Song and a Chat

Episode #27: In The Scheme Of Things – (Song at 7:35) Welcome back again to another episode. I’m going to endeavour to give you an insight into how it feels to write a song, the sort of thoughts a songwriter has. It was peaceful this morning, here in Melbourne –   just little light drizzle, no wind. I found I’d woken in quite reflective state of mind. This particular song came to...

Episode #26: Fair New Day – (Song at 6:33) It’s springtime here in Melbourne. Today was indeed a fair new day.  Tune in again this week and catch another song. If it’s your first time here, welcome! You are now part of an intimate listening audience. Let me entertain and inform you.  I want to give you an insight as to where this song came from, how it came into being.  This one starte...

Episode #25: Run Away (It’s Never Easy) – (Song at 8:10 & 25:00) Songs take you right back to what you were up to at the time when they came into your life, don’t they?  When you write a song, a heartfelt song, it seems the effect increases tenfold.  Particularly if you are writing from the heart. And that’s what I do… Listening to today’s song Run Away (I.N.E.),...

Episode #24: Walk By The River – (Song at 6.14) Welcome to another podcast episode – a big show again, this week!  Picture me on a stage, with my piano. You’re the intimate audience. Yes, you’re going to a get a song- song# 385 as matter of fact. But that’s far from all you’ll be hearing about.  Come back in time with me and we’ll see where the song came f...

Episode #23: Winter Blue – (Song at 11.43) Hi there, Welcome to another episode of Song and a Chat. If it’s your first time here, well, I hope you’re in for a treat. You’ll get to step into the shoes of a songwriter. You’ll hear a bit about how the song came together.  I had ski gig – playing piano in an old restaurant in the evenings, skiing all day when it was...

Episode #22:  Everyone Falls – (Song at 1:40) This podcast is a bit like a songwriter speaks type of gig. I’ll talk about an old demo, well look at it from a songwriting point view. Plus – and perhaps more so – I’m talking about episodes from my past – you’ll get a slice of the life of a songwriter.  Recording these episodes, I fly by the seat of my pants....

Episode #21: Don’t You Ever Give In – (Song at 12:03 & 28:51) If you streamed this episode, what would you hear about? Well… Hi, my name’s Pete Pascoe, I’m a songwriter with a lot of songs. Each week I talk about a song I’ve written & what I was thinking when I wrote the song. I relate anecdotes from around time as well & include observations about l...

Episode #20: Photograph – (Song at 5:40) Welcome back to to another episode of Song and a Chat. This week’s song talks about the idea of how a photograph – or a single memory can then bring into your mind a bunch of memories from the same time, and then you discover you’ve actually remembered much more from that particular time than you thought you had. Music has a way of bringing back...

Episode #19: A Moment In Time – (Song at 7:10) Hi, Welcome to another Song and a Chat episode.  B efore we shut down with Covid 19, I used to commute on the train. I can’t say I miss the commute, but I did make the most of the time on the train. Sometimes I wrote lyrics. The words to this song were written on the train.  Of course it wasn’t always as productive on my commutes. I...

Episode #18: Cathedral – (Song at 6:08 & 28:50) Hi, If you’ve been here before, welcome back for another dose! If you’re here for the first time, thanks for having a listen.  What I’m doing is offering you an insight into the song, where it came from, how it came together – plus of course you get to hear a demo of the song.  I particularly enjoy looking back at th...

Episode #17: God’s Wish – (Song at 11:32 & 29:40) In this episode,  I recount a couple of slices of my life back when I first came to Australia to live – including an exchange during evening in a bar, outdoors in St Kilda, Melbourne. Right then I discovered I was in a big city – a big change for someone who from New Zealand. I also talk about what I’ve been up to...

Episode #16: Balcony – (Song at 4:03) A demo from my past – Feb 1994, written in Hamilton NZ, you’ll hear some anecdotes from my time there. As I describe these experiences, you’ll get an insight   into places I’ve been and people I’ve met and you’ll also see how they find their way into song lyrics and music. I also talk about the song in terms of what it means to me today. If you lik...

Episode #15: This World Offers You – (Song at 5:24, 19:36, 28:47) A bit of fun this week, a departure in music style… I won’t give too much away. Go behind the scenes, get the inside ‘goss’ on how the song came to be, how it got recorded, what it’s about. This song, number 34, written in 1998, is from the first ever album by myself and Paul Dredge (NZ) – an independent release of about...

Episode #14: How You Mend A Broken Heart – (Song at 15:55) Welcome back! If you’ve come back again this week,   if you’re new here, welcome along! Be entertained, informed and you get a song to listen to part way through – another demo this week. Written in 2000, It was a time in my life when things were fairly settled. My song writing perhaps wasn’t in a golden sort of patch, but you...

Episode #13: Sunset Journey – (Song at 9:43 & 22:55) I’m really enjoying recording these episodes. This song came about after a drive down to the beach with friends. We wanted to catch the sunset. It was early winter. As it turned out, we timed it really well. The tide was out, the sun was about to dip over the horizon. The sky was reflected in the wet sand. A black swan appeared out of...

Episode #12: Who’ll Forget – (Song at 4:10) A political song this week. I wrote this one back in 2002. It’s popped up again now. It was released once as 100 CDs, a booklet with lyrics and watercolour / pen paintings. But it always felt like a demo. I’m going to re-record this album. I have repainted the original watercolour / pen sketches in acrylic and developed them some more.   I’ll...

Episode #11: Tomorrow – Today – (Song at 9:36 & 23:10) I committed to writing a song each week years ago. There wasn’t ‘that moment’ where you go:  “right I’m now going to start writing 700 songs. Nope. It was start-stop. ‘The dabble’, as it were… I just had feeling, had a go. Then it becomes something more – it gains it’s own momentu...

Episode #10: The Main Thing – (Song at 7:35) This song, number 515,   traces the trajectory of a (musician’s) life and marks the points where he prioritises his goals as he goes through a series of transitions – which pretty much sums up a lifetime. Along the way, his definition of the main thing keeps changing. I’m loving archiving these songs and I hope you’re enjoying them too. Alfr...

Episode #9: Second Story – (Song at 7:32 & 24:47) This podcast is evolving. It’s becoming a collection of songwriting tips, concepts. It’s also bringing anecdotes to the surface – stories I’d forgotten about, that had their origins at the time the song was written. Plus there are observations on the complexity of the human condition, the evolving self & the op...

Episode #8: Fall Asleep – (Song at 5:52) Continuing on with another song this week. I explore the songwriting, using pretty much ‘layman’ inclusive language. So non-musicians, non-songwriters that know nothing about the theory of music can enjoy hearing how the song came together.  A song is like an emotional book marker in time. When I listen to an old demo like this, it takes m...

Episode #7: Culture To The Bone – (Song at 4:35 & 18:30) This song is about the concept of us all being swamped, almost overwhelmed by art, music and media from all around the world – at the expense of losing our own arts, and culture. My song writing buddy, Paul Dredge and I wrote this one. It came about after a mornings fishing. We were feeling very beach-y, by the sound of the g...

Episode #6: Bindless Captive – (Song at 10:30) It’s 1982. I’m in my science class at school, being lectured on the names of cows stomachs. Predictably, as a young man, keen on the outdoors, the hunting and fishing, my mind started to drift.  Out the window, the hills in the distance beckoned me. In my mind I flew over the city, over the river, over the hills to the farms and beaches wh...

Episode #5: Lifetimes – (Song at 4:26 & 14:08) This week I’m presenting an instrumental solo piano song, ‘Lifetimes’, written in 1987.  There’s 2 versions here : The original demo and also the track released on my first piano album Eridanus / River Music. On the demo, this is my first effort at arranging strings – an orchestral type of arrangement using my k...

Episode #4: I’m On My Way   (Song at 4:24) Episode number four: I’m on my way, Song #341 written in1994. I wrote the lyrics sitting at the beach, in New Zealand. I used to stockpile these. I loved having a stack of lyrics waiting for whenever the mood hit me to compose a song. When I recorded this demo it was my first time using 16 tracks. Thanks to a friend, I was fortunate enough to be giv...

Episode #3: You’ll Remain In Me –  (Song at 3:53) Welcome to Episode 3, this week we have : You’ll Remain In Me, song #170, written in 1991. Here I am in my studio in Melbourne. It’s midnight and you’re my intimate listening audience. I’m pretending I’m on a stage, doing a gig. I have license to talk. Which I do, presenting the usual back story to the song, the actual...