University News Last updated 17 July
Dr Simon Barber, Associate Professor of Songwriting at Birmingham City University, has interviewed Phil Collins for the latest episode of the Sodajerker podcast, which he produces and co-presents with his colleague Brian O’Connor.
Barber also convened the Songwriting Studies Research Network and co-led the AHRC-funded project Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century.
One of the best-selling artists of all time, Collins has sold around 150 million records across his solo career and his work with Genesis, which he joined as drummer in 1970 before replacing Peter Gabriel as lead vocalist.
His run of hits in the 1980s produced seven US number one singles, and he has won Ivor Novello, Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Awards. Later this year, he will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist.
Now approaching its 15th anniversary, Sodajerker on Songwriting features in-depth conversations with many of the world’s most successful songwriters and has amassed more than 10 million downloads.
Previous guests include Sir Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach, Alicia Keys, Paul Simon, Sheryl Crow and Nile Rodgers. Barber and O’Connor met Collins at his hotel near Hyde Park in London and spent an hour discussing his remarkable history in songwriting and recording, from the home demos that became his landmark 1981 solo album Face Value to his work with Genesis and Disney’s Tarzan.
Collins described how his solo career began with experimentation at home: “I started to just play around, and that’s really all it was… It was really literally just making it up as I went along.” Recalling how those recordings produced ‘In the Air Tonight’, he said: “It was just like one happy accident after another.”
He was also candid about his instinctive approach to the craft: “I sometimes think I’m not really a writer… It’s been a learning process and still is a learning process.” For Collins, mystique has little to do with it: “It’s not brain surgery. It’s only music. And if it makes you feel good and you like it, it’s good enough.”
The episode is available now at sodajerker.com and on all major podcast platforms.
Photo L-R: Dr Simon Barber, Phil Collins, Brian O’Connor.