And the Hello and joining us for episode 250.

Hello and welcome to Soe to Jaker on songwriting.

This is Simon here with Brian and joining us for

episode 255 is a British singer and songwriter best known as frontman and

co-founder of Dexies midnight runners known these days as Dexies and the band's only constant member since its inception in

Birmingham England in the late 70s. The band have achieved three top 10 albums in the

UK, two number one singles and over a billion worldwide streams and as this episode reaches you they've just

released a brand new album on 100% Records The Femin and Divine produced by Peach Swayer and Toby Chapman.

It's their first collection of original material in over a decade and we recently

had the good fortune to talk to their longtime leader about its creation and much more. We are delighted

to welcome the brilliant Kevin Roland to the show.

Kevin was born in Wolverhampton to Irish parents in 1953 and moved with his family

to Ireland while still a baby returning to the West Midlands when he was four.

He loved pop music from an early age,

especially singers like Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard and found that singing came pretty naturally to him too.

When he was 11 the family moved again to Harrow, northwest London.

Our guest eventually moved back to Birmingham and around the mid-70s started playing guitar

in his older brother Pete's band around the local working men's clubs.

He also began writing his own songs and Pete eventually allowed his

younger sibling to put some of his own material in the set. By 1977 Kevin was

set on a career in music and formed his first band the short-lived

Roxy Music inspired Lucy and The Lovers, swiftly followed

...