Creative Director & Founder @
RT60 (Songzap)
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What if the raw immediacy of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska—recorded on a four-track cassette in his bedroom—could be a blueprint for today’s musicians to create without the barriers of studio costs or complex tech?
That’s the mission of RT60’s Dr. Mike Exarchos and Dr. Rob Toulson, creators of Songzap. The app blends a DIY ethos with AI technology to allow musicians to craft polished multi-track demos directly on their phones. Designed to provide access and education for those who might otherwise be put off by the technical aspects of making music, Songzap uses AI to simplify song arrangement, while preserving the raw vibe of in-the-moment creativity.
Drawing inspiration from Springsteen's bold release of a lo-fi cassette recording (Atlantic City), we explore how capturing the creative moment can outweigh the pursuit of polished perfection. We talk through the story of Wilfy Williams, a busker who went on to record a studio album with Rob, and how this journey in turn shaped the development of Songzap to meet the needs of singer-songwriters. We also turn the spotlight onto emerging artist Theanò, whose loop-based vocal arrangement approach to capturing her ideas highlights the range of use cases that Songzap can be put to, from demo sketch pad to full production suite.
Join us as we discuss creativity vs. technology, the value of pairing tech with education to elevate artistry, and how avoiding perfectionism can lead to a better final product.
When discussing music tech apps and tools, a lot of emphasis is placed on their ability to create music (a job Songzap does incredibly well), but I was also struck by the potential of the app as a tool for artist development. Not just the wider educational resources the app provides around songwriting, but how the immediacy of the technology enables artists to easily 'reflect' or critically listen back to their recorded performances. This not only improves their listening and creative thinking skills, but helps better prepare artists to perform while recording in a studio environment. In this respect, Songzap goes from a tool for making demos, to a wider platform that helps musicians on their journey of professionalism—as exemplified through the story of Wilfy Williams.
In the same vein, it made sense for me to hear that producers can also learn a lot through working in the more flexible mode of music production that Songzap enables. Not cleansing tracks of their emotional authenticity through studio polish, and perhaps embracing more of the DIY mentality that Songzap was designed around could help producers really highlight an artist's true 'vibe' without drowning it in technical processing.
This flexibility means Songzap has been designed to allow artists choose their own path, and not necessarily be limited by traditional concepts of song structure often imposed by linear DAW. Borrowing from artists themselves plus the Ableton workflow is a quietly transformative way of enabling artists to 'just create'.