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“Good morning, this is Neil from New York!”

So began our 2012 phone conversation with the triple-threat native Brooklynite whose prodigious musical gifts took him from a Juilliard scholarship to international pop stardom, via a glittering tenure at the Brill Building. When the ‘British Invasion’ arrived to shake things up in the mid 60s – and his wholesome image was rendered terminally unfashionable almost overnight – he took it on the chin, pivoting to session work and songwriting for hire. By the dawn of the next decade, he was in England, singing for his supper on the working men’s club circuit.

Sodajerker On Songwriting, Episode 25 with Neil Sedaka

On 3rd November 2011, we nervously sat down to conduct our first ever interview for the podcast. Our interviewee was pop songsmith par excellence Billy Steinberg, and the experience turned out to be such a fun and positive one that we decided to keep at it. And here we are, all these years later, *still* at it. So we have much to thank Billy for – and if you’re a fan of our show, so do you.

Sodajerker On Songwriting, Episode 1 with Billy Steinberg

At Anti Social Camp in November 2025, we recorded two special live conversations with music greats Jamie Cullum and Billy Bragg. It’s a rare chance to hear a pair of brilliant and very different songwriters reflect on their craft in front of an audience of songwriters and musicians.

We were saddened to hear of the great Richard M. Sherman’s passing at the venerable age of 95. The magical hour we spent interviewing this impossibly sweet and engaging man for the podcast back in 2013 remains a very special memory, and we count the resulting episode among our firm favourites.

Sodajerker On Songwriting, Episode 38 with Richard M. Sherman

We’re delighted to announce that Sodajerker On Songwriting won Best Music Podcast at the Independent Podcast Awards in London on Monday 30th October, 2023.

It has been a tremendous privilege to make the show for the last 12 years, so we offer our sincerest thanks to the organisers and the judging panel for the recognition. Heartiest congrats also to the other winners and nominees. It’s an honour to fly the indie pod flag with you all. ❤️

Simon & Brian

We are so sorry to hear the great Robbie Robertson has left us. We had the considerable honour of chatting with him back in 2017 around the release of his excellent memoir, Testimony, and he couldn’t have been more charming.

Sodajerker On Songwriting, Episode 98 with Robbie Robertson

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:

Sound Advice
–#021: Songwriting Secrets From Legendary Artists (Apr 2nd, 2024)

We’re very sorry to hear that the great Cynthia Weil has left us. She and her husband Barry Mann were not only one of the most prominent writing teams of the ‘Brill Building’ era, but also amongst our earliest guests on the show (episode 6 to be exact).

Sodajerker On Songwriting, Episode 6 with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil

We were recently invited to give a live masterclass/Q&A at the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies in Nottingham for their industry week event. We were interviewed live on stage by BBC radio’s Dean Jackson, and answered questions from the audience afterwards.

It was a lovely day out, and we were delighted to discover that we were sharing a bill with Beatle engineer Ken Scott, who we met briefly as he set up for his talk.

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.

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).

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.