Over the past twelve years, Sodajerker, a duo comprising British musicians Simon Barber and Brian O’Connor, have made it their mission to use the podcast medium to unpack the complexities of songwriting for those that love the creative process. Described by Esquire magazine as ‘the Frost/Nixon of tunesmithery’, their podcast Sodajerker On Songwriting has published over 250 episodes featuring interviews with world-leading songwriters like Sir Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach, Alicia Keys, Paul Simon, Sting, Rosanne Cash, Beck, Elvis Costello, Tori Amos, Nile Rodgers, Jon Bon Jovi, Lindsey Buckingham and Diane Warren.
Despite the prestigious guest list, the show remains completely independent and ad-free. In fact, all episodes have been researched, recorded and produced entirely by its two co-hosts. To date, Simon and Brian’s compelling conversations with songwriters have been downloaded almost 10 million times and since its launch in 2011, the podcast has been been featured in publications like Esquire, The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Slate and New Statesman. In 2016, the podcast was used as the basis for the BBC World Service documentary The Secrets of Songwriting. In 2020, the Sodajerker interview archive was added to the British Library in London for posterity. In 2023, Sodajerker On Songwriting won Best Music Podcast at the Independent Podcast Awards in London. Today, Simon and Brian are well on the way to creating the world’s most expansive archive of audio interviews with renowned songwriters about the creative process.
