News

We’re utterly dumbstruck by the news of Glen Hansard’s death. We spoke with Glen only a few months ago, having wanted him on the show for years.

As an interviewee, he was warm, engaging, articulate, and wise, and his passion for the craft of songwriting was tangible – none of which will come as any surprise to those familiar with the man and his work. Above all else, what shone through was his essential goodness.

Sodajerker On Songwriting, Episode 316 with Glen Hansard

Friday 4 September 2026 · Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Calling all songwriters! The Sodajerker Songwriting Lab is a one-day songwriting workshop at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and our special guests are Sacha Skarbek and Ben Parker.

Sacha is an Ivor Novello-winning and Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer whose songs have been recorded by Adele, James Blunt, Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey. Ben is an acclaimed songwriter, producer and session musician with more than 25 years in the industry: one half of the transatlantic folk duo Sons of Town Hall, a million-selling author of music instruction books, and co-founder with Sacha of the Skarbek Songwriting Academy.

Our friends at The Swan Song Project have launched a new campaign called Gift a Song, and we wanted to share it with you. Founded by musician Ben Slack in 2017, the Swan Song Project helps people facing terminal illness or bereavement to write and professionally record an original song. It’s one of our favourite charities, and a beautiful example of what songwriting can do beyond the charts.

“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.