News

We’re delighted to be amongst the contributors to a terrific new book about beloved British band XTC.

Lovingly assembled by journalist (and former Limelight fanzine editor) Mark Fisher, What Do You Call That Noise? examines what made the group so very special with the help of its principle band members (including, of course, our former guest Andy Partridge), some significant collaborators, a number of passionate fans and several famous admirers.

We wrote a few words about the songs ‘1000 Umbrellas’ (from 1986’s Skylarking) and ‘Wake Up’ (from 1984’s The Big Express). Other contributors include Peter Gabriel, Squeeze’s Chris Difford, Jason Falkner and Barenaked Ladies’ Steven Page.

Order your copy now and then go ahead and revisit our interview with Andy Partridge.

On November 22, we had the pleasure of visiting Leeds Beckett University for a discussion with senior lecturer Dr Peter Mills about the origins of the Sodajerker podcast, approaches to songwriting, the art of the interview and much more. There was also a post-discussion Q&A with the students.

Many thanks to Peter and everyone who came along on the day for making the experience so enjoyable!

Dear listeners,

We are overjoyed to reveal that our guest on the podcast this Friday will be Paul McCartney. We recently sat down with Paul at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) for a conversation about his new album Egypt Station, which is also available from 7th September.

As it does for millions of people around the world, Paul McCartney’s music occupies a very special place in our hearts. We were raised on his songs and, at this point, life is quite unimaginable without them. So, to get the opportunity to spend time with Paul talking about what he does best – songwriting – was the thrill to end all thrills. We can’t thank him enough for doing it.

On Sunday July 8, 2018, we sat down at the inaugural Birmingham Podcast Festival for a chat about making Sodajerker On Songwriting. With questions from our gracious host Jon Hickman, we had a fun time talking about our experiences so far in making the show.

Thanks again to Mark Steadman and everyone involved with the event, and cheers to the audience for listening and asking questions! Mark and the team have kindly made the raw audio available so we’re posting it here in case you’d like to listen in.

Simon and Brian recently guested on the excellent, Paul McCartney-based podcast Take It Away. They joined hosts Ryan Brady and Chris Mercer for a fun (and lengthy) dissection of Macca’s 1997 album, Flaming Pie.

Check out part 1 and part 2 of their special in-depth discussion.

For more insights in Macca’s solo oeuvre, visit their website, or subscribe in Apple Podcasts. Thanks to Ryan and Chris for having us on!

Earlier this year, we were delighted to be asked to join the judging panel for Song Academy’s Young Songwriter 2018 competition alongside some of our former guests like Guy Chambers, Imelda May, Tom Odell and Eg White. Now in its 7th year, the competition is the leading international songwriting competition for 8-18 year olds that champions the creative talents of young people, gets their songs heard and unites young songwriters worldwide.

We were recently asked by ICMP, the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in London, for our top songwriting tips gleaned from the now 100+ conversations we’ve had on the Sodajerker podcast with world-leading songwriters. We’re nothing if not obliging, so we rustled up a few thoughts in response to their questions.

You can read the results here.

In March 2018 we did our first ever podcast recording in front of a live audience. It went really well and we were delighted by the whole experience.

The event was a success for two reasons: firstly, we were working with a wonderful organisation, APRA AMCOS, which is an Australian royalty collection society for songwriters and composers. They have over 95,000 members and do great work on their behalf. Their London office is based at the famous RAK Studios, and we couldn’t resist the opportunity to record there with a special guest.

To celebrate the recent second issue of the popular music journal Riffs, which Simon guest edited, Simon and Brian sat down with researcher Dave Kane for a chat about The Beatles. You can listen here:

Catching up on some kind mentions in the press this week, we thought we’d post these two recent shout-outs in The Guardian.

The first of these appeared in October 2017 and was written by esteemed music journalist David Hepworth, who selected us as part of ‘the week’s best radio’.

The second appeared in November’s Guardian Guide, recommending the Sodajerker podcast as one of the ’10 best things to do this week’.

Thanks to them for taking notice of our homespun show and for including it alongside coverage of BBC Radio programmes, and some of our favourite artists.

In late July of 2011, during a break from demoing a new song, Simon and I sat in our little loft studio in the Liverpool suburbs and tentatively discussed the possibility of doing a podcast. A songwriting podcast, to be precise. Our motivation was thus: we’d been plugging away, writing songs under the Sodajerker sobriquet for a while and, to put it bluntly, were looking for ways to attract some attention to ourselves and the music we were making. Podcasting was becoming increasingly popular medium, so we figured that this could be one small way to put ourselves on the map.

For Christmas 1989, when I was 10 and a half, I got my first Sony Walkman (still one of the best presents I’ve ever received) and a cassette to play on it – Prince’s soundtrack for Tim Burton’s Batman movie, released earlier that year, with which I was obsessed at the time. It was the first album I ever owned, and the only one for a while, so I would play it on a near-constant loop until the tempos slowed and vocals deepened as the Walkman’s batteries ran out of juice. Admittedly, this listening frenzy was as much to do with my childhood Batman obsession as the soundtrack, but now I realise my future musical tastes were being subtly shaped too.