Austin based sisters Tori, Tiffany and Sofia Baltierra have been playing as the Tiarra Girls since they were in elementary and middle school. Listen as they describe how seeing the video for No Doubt's "Just a Girl" influenced them all stylistically and helped them find their voices as young women in music.

On the last episode of This Song until the fall, Krissy Teegerstrom, a self-made artist, creative consultant, podcaster, and designer at Featherweight Studio talks about how listening to "Mojo Pin" by Jeff Buckley transported her to a place beyond the real and showed her how to follow her creative intuition.

Ezra Koenig, lead singer and songwriter for the band Vampire Weekend, explains why he recently became obsessed with  "I Don't Think Much About Her No More" by country singer and songwriter Mickey Newbury and explores what it was like to apply country music's direct approach to songwriting to some of the the songs on Father of the Bride.

Carrie Brownstein explains how "Stay" by Rhianna inspired her to write the last track on Sleater-Kinney's latest record,"Broken." 

Singer, songwriter and producer Finneas O'Connell not only writes and produces music with his sister Billie Eilish, but also makes his own music under the name FINNEAS. Listen as he explains why he loved "Holy Sh*t" by Father John Misty from the moment he heard it and how the song helped him expand his ideas of what he could say in his own songs.

British singer, songwriter and producer Shura explains why My Bloody Valentine terrified her and intrigued her she she heard it for the first time, what it's like to write an entire album of love songs and why she felt like now was the right time to use female-gendered pronouns in her work.

La Marisoul, lead singer and songwriter for the band La Santa Cecilia explains how  Mercedes Sosa's version of "Yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazon" by Fito Páez helped her understand what a powerful tool music could be for connection and healing.

Indie electronic duo Matt and Kim talk about how "The Mullet Burden" by The Dillinger Escape Plan showed them how intense music could be.

King Princess describes how  listening to "Cosmic Dancer" by T. Rex as a kid made her feel seen, helped her understand her gender and  showed her how music could transport the listener to another place and time.

Devendra Bahnart talks about how hearing "Just Another Diamond Day" by Vashti Bunyan  when he was busking on the streets of Paris comforted him  with a feeling of motherly love that he still turns to today and how themes of motherhood, love, fear and compassion show up on his latest record "Ma."

Come to Waterloo Records Thursday, November 21st at 4pm for a live taping of the This Song podcast. Singer, songwriter and author Allison Moorer will talk about a song that changed her life, and talk about her new book and companion album, Blood. The event is FREE and open to the public.

This week we have a special treat for you! A full episode of the new Song Confessional Podcast! In  this episode you'll hear a tale of family, weed and secrets, the song it inspired written by Brooklyn based Vlad Holiday, and an interview with Holiday about his boozy creative process.

In this episode of This Song, originally published last February, Jackie Venson talks about how "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from Evita changed the way she listened to music and thought about herself.

Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw from  Metric talk about  hearing "Teardrop" by Massive Attack early in their musical partnership and how it inspired them, terrified them and helped them find a collaborative way of making music that still works for them today.

In this episode, St. Vincent explores how music from early Disney films helped her lay the foundation for beauty and wonder in her life and work. She also explains why she approached the songs on Masseduction with a Disney-esque lack of irony.

Kathy Valentine, bass player in the seminal 80s all-girl rock group the Go-Go's, recently wrote a memoir titled All I Ever Wanted. In this episode of, Kathy explains what "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream taught her about herself when she was 9 years old,  describes how she found her creative process as an author and details how music and storytelling intersected in her new book.

Thao Nguyen from Thao and the Get Down Stay Down talks to host Elizabeth McQueen about the inspiration behind her new song "Temple," and about what it was like to release music during a pandemic. She also shares how making the new album helped prepare her to address her sexuality publicly and to create a safe space in her life where she could exist as her full self.

John Prine explains how Bob Dylan's "The Lonsesome Death of Hattie Carroll" changed his life and goes in depth about his own songwriting process for his album "The Tree of Forgiveness."

In this rerun from 2018, Liz Phair talks about hearing The Soft Boys "I Wanna Destroy You," revisiting her 1991 Girly-Sound Tapes and 1993 debut album, and parenting realities.

In this rerun from 2018, Beth Ditto, former lead singer of the band Gossip, talks about how Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam" helped her grapple with complex feelings about her home state, Arkansas. She also talks about returning home after heartbreak and explores making her first record "Fake Sugar."

Samples From Mars has released MPC2000 Snacks From Mars, a freely downloadable sample pack containing vinyl and drum machine sounds recorded and processed through the MPC2000XL hardware sampler. The sample pack contains six pre-mapped drum kits of 16 hits each (96 samples in total), along with 29 grooves in MIDI format. The clipped, filtered and [...]

View post: MPC2000 Snacks From Mars – FREE Samples & Song Contest

NEW YORK (AP) — Idris Elba, who battled the coronavirus this year, has lent his voice to a new song about black men and mental health that will benefit pandemic relief efforts. Elba is featured on the song “Kings” by Kosine, a singer-songwriter-producer best known for crafting hits for Big Sean, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna. […]

Luckily for Eurovision fans, all 41 songs will be available on EUROVISION 2020 – The Album - which is released on May 15th On UMC Records.

A Juno-nominated musician says a generation of songwriters is being lost due to the intense struggle artists face trying to survive financially in an industry dominated by music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.

Now, more than ever, are we sacrificing privacy online for connection? The changes in online dating behaviour during lockdown, and ruminations on aging when you still feel 28. Plus a song for its namesake.

A refreshingly varied voyage, with Tom Waits, Beth Orton and Patti Smith amongst the crew.

Kate Miller-Heidke at Star Court Theatre, and Martha Wainwright at Byron Community Centre

There's nothing like a singalong and plenty in the audience did just that at last Friday night's performance of a local production that has been circulating around the North Coast for a year now.

Black Swan Theatre's latest offering Midsummer (a play with songs) directed by Damon Lockwood is a breath of fresh air.

I really love the small wooden halls that dot each village in our north coast region. The halls have been social hubs for our rural communities for decades. They have seen bush dances, card nights, trivia fundraisers, 21st birthday parties, garage sales, weekly yoga classes and many other social events.

Allison Davies says when she uploaded a cheerful ditty about wellness on her Instagram page she had no idea it would strike a chord with families worldwide.

A new music program, being delivered in regional South Australia, is helping preserve and promote Indigenous culture, language and life for future generations.

Sheena Roberts and Rachel Fuller

The Flinders Ranges in South Australia are known for their rich Aboriginal history and now two women are trying to preserve it.