll be recording a live Sodajerker podcast with our former guest, the delightful KT Tunstall, at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, as part of the inaugural Songwriting Studies conference on Wednesday 20th March, 2019.

We first spoke to KT for episode 61 of the show back in 2014 and, as anyone whose heard it will know, she was tremendous fun. So we’re delighted to get the chance to meet with this hugely talented artist in person for what we’re sure will be a very entertaining and illuminating conversation.

Read more