As It Happens: Song A Day - podcast cover

As It Happens: Song A Day

Jonathan Mannpodcast.jonathanmann.net
It's songwriting in real time! Listen in as host Jonathan Mann (Guinness World Record Holder for Most Consecutive Days Writing A Song - 4000 days and counting), writes his daily song. You'll hear everything from the nuts and bolts of lyrics and chords to the more emotional work of failure, frustration and general messy chaotic wildness that comes with a daily creative practice.

Episodes

A Good Ol' Fashioned Song Fight!

SongFight.org is a weekly song competition that’s been going since the early aughts. Each week you’re given a title. You make a song with that title, email it to the "fight master", who then posts all the songs to be voted on. The song with the most votes wins. There’s no prize but the warm satisfaction of a job well done. From roughly 2003 to 2005, I participated in SongFight every single week. I rarely won, but as a precursor to song a day, I found it was a great way to keep myself accountable...

Mar 10, 202020 min

I Undertook A Difficult Song Request

Every once in a while, I'll put the call out on Twitter and ask people what they think I should write about. The suggestions are often about current events. Or animals. Today, I decided to go with a suggestion that's a bit more difficult to interpret.

Mar 03, 202018 min

Climate News Is Depressing, Let's Make A Song

In August of 2019, Iceland marked the loss of a glacier. 100 or so people, including the Prime Minsiter, walked up the mountain to hold a ceremony and install a plaque that reads , “Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done Only you know if we did it.” I saw this bit of news go by and knew immediately that I...

Feb 11, 202021 min

Write Drunk, Edit Sober

There’s a quote, most often attributed to Hemingway (though no one can find where he said it): WRITE DRUNK, EDIT SOBER. In this episode, we do some "sober editing".

Jan 28, 202016 min

Writing A Song About Anxiety

This song started as just two lines that popped into my head one morning. It's about anxiety, something I struggle with every day.

Jan 14, 202015 min

A Look Back At 4000 Days of Song A Day (podcast trailer)

You'll learn a bit about what you can expect from this podcast, and you'll hear a smattering of songs from the last 11 years of Jonathan Mann's ongoing Song A Day project. Also: Hear a snippet of one of the first songs he ever wrote when he was 12 years old. Please be sure to subscribe and come back on January 7th to hear the first episode!

Dec 11, 20199 min