At Departure, the annual music and culture conference in downtown Toronto, SOCAN presented panels and masterclasses with songwriters, artists, and performers. With a combined several decades of experience from all different genres and backgrounds, the songwriters spoke on how to have an enduring and creative career in an ever-changing musical landscape.
These conversations began on May 6 with Jenna Andrews, a Grammy-nominated songwriter who’s worked on songs for Drake, Sabrina Carpenter, Nelly Furtado, and Lily Allen. Some of Andrews’ biggest credits include “Butter” from BTS and “Free” from K-Pop Demon Hunters.
In conversation with Houtan Hodania, Senior Creative Executive at SOCAN, Andrews — who first began her career as an artist and performer — discussed songwriting as another path to a creatively fulfilling life in music; how she knows when a song is done; challenges to collaboration; why trusting one’s instincts and not following trends helps career longevity; and that dedicating oneself to the craft of songwriting will always be the key to success.
Paige Rutledge, Dave Thomson, Parker Graye, Tebey.
Nashville North kicked off the first songwriting panel in the round. Moderated by Hot Country host Tracey Lynn, Tebey, Dave Thomson, Parker Graye and Paige Rutledge spoke—in-between performing songs they wrote — about how to write country songs, pulling inspiration from other genres and country-fying it after. Other topics included how to approach writing for themselves or established country acts, and how to say no to collaborators or outside noise in order to stay true to their creative vision and authenticity.
SOCAN panels on May 7 brought together South Asian producers and Black songwriters. South Asian songwriters, producers, and performers are having a global moment, with so much of this talent coming from Canada. Deep Jandu, a Punjabi rapper, producer, with hundreds of millions of streams, and an over two-decade career, kicked off the discussion with Karan Chahal.
Deep Jandu and Karan Chahal
Jandu spoke of breaking out in Vancouver before heading overseas to the United Kingdom to develop his songwriting skills in an already established ecosystem supporting South Asian musicians and songwriters. He expressed his interest in other genres, blending non-Western and popular Western music together as inspiration for his own work and with other artists as a songwriter. Jandu’s currently working on a new solo project that’ll be released in November.
A conversation with Yanchan Produced, GK, and Signature by GB followed, speaking about how they got into the industry; consistency and curiosity as the key to lasting; embracing social media and video to collapse borders and promote access; and building an infrastructure that continues to help these powerful independent creators and artists get visibility and success.
SOCAN’s Lord Quest, Adria Kain, Kyle Wildfern, Lu Kala, Jev
The Black songwriters circle, moderated by Lord Quest, Creative Executive at SOCAN, brought together Adria Kain, Jev, Kyle Wildfern, and Lu Kala — all artists and songwriters representing different genres. “Black music” goes beyond hip-hop and R&B. The panel emphasized this challenge of categorizing artists who are Black by genre is limiting, both for discoverability and creative curiosity. Other topics included where to find inspiration, when to step back and take a break to revitalize creative flow, and how to social media to connect with an audience as people first, not just as the artist-songwriter.
The last day of SOCAN’s songwriting presentations at Departure featured a deep dive into Heated Rivalry’s intimate score by Peter Peter and a songwriting circle on pop music. In conversation with SOCAN’s Director of Film and Television, Mike Rocha, Peter Peter explored his first ever screen composition, which ended up soundtracking 2025’s most celebrated television romance. For an artist and touring performer, this break to work on a project so decidedly outside Peter Peter was a welcome change.
Peter Peter started working on the material before he received scenes to watch, as he put it, to create a language and build a vocabulary for the music. Once he began seeing the show and drawing energy from it, especially how intimate and special these situations and characters were, the score took shape into ethereal, pulsing, or quiet cues.
The last songwriter’s circle explored the power of pop music with a group of artists and songwriters alike. Panelists included Liam Benayon, Alicia Creti, Rêve, and Sophie Simmons. As the songwriter in the room working with artists, Simmons and Benayon spoke of building an authentic connection with performers; being vulnerable and bringing out authentically felt emotions and situations and putting those into a song.
Sophie Simmons, Rêve, Alicia Creti, Liam Benayon
Discussed across nearly every panel was how long it takes for a song to come to life. For artist and songwriter Rêve, the hook for “Past Life” once sat on the figurative shelf for two years before one day it came together in less than 90 minutes. Creti, whose work is influenced by soul, R&B, and pop, emphasized that the messy parts of songwriting yielded beautiful and extraordinary results. That it’s important to remain open in order to explore something that may become a timeless pop song.