News

We are very pleased that our interview with Guy Chambers was chosen by Apple as the episode of the day on their official @iTunesPodcasts Twitter account, June 19th, 2012. Guy spoke with us a couple of weeks ago about his work with Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue, Jamie Cullum and others. Thanks to the boys and girls back in Cupertino, not to mention Mr Guy Chambers for taking the time to talk with us, and all of you for subscribing to the show in iTunes and listening in regularly.

Simon & Brian
Sodajerker

Here’s a recent demo of a song called ‘Talk of the Town’. We’ve since started to rework and re-record this song but we thought we’d post our demo here because we liked its rough vibe (we played and sang everything). This song came from Brian’s desire to write a synth pop tune that had the flavour of a 1970’s glam rock shuffle. We were thinking of Mike Chapman’s rough demos for songs like ‘Devil Gate Drive’ and ‘Ballroom Blitz’ when we started it.

Read more

Forthcoming grindhouse-style British horror comedy Strippers Vs. Werewolves starring Steven Berkoff, Robert Englund, Lysette Anthony and Sarah Douglas among others, prominently features several songs by Sodajerker on its soundtrack.

When werewolf chief Jack Ferris is accidentally killed in a strip club, the girls who work there have until the next full moon before his bloodthirsty wolfpack seek murderous retribution.

Read more

To celebrate the first ten episodes of Sodajerker On Songwriting, we’re giving away some amazing books that feature our talented guests. You may have noticed that at the very end of each episode of Sodajerker On Songwriting, we throw in a quote from a movie. To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is follow these instructions.

Read more

More than 10,000 people have now downloaded episodes of Sodajerker On Songwriting since the podcast launched on iTunes. As a result, we’ve started getting some press, especially in Liverpool.  This story in the attached image ran Tuesday March 20th 2012 in a local Liverpool paper. It talks about the success of the show and gives some info about us.

If you haven’t yet heard the show, Sodajerker On Songwriting features interviews with some of the world’s most successful songwriters, including Billy Steinberg (Like A Virgin, Eternal Flame, True Colors), Jimmy Webb (Wichita Lineman, MacArthur Park), Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’, On Broadway), writer/producer Todd Rundgren and Andy Partridge of XTC among many others.

Thanks to all of our listeners and to those who have reported this story. We have some exciting guests in store for future episodes. You might also be interested to see that the story is running on the Liverpool Echo website as well.

We just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has been supporting our songwriting podcast. We’re delighted to be very visible in the iTunes store at the moment with a nice promo from the folks at Apple UK and Europe. Our show Sodajerker On Songwriting has gone from strength to strength since launch, serving thousands of downloads of each episode to listeners all over the world.

Read more

Here’s a demo from the vault that was captured one afternoon before we were working together under the name Sodajerker. It was 2008 and there was a great deal of discussion taking place about our hometown of Liverpool which had just begun its year long reign as European Capital of Culture. Brian and I gave ourselves the task of writing a song with the word Liverpool in it.

Read more

We thought we’d make a habit of digging out old demos and posting them here on the blog. This one is an unreleased song from the critically acclaimed (but wholly under-appreciated) Liverpool art-rock band Santa Carla, of which Brian and I were founding members.

Read more

Brian and I are in the studio together today and whilst rummaging through the hard drives we came across this demo of a song called ‘Lovers Undercover’. We wrote and recorded this one afternoon earlier in the year for a pitch to an artist, but we’ve never shared the demo.

Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks to all of you that have checked out the first two episodes of our new podcast Sodajerker On Songwriting featuring guests Billy Steinberg (episode 1) and Todd Rundgren (episode 2) and have left reviews and ratings for us in iTunes. We are happy to discover that our fledgling show has been featured among ‘new & noteworthy’ podcasts in the iTunes store!

Read more

In addition to our writing and recording activities, we’ve launched a podcast called Sodajerker On Songwriting. It’s a programme devoted to the art and craft of songwriting and features interviews with some of the most successful songwriters and musicians in the world.

In our first show, we chat with Grammy winning songwriter Billy Steinberg about the many pop classics he has written including Like A Virgin (Madonna), True Colors (Cyndi Lauper), Eternal Flame (The Bangles) and I Drove All Night (Roy Orbison).

Read more