On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of visionary artists who came from different backgrounds but ended up in the same place—sort of. Dawn Richard jumped into the deep end when she auditioned for the reality show Making the Band 3 back in 2004. She made the cut and subsequently became part of the Diddy-manufactured girl group Danity Kane, which hit it pretty big for several years. Richard then formed Dirty Money, which eventually added Diddy himself as a member. But Richard’s artistic ambitions went far beyond mainstream pop, and about 10 years ago she leaned into more experimental music—while also filling her time with a vegan food truck, representing brands, and working with Adult Swim. She’s often compared to artists like Bjork and Imogen Heap, which makes sense in that she’s always surprising her audience. In what seemed like an unusual pairing, she signed with indie powerhouse Merge Records for the universally acclaimed album Second Line. She’s subsequently released an album with sonic experimentalist Spencer Zahn, and as you’ll hear in this chat, she plans on working with him again. Check out “Babe Ruth,” which is taken from Richard’s most recent EP, The Architect. Torres—aka Mackenzie Scott—has also found a home at Merge Records, and her records—powerful, emotional indie-rock with big aspirations—are perhaps more in line with the sound the label was built on. The sixth Torres album just came out, and it’s got the best title you’ll hear all year: It’s called What an Enormous Room, and it’s the most expansive set of songs she’s ever done, with big hooks and big emotions to match that big title. Torres just kicked off a big tour that’ll take Scott and her band around the world this year, so whether you’re in Berlin or Boise, you can check them out. And you should. In the meantime, check out “Jerk Into Joy,” a song that Richard loves, as you’ll hear in this conversation. Elsewhere in the chat, Scott and Richard talk about whether full albums and bigger concepts can compete with digital singles and instant internet culture, and they get into how running is a vital part of their creative processes. Richard tells Scott that the secret to getting everything done is not sleeping, and they compare church upbringings, and how religious songs left a big impression on both. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Dawn Richard and Mackenzie Scott of Torres for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting service, and check out the wide variety of other shows available on our network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of friends who make sometimes challenging yet often incredibly catchy and tuneful music, one of whom you’ve seen and heard on Talkhouse several times before: Mac DeMarco and Kirin J. Callinan. DeMarco has been on the podcast before, and we keep inviting him both because we love his music and because he’s a great conversationalist. For the music part, DeMarco has been making dizzyingly catchy songs since around 2012, when his confusingly titled debut, which is called 2, came out. But it’s been part of his fun-loving persona to keep it light and a little bit silly, even as he’s zapping you with catchy pop. Sometimes he ventures into soft-rock, other times he's vaguely psychedelic. For his latest album One Wayne G—and I’m not actually sure you can call it that—DeMarco assembled 199 songs that run almost nine hours. Songs might be a little strong a word to use for most of these tracks, which are often instrumental ideas more than fully fleshed out “songs”—he even says that on this podcast. Check out one of those ideas right here, whose title is simply the day it was recorded, “20190205.” Now Kirin J. Callinan’s records are, like DeMarco’s, often referred to as “provocative,” but these two guys push buttons in different ways. While his friend Mac gives off chill vibes onstage, Callinan likes a little bit of danger in performances. His records can be grandiosely pop-centric while his persona is… intense. He’s often compared to either David Bowie or Nick Cave, and I think the truth is somewhere in between. He’s played on a lot of other folks’ records, including songs with DeMarco and appearances with Caroline Polachek and Mark Ronson, and he starred on the TV series Top of The Lake, so it's been a varied career to say the least. February 2 will see the release of Callinan’s fantastic new album If I Could Sing. Check out the song “Young Drunk Driver.” You’ll realize quickly that DeMarco and Callinan are old friends: They get right into talking about Callinan’s recent dye-job and other chummy topics. Some are less fun, including the recent theft of Callinan’s motorcycle—recent meaning he had just gotten off the phone with the police when this chat started. They also talk about the relative coolness of tennis versus golf, Callinan’s new record, and potential future collaborations. You heard it here first. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Mac DeMarco and Kirin J. Callinan for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got two guys whose work I’ve admired for decades, but who I never realized were as close as they are personally: David Wain and Craig Wedren. Wain is a writer-director-actor (and more) who first came to fame with the hilarious sketch-comedy group The State, whose mid-'90s MTV show was and is a cult sensation—and still holds up to this day. Proof of that: The State has been doing reunion shows recently, and today’s podcast was inspired by the fact that I saw today’s other guest, Craig Wedren, in the audience for their recent Chicago show. After The State, Wain went on to direct a bunch of hilarious movies, including Wet Hot American Summer, Wanderlust and Role Models. He’s also done lots of acting, and way more stuff than I can list here in a reasonable amount of time. On top of that, he started the just-for-fun, cheekily named Middle Aged Dad Jam Band, whose core also includes State alumnus Ken Marino and lots of big special guests. The Jam band will be playing at SF Sketchfest, which starts today, with tons of other great acts, including… The State. Craig Wedren started his career as the singer of Shudder to Think, the DC-based band of art-rockers whose early records came out on Dischord. After that band split up—which had something to do with Wedren being diagnosed with a pretty serious cancer in his mid-20s—he switched his focus to scoring and soundtrack work, at which he has undoubtedly succeeded. He’s made music for tons of TV and film, including many of Wain’s projects. He’s also made some fantastic solo albums, including one that’s due for release next week called The Dream Dreaming. It’s maybe the most accessible thing he’s ever done, but as Wain points out in this conversation, accessible music by Craig Wedren is still beautifully odd. Check out “Play Innocent” from The Dream Dreaming. As a huge fan of both Shudder to Think and The State, I’m surprised I didn’t realize that Wain and Wedren weren’t just professional collaborators, but literally life-long friends. They’ve known each other since they were about 4, and they started making creative things together not long after that—they get into that history here. In this conversation, they talk about their history together, what they’re doing now, the ups and downs of doing it yourself, bath-time tips, and Wedren’s health issues over the years, including one that just happened. It’s a great chat. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to David Wain and Craig Wedren for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting service, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

Hello and welcome to the Talkhouse Podcast, I’m Josh Modell. On this week’s episode we’ve got the return of one of our favorite repeat guests in conversation with an equally fantastic songwriter making her first Talkhouse Podcast appearance. Sharon Van Etten is a singer and songwriter who’s been making records for the past decade plus, growing and changing and taking chances in exactly the way you hope truly talented people will. Her amazing early records were quietly intense, very confessional affairs, but she burst from the seams with subsequent releases. In 2019, she released Remind Me Tomorrow, which brought in bigger sounds and colors and an entirely different kind of confidence to her songwriting and performance. In 2022, Van Etten released another incredible album called We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, which puts into intense songs some of the feelings we’ve all been feeling through the last few years. As you’ll hear in this chat, Van Etten has already written a ton of songs for her next album, and now she’s trying to figure out how to get there. Check out "Mistakes" from We've Been Going About This All Wrong. The other half of today’s chat is Canadian singer-songwriter Charlotte Cornfield. Yes, that’s her real last name—you can actually read the story on Talkhouse.com from 2021 where she explained its origins to Amy Millan of the band Stars. Cornfield starting releasing music back in 2008, and her fifth album, Could Have Done Anything, was released in May of 2023. This conversation was originally meant to be recorded back then, but Cornfield had a baby around that same time, which as some of you surely know, changes your schedule pretty intensely. But motherhood is a big part of this conversation: Van Etten has a six-year-old, and the two openly talk about the joys and challenges of raising a child. Check out “Gentle Like the Drugs,” from Could Have Done Anything. In addition to getting deep about parenting, Van Etten and Cornfield talk about Van Etten’s creative in-between space, about the plusses and minuses of New York vs Los Angeles vs Toronto, and about how Southerners eat trash—but in a good way. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Sharon Van Etten and Charlotte Cornfield for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got an episode for the drummers and those who like a great story: Jon Wurster and Stewart Copeland. Copeland is of course the drummer for the legendary, gazillion-selling Rock and Roll Hall of Famers the Police, who were called “the biggest band in the world” during their mid-'80s heyday. Their hits have endured over the decades, too, and that’s in no small part due to the special chemistry the trio enjoyed—and that chemistry, as you’ll hear, often manifested itself in fights between Copeland and his old bandmate Sting. Copeland has made a fascinating career for himself since; he directed a documentary about his old band that made interesting use of their music, and he’s got a new album and tour called Police Deranged for Orchestra, which features those classic songs redone in wild new ways. As you’ll hear in this chat, Copeland also found a side career as a film composer, working on everything from Oliver Stone’s Wall Street to the classic Francis Ford Coppola movie Rumble Fish. Check out a little bit of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic“ from Police Deranged for Orchestra right here. Now the other half of this conversation is a drummer from a later era and, as you’ll hear, a huge fan of Copeland’s work. Jon Wurster is a renaissance man who’s played most regularly with Superchunk, the Mountain Goats, and Bob Mould, but whose list of credits goes way beyond those amazing acts. He’s also a comedy writer and half of the duo Scharpling and Wurster, which gave birth to some of the funniest characters in radio comedy ever. This summer, Wurster will tour with both Mountain Goats and Bob Mould, so chances are good that he’ll be in a city near you. In this conversation, Wurster—as I had hoped he would—gets deep into specifics with Copeland, asking him right off the bat about a gig from the early 1980s. They also chat about how Copeland’s orchestral tours actually work and about his forays into the soundtrack world—I had never heard the term “shit chord” before. They get into the fights that Copeland had with Police frontman Sting, and about how band therapy helped sort that all out. Wurster also gets a chance to ask about the lyrics to a deep cut called “On Any Other Day.” Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Jon Wurster and Stewart Copeland for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s episode we’ve got two guests who might know each other better than any two prior guests of this podcast ever have: brothers Ben Nichols and Jeff Nichols. Ben Nichols is the singer, guitarist, and chief lyricist for the long-running Memphis band Lucero, and when I say long-running, I mean it: Assuming you’re listening to this podcast the day we release it, the band played its first show exactly 25 years ago today, on April 13 of 1998. In that time, they’ve released an even dozen albums, making the journey from punk-influenced country—or maybe that’s country-influenced punk—to soul to straight-up rock and roll. I’ve always felt like Lucero was the Southern version of The Hold Steady, purveyors of great story-songs and always an incredibly good time live. The newest Lucero album came out in February, and it’s a very intentional back-to-basics rock record called Should’ve Learned By Now. Check out “Macon If We Make It” from that record. Ben’s younger brother Jeff followed a similar independently creative path, but down a different road: He’s a successful—and incredible—film director whose credits include Mud starring Matthew McConaughey, a drama about the real life battle over interracial marriage called Loving, and my personal favorite, Take Shelter, in which Nichols’ frequent collaborator Michael Shannon plays a family man who may or may not be coming unglued. Each is very different from the next, and each is excellent. Jeff Nichols next film is called The Bikeriders, and it will star Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, and Jodi Comer, among others. It’s very loosely based on a book of the same name that Jeff was introduced to by Ben. As you’ll hear in this conversation, it’s not the only time the two have influenced each other. They talk about how Lucero songs have found their way into Jeff’s movies, about how the brothers came upon the same exact story in different ways, and about Jeff’s potential future as the man who may attempt the impossible: adapting some of Cormac McCarthy’s more complicated books, including Blood Meridian, for the big screen. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Ben Nichols and Jeff Nichols for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great written stuff we’ve got at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of New Zealanders who’ve forged incredible careers in music and comedy and comedic music: Jemaine Clement and Ruban Nielson.  I’m guessing Clement is best known to our listeners as half of Flight of the Conchords, his musical and acting duo with Bret McKenzie. They haven’t put out a record or toured much in the last decade or so, but their albums and HBO series definitely endure with their subtle hilarity. Clement has of course been plenty busy post-Conchords as both an actor and director. His 2014 mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, co-directed with his old friend Taika Watiti, spun off into one of the funniest shows on TV, and you’ve also heard or seen him in everything from Despicable Me to the latest Avatar movie. In the awful event that you’re not familiar with Flight of the Conchords, here’s their David Bowie tribute, simply called “Bowie,” which is discussed a bit in this episode. Clement seemed excited—and well prepared!—to speak with Ruban Nielson, the singer-guitarist behind Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Though both of these guys are, as I said, from New Zealand and fans of each other’s work, they had never met before. UMO, as Nielson’s band is known for short, has been making a sort of uncategorizable music since 2010; they most often get pegged as psychedelic rock, which isn’t wrong, but also doesn’t tell the whole story. There are also elements of lo-fi indie rock, a bit of funk, and some garage rock. But the fact that it’s tough to name is part of what makes UMO’s music so appealing. Check out a little their song “The Garden,” which opens the latest UMO album, V.  These guys have a fantastic conversation that spans everything from the history of New Zealand and their shared Maori heritage to an in-depth examination of the Jagstang, a guitar designed by Kurt Cobain and favored by Nielson. They talk about bombing on stage—and getting bombed before getting on stage—and they share stories about coming up in a shared place. Also, you’ll hear the phrase “sad funky ghost,” perhaps for the first and last time in your life. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Jemaine Clement and Ruban Nielson for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and be sure to check out all the goodies at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! 

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a rare but not totally unprecedented pairing of a couple—by which I mean boyfriend and girlfriend, for lack of better words—in conversation, both fantastic songwriters: Briston Maroney and Samia. Briston Maroney is an earnest, powerful songwriter who first caught attention via American Idol, but perhaps lucky for him and us he didn’t ride that appearance into the pop world. Instead, over the past decade Maroney has built a solid catalog of personal songs that include folk and indie-rock influences, but that could really play anywhere people like a good tune. His latest album is called Ultrapure, a word he uses to describe those incredible moments in life that you might not even know you’re experiencing until they’re gone. Check out “Body” from Ultrapure right here. The other half of today’s conversation is Maroney’s partner of the past few years, the singer and songwriter Samia. She’s a bit more interested in the darker sides of life than Maroney, as you’ll hear them laugh about in this conversation. Her latest album, Honey, features bitter breakup songs that will strike right at your heart: It’s no wonder she’s been compared to the likes of Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. But Samia has her own thing going, and for my money, Honey is one of 2023’s best albums. Check out the intensely fantastic “KIll Her Freak Out” right here. Though they live together, this conversation took place on different continents, as Samia was at their now former home in Nashville—they just moved to L.A., as you’ll hear—while Maroney was on tour in Europe. They joke at the outset that they hadn’t spoken in two years, but really they’re in constant contact, and know each other super well. They chat about horror movies, their dog camera, and how writing in the same physical space might lead to accidental song theft. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Samia and Briston Maroney for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got two guys from very different musical worlds who’ve collided over the years in really interesting and fruitful ways, Vic Mensa and Johan Lenox. Mensa is a Chicago-bred rapper who first found notice with the group Kids These Days, but who quickly established himself as a solo artist around 2013. He’s collaborated with an amazing array of artists, from Kanye West to Weezer and all points in between. Mensa’s second proper album—there are lots of mix tapes and guest appearances out there, too—came out last year, and it’s called Victor. Once again, Mensa displays an incredible agility, bouncing from fun to deep and back again; he’s an incredible lyricist equally adept at party starters and deep thoughts, both of which are on display here. Contributors to the album include Jay Electronica, Chance the Rapper, Thundercat, Ty Dolla Sign, and may others, including today’s other guest, Johan Lenox. Now Lenox did not come up through the hip-hop world, but rather the world of classical music. Hearing Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy pushed Lenox out of that bubble, though, and led to a cultural mash-up called Yeethoven, which utilized a live orchestra to mash up Kanye West and, yes, Beethoven. Lenox has since worked as a producer for West, Lil Nas X, and many others, and worked with the likes of No I.D. and Big Sean. He also put out a solo record of R&B-ish jams called What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up (technically titled WDYWTBWYGU, but that's hard to pronounce) and another record, also in 2022, credited to Isomonstrosity, a trio he formed that treats classical music like hip-hop, chopping and mixing it into something new and bold. Earlier this year, he released a string album called Johan’s Childhood Chamber Nostalgia Album. But let’s check out a track from the Isomonstrosity record that features Vic Mensa. This is called “Wake Up.” In this conversation, Lenox and Mensa talk about being inspired by everyone from Kanye to Kurt Cobain, about how Mensa wants to inject his sense of humor into more of his music, about artificial intelligence and the future of music, and a songwriting trick they recently learned. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Vic Mensa and Johan Lenox for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the good stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of talented songwriter/performers who’ve known each other for years, and who’ve both had busy years: Margaret Glaspy and Bridget Kearney. Margaret Glaspy has quietly built an impressive catalog of songs over the past decade, putting her sharp lyrics front and center. Her third album, Echo The Diamond, came out earlier this year, and it takes a turn back toward more organic sounds after 2020’s Devotion. You may have seen Glaspy on tour over the years with the likes of the Lumineers and Neko Case, and she just finished her first post-pandemic solo run throughout the U.S.—she’s an amazing live performer. Chicagoans will have a chance to see her this December when Glaspy opens Andrew Bird’s yearly holiday concerts there. In the meantime, check out the bluesy, scrappy “Act Natural” from Echo the Diamond. The other half of today’s conversation, Bridget Kearney, is best known as a member of the band Lake Street Dive, the soulful indie-pop outfit that’s been kicking around for the past 20 or so years—and probably playing a big theater in your town sometime soon. In addition to holding down the low end for that band, Kearney makes slightly more somber music as a solo artist and more groove-oriented songs in a trio called BB Wisely. In other words, she’s not that into sitting still, musically or physically, it seems. Check out the great “I Bet UR,” from Kearney’s 2023 solo album Snakes of Paradise. In this lively chat, Glaspy and Kearney talk about their long friendship, which leads to… powerful microscopes. They talk about Kearney’s three musical lanes, and how you should trust your gut when the recording vibe is off. And then they get into some powerful advice about exactly how many fucks one should give in a day—it seems like a great system to me, so check it out. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Margaret Glaspy and Bridget Kearney for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got everyone’s favorite Canadian twin-sister duo Tegan and Sara in conversation with powerhouse songwriter and artist LP. Now LP has had a fascinating, winding career in the music business, starting out in the late ‘90s as a performer whose incredible voice attracted lots of attention in the industry—you’ll hear about that in this chat—but who ended up kind of going through the wringer of that system. But LP turned their attention to writing songs for other people, which had an immediate and far-reaching effect: LP’s compositions have been hits for the likes of Rihanna and Celine Dion, and for a while it seemed like that’s where LP’s career would stay. But a return to performing about ten years ago has born some incredible fruit, and with a big personality like LP’s, it’s not surprising that TikTok and other social media has embraced them. LP’s latest album is the powerful Love Lines, check out “Dayglow” from that album, and catch LP on tour in the US right now through the end of the month; dates are at iamLP.com. The other half of today’s conversation, Tegan and Sara, started making music as teenagers and were flung into the spotlight very quickly, being signed to Neil Young’s record label and opening for him when they were basically still kids. But they got some good advice—you’ll hear about that here—that helped the twin sisters navigate the ups and downs of fame. Over the course of 25 years they’ve released ten albums, a memoir that was turned into a TV series, a graphic novel, and much more. They are creative lifers, and the world is a better place because of it. Check out the song “Yellow” from Tegan and Sara’s latest album Crybaby. In this lively conversation, you’ll hear about two incredible, uncompromising careers. These three talk about how their music has not only inspired joy in other people, but also understanding: LP talks about visiting other countries where many people in the audience perhaps hadn’t met a gay person—at least not knowingly. They get into all things Canada, the vital importance of a good monitor mix, and the primal wound that inspires creativity. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse podcast, and thanks to Tegan and Sara and LP for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the good stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got an award-winning multi-hyphenate that you may have seen on TV, a Broadway stage, or packing out a big theater near you in conversation with a guy whose equally riveting work has mostly been behind the scenes: Sara Bareilles and Rob Moose. I’m not sure where to begin with Sara Bareilles’ resume: She found fame with her music, with songs like “Brave” and “Love Song” topping the charts. But in addition to making huge records, she’s been a judge on NBC’s The Sing-Off, she wrote the music and lyrics for—then eventually starred in—the Broadway production of Waitress, and she co-created the Apple TV series Little Voice and acted in the Peacock series Girls5Eva. And honestly, this is all just the tip of the iceberg. You will be surprised by how remarkably down to earth she seems in this conversation—I was.  Rob Moose met Bareilles when he was asked to do some string arrangements for her at a Lincoln Center event organized by Ben Folds. For the past 20 years, that’s the kind of work Moose has mostly done: His expert strings have added color and wonder to music by everyone from Sufjan Stevens and The Decemberists to Taylor Swift. He’s been a member of Bon Iver and performed live with Jay-Z. Chances are very good that you’ve heard him without ever hearing his name, because it wasn’t until this year that he decided to release music under his own name: It was while on tour with Paul Simon that Moose had the idea to collaborate with some amazing singers, setting their voices to his strings—and nothing more. The result is an EP called Inflorescence, which features Emily King, Brittany Howard, Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, and—perhaps you guessed by now—Sara Bareilles. It’s a fantastic, unexpected set of songs that brings out the best in both the strings and the voices. Check out a little bit of Moose and Bareilles on the song “Extract.” In this conversation, these two chat about how a Craigslist ad changed Moose’s life, about how Bareilles was a bit gunshy about collaborating early in her career, and about how you’ve got to really want to live in New York City—which they both seem to want to do. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Rob Moose and Sara Bareilles for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the good stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we have the pleasure of reuniting two intensely creative individuals who first worked together decades ago: Emily Haines and Olivier Assayas. Haines is, of course, the singer and primary songwriter for the band Metric, which she’s been fronting for the past 20-plus years, and which sprang from the same fertile Canadian scene that gave the world Broken Social Scene and Stars, among many others—in fact, it’s Haines’ voice that you hear on Broken Social Scene’s biggest (and I would argue best) song, “Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl.” But her primary focus over the years has of course been Metric, which just released their ninth album of thought-provoking indie-rock anthems, Formentera II. It’s a sequel to the excellent album they released exactly a year prior, and another collection of danceable, fantastic songs. Check out “Just the Once,” from Formentera II, which Haines describes as “regret disco.” So what does a catchy Canadian indie band have to do with a fearless French filmmaker like Olivier Assayas? A lot, as it turns out. Back when Assayas was prepping his 2004 film Clean, he needed a band to perform in a scene, and when he saw Metric, everything clicked: You can see the band perform their early hit “Dead Disco” in the movie, and Haines and Assayas hit it off after working together. Like Metric, Assayas has created an incredible body of work over the years, and done it—again like Metric—by following his own muse. His best-known films include Irma Vep, Clouds of Sils Maria, and 2016’s Personal Shopper, for which he was proclaimed Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival. In a strange twist, he was asked to re-created Irma Vep as a TV series for HBO, which he did under the condition that he have total artistic freedom. That came out last year, and it’s definitely worth checking out. These two get right into a great discussion about how they approach creating their art: Both rely on instinct rather than any desire for commercial success. They talk about the real Formentera—it’s an island in Spain—versus the one Haines created for these albums. They touch on Haines’ father, a well-known poet, and how that might have figured into her creative growth. Also, you’ll learn from this chat that every piano has one great song in it. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Emily Haines and Olivier Assayas for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got two women who lead fierce, fantastic rock bands: Karly Hartzman and Marisa Dabice. Hartzman is the driving force behind the band Wednesday, which started as a solo-ish vehicle for her songs back in 2017 but has blossomed into a full band with an already-sizable catalog. Everything they’ve done is worth checking out, but it sure feels like Wednesday hit exactly what they’d always been striving for on the album Rat Saw God, which came out earlier this year. Hartzman’s lyrics are both pointed and poetic—amazing in their specificity and delivered with some serious passion, whether in a country-ish moment, or one that feels almost metal. Today’s other guest, Marisa Dabice, thinks Wednesday sounds like Black Sabbath meets Sparklehorse, which is both accurate and something that’s probably never been said about any band before. Check out “Bull Believer” from Rat Saw God. Marisa Dabice is the voice behind Mannequin Pussy, a band that’s been releasing blistering music since 2010. Just this week, Mannequin Pussy announced the release of their long-awaited fourth album, I Got Heaven, which will come out in March of 2024. Hartzman, as you’ll hear in this conversation, has already gotten a listen to the record—which was produced with John Congleton—and she loves it. The title track is already getting rave reviews for taking Mannequin Pussy’s intense punk energy and adding a bit of sweetness with some synths and a sugary chorus, but those aspects almost make it sound even more confrontational in a way. In any case, it’s awesome: Check out “I Got Heaven” right here. In this chat, these two friends talk about touring, and specifically about how unusual it can feel to perform—and how that can lead to actual tears on stage, not the most fun experience. They chat about the difference between Mannequin Pussy and Wednesday fans, and about the pressure to enjoy your success while it’s happening. Oh, and about saunas. You’ve gotta love a sauna. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Maria Dabice and Karly Hartzman for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting service, and check out all the goodness elsewhere on this site. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of performers and songwriters whose work joyfully throws genre out the window in search of something bigger: Robert Glasper and Emily King. Glasper started his career pretty firmly in the jazz world, though as you’ll hear in this conversation he really started out by playing in churches in his native Texas. But in 2012 he released an album called Black Radio with his electric quartet, the Robert Glasper Experiment, which gleefully knocked down boundaries between jazz and hip-hop, and featured such artists as Erykah Badu and Lupe Fiasco—not to mention an awesome cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” His catalog before and since is too broad and varied to cover in any depth here, but in addition to jazz and R&B records, he’s done a bunch of movie and TV work—including a bit of acting, which you’ll hear about—won a handful of Grammys, and helped curate the Blue Note Jazz Festival, another topic of conversation here. Right now he’s in the middle of “Robtober,” his monthlong residency at New York’s Blue Note Jazz Club, which will feature an incredible lineup of guests throughout. The other half of this conversation is Glasper’s friend and fellow Blue Note alumni Emily King, herself a Grammy nominee whose music exists at the corner of R&B, soul, and pop. Her third and latest album, Special Occasion, is brash, heartfelt, and energetic, and she’s an incredible presence live. The album, like most of King’s work, was produced by Jeremy Most, who happens to be an old schoolmate of Glasper’s—and with whom King was in a long-term relationship with until just recently. (You can hear a bit of that tension in its songs, in a good way.) King will be opening for Marc Rebelliet later this month at Red Rocks, which is pretty awesome. Check out a little bit of “Special Occasion” right here. In this lively chat, these two talk about how the New York Times accidentally named Glasper’s band for him, the chances of Glasper becoming a PEGOT—you’ll see—how being a messy person might make you creative, and more. There’s also talk of bad hairstyle choices, and how having white friends might exacerbate that problem. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Robert Glasper and Emily King for chatting. If you liked what you hear, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!  

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of musicians with interesting backgrounds: one in computer engineering, the other in stand-up comedy. It’s Vagabon and Jaboukie. Vagabon, aka New Yorker Lætitia Tamko, just released her third album under the name, and as you’ll hear in this chat, it had been four years since her last. But Sorry I Haven’t Called was worth the wait, and another cool stylistic leap. Tamko’s first album, Infinite Worlds, felt like a fresh take on indie-rock; her second, a self-titled record from 2019, dipped more into more varied electronic pop. But Sorry I Haven’t Called, which was partly produced by former Vampire Weekend guy Rostam, takes things even a step further, with an eye toward something even bigger and bolder. And even though the songs were inspired by a dark time in Tamko’s life, they turned out incredibly buoyant and upbeat. Check out “Lexicon” right here. Jaboukie Young-White is best known as a stand-up comic, writer, and actor: You may have experienced his jokes on Big Mouth, or seen him as a correspondent on The Daily Show or acting in Only Murders in the Building. If you’re a fan of this podcast, you may have heard him in conversation with Jonathan Pierce of the Drums a couple years back. But in the past couple of years, Jaboukie has set his last name aside and worked hard on his debut album, which just came out. It’s called all who can’t hear must feel, and it’s an incredibly diverse set of songs that touches on a bunch of genres—rock, hyperpop, jungle—without sounding beholden to any one in particular. Jaboukie played almost every note of every instrument on the record, and as you’ll hear, he spent a lot of time getting it just right. Check out “Cranberry Sauce” right here. In this chat, Jaboukie and Vagabon talk about how creating is like molting, about how music can feel more timeless than comedy, about “domming” your audience, and about how Janet Jackson is MOTHER. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Vagabon and Jaboukie for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform and check out all the goodness elsewhere on this site. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of artists who got to know each other over the course of the pandemic, and who got together in the same room for this chat—which is still kind of a rarity these days: Sarah Tudzin and Alex Lahey. Sarah Tudzin is best known as the mastermind behind Illuminati Hotties, the band she started as sort of an extension of her production and engineering work, which includes contributions to albums and songs by Boygenius, the Armed, and Eliza McLamb. As Illuminati Hotties, she creates pointed, sometimes funny, always catchy songs that she once described as “tenderpunk,” which is kind of perfect. Check out a little bit of “freequent letdown” from Illuminati Hotties’ 2020 release Free I.H., an album/mixtape that comes with an interesting backstory you can find online. New music is supposedly forthcoming pretty soon, so keep your ears open for that. Alex Lahey was born and raised an ocean away from Tudzin, in Australia, but she’s been spending a lot more time in Los Angeles recently, as you’ll hear in this chat. Lahey has been releasing great records since 2016, and her latest set of punky, animated break-up anthems, called The Answer Is Always Yes, is actually being re-released in an expanded edition with some bonus tracks next week. Check out the ultra-catchy “On the Way Down” right here. These two chat about the philosophy behind Lahey’s album title, The Answer is Always Yes, as well as thinking about whether a creative career beyond music makes sense. They talk about the relatively unpopularity of guitar music at the moment, and speculate whether either of their songs might someday get crazy big. (For the record, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch at all.) Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Alex Lahey and Sarah Tudzin for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all of the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got the frontman for a band that recently made a welcome return after a long absence, and the producer who helped him find the sounds and songs to do it: John Gourley and Jeff Bhasker. Gourley is the singer for Portugal. The Man, which started making music in their home state of Alaska back in the early 2000s before finding success and relocating to Portland, Oregon. The band has an impressive catalog that runs the pop gamut, and weirdly they hit it huge pretty deep into their career, with the 2017 song “Feel It Still,” which is still on pop radio six years later. Just this year, PTM finally released a new album, called Chris Black Changed My Life, which both mourns and celebrates the band’s close friend, for whom it’s also named. The album was also partly inspired by the daughter of Gourley and his bandmate Zoe Manville; Frances Gourley has a rare genetic disorder that’s touched on in this chat. But the album and Gourley’s story is by no means grim: He’s all about celebrating life, as you’ll hear on this track, “Summer of Luv,” which features some assistance from another recent Talkhouse guest, Unknown Mortal Orchestra. You’ll also hear the fingerprints of producer Jeff Bhasker on that track. Bhasker is best known for co-writing and co-producing smash hits like Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk.” He’s one of several names that Portugal. The Man brought in to help realize Chris Black Changed My Life. The two talk about how that process worked, and in particular how Gourley is—unlike some songwriters—always happy to have more creative voices in the room. They also chat about which of them is a better singer, about playing at the Hollywood Bowl, about Gourley’s life-changing jaw injury, and about Gourley’s daughter Frances and the challenges they face. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to John Gourley and Jeff Bhasker for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great written pieces at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got an actor-director you’ll likely recognize along with the musician-slash-composer who made beautiful sounds for one of his films: Jesse Eisenberg and Emile Mosseri. Eisenberg is best known as an actor; he was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, which is just one of his dozens of credits. You’ve also seen him in Zombieland, The Squid and the Whale, the Now You See Me movies, and lots of indies. He also starred in the TV drama Fleishman is in Trouble last year alongside Claire Danes and Lizzy Caplan. And if that isn’t enough, Eisenberg is also a writer, playwright, and director. His feature debut as a director came earlier this year with When You Finish Saving the World, which began life as Audible original—which he also wrote. The movie stars Julianne Moore and Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard, and it was released by A24, a trademark of quality. And… segue time… music for the film was composed by today’s other guest, Emile Mosseri. Now Mosseri spent years in bands, most notably The Dig, but really seems to have found his stride in recent years as a film composer. In 2020 he did the music for both Miranda July’s Kajillionaire and for Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, for which Mosseri was Academy-nominated for Best Original Score. He’s also worked on Joe Talbot’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Jonah Hill’s Stutz, which you’ll hear a little about in this conversation. Earlier this year, Mosseri released his first album of original songs under his own name, which is called Heaven Hunters. It’s a really personal, intimate record that sounds best on a pair of quality headphones, as it’s sort of cinematic and somehow also small and quiet. Check out one of Eisenberg’s favorite songs from Heaven Hunters, this is “My Greedy Heart.” These two get right into a great chat, talking about the various neuroses that fuel their art and stifle their ambition: Mosseri even talks about choosing whether to spend money on his therapist or an awards-season publicist. Eisenberg talks about his experiments using AI on a script—they don’t go well—which leads to a discussion about whether AI will impinge on creative jobs like theirs in the future. It’s a great, fun chat—enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Jesse Eisenberg and Emile Mosseri for chatting. If you liked what you hear, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great written pieces at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of musicians who create with an air of mystery, but who have a fantastically straightforward chat here: Ethel Cain and Adam McIlwee. Ethel Cain is a character created by Hayden Anhedonia, though one that’s been sort of all-consuming. Anhedonia began releasing music under the name in 2019, finding her sound and her vibe over the next couple of years before releasing the absolutely epic Preacher’s Daughter in May of 2022. The album, a concept collection about the life and ultimate demise of Ethel Cain, skillfully moves through sounds from a sort of Gothic Americana to slowcore to ambient sounds to who knows what, exactly, other than it’s thoroughly engaging. The album was pretty quickly hailed as a masterful debut, and Cain found herself not only the darling of the music world, but with some prominent modeling gigs as well. As you’ll hear in this chat, though, the spotlight has gotten a little bit bright for her taste lately. She’s currently on the European festival circuit, though she’ll head back to the States in October for sold-out shows at really interesting venues. Check out “Crush” right here. Cain and today’s other guest, Adam McIlwee, go way back. He was an early supporter of her music, and appears on her Inbred EP under his most prominent alias, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal. Though he started his musical journey as part of the pop-punkish band Tigers Jaw, he’s moved in a dozen other directions since. He founded the emo-rap collective GothBoiClique back in 2012, which briefly counted Lil Peep among its members. As Wicca Phase, though, McIlwee combines synth-pop with more acoustic sounds and more hammering beats, depending on the track. His latest release under the name is self-titled, and it just came out in June. It’s well worth checking out. In fact, check out “Moving Without Movement” right here. Now for two people who’ve created such interesting mystiques, this is a refreshingly down-to-earth conversation in which they talk about trying to carve out space as middle-class musicians who don’t expect to conquer the charts with their music—but who’d love to be able to make a decent living at it. They talk about what to do when you hit a touring wall—this chat took place not long after Cain fainted onstage in Australia—and how great Vicks Steam Inhalers are for singers. Hey Vicks, you might have a couple of spokespeople here if you play your cards right. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Hayden Anhedonia aka Ethel Cain and Adam McIlwee aka Wicca Phase Springs Eternal for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the other podcasts in our ever-expanding network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of young artists and friends who share more in their outlooks than they do in their sounds: Alaska Reid and Ekkstacy. Alaska Reid, despite her name, actually grew up in Montana, as you’ll hear in this chat, but she splits her time between there and Los Angeles, and you can sort of hear that in her music—polished indie-rock that’s got an edge you kind of have to look for. She’s released a bunch of fantastic singles over the past couple of years, and just last month released her debut album, Disenchanter. You may have seen Reid opening for the likes of Charli XCX or Caroline Polachek, and she’ll embark on a headlining U.S. tour this September, and it’ll probably be your one and only chance to see her play in relatively small venues for a while. Check out “French Fries” from Disenchanter right here. Ekkstacy is a Canadian musician who makes emotional songs that are deeply indebted to early-’80s new wave—a sound he definitely didn’t experience firsthand, since he’s barely old enough to drink. Ekkstacy is known for both songs and interviews that wear their emotions on their sleeves: He puts it all out there, and it often seems like he’s exorcizing his most negative feelings through catchy songs. Sample song titles from last year’s album Misery include “I Just Want to Hide My Face” and “Wish I was Dead,” and his big breakthrough single was “I Walk This Earth All By Myself.” But he’s no sad-sack: Ekkstacy is passionate about what he’s doing, and he wants to make it big, as you’ll hear in this conversation. Check out “I’m So Happy” right here. As a person of a certain age—by which I mean way older than these two—I found this chat fascinating. Alaska and Ekkstacy talk about growing up plugged in, and how that can affect your personality. They talk about how much you’re obligated to engage with a live audience. And Ekkstacy talks about a run-in with Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio, and how he wants what they’ve got, though not exactly. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Alaska Reid and Ekkstacy for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the delights at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got two guys who were part of monumentally influential bands in the 2000s, and who continue to make groundbreaking music today: Paul Maroon and Noah Lennox.  Maroon is behind the incredible, instantly recognizable guitar sound of The Walkmen, a band that sort of split up a decade ago but reunited just this year for what has turned into an incredibly jubilant tour. The band is currently in Europe, where they just played a show in Lennox’s adopted home country of Portugal, and they’ll return for a string of U.S. dates this fall, culminating in a hometown—that’d be New York—show in October. Since the Walkmen split, Maroon has mostly turned his attention to composing classical music and the occasional film score. He put out a really engaging record with the pianist Jenny Lin called 13 Short Piano Pieces, with each of those pieces inspired by and named for a different place Maroon has lived—he currently calls Seville, Spain home. Check out “El Raval” right here, and go to Paulmaroon.co for info on his solo stuff, or thewalkmen.com for tour dates. Maroon released a seven-inch recently that featured singing from his friend Noah Lennox, who’s perhaps better known by the name he uses as part of Animal Collective, Panda Bear. Lennox has been part of that massively influential experimental rock band for nearly 25 years, and he’s released a ton of great music both with Animal Collective and as a solo artist. His latest release, though, is a collaboration with Pete Kember, also known as Sonic Boom. Kember was a member of Spacemen 3 way back when, and he’s also released incredible music as Spectrum and E.A.R. He’s also earned his production stripes over the years, producing records for Beach House, MGMT, and… Panda Bear. Last year, Kember and Lennox released a collaborative album they recorded during the pandemic called Reset, and they just followed it with a dub version of the album remixed by Adrian Sherwood called Reset in Dub. Check out “Gettin’ to the Point” from Reset. In this conversation, we learn that Lennox was in attendance for the first-ever Walkmen show; we hear about their adventures living in Portugal and Spain, the difference between a good show and a bad show, and whether these two are “daily guys.” Lennox also makes an accurate prediction about the NBA Finals, even though, as you’ll hear, this is not a basketball podcast. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Noah Lennox and Paul Maroon for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow us on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a very mellow, very lovely conversation between a woman known for her gorgeous voice and heartfelt songwriting and a man known for, as he calls it, “wobbly saxophone,” Beth Orton and Alabaster dePlume. Beth Orton has been making beautiful, often heartbreaking songs since the early 1990s, when she was a leading light in what I think is a now-forgotten genre called “folktronica.” She first found notice by contributing vocals to a few Chemical Brothers songs, then broke out with her timeless debut album Trailer Park in 1996. She has since created a lovely and varied body of work that’s explored a variety of sounds but that’s tied together by her unforgettable voice. Orton’s latest album is from last year: It’s called Weather Alive, which to me sounds like a spiritual heir to Van Morrison’s classic Astral Weeks, which may in part be because it features the saxophone playing of today’s other guest, Alabaster dePlume. Check out a little bit of “Fractals” right here, and definitely go see Orton on tour this fall; she’ll be back in the States this September. Bethortonofficial.com has all the dates. Alabaster dePlume picked up the saxophone in 2007, but sort of reinvented himself—including taking on that stage name—in 2015. He became a fixture in London’s improvisational jazz scene not long after, and a lot of what he does is centered around the recording studio/gathering place where this conversation was recorded, Total Refreshment Centre. DePlume broke out in 2020 with an album called To Cy & Lee, which was inspired by and named after some folks he helped as a mental-health support worker. In a couple of weeks, he’ll release a new album called Come With Fierce Grace, whose initial sessions were done during the pandemic with Tom Skinner, a drummer who’s currently also a member of the Radiohead offshoot The Smile. Check out “Greek Honey Slick” from the new album, and check out alabaster-deplume.com for his schedule, which includes a month of U.S. shows in September. As I mentioned at the top of this intro, this chat is both lovely and very mellow. DePlume is a soothing presence whose spirit seems powered almost exclusively by love, and Orton is happy to participate. They chat about the climate-activism event that landed dePlume in jail and found Orton chased off the stage; they talk about angry yoga and the joys of triangle chokes, and Orton points out how technological advances can help women artists. Find your zen and enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Beth Orton and Alabaster dePlume for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the goodness on this very site. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time.

 On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a couple of singers who’ve devoted themselves, in slightly different ways, to keeping traditional music alive: Shirley Collins and Radie Peat. Collins is 88, and she’s had a pretty strange and incredible career. She started performing traditional songs in the mid-1950s, and she notably left England in 1959 to travel the United States with Alan Lomax, recording songs and singers in Appalachia and elsewhere that may otherwise have been lost to history. She recorded some incredibly influential records in the '60s and '70s with Davy Graham and, separately, with her sister Dolly Collins. And then Shirley left music entirely. It wasn’t until the 2000s that unlikely underground musicians would coax her back to performing: British apocalyptic-folk-industrial band Current 93 were the first, strangely. It wasn’t until 2014—38 years after her last album—that Collins made a new one, and it was gorgeous and well received. She’s since released a couple more, all for the hip Domino label, fitting for someone who’s been so quietly influential. Her latest is Archangel Hill; check out “Hares on the Mountain” right here. Radie Peat, singer for Lankum, is one of the many musicians who’ve been deeply influenced by Collins—and by the traditional songs that Collins helped to keep alive. But while Lankum is definitely part of the folk tradition, they modernize the sound in wildly interesting ways. Their fourth and latest album is called False Lankum, and I love this quote about it from Mojo Magazine: “If modern folk music needs its own OK Computer, its own The Dark Side of the Moon, or indeed its own F♯A♯∞, this may well be it.” (That last album referenced, in case you didn’t recognize it, is the debut from Godspeed You Black Emperor.) If that all sounds intriguing, you’ll probably love it. Oh, and the album was recently shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Prize. Here’s “Go Dig My Grave” from False Lankum. Peat describes this conversation as “fangirling,” though I’m not sure that’s entirely fair. There’s definitely some mutual admiration happening here—Collins still keeps up with music, and she loves Lankum as well. They talk about Collins’ adventures in America with Alan Lomax, about other singers they admire, and how they share a pretty strong hatred for jazz. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Shirley Collins and Radie Peat for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse episode we’ve got two guys who’ve known each other for decades, and who have a popular podcast, a post-hardcore band, and a new novel between them: Geoff Rickly and Jonah Bayer. Now Geoff Rickly is best known as the singer of the band Thursday, whose 2001 album Full Collapse is rightly considered a touchstone in the post-hardcore/screamo genre. That band had a full and varied existence, creating an impressive catalog that they still occasionally tour on. Rickly has also been part of other wild and wooly outfits: He stood in for the singer of legendary vampire-hardcore band Ink & Dagger for a tour, after their singer passed away—you’ll hear about that band in this conversation. But most recently, Rickly switched his focus to writing his first novel, which just came out. Someone Who Isn’t Me is most definitely not a memoir, though it is slightly more than loosely based on Rickly’s experience in being in a band, becoming addicted to heroin, and finding a path to treatment. The other half of this conversation is an old friend and bandmate of Ricky’s, Jonah Bayer. Bayer and Rickly were part of the mysterious supergroup United Nations, which put out a bunch of music while keeping most of their identities secret. There’s a small but powerful United Nations catalog out there, if you’re into confrontational, mysterious hardcore. Bayer is also a journalist and recently started working as a mental-health clinician, which maybe makes him the perfect guy to chat with Rickly about his book. Oh, and Bayer also hosts a really fun podcast with his sister Vanessa Bayer—of Saturday Night Live fame—called How Did We Get Weird that just launched its third season. In this chat, Bayer gets deep with Rickly about Someone Who Isn’t Me, diving into the odd structure of the book, whether it made sense to fictionalize his friends, and how to dramatize a psychedelic trip. The two also talk about how “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli fits into Rickly’s story, how Ink & Dagger deserves more recognition, and about a Kurt Cobain dream that Rickly once had. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Jonah Bayer and Geoff Rickly for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got two guys who’ve been friends a long time, but recently formed a new project together. Oh, and one of them happens to be the bassist in a little band called Pearl Jam: It’s Jeff Ament and John Wicks. Now Jeff Ament you’ve surely heard of, since he’s a founding member of one of rock’s biggest and most reliable acts, Pearl Jam, who’ve been going strong and steady since the early 1990s. That band released their latest album, Gigaton, right when the pandemic first hit us, so it scuttled some touring plans, but Pearl Jam is back out on the road this fall. Ament has always been a musical seeker beyond his main gig, though, experimenting both with solo records and side projects over the years. He’s also an accomplished visual artist. Not only is Ament the hand behind Pearl Jam’s iconic stickman logo, but he’s also an incredible painter and poster artist. John Wicks is an accomplished drummer probably best known as a founding member of the band Fitz & The Tantrums, though he’s also loaned his skills to the likes of Bruno Mars and Cee Lo Green. He teamed up with his old friend Ament to make the music for a TV series called Under the Banner of Heaven, and then the pandemic allowed them time to start an entirely new project that they’ve dubbed Deaf Charlie. Their debut album under the name is called Catastrophic Metamorphic, and it’s a weird, fun, occasionally dark set of psychedelic pop that’s also fully engaging. Ament sings lead on most of the songs, which is new for him. Check out “We are Doing It” right here. The chat you’re about to hear took place the day after Deaf Charlie’s first rehearsal as a full band; even though Wicks and Ament never really intended to play these songs live, plans changed and they’ll be making their live debut at the Ohana Festival in early October. Both of these guys live in Montana now, and they chat about Ament’s upbringing in small town Big Sandy, Wicks’ recent job as a professor at the University of Montana, how originality is often discovered through mistakes, and the unparalleled joy of finding yourself inside the music—or other art—that you’re making. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Jeff Ament and John Wicks for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of songwriters from relatively similar locales but different generations who also happened to record a song together that’s finally coming out: Stuart Murdoch and Suki Waterhouse. Stuart Murdoch is the primary force behind the delightfully wry and smart Scottish band Belle and Sebastian, which shyly emerged from Glasgow in the mid-'90s but quickly became one of those touchstone indie bands—or as Waterhouse puts it in this chat, a legacy band. Belle and Sebastian have released a dozen terrific albums over the years, and they’re still capable of surprising their devoted fanbase. The band’s latest, Late Developers, was released early this year, hot on the heels of the band’s 11th album, A Bit of Previous. If you haven’t availed yourself of the band’s charms in recent years, this new one is a great place to jump back in. Suki Waterhouse is probably best known as an actor and model—you may have seen her in the music-focused Amazon Prime series Daisy Jones & The Six recently—but she’s been passionate about music forever as well. Her debut album came out last year on Sub Pop; it’s called I Can’t Let Go, and it’s perfect for fans of Fiona Apple or Lana Del Ray. And music isn’t just a side thing for Waterhouse; she jumped right in the van, as you’ll hear, to tour her songs as soon as her acting gig allowed it. She also recorded a song with Belle and Sebastian a few years back, which has finally been released as a Sub Pop single, and it’s the reason we ended up here together. The song is called “Every Day’s a Lesson in Humility.” Check it out. Waterhouse and Murdoch hadn’t seen in each other in a while, but they picked up the conversation like old friends, talking about breakfast, peptides, a funny nickname that Murdoch got when he started his short-lived career as a roadie, and the difficulties of pooping as a touring musician. Yes, you read that right. We also hear about some incredible Los Angeles advice that Murdoch got way back when. It’s a charming chat, and I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Suki Waterhouse and Stuart Murdoch for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out the many wonderful written pieces and other goings-on at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got an episode for the drummers and those who like a great story: Jon Wurster and Stewart Copeland. Copeland is of course the drummer for the legendary, gazillion-selling Rock and Roll Hall of Famers the Police, who were called “the biggest band in the world” during their mid-'80s heyday. Their hits have endured over the decades, too, and that’s in no small part due to the special chemistry the trio enjoyed—and that chemistry, as you’ll hear, often manifested itself in fights between Copeland and his old bandmate Sting. Copeland has made a fascinating career for himself since; he directed a documentary about his old band that made interesting use of their music, and he’s got a new album and tour called Police Deranged for Orchestra, which features those classic songs redone in wild new ways. As you’ll hear in this chat, Copeland also found a side career as a film composer, working on everything from Oliver Stone’s Wall Street to the classic Francis Ford Coppola movie Rumble Fish. Check out a little bit of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic“ from Police Deranged for Orchestra right here. Now the other half of this conversation is a drummer from a later era and, as you’ll hear, a huge fan of Copeland’s work. Jon Wurster is a renaissance man who’s played most regularly with Superchunk, the Mountain Goats, and Bob Mould, but whose list of credits goes way beyond those amazing acts. He’s also a comedy writer and half of the duo Scharpling and Wurster, which gave birth to some of the funniest characters in radio comedy ever. This summer, Wurster will tour with both Mountain Goats and Bob Mould, so chances are good that he’ll be in a city near you. In this conversation, Wurster—as I had hoped he would—gets deep into specifics with Copeland, asking him right off the bat about a gig from the early 1980s. They also chat about how Copeland’s orchestral tours actually work and about his forays into the soundtrack world—I had never heard the term “shit chord” before. They get into the fights that Copeland had with Police frontman Sting, and about how band therapy helped sort that all out. Wurster also gets a chance to ask about the lyrics to a deep cut called “On Any Other Day.” Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Jon Wurster and Stewart Copeland for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of songwriters separated by thousands of miles who came together recently for a killer single: Remi Wolf and Benny Sings. Wolf has been writing songs since her early teens, but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that her neon pop jams starting getting some social media attention. A major label came calling, and Wolf spent a good chunk of the early pandemic making her full-length debut album Juno, which she named after her recently adopted dog. It’s one of those deceptively sunny records that hides some bigger emotions inside huge hooks, and it led to a bunch of amazing singles like “Anthony Kiedis”—that’s the name of the song— and tours: Wolf will play Coachella next month. As you’ll hear in this chat, Wolf met Dutch singer-songwriter Benny Sings when both were playing a Spanish festival that had some kind of Medieval theme. Wolf was already a fan of Benny’s work, both as a performer and a producer: Not only has he released a ton of great music on his own, but he also co-wrote a hit with Rex Orange County and has worked with the likes of Mac Demarco. Benny’s music has a sort of classic soft-pop vibe; he playfully mixes in hip-hop and island vibes on occasion, too, making the sort of breezy songs that easily get stuck in your head. When it came time to record his brand new album Young Hearts, which comes out next week, he reached out to Remi for some vocal assistance. The result is a delightful little nugget called “Pyjamas.” Check out that song right here. In this chat, Remi and Benny talk about collaborating on the video for “Pyjamas”—she directed it, adding some of the visual flair she’s known for. They also chat about songwriting in general—whether it’s craft or divination, and they get into whether technology is good or evil—and whether these two would survive a tech-pocalypse. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Remi Wolf and Benny Sings for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got two performers who’ve got friends in common, and became fast friends themselves while recording this chat: Maya Hawke and Sabrina Teitelbaum. Maya Hawke is best known for her day job as an actor, most visibly in a little show called Stranger Things, and she was also in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the new Wes Anderson movie, Asteroid City. But as you’ll hear in this chat, she might be most excited by a side path as a singer and songwriter. Hawke has released two understated but fantastic albums so far, and she’s basically finished another. The vibe is sort of indie-folk, sort of floating and ambient but lyrically really engaging. She’s worked with some cool folks to realize her musical vision, including Christian Lee Hutson, who’s the “Christian” referenced in this conversation, just so you know. Check out a “Sweet Tooth” from Hawke’s 2022 album Moss right here. Sabrina Teitelbaum just released her debut album under the name Blondshell, and it’s one of the best of 2023 so far. She describes it in this conversation as an emergency album—meaning a bunch of songs that she felt almost desperate to write, record, and unleash on the world. It’s direct and angry in spots, but also darkly funny and completely unafraid. She’s toured with the likes of Horsegirl and Porridge Radio, which might give some indication of what you’re in for. Or I could just play you Blondshell’s opus, “Salad,” right here. Check it out. These two have a fantastic conversation, and just in case it’s not clear from the context, they’re both good friends with the singer Samia, and each has contributed to a Samia covers series called Honey Reimagained. Blondshell did a song called “Charm You,” which is available now. Elsewhere in this chat, they talk about Hawke’s playing “body air guitar,” the weird emotional hit you get when a tour is finished, and the difficulties of stage banter. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Sabrina Teiltelbaum and Maya Hawke for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

For this week's Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a special two-part episode featuring both members of one of my favorite bands, Wye Oak, in conversation with some other fantastic musicians, so be sure to stick around for both halves! First up it’s Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner and singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels, both of whom have new music coming out, coincidentally, on June 23. Samuels has been making beautiful, deeply personal music for the last decade or so, and her new one is a doozy. The album is called Bystander, and it was recorded with Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman—he’s the Josh you’ll hear referenced in this chat. Check out “Ugly on the Inside” from Bystander right here. Samuels is joined here by Talkhouse pal Jenn Wasner, who’s probably best known as half of Wye Oak, but has also recorded music recently under the name Flock of Dimes. It’s no wonder that Wasner and Samuels get along, as both are incredibly thoughtful and sincere in their musical pursuits: They’re looking for something much bigger than a hooky song to sing, they’re out to connect on a deeper level. Wye Oak has sort of morphed into a different kind of band in recent years, choosing to stay away from the make-an-album-then-tour-forever cycle and instead release singles and one-off songs as Wasner and Andy Stack are able. A bunch of those songs have just been compiled on an album called Every Day Like the Last. They sound as good as anything the duo has done, which is to say they sound great. Check out “I Learned it From You” right here. In this conversation, Wasner and Samuels talk about the magic of the Newport Folk Festival, how great it is to work with Josh Kaufman, and how to express heavy thoughts within joyful music. You’ll find out whether these are women of mystery, and you’ll hear Wasner refer to herself as “a big golden retriever of a person.” Enjoy. In the second half of this epic Talkhouse two-parter, we’ve actually got three speakers: Andy Stack, who’s best known as half of Wye Oak, but who’s also made some solo records under the name Joyero. Along with him is Jay Hammond, with whom Stack recently made a great instrumental record, and Joe Westerlund. I’ll start with Westerlund, and I’ll try to do his bio justice: He started out in the Wisconsin band Deyarmond Edison, which has a massive retrospective box set coming out this year, and which is best known as the band that started Justin Vernon of Bon Iver down his musical path. Westerlund has also contributed to lots of other song-based music over the years, drumming for the likes of Califone and his project Megafaun. But it definitely feels like Westerlund has found his true calling in his solo instrumental work, including the recent Elegies for the Drift, whose compositions were largely inspired by important people in his life who’d passed away recently. It’s a gorgeous, emotional ride. Check out “The Circle,” which is dedicated to Akron/Family’s Miles Cooper Seaton, a friend of Westerlund’s who tragically died in a car crash in 2021. It makes sense that Westerlund got together for a chat with Andy Stack and Jay Hammond, because they all have North Carolina in common: It’s become something of a refuge for a bunch of bands over the past few years, with their friends in Sylvan Esso building a studio there, and lots of folks—including both members of Wye Oak—taking up residence there. Stack and Hammond got together recently and struck gold with a series of electro-acoustic improvisations that they winnowed down to album length and titled Inter Personal—a nod to the connection that they deepened by making this music together. Check out “Life on a Ship” right here.  Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Johanna Samuels, Jenn Wasner, Andy Stack, Jay Hammond, and Joe Westerlund for chatting. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got the ringleader of the year’s weirdest experimental hip-hop album, who also happens to be a well known comedian, along with two guys who helped him make it: James Acaster along with NNAMDÏ and Quelle Chris. Now Acaster isn’t a household name in the States just yet, but he’s definitely a known quantity in the UK, where he’s from. He’s a stand-up comedian, a TV presenter, and an author—he wrote a great memoir a few years back called Perfect Sound Whatever, which uses music as a starting point for telling his own story. Which sort of bring us to his musical project, which he calls Temps. Before his comedy career took off, Acaster was an aspiring musician, and he jumped back into that pursuit during the pandemic, creating a collective of over 40 contributors to make an album called Party Gator Purgatory. It’s a wild mix of experimental hip-hop with rock and jazz elements, and it’s chaotic in all the right ways. For this conversation, we put Acaster together with two of the guests he brought on to help out with Party Gator. NNAMDÏ seemed like a natural choice for a multiple-personality record like this one, since he’s one of the most restlessly engaging musicians working right now. The Chicagoan’s latest album, Please Have a Seat, was his first for Secretly Canadian, and it’s a blistering mix of hip-hop, electronic music, trap, and lots more—all tied together by his voice and outlook.  Also in this chat is Detroit’s Quelle Chris, who’s been making records as a rapper, producer, and writer for the past decade plus. His latest album, Deathfame, also came out last year, and it’s a smart, politically pointed collection of songs that showcases both his incredible flow and sense of humor—again, it makes perfect sense that Acaster would’ve called on him to bring something special to Party Gator. Let’s check out one of the album’s tracks that features all three of these guys; here’s “no, no.”  In this fun and insightful conversation, these three guys talk about collaborating long-distance, how whoever’s mixing an album is incredibly important, whether or not one should order cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory, and how Macklemore ruined thrift stores. Allegedly. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to James Acaster, NNAMDÏ, and Quelle Chris for chatting. The record is credited to Temps, and it’s called Party Gator Purgatory. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite platform, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of women who were prominent in the ‘90s alternative rock scene, and whose bands followed similar paths: Kay Hanley of Letters to Cleo and Louise Post of Veruca Salt.  Our producer Myron Kaplan has been pushing to have Hanley as a guest for ages, and of course singing the praises of both Letters to Cleo and Hanley’s solo work—plus letting me know that Hanley has had an incredible second musical career writing for children’s TV shows, including popular shows like Doc McStuffins, for which she won a Peabody Award. Hanley also won a songwriting Emmy for her work on last year’s animated series We The People. She’s still rocking in Letters to Cleo, too, though the band was broken up for a good long while there—now they get together on occasion to make some noise and play a few shows every November. Sounds nice to me. Check out the song “Back to Nebraska“ right here. The other half of today’s conversation is Louise Post, who was the co-frontperson of another ‘90s alt-rock titan, Veruca Salt. Together with her songwriting partner Nina Gordon, Post caused a huge stir back then, coming out of the gate (the gate being Chicago) with a ton of buzz and an incredible single called “Seether.” As you’ll hear in this conversation, the machinations of the music biz caused some real strife, and Gordon left the band. Post soldiered on with some great Veruca Salt music before things fizzled, but there’s a happy ending: Gordon returned in 2015 with the rest of the original lineup. And even better: Post has just released a firecracker of a solo album called Sleepwalker, which sounds grown up but still rocking in all the right ways. Check out “What About.” In this chat, Post and Hanley talk about the early days and seeing each other play; Hanley gushes over Post’s new record, and they talk about living through that moment in the ‘90s alt-rock world when women were undeniably in the driver’s seat. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Kay Hanley and Louise Post for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the written goodness on this very website. This episode was produced by this week’s special guest host Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got the singer and songwriter from a legendary ‘90s (and beyond) band alongside a relative newcomer whose songs he deeply influenced: Adam Duritz and Sean Barna. If you don’t know his name, you certainly know Duritz’s band, Counting Crows. Active since 1991, the group has sold 20 million albums, enjoyed a bunch of big hits, and been a powerhouse touring act for that entire run. To his great credit, Duritz—as you’ll hear in this chat—has never stopped engaging with new music, both as a songwriter and a sort of talent scout. He started two different festivals that you’ll hear about, the Outlaw Roadshow and Underwater Sunshine, which are built like jam sessions for both established and up-and-coming songwriters. Counting Crows continues to release new music, too, including a lengthy EP called Butter Miracle, Suite One, which was recorded during pandemic times and showcases a slightly glammier side of the band. Check out “Elevator Boots” right here, and check out Counting Crows on tour this summer with Dashboard Confessional. Today’s other guest, Sean Barna, was a drummer who was directly inspired to start writing songs after hearing Counting Crows. In some sort of amazing bit of serendipity, Barna found himself in Duritz’s orbit, and the two became fast friends and, eventually, guests on each other’s music. Barna recently signed to the venerated indie label Kill Rock Stars, which just released his second album, An Evening at Macri Park, which is a sort of concept album about modern-day queer life in Brooklyn. It’s emotional and catchy in all the right ways. Check out the song “Be a Man,” which features Duritz on guest vocals.  In this fun and wide-ranging conversation, Duritz and Barna talk about playing shows together, the perfection that is a BLT, a bit of hazing that happened when Barna opened for Counting Crows, and lots more. There’s even a lengthy story from Duritz that starts with badly injuring his leg and ends with him looking for his underwear. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Adam Duritz and Sean Barna for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of musicians who are both part of a brand new Sun Ra tribute album that’s part of the long-running Red Hot series, Angel Bat Dawid and Georgia Anne Muldrow. We’ve also got a special guest in the podcast intro: former Talkhouse host and co-producer of the tribute album Elia Einhorn. Muldrow and Dawid hadn’t met before this call, but as you’ll hear, they’re definitely on the same wavelength both musically and personally—and they both have a deep connection to Sun Ra, the cosmic-jazz master who made incredible, out-there records starting back in the 1930s all the way through to his final journey off this planet in 1993. Dawid was born in Georgia but she’s most closely associated with Chicago, where she’s part of an incredible jazz scene. Not only is she a musician—an ace clarinetist, in fact—but also an activist and a teacher with plans to open a music school. Muldrow boasts an incredible—and incredibly diverse— catalog of music, which she’s been working on for the past couple of decades. Sometimes she records under her own name, but also under the name Jyoti—those records, Elia Einhorn notes, are a pretty good place to start with her catalog. There are elements of jazz, to be sure, but also hip-hop, funk, and blues in the mix. These two become fast friends on the podcast, talking about Sun Ra visiting them in dreams, how Ra came into their lives, and their definitions of living spiritually. Again, check out the first installment of Red Hot And Ra, which is out now, and then dive into these incredible catalogs. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Angel Bat Dawid and Georgia Anne Muldrow for chatting—and thanks to Elia Einhorn for co-hosting. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of New Zealanders who’ve forged incredible careers in music and comedy and comedic music: Jemaine Clement and Ruban Nielson.  I’m guessing Clement is best known to our listeners as half of Flight of the Conchords, his musical and acting duo with Bret McKenzie. They haven’t put out a record or toured much in the last decade or so, but their albums and HBO series definitely endure with their subtle hilarity. Clement has of course been plenty busy post-Conchords as both an actor and director. His 2014 mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, co-directed with his old friend Taika Watiti, spun off into one of the funniest shows on TV, and you’ve also heard or seen him in everything from Despicable Me to the latest Avatar movie. In the awful event that you’re not familiar with Flight of the Conchords, here’s their David Bowie tribute, simply called “Bowie,” which is discussed a bit in this episode. Clement seemed excited—and well prepared!—to speak with Ruban Nielson, the singer-guitarist behind Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Though both of these guys are, as I said, from New Zealand and fans of each other’s work, they had never met before. UMO, as Nielson’s band is known for short, has been making a sort of uncategorizable music since 2010; they most often get pegged as psychedelic rock, which isn’t wrong, but also doesn’t tell the whole story. There are also elements of lo-fi indie rock, a bit of funk, and some garage rock. But the fact that it’s tough to name is part of what makes UMO’s music so appealing. Check out a little their song “The Garden,” which opens the latest UMO album, V.  These guys have a fantastic conversation that spans everything from the history of New Zealand and their shared Maori heritage to an in-depth examination of the Jagstang, a guitar designed by Kurt Cobain and favored by Nielson. They talk about bombing on stage—and getting bombed before getting on stage—and they share stories about coming up in a shared place. Also, you’ll hear the phrase “sad funky ghost,” perhaps for the first and last time in your life. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Jemaine Clement and Ruban Nielson for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and be sure to check out all the goodies at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! 

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of guys who worked on an incredible record together, which just came out last week: Will Westerman and James Krivchenia. Krivchenia is best known as the drummer of Big Thief, the Brooklyn indie band that has blown up pretty big over the past few years, up to and including last year’s fantastic album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You. When he’s not busy with Big Thief, Krivchenia also plays in Mega Bog, among other bands, and he even played some drums on Taylor Swift’s re-recorded version of her Red album. He’s also made some really interesting music as a solo artist, including last year’s Blood Karaoke, which samples dozens of YouTube videos that had zero views and synthesizes them into an intense collage that will either get your toes tapping or your brain frying. Check out “Null States” right here. Will Westerman, who releases music under his last name, happened to meet Krivchenia in the UK a few years back, and for the second Westerman album, the two worked together. An Inbuilt Fault is a more textured beast than the first Westerman record, gaining space and a bit of groove courtesy of both Krivchenia and some other ace players, like Luke Temple. Recording the album was a weird experience that involved a lonely apartment and a couple of guys with Covid, and lyrically it deals with a pretty dark time. Check out the song “Take” here, which they talk about in this chat. In addition to their own recording experience, Krivchenia and Westerman talk about an incredible guitar that James’ uncle built, figuring out how you’re going to play studio-built compositions on the road, and a bunch of upcoming projects, including another Westerman record and a mythology-heavy, “metal as fuck” children’s album. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Will Westerman and James Krivchenia for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all of the other great podcasts in our network via Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of songwriters who come from different scenes but whose convergence sparked a longtime friendship and even some collaboration: David Wax and Will Oldham. David Wax is half the core of the band that bears his name, David Wax Museum—the other half is his wife and longtime musical partner Suz Slezak. The duo has been making records and touring the world for the past 15 years or so, largely independently and definitely marching to the beat of their own drummer. Their blend of Mexican-flavored folk and other traditional-sounding influences has been called “Mexo-Americana,” but that’s really just a starting place. It’s charming, engaging, and always searching. David Wax Museum’s latest album is called You Must Change Your Life, and it was inspired by both a health scare that Wax had recently and by their choice of producer, Dan Molad, who’s a member of Lucius, among other major accomplishments. Check out the title track from You Must Change Your Life right here. Perhaps you can hear how Wax might get along with today’s other guest, Will Oldham. Oldham is of course known as the songwriting genius behind Palace Music and Bonnie Prince Billy, and he’s been making timeless music since the early 1990s; his latest album is a collaboration with Bill Callahan called Blind Date Party. Oldham is also an actor, which is touched on in this conversation; you may have seen him in one of Kelly Reichardt’s movies, or in A Ghost Story which, if you haven’t seen it, please do, it’s amazing.  In this conversation, Wax and Oldham talk about how they were able to connect at a folk festival. They talk about how Oldham exists sort of outside the machinery of the music business, and how that’s helped and occasionally hurt (but mostly helped). They touch on the rare songs that Oldham has licensed for film and TV, and David asks Will to come to he and Suz’s barn to play for a blindfolded audience. It’ll make sense when you hear it. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to David Wax and Will Oldham for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great written pieces we’ve got on Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by The Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pairing that’s a little bit outside our normal wheelhouse, but that touches on topics that we love to hit: Qveen Herby and Bunny Michael. Usually it’s easy to classify our guests by the main thing they do: musician, filmmaker, author. But both Qveen Herby and Bunny Michael do more than I can even reasonably tell you about in this intro: Each hosts a podcast, each has earned huge followings on social media, and each makes music. Herby started her career as part of the duo Karmin, as you’ll hear: Instant YouTube fame greeted their fun cover songs, and they ended up on Ellen and Saturday Night Live—and in what turned out to be a not-that-fun major-label deal. But Herby reinvented herself as a very 21st-century content creator, offering life advice on Instagram and via the House of Herby podcast, selling jewelry, and making funny, pointed hip-hop-indebted pop. Check out “Just Found Out” from Qveen Herby’s latest EP, The Muse. As you’ll hear, Qveen Herby and today’s other guest, Bunny Michael, didn’t know each other personally before this conversation, but their paths have been incredibly similar. Michael found their biggest boost of fame via earnest self-help memes as well as a popular podcast called XO Higher Self. They’re also a visual artist and activist, and they’ve got a book coming out next year via Little Brown called Hello Higher Self. And yes, Bunny Michael is also a musician. Check out the song “Oracle” right here. Like I said, these two didn’t know each other before this chat, but you can tell they’re going to be friends, as the old song goes. They talk about how to maintain boundaries with your own creativity, they talk about how your biggest song might be the one you’re most embarrassed by, and they talk about—horror—trying to put down your phone for a whole day. I don’t know if I could do it. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Qveen Herby and Bunny Michael for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the sweet goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got the songwriters behind some of the most tuneful tunes in indie-rock, one with a couple of decades under his belt, the other two relatively newer to the game: A.C. Newman along with Liz Stokes and Jonathan Pearce. Stokes and Pearce are the core of the New Zealand band The Beths; she sings and plays guitar, he plays guitar and engineers their fabulous records. Their third and latest, Expert in a Dying Field, was one of 2022’s best—and you don’t have to take my word for it, it made tons of those best-of-the-year lists. Stokes is a fabulous lyricist and expressive singer; she’s one of those people whose semi-deadpan actually says quite a lot. The songs are melancholy and spunky, and sort of in the tradition of some great late-90s/early aughts indie-rock, like Superchunk or Rilo Kiley. Maybe it’s no surprise that some big bands that broke out in that era, like Death Cab for Cutie and The National, have taken the Beths out on tour. Check out the title track from Expert in a Dying Field right here, and catch the Beths on tour all over the world this summer. Another Beths admirer who got his start in the early aughts is A.C. Newman, who’s best known as the singer and chief songwriter for the New Pornographers. That Canadian band started out as a sort of supergroup consisting of Newman and Neko Case alongside Dan Bejar and John Collins of Destroyer, but over the years it has really become a vehicle for Newman’s incredibly melodic songs. The band is on tour now behind their ninth album, the slightly mellower though no less engaging Continue As A Guest, and yes, both the current live lineup and the record still feature Neko Case—in the past she’s had to split time with her vibrant solo career. Check out “Really Really Light,” from Continue as a Guest. In this conversation, Newman, Stokes, and Pearce—who were only admirers beforehand, not yet acquaintances—talk about the early days of these things called websites, blowing your life savings to go on tour, government arts grants that help bands do bigger things, and when doing it yourself just becomes too tough. Also, Newman gives some solid life and career advice: “Just do what you think is cool.” Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to A.C. Newman, Liz Stokes, and Jonathan Pearce for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and don’t forget to check out the other podcasts in our network, including Craig Finn’s That’s How I Remember It, How Long Gone, and Bjork’s Sonic Symbolism. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s episode we’ve got two guests who might know each other better than any two prior guests of this podcast ever have: brothers Ben Nichols and Jeff Nichols. Ben Nichols is the singer, guitarist, and chief lyricist for the long-running Memphis band Lucero, and when I say long-running, I mean it: Assuming you’re listening to this podcast the day we release it, the band played its first show exactly 25 years ago today, on April 13 of 1998. In that time, they’ve released an even dozen albums, making the journey from punk-influenced country—or maybe that’s country-influenced punk—to soul to straight-up rock and roll. I’ve always felt like Lucero was the Southern version of The Hold Steady, purveyors of great story-songs and always an incredibly good time live. The newest Lucero album came out in February, and it’s a very intentional back-to-basics rock record called Should’ve Learned By Now. Check out “Macon If We Make It” from that record. Ben’s younger brother Jeff followed a similar independently creative path, but down a different road: He’s a successful—and incredible—film director whose credits include Mud starring Matthew McConaughey, a drama about the real life battle over interracial marriage called Loving, and my personal favorite, Take Shelter, in which Nichols’ frequent collaborator Michael Shannon plays a family man who may or may not be coming unglued. Each is very different from the next, and each is excellent. Jeff Nichols next film is called The Bikeriders, and it will star Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, and Jodi Comer, among others. It’s very loosely based on a book of the same name that Jeff was introduced to by Ben. As you’ll hear in this conversation, it’s not the only time the two have influenced each other. They talk about how Lucero songs have found their way into Jeff’s movies, about how the brothers came upon the same exact story in different ways, and about Jeff’s potential future as the man who may attempt the impossible: adapting some of Cormac McCarthy’s more complicated books, including Blood Meridian, for the big screen. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Ben Nichols and Jeff Nichols for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great written stuff we’ve got at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve put together what might seem like two vastly different musicians, but they’re connected by a deep respect and by a truly rebellious spirit that’s reflected in their names: Steve Ignorant and Sunny War. Sunny War has been releasing bluesy, folky, virtuosic albums for years, but recently hooked up with the notable Americana label New West for the album Anarchist Gospel, which features not only some of her best songs yet, but also a bunch of notable guest performers, like singer-songwriter David Rawlings and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James. You might not guess it from just a surface listen, but War cut her teeth not just on classic songwriters and fingerpickers, but on plenty of harder, more left-of-center music as well. On Anarchist Gospel she covers a Ween song and paraphrases a lyric by the legendary anarcho-punk band Crass—which is the genesis of today’s conversation. Check out Sunny War’s “Whole” right here, in which she namechecks Crass. The other half of today’s chat is Steve Ignorant, a founding member of Crass and still the band’s flag bearer more than 40 years later. Now Crass is often overlooked by punk historians who don’t run deeper than the Sex Pistols or the Clash, but they were in many ways just as important. Crass were unapologetically political, making anti-corporate, anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-bullshit statements in both their music and out in the streets—back when that could be a much more dangerous thing to do than it is now. Though Crass split in the early 1980s, Ignorant has performed under various guises over the years, and still plays gigs that cover his vast musical history, including new material as Steve Ignorant’s Slice of Life. At 65, he’s still got plenty of the anarchist’s spirit in him, as you’ll hear. In this chat, War and Ignorant—that sounds funny together, doesn’t it?—talk about growing up as true outsiders—he in post-war England, her in drug-friendly Los Angeles. They chat about War’s devotion to Crass, including a misspelled tattoo she got way too young. And they get into their problems with how young people are educated, and offer a pretty smart, simple solution. Enjoy.  Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Steve Ignorant and Sunny War for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the good stuff we’ve got at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

Hey Talkhouse listeners, we're off this week, so we're bringing you something special. To honor The Hold Steady's new record, The Price of Progress (out March 31st), we invited Craig Finn to highlight his favorite episode of his podcast, That's How I Remember It. Craig chose this conversation with The Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle. Be sure to catch The Hold Steady and The Mountain Goats on tour together this summer, details at: theholdsteady.net. See you next week! ~~~ John Darnielle is my guest on this week’s That’s How I Remember It. John has been making brilliant music as The Mountain Goats since 1991. Originally a solo lo-fi bedroom project, TMG has grown into a lush rock & roll juggernaut. John has also written four great novels, the most recent being Devil House, which we talked about here. We also talked about activated charcoal, local crime obsession, consciousness of sin, and whether the amazing new Mountain Goats record Bleed Out is their Age of Quarrel. Huge thanks to John for bringing a great conversation here. Listen, subscribe, and stay tuned for more awesome guests on That’s How I Remember It.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a musician at the start of her career talking with a songwriter whose 35-year-old song she recently covered—after just discovering it. It’s Dan Littleton and Helen Ballentine, aka. Skullcrusher. Don’t let that name fool you. Skullcrusher’s music taps into elements of ambient electronic and traditional folk to create a mesmerizing stew: In other words, if it crushes your skull, it will do so gently. On her debut album under the name, last year’s Quiet the Room, Ballentine deftly explores some complicated emotions via gorgeous songs and words; the two artists she’s been most frequently compared to are Phoebe Bridgers and Grouper, and I think if you smush those together, it makes some sense.  The other half of today’s conversation is Dan Littleton, whose indie-folk outfit Ida made some incredible records in the ‘90s and the aughts. But the focus of this conversation is actually Littleton’s hardcore band from the 1980s, the Hated. The Hated was part of what emo scholars—does such a thing exist?—consider the genre’s first wave, which was led most notably by Rites of Spring. They were adjacent to the so-called “Revolution Summer” in 1985, though the Hated faded into history more quickly than some of their counterparts. But the scholars at the venerated Numero Group label recently launched a reissue series that takes a deep dive into the Hated’s discography, starting with a compilation called Best Piece of Shit Vol. 4. Now what does an ‘80s hardcore band have to do with an ambient folk artist currently bubbling? Well, the Numero folks had the brilliant idea of asking Skullcrusher to cover a Hated song, and once she heard “Words Come Back,” she was all in. Check out the original below; the cover is available on your favorite streaming service starting today. In this conversation, Ballentine and Littleton—who are chatting for the first time—talk about how this unusual cover version actually makes complete sense, and how sometimes radically different sounds can actually come from very similar places. Dan describes the emotional teenage years that inspired the original, and Helen talks about how she layered the unusual sounds on her version. It’s an inspiring lovefest of sincerity and creativity, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Helen Ballentine and Dan Littleton for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all we’ve got to offer on Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

Artist-on-artist conversations about life, the creative process, and more. Subscribe today.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of songwriters separated by thousands of miles who came together recently for a killer single: Remi Wolf and Benny Sings. Wolf has been writing songs since her early teens, but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that her neon pop jams starting getting some social media attention. A major label came calling, and Wolf spent a good chunk of the early pandemic making her full-length debut album Juno, which she named after her recently adopted dog. It’s one of those deceptively sunny records that hides some bigger emotions inside huge hooks, and it led to a bunch of amazing singles like “Anthony Kiedis”—that’s the name of the song— and tours: Wolf will play Coachella next month. As you’ll hear in this chat, Wolf met Dutch singer-songwriter Benny Sings when both were playing a Spanish festival that had some kind of Medieval theme. Wolf was already a fan of Benny’s work, both as a performer and a producer: Not only has he released a ton of great music on his own, but he also co-wrote a hit with Rex Orange County and has worked with the likes of Mac Demarco. Benny’s music has a sort of classic soft-pop vibe; he playfully mixes in hip-hop and island vibes on occasion, too, making the sort of breezy songs that easily get stuck in your head. When it came time to record his brand new album Young Hearts, which comes out next week, he reached out to Remi for some vocal assistance. The result is a delightful little nugget called “Pyjamas.” Check out that song right here. In this chat, Remi and Benny talk about collaborating on the video for “Pyjamas”—she directed it, adding some of the visual flair she’s known for. They also chat about songwriting in general—whether it’s craft or divination, and they get into whether technology is good or evil—and whether these two would survive a tech-pocalypse. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Remi Wolf and Benny Sings for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the goodness at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of fantastic musicians who’ve been intimately involved with each other’s lives and work for the past decade and a half: Cate Le Bon and Huw Evans. Le Bon and Evans each have their own incredible discographies that wouldn’t have been the same without the other: They’re not in a band together, but each has been a key component of the other’s work over the years, starting when they were young and romantically involved. Though they’re no longer in a relationship, they’re still a huge part of each other’s lives. And as you’ll hear in this conversation, they like to give each other shit—to the point where while recording I wasn’t sure if there was some real hostility happening. (There wasn't.) Evans records under the name H. Hawkline, and this week he’ll release his fifth album, Milk For Flowers. It’s his most personal and intense yet, though strong emotions remain shrouded in what he once called “strange pop.” Hawkline first found a bit of fame in his and Le Bon’s native Wales as a TV presenter, but found his musical voice with a unique blend of classic-sounding songwriting flecked with psychedelic and folk influences. He’s worked with Tim Presley of White Fence a bunch; as you’ll hear, Presley even played a pivotal non-musical role in the creation of Milk For Flowers. Le Bon produced it, helping to shepherd some intense feelings onto tape. Here’s the title track. Evans was there right at the start of Le Bon’s career, as you’ll hear in this chat: They were living together, and he convinced her to start playing her otherworldly songs outside of their house. He even had to come up with her stage name in order to create a flyer: What may or may not have been a reference to Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon stuck. The two eventually moved to Los Angeles together and continued making music: Le Bon has amassed an unforgettable discography—you know immediately when you hear her music. (Jeff Tweedy once said he could always tell when it was Le Bon playing guitar, which sounds like a compliment to me.) Le Bon’s latest album is last year’s Pompeii, a grand, height-of-the-pandemic record that feels like an amazing high-wire act, with saxophone, clarinet, and synthesizers all complementing her voice, guitar, and bass. And it’s a matter of some debate, as you’ll hear, whether Evans contributed any bass as well. Check out “Remembering Me” from Pompeii. In addition to giving each other grief about song titles and bass parts, the two talk about their history together, about how Le Bon narrowly avoided recording a song that sounded like Jane’s Addiction, their different writing styles, and about how the story of Le Bon’s first gig was like “a shit indie film.” Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Huw Evans and Cate Le Bon for letting us in on their chat. If you liked what you heard, please followTalkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and be sure to check out all the other podcasts in our network, including Jokermen, Craig Finn’s That’s How I Remember It, and more. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse episode, we’ve got a couple of old friends who’ve made some great music both together and separately, and who record under interesting names: Chaz Bear and Hannah van Loon. Those aren’t even the interesting names I was talking about. Chaz Bear is better known as Toro Y Moi, a pioneer in the chillwave genre who started releasing records about a dozen years ago. But that microgenre never quite captured what Toro Y Moi is all about, because nothing really can. Chaz Bear loves to jump around sonically, dipping his toes into indie rock, hip-hop, and even some jazzy influences. He’s got enough excess energy that Toro Y Moi isn’t even his only musical outlet, and he also moonlights as a graphic designer. This spring and summer he’ll open shows for Caroline Polachek, and he’s also part of the new ReSet touring festival that’s hitting bit cities this year. Oh, and he’s still got time to collaborate with today’s other guest. Hannah van Loon has been making music as Tanukichan since 2016 or so, and Chaz Bear has been involved in quite a lot of it. In addition to releasing it via his own imprint, Company, Bear has produced quite a bit of van Loon’s music and collaborated with her on it, including the brand new Gizmo, which is out March 3. It’s a slightly more uplifting experience than her lovely but kinda dark debut, 2018’s Sundays. Her publicist describes one song on the new record, “Don’t Give Up,” as nu-metal meets Cocteau Twins, which is sort of simultaneously wrong and exactly right. Check out a different song, ”Take Care,” right here. Van Loon and Bear are both a little bit introverted, as you’ll hear, but they chat a bit about her woodworking, his studio, and… TikTok. They talk a bunch about TikTok—whether it’s a force for good or evil, what kinds of weird corners you can find on it, and how it’s actually a really great tool for learning about new music. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Chaz Bear and Hannah van Loon for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great written content we’ve got at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! 

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of women who came up together during one of the most exciting musical eras ever, and who’ve got the stories to prove it: Gina Birch and Vivien Goldman. Birch started the Raincoats with friends from a London art college in 1977, stepping right into the burgeoning punk scene with records that were notoriously challenging in a scene not known for being particularly welcoming to women to begin with. The Raincoats were never poppy enough to flirt with the mainstream, but thanks to Kurt Cobain, the band had a bit of a resurrection in the mid-1990s. At Cobain’s behest, Nirvana’s American label re-released the Raincoats catalog, complete with liner notes by Cobain, and the band subsequently made its first album in over a decade. They were even set to tour with Nirvana in Europe, but Cobain’s death scuppered that plan. But Birch didn’t slow down; she set out on a filmmaking career while still pursuing music; she even made music videos for the likes of New Order and The Libertines. Later this year, Birch’s paintings will accompany a hardbound volume of Sharon Van Etten’s lyrics. Just recently, Jack White’s Third Man Records came calling, and it reignited Birch’s musical endeavors: This week marks the release of her first proper solo album, called I Play My Bass Loud. Check out the title track right here. Vivien Goldman is known more as a writer than as a musician, but she’s done both of those things and much, much more. She worked in PR for Bob Marley and the Wailers way back when—and she lives part of the time in Jamaica nowadays, which is where she Zoomed in from. At the height of the punk boom, she released an influential single called “Launderette” before transitioning more into writer and journalist mode: She was the editor of influential UK music paper Sounds and co-wrote the Massive Attack song “Sly.” She was also roommates with Chrissie Hynde and, more important to this conversation, Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records, which is how she got to know Gina Birch. These days, Goldman has been teaching about the history of punk at NYU, and she dove back into music last year, releasing an album called Next is Now. I’ve only scratched the surface, too: Check out viviengoldman.com for a more complete picture. In this conversation, Birch and Goldman chat about the old days and the newer days, how roles and respect for women have changed over the decades, and about the famous musician and producer, Youth, who encouraged them both—and produced both of their new records. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Gina Birch and Vivien Goldman for this fantastic chat. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all we’ve got on offer at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of pioneering musical searchers who came together for a Grammy-nominated record last year: Angélique Kidjo and Ibrahim Maalouf. Now, trying to encapsulate Kidjo’s career into the little space I have here is an even more daunting task than usual—and we’ve had some really accomplished people on this podcast. Born in West Africa, Kidjo has ably explored various musics over the past 40 years or so, winning fans with an incredible range of styles and interests. She’s played on Lilith Fair, won Grammys, been a muse for Philip Glass, started a foundation to empower girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa, collaborated with everyone from Carlos Santana to Ezra Koenig to Dr. John to Josh Groban to Kronos Quartet—and that list goes on and on. The only real constant in her career—besides a sort of deep, inexplicable beauty—is a restlessness. Kidjo is always looking for the next thing to spark her interest, which led to a recent Grammy-nominated collaboration with today’s other guest, Ibrahim Maalouf. Maalouf is a French-Lebanese trumpeter who shares a musical outlook with Kidjo—both care deeply about always pushing the boundaries of what they do, and never repeating themselves. To that end, they collaborated on last year’s Queen of Sheba, which takes the oft-told Biblical story to new places. KIdjo wrote the lyrics in the Yoruba language, and Maalouf’s music builds a bridge between the sounds of the Middle East and Africa. Since that record came out, Maalouf has already released another, Capacity to Love, on which he examines American sounds—specifically hip-hop—gathering guests like Eric the Architect from Flatbush Zombies and Pos from De La Soul. Also, strangely, Sharon Stone. In this lovely and enlightening conversation, Kidjo and Maalouf trade stories about their inspiration behind making music, and each shares some really profound advice they got as children. Kidjo speaks about the recent loss of her mother, and what that’s meant to her spiritually—and how it might affect her next album, which sounds like it will be deeply personal. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Angélique Kidjo and Ibrahim Maalouf for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff we’ve got going at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a couple of old friends who’ve both been trying new things lately: Hannibal Buress and Kristian Mercado.  Hannibal Buress just celebrated his 40th birthday, which means he’s spent more than half his life making people laugh for a living. He started out doing stand-up in his hometown of Chicago, winning audiences small and then eventually very large by telling pointed jokes with a sort of super laid-back style. He briefly wrote for Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, and you’ve almost certainly seen him on The Eric Andre Show or Broad City, or maybe one of his many stand-up specials. In the past few years, though, Buress has turned his attention to music, releasing a bunch of hip-hop tracks under the name Eshu Tune. Though rumors of his retirement from comedy seem to be exaggerated—he talks about that here—he is taking music seriously. Or maybe seriously isn’t exactly the right word, but it’s his focus. Check out the Eshu Tune song “Knee Brace” right here.  The other side of this chat, Kristian Mercado, is best known as a filmmaker; he’s made music videos and directed stand-up specials for Michael Che, Taylor Tomlinson, and Ilana Glazer—and of course Hannibal Buress, with whom he worked on the weird and wonderful Miami Nights. Mercado is about to take the biggest jump a director can: He just directed his first feature film, called If You Were The Last, which will have its world premiere at this year’s South By Southwest festival in Austin. I haven’t seen it, but it stars Anthony Mackie and it’s a sci-fi love story, so I’m in. Mercado has also started dabbling in stand-up comedy, inspired by the many comics he’s worked with over the years, including, of course Hannibal.  These two chat about how they work, and Buress drops the news that he’s working on a feature-length script of his own—Mercado can’t wait to see it. Buress also quizzes Mercado on the most important people on a film set, and Mercado talks about the joys of experiencing the Sundance Film Festival under the influence of psychedelics. Enjoy.  Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Hannibal Buress and Kris Mercado for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff we’ve got going at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve put together the drummers from two of the UK’s biggest bands in recent memory: Dave Rowntree and Philip Selway. Rowntree came to fame with Blur, one of the original Britpop bands of the early 1990s. I probably don’t need to give you much biography on Blur, but in the band’s couple of long hiatuses, Rowntree has lived about a dozen lives. He’s been an amateur pilot, a professional lawyer, an elected politician, and a social activist. On the music front, he found yet another career creating soundtracks for TV and film, starting with the Bros documentary After the Screaming Stops. Blur is back together for some massive shows in 2023, but during the pandemic Rowntree got together—virtually, of course—with producer Leo Abrahams to make his proper solo album. Freed from the constraints of both his bandmates and showrunners, Rowntree did his own thing, and the result is Radio Songs, a delightful 10-song album that flirts with Britpop here and there, but flirts with other interesting sounds as well. Here’s “London Bridge.” Philip Selway is best known as the drummer for another huge British band, Radiohead, with whom he’s been making music since 1985. Though he always had the itch to write his own songs, it wasn’t until 2010 that Selway actually took the leap and released his first solo album, the gentle Familial. In between Radiohead duties, he’s found the time to release another one—the more sonically expansive Weatherhouse in 2014—and work on some soundtracks as well. Selway is now gearing up for the release of his third and most ambitious album yet: Strange Dance comes out toward the end of February, and it features a bunch of Selway’s musical friends on a very cinematic-yet-personal-sounding set songs. You can preorder various formats here; in the meantime, check out “Check for Signs of Life."  In this conversation, these two drummers sound immediately chummy, though they were only passing acquaintances beforehand. They talk about stepping away from bigger bands to do your own thing, including the process of finding your own voice. “What if it’s rubbish?” laughs Rowntree at the top of the chat, proving that even the biggest stars can have doubts. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Dave Rowntree and Philip Selway for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all we’ve got to offer at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of multi-hyphenates who have recently joined music-world forces: Justin Tranter and Jake Wesley Rogers. Tranter first found music-biz fame with the band Semi-Precious Weapons, which had a decade-long run starting in 2004, and whose biggest claim to fame—besides their music itself—was opening for Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball tour. But Tranter pivoted after Semi-Precious Weapons split up, and started writing songs for and with other artists—but not just any artists. Tranter has written for and/or with Justin Bieber, Imagine Dragons, Selena Gomez, Gwen Stefani, and many, many more—chances are good you’ve heard a Justin Tranter composition on the radio, even if you didn’t know it. Tranter has also written a bunch of songs for the upcoming Grease prequel series, Rise of the Pink Ladies, and seven songs on the brand-new album by the massive Italian band Måneskin. Tranter has also been an incredible activist in the LGBTQ+ community and beyond, and their next move is becoming, as you’ll hear in this chat, a mogul.  That’s where the other half of today’s Talkhouse Podcast comes into the picture: Jake Wesley Rogers recently signed on with Tranter’s new record label, Facet, and the two have plans to conquer the world together—I wouldn’t bet against them. Rogers is from a younger generation, having grown up with the instant gratification of social media. He even appeared on America’s Got Talent at 15, and started writing songs even earlier than that. But Rogers really finds his voice with a couple of recent EPs, Pluto and Love. Tranter and Rogers also recently co-wrote a song called “Hindsight,” which plays over the end credits of Bros, the first gay rom-com ever released by a major studio—they talk about that here a bit as well. Check out that song below. In this conversation, Tranter and Rogers talk about their daily processes, including The Artists' Way, they talk about great pop songs, great middle school teachers, destroying the patriarchy, and the dangers and joys of social media. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Justin Tranter and Jake Wesley Rogers for chatting. If you like what you heard, please check out all the goodness on Talkhouse.com and subscribe to our weekly e-mail newsletter. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, our guests begin as strangers and end their conversation as family: It’s Pamela Adlon chatting with Tegan and Sara Quin. Adlon has had an incredible career over the past 40 or so years; no matter what your pop culture diet, she has probably sneaked into your consciousness one way or another. Maybe you have vague memories of her character on The Facts of Life from the early ‘80s, or perhaps her roles on Californication and Louie in more recent years. Adlon has also had an incredible shadow career doing voices in animated shows, where she’s best known as Bobby Hill on King of the Hill. But perhaps the culmination of all that fantastic work is Better Things, the show that Adlon created, executive-produced, starred in, and let’s face it, gave birth to. Better Things just concluded its fifth and final season, and it stuck the landing so well. It’s one of those shows that hits that rare mixture of funny and true—and it definitely struck a nerve with the other half of today’s Talkhouse talk: Tegan and Sara. Tegan and Sara started making music as teenagers, and given that they’re twin sisters, it’s no wonder that they were immediately in sync with each other. The duo were sort of flung into the big time immediately, being signed to Neil Young’s record label and opening for him when they were basically still kids. But some sage advice that you’ll hear about in this chat helped Tegan and Sara navigate what’s become a fruitful and varied career: They’ve made a ton of great music, stuck their heads into the mainstream here and there, and kept their vision intact. They’ve also written a memoir called High School, which was recently adapted into an Amazon TV show. They’re unabashed with their love and respect for Better Things, which may have seeped into their own show. Their latest album is called Crybaby, the memoir and TV show are both called High School, and they’ve got a new graphic memoir called Junior High coming out later this year. Check out “Yellow” from Crybaby. In this delightful conversation, Tegan and Sara gush a little bit about Better Things and Adlon in general, and in turn Adlon offers to join their family. They talk about their various creative endeavors, the niceness of Neil Young, Sara’s recent parenthood, the “hairy edge” that Better Things walked, and lots more. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Pamela Adlon, Tegan Quin, and Sara Quin for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff on our website and our podcast network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

For our first brand new Talkhouse episode of 2023, we’ve got a short but great chat with three guys from the rollicking Australian rock scene: Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Jack “Cool Breeze” Crowther, and Elliot “Dr. Love Wisdom” O’Reilly. Yes, they have excellent names, and so do their bands. Kenny-Smith is part of the super-prolific King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, which since coming together in Melbourne in 2010 has released an incredible 23 albums—three of those in October of 2022 alone. The band has built up a manic following along the way, building up a whole universe—people call it the Gizzverse—of characters and sounds that range from extended rock jams to jazz to microtonal exploration. If you’re not already familiar, there’s no perfect place to start, though last year’s Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, and Lava is accessible in its own way. In addition to non-stop touring and recording with King Gizz, Kenny-Smith also leads another band, The Murlocs, which put out their sixth album, Rapscallion, just last year as well. To borrow a funny line from Pitchfork, being a King Gizzard fan can feel like a full-time job, but seems like a fun one to me. Check out “Iron Lung” from that album I mentioned above with the really long name. The other two gents in this conversation, Jack Crowther and Elliot O’Reilly, are part of Babe Rainbow, another hardworking Australian band. Though not quite as busy as King Gizzard, Babe Rainbow has managed to release five full lengths in just the last five or so years as well—including one produced by a member of King Gizzard. Theirs is a slightly more focused take on psychedelic rock—no less spacey but a bit more structured. Here’s “Inner Space” from their latest album, The Organic Band. In this conversation, these three friendly guys talk about recent flooding in Australia that involved some cat rescuing, as well as fashion, having babies, surfing, and lots more. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Jack Crowther, and Elliot O’Reilly for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out Talkhouse.com for tons of great written pieces and other podcasts in our network. This episode was recorded and produced by Keenan Kush, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! This episode was recorded live at Desert Daze 2022. Special thanks to Desert Daze and to Dad Grass for making this episode possible. 

Happy Holidays. While we're on break, we'd love to share with you a recent addition to the Talkhouse Podcast Network, Noble Champions with Santigold. This episode originally aired on Nov. 7, 2022, and is titled "Questlove, Angela Yee and Tunde Adebimpe." Subscribe to Noble Champions with Santigold. In this episode, Santi rallies her longtime friends Questlove, Angela Yee, and Tunde Adebimpe, who are fellow artists, industry insiders, and cultural critics, to try to tackle the question, 'What exactly is Black Music?'. They discuss complex issues like what happens when you step out of the genre box - specifically when Black artists are making music that’s left outside the 'Black Music' box, who built the box, and what’s the bigger impact of caging in or boxing out music and the artists that make it? All this while geeking out about some of their favorite seminal recording artists like Bad Brains, Nina Simone, Fela Kuti, The Last Poets and more.

Happy Holidays. While we're on break, we'd love to share a preview of another podcast on the Talkhouse Podcast Network, Craig Finn's That's How I Remember It. This episode originally aired on Sept. 1, 2022, and is titled "Adam Duritz (Counting Crows)." Subscribe to That's How I Remember It. Adam Duritz is my guest on this week’s That’s How I Remember It and I am quite psyched about it. Adam is obviously the singer and songwriter of platinum selling band Counting Crows, and has been making thoughtful and great music for decades now. I met Adam when Counting Crows took THS on tour in Europe/UK in 2009 and was so excited he agreed to do this. We talked about how the details matter so much in songs, each of our first trips to Asbury Park, loving Christmas music, that dog., last year's fantastic Counting Crows EP, bootlegs, and the way that light attaches to a girl. That’s a wrap on season one of That’s How I Remember It; we’ll be back with season two before long. Listen, subscribe, and keep your eye on this space for tour updates, etc. Stay Positive!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of guys who don’t know each other well, but who’ve crossed paths a few times over the years—most recently at the Desert Daze festival, Nick Allbrook and Josh Conway. Allbrook is the frontman of the Australian psychedelic rock band Pond, which is sort of inextricably linked with another Australian band, Tame Impala. Allbrook was actually a member of Tame for years while also playing with Pond—which includes some current members of Tame Impala. But Pond, which has been around about as long, has built a sound of its own, much more hard charging than that other band, and released a whopping nine albums of frenetic, fun, fuzzy rock. If you’ve never heard the band, their album titles give a hint as to what they’re all about, from Corridors of Blissterday to Man It Feels Like Space Again. Pond’s latest album has a much simpler title, it’s called 9, and among its fantastic tracks is this one, “Lights of Leeming.” Josh Conway is a huge fan of Pond, though his own band, The Marias, approaches music with a much gentler soul. Conway started the group with his significant other, the band’s namesake Maria Zardoya. Their beginnings are kind of funny: They tried to write songs for film and TV placements, none of which—as you’ll hear in this chat—were ever picked up. But, happy with what they’d written, Conway and Zardoya ended up releasing them anyway, and the Marias was born. Their alt-pop is miles from our other guest’s on today’s episode, with elements of jazz and even reggaeton sprinkled throughout a great debut album called Cinema. Check out “Hush” from that album right here. In this conversation, Allbrook and Conway talk about the work hours of Australians versus Catalonians, about how even a deliberate attempt to sell out can result in great creative work, and how taking a walk under the influence of molly and Outkast changed Conway’s outlook. Also, they declare, cheekily, that God is dead, and art is too. Enjoy. Thanks for checking out the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Nick Allbrook and Josh Conway for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcast platform. This episode was produced by Keenan Kush, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by The Range.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve paired the frontmen for two gruff-sounding, kinda scary noise-rock bands, but who as it turns out are a couple of sweethearts: David Yow and Andrew Falkous. David Yow began his music life in the Texas band Scratch Acid, which built its own legend before burning out in the mid-1980s, and then took his maniacal presence to The Jesus Lizard. That band built a following in the next dozen years both for its confrontational music and for Yow’s intensity in their live shows. You’d often find him drunk and half-naked, howling into the faces of stunned crowds. First you were scared, and then you loved it. The Jesus Lizard benefited from the grunge explosion in the mid-1990s, but they were always too weird and scary for the mainstream—even when they got an inexplicable major-label deal with Capitol. (You know, home of the Beatles.) The Jesus Lizard split in 1999, but have reunited a few times since then, with demand for Yow’s insanity peaking every few years. There hasn’t been a Jesus Lizard show in a few years, though—or a “reenactment” as he calls their reunion shows—but Yow has been out recently singing for the early noise-punk band Flipper. You may also have seen him in bit parts in a few movies; the guy has led a varied, full life so far. Andrew Falkous unfortunately just had to postpone his own US tour-slash-reenactment with his band Mclusky, which was originally active from the mid-90s until 2006. An illness has affected his Falkous’ ability to sing, but he’s planning to reschedule very soon. In the years after Mclusky, Falkous made similarly brutish-but-incredible records both as the frontman of a band called Future of the Left and as a sort-of-solo artist under the name Christian Fitness. But as the legend of Mclusky snowballed and the 20th anniversary of their absolute classic of a second album Mclusky Do Dallas approached, he was coaxed to relaunch the name and to play those old songs again. Here’s hoping for a quick recovery and new dates soon. Here’s a little taste of what was certainly Mclusky’s biggest song, the charmingly titled “Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues.” In this spirited conversation, Yow and Falkous start by talking about Falkous’ recent battles with his own voice. They get into the nervousness of playing your first-ever show as a singer: Yow dealt with the jitters by handing out tabs of acid to the crowd, while Falkous wore a yellow T-shirt. They talk about beer and whether Australian children should be forced to live in wells. Yow casually slaughters some sacred cows of the alterna-rock world. And lest you think they’re too tough for their own good, you should know that I edited out 15 minutes where they talked about how much they love their cats. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Andrew Falkous and David Yow for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting service and check out all the goodness at this very site. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a lively conversation between two guys from different generations and geographical backgrounds, but some similar stories and experiences: Titus and Angelo Moore. Angelo Moore is the legendary frontman of the legendary punk-funk-ska-soul-etc. band Fishbone, which has been a frequently mutating unit since 1979. Fishbone were peers and friends with a who’s-who of that era’s Los Angeles scene, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, and plenty of others, and they’ve been a huge influence on innumerable bands over the years. It hasn’t been the straightest journey, and there’s a pretty great documentary about the band that came out about 10 years ago called Everyday Sunshine. In addition to fronting the band, which still plays shows worldwide, Moore has embarked on tons of other projects over the years, releasing music as both Dr. Madd Vibe and with a group he calls the Brand New Step. Beyond that, he’s been touring as a vocalist with a David Bowie tribute tour that’s led by Todd Rundgren and Adrian Belew. Titus, aka Randolph Newman, was a fan of Fishbone’s—no surprise for a guy who loves to blend genres, and who’s a person of color in a scene that isn’t known for a ton of diversity. Though they’re from different generations, they share some life experience, having grown up Black in largely white areas—and having ended up playing Warped Tour, though years apart. Titus’ music is less a stew than Fishbone’s: His two most prominent ingredients are pop-punk and hip-hop, with nods to titans of those genres like Taking Back Sunday and Lil’ Wayne. His latest release is an EP called Damned if I Do, and he also recently released a cover of Kate Bush’s Stranger Things-bolstered track “Running Up That Hill,” which is covered in this chat. Check out “Saddest Song” from Damned If I Do right here. Moore and Titus talk about their experiences on Warped Tour, their experiences growing up as outsiders, and drugs. Titus talks about the recent loss of his mother, which has understandably had a profound impact on him, and Moore talks about his days trying to kick some ass in the mosh pit. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Angelo Moore and Titus for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform and check out all we’ve got on offer at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, the creator-star of Hulu’s Ramy, comedian Ramy Youssef, talks with Dina Amer, whose debut feature as writer-director, You Resemble Me, is in theaters now. The film is a lightly fictionalized, emotionally resonant portrait of Hasna Aït Boulahcen, a radicalized Muslim who Amer covered as a journalist in 2015 when Boulahcen was implicated in the Paris terrorist attacks. In an engaging, wide-ranging conversation, Youssef and Amer – fellow Egyptian-Americans who have been friends for years – talk about the personal nature of You Resemble Me, the major deal Dina turned down, Spike Lee’s take on her doing the film her way, casting a “hot” actor as a terrorist, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got the Scottish singer and songwriter behind some of the catchiest songs of the past two decades along with the super producer who helped bring those songs into the world: Fran Healy and Nigel Godrich. Healy is the singer, guitarist, and chief songwriter of the band Travis, which really broke big with 1999’s The Man Who, scoring mainstream hits with songs like “Why Does it Always Rain on Me” and “Turn.” They’ve since created a deep catalog that numbers nine albums. But for today’s purposes we’re going to concentrate on 2001’s The Invisible Band, which Travis is giving a belated 20th birthday celebration for at the moment, including a US tour that starts this week. It can be difficult to follow up a massive success like The Man Who, and Travis turned once again to Godrich to help them chart the proper course. It wasn’t the beginning, but rather the continuation of a long and fruitful relationship. Check out “Sing” from The Invisible Band. Godrich, by the time Invisible Band came around, had found massive success as the producer of Radiohead’s OK Computer, and of course he would go on to be the sort of unofficial sixth member of that band—recording all of their albums and even playing music with Thom Yorke in Atoms for Peace. As you’ll hear in this conversation, Godrich had some solid advice for Healy heading into The Invisible Band, though it’s not necessarily advice he would give anymore. Beyond his work with Radiohead and Travis, Godrich has also produced classics by Beck—including Mutations and Sea Change—and Air and Arcade Fire and Roger Waters. The list goes on. In this conversation, the two old friends talk about their state of mind and state of life back when they commenced recording The Invisible Band in Los Angeles. They talk about Godrich’s recent revelatory experience seeing the Pavement reunion tour—he also produced that band’s swan song, Terror Twilight. There’s even a story about a baby goat peeing in a very expensive guitar case. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Fran Healy and Nigel Godrich for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting and social media platforms. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of singer-songwriters who don’t sound much alike, but who’ve traveled similar paths and have similar outlooks on life—oh, and who did a duet earlier this year—Frank Turner and KT Tunstall. Turner is a sort of folk-punk troubadour who’s built an incredible catalog and following over the past couple of decades from his home base in England. Like his hero Tim Barry of Avail or even Billy Bragg before him, Turner infuses truly catchy songs with a punk spirit, and he’s made a career buoyed by the fact that he never stops moving: He’s always on tour—including a recent “50 States in 50 Days” run—and always making new music. Not even the pandemic could stop him, though obviously it slowed down the live performance. During lockdown, Turner recorded his ninth album, a sort of back-to-basics affair called FTHC, which of course stands for Frank Turner Hardcore. Check out “A Wave Across a Bay” from that album, which was written as a tribute to Turner’s late friend, Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit. Also on that album is a song called “Little Life,” which Turner decided after the fact that he’d like to invite someone else to sing on. Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall perhaps wasn’t the most obvious choice, but then again, neither of these folks ever seems to make the obvious choice—and that’s definitely to their credit. Tunstall’s career, which stretches back to indie bands in the early 2000s, definitely started with a more mainstream-leaning trajectory, with BRIT awards and a Grammy nomination, even. But like Turner, Tunstall has a restless spirit, and some big life events not too long ago led her to sell everything she owns, move to Los Angeles, and dive into the world of musicals—where she has also, unsurprisingly, found success. And just last month, she released the final chapter in a trilogy of albums that were meant to convey the themes of “soul, body, and mind.” This one, called Nut—that’d be your mind—is great. Check out “Private Eyes” from that album right here. Turner and Tunstall have a really fun chat here, covering everything from The Clash and Bruce Springsteen to the weirdness of recording a song before you’ve ever played it live. The talk about the touring life a lot, and how that tribe of people have plenty in common, even when it seems like they don’t. They come up with a slogan for Tunstall’s career, and get into the reality of using a tour bus bathroom. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to KT Tunstall and Frank Turner for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow us on your favorite platform, and don’t forget to check out all the other great podcasts in our network and written pieces on this very website. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! 

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a musician and an actor who also both happen to host their own podcasts—do they let just anybody do that now?—Rhett Miller and Busy Philipps.  Miller is best known as frontman and primary songwriter for the Old 97’s, a band that’s celebrating its 30th year together in 2022 and which is at least partly responsible for the phrase “alt-country” coming into existence. But don’t hold Miller responsible for lazy genre tags: He has written literally hundreds of incredible songs that transcend any pigeonhole you might want to shove him in. In addition to a dozen Old 97’s records, he’s also put out eight solo albums, and he tours regularly both on his own and with the 97’s. All that and, like I said, he’s got a podcast: Wheels Off features Miller in conversation with other creative folks, talking about creativity—kinda like the chat you’re about to hear! Before that, check out “Go Through You,” from Rhett Miller’s new solo album The Misfit. You can see why Miller has won some diehard fans, among them actor Busy Philipps, who was introduced to the world via the cult classic TV show Freaks And Geeks back in 1999. (You’ve seen Freaks and Geeks, right? If not, please remedy that immediately.) Philipps went on to a ton of other TV and film roles, everything from ER to Cougar Town to her own chat show to her current gig on the very funny Girls5Eva on Peacock. She’s also built a passionate following by just being herself on the podcast Busy Philipps is Doing Her Best. If you’ve never heard it, you’ll get a little taste of what it’s like in this conversation with her friend Rhett. The two are amazingly all over the place in this chat, talking about everything from why the Target stores in New Jersey are better than those in the big city, about how Philipps is dealing with her pandemic divorce—very well, as it turns out—bad advice received from a genius, Jon Brion, and how much fun it is to read ads for your podcast. I can relate. They also go deep in discussing the genius of Taylor Swift, which results in what may be a Talkhouse Podcast first: real tears captured during an episode. It’s a really great chat between two really charming people. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Busy Philipps and Rhett Miller for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse—and Wheels Off, and Busy Philipps is Doing Her Best—on your favorite podcasting platform. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

This episode originally aired on December 16, 2021. We’ve hosted some incredible Talkhouse Podcast conversations in 2021, and for our final brand-new episode of the year, we’ve got two people responsible for some of the best records of this year: Julien Baker and Aaron Dessner. Baker released her third album, Little Oblivions, back in February, and it’s a doozy. Expanding her sonic palette massively, Baker delivered her powerful, vulnerable songs with much bigger sounds. That might have felt like a gamble, but it paid off massively—she produced it herself and pushed herself into new spaces. Dessner is of course a founding member of the National, with whom he’s played for the past 20+ years. While his main band slowed down over the past couple of years, Dessner has been operating at hyperspeed. He was one of the main co-writers and producers on Taylor Swift’s Folklore and Evermore albums. He won an Album of the Year Grammy for the former, and was nominated for five more Grammys for the latter. He somehow also found time to release a new album with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon under the name Big Red Machine called How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? In addition to loads of guest singers, that record features Dessner on occasional lead vocals. These two have a fantastic conversation about creativity and, specifically, production: Aaron has done a lot of producing for other artists, and Julien is just getting into it. Julien talks about what it’s like to have a full live band backing her, rather than being a quote-unquote masochist and playing alone. They talk about what it was like to be deprived of live audiences for so long, and Aaron gets into how his studio setup has changed over the years. Also, they both know what it’s like when music can make you cry—that’s the kind of thing we love here at Talkhouse. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Julien Baker and Aaron Dessner for having such a wonderful chat. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting service and social media channels--we’re everywhere. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan and Keenan Kush, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of singer-songwriters who’ve taken interesting names for what are essentially solo ventures: Kevin Sullivan, aka. Field Medic, and Kristian Matsson, better known as the Tallest Man on Earth.  Matsson has been making music as the Tallest Man since about 2006, winning fans both with his largely spare, Bob Dylan-like songs and his incredibly forceful live shows. Though he’s from Sweden, Matsson is definitely influenced by the American folk tradition, especially on his early records, like the classic 2008 debut Shallow Grave. He’s since released a handful of excellent albums, and in this conversation with Kevin Sullivan, he drops some hints about a new one that he’s really excited about to be released in 2023. In the meantime, the Tallest Man on Earth just released his first all-covers album, and though he downplays it a little bit, it’s pretty amazing. It’s called Too Late for Edelweiss, and on it he covers songs written by everyone from Hank Williams to Bon Iver to the National. Kevin Patrick Sullivan, who records under the name Field Medic, has long been known for a pretty Spartan approach to recording: Most of his songs have been made super simply, in the folk tradition but with decidedly modern subject matter. For his upcoming fifth album, which has the deliciously long title grow your hair long if you’re wanting to see something that you can change, Sullivan decided to grow his sonic palette and bring in a producer. His confessional, put–it-all-out-there lyrics are still fully intact, of course. Field Medic will take these songs out for a headlining tour that features a full band this fall—a first for Sullivan. Check out the latest single from the new album, called “I Think About You All The Time.” This is a fun conversation given that these guys don’t know each other, but they’re quick to connect. Tallest Man was clearly an influence on Field Medic’s sound, and we get to hear about a long-ago fan interaction between the two that did not, I repeat did not, involve marijuana. They also chat about finding inspiration when it’s gone missing, about the wonder of the Milli Vanilli story, and about which of them wanted to be Bob Dylan in high school, and which wanted to be Lou Reed. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Kevin Sullivan and Kristian Matsson for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform and social media channel. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a hardcore legend and a fierce Ukrainian bandleader who recently worked on a record together: Walter Schreifels and Eugene Hutz. Hutz is the founder, chief songwriter, and energetic frontman of Gogol Bordello, which has combined elements of punk, folk, Eastern European, Latin, and myriad other types of music for the past 20+ years. It’s a remarkable career that’s taken Hutz from his birthplace, Ukraine, to places as far flung as Vermont, Brazil, and New York’s Lower East Side. He’s also had forays into the film world, collaborated with everybody from Madonna to Primus, and gotten crowds jumping at pretty much every festival you can think of. The war in Ukraine has naturally been on Hutz’s mind, and he’s organized benefits and spoken up loudly about it this past year. At least one song on the brand new Gogol Bordello album addresses it directly. Speaking of that record, Solidartine, and Hutz’s penchant for collaboration, it was produced by Walter Schreifels. Check out “Fire on Ice Floe.” Schreifels isn’t just a producer; in fact, that job is probably like the tenth thing on his impressive resume. He was a pioneer of the New York hardcore scene as a member of both Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits, and from there he went on to sing and play guitar in Quicksand. A restless writer and performer, Schreifels formed half a dozen short-lived projects over the past couple of decades, in addition to reuniting sporadically with his various bands. Quicksand has released two great albums since getting back together in 2012; they’re heading out on a package tour soon with Clutch and Helmet. There’s also a reissue of a great record by another of Schreifels’ short-lived projects, Rival Schools, coming later this year. It’s hard to keep track of everything he does, but well worth the effort. These two NYC pals talk here about the city’s importance and vibe, as well as getting into deeper conversation about the war in Ukraine, how running can help prepare you for being in a punk band, and about how the pandemic might have led people back to hardcore music. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Eugene Hutz and Walter Schreifels for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all we have to offer on this very website. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve gathered three guys for a very focused discussion about one of the year’s most exciting horror movies: Ti West, Tyler Bates, and Tim Williams. Ti West is a director who’s made his name with a string of what I guess you’d call indie-horror movies—though I’m not sure that does justice to the kind of auteurist vision he has. With films like The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers, he revealed a truly singular style. He tried his hand at a Western with the wild and wooly In A Valley of Violence in 2016, but returned to his horror roots this year with a pair of movies filmed back to back: X, which came out in March, and its prequel, Pearl, which is just hitting theaters now. For these two movies, which both star Mia Goth, West hooked up with indie powerhouse A24, which as you’ll hear in this chat, made a big bet on these two films—and since this chat took place, have now committed to a third in the franchise. If you like creepy, stylish horror, definitely check them out. A big part of what makes both X and Pearl work is the music, and that’s where the two other guys on this chat come in. Tyler Bates is a composer who’s worked on music for an incredible array of films, from 300 to John Wick to Guardians of the Galaxy. But he knows horror, too, having worked on Rob Zombie’s string of early flicks as well. Bates is also a music producer, having recently done the new Starcrawler album, and he was, briefly, a member of Marilyn Manson. For the more old-fashioned orchestral score for Pearl, he recruited his friend and neighbor Tim Williams, who’s contributed to a ton of great film and TV scores over the past decade as well. This chat among these three gets wonderfully granular about the world of film sound. Pearl is a prequel that takes place in 1918, so West wanted Bates to come up with something very old-school. That meant real orchestrations and the kinds of instruments and musical cues you don’t really hear anymore—and it works remarkably well. As you’ll hear in this conversation, West really thinks like an auteur: He’s concerned with every aspect of his movies, right down to whether the sound of crickets is going to interfere every so slightly with the score. All of that care definitely shows on screen, and you can hear when these guys talk how much they care about getting things just right. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Ti West, Tyler Bates, and Tim Williams for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great written pieces on this very site. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!  

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we have a pair of French electronic music pioneers who recently teamed up alongside a DJ who’s been responsible for some of the most exciting production of the past 20+ years: Braxe and Falcon with A-Trak. Alan Braxe and his cousin Stephane Quem—aka DJ Falcon—are legends of French house music going back decades: Braxe was one-third of the trio Stardust alongside Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter. They famously released just one song in 1998 before splitting up, but “Music Sounds Better With You” is a classic of the genre. Falcon’s biggest claim to fame might also be Daft Punk adjacent: He co-wrote and co-produced their song “Contact,” from 2013’s Random Access Memories. And though they’ve obviously been acquainted forever, Braxe and Falcon only recently came together for a project, and it’s pretty amazing. Their debut EP, Step By Step, includes a killer title track with an appearance by Panda Bear. Braxe and Falcon will make their live debut in November with two U.S. shows, one in New York and another in L.A. Check out “Step by Step” right here. That EP also features a remix by Braxe and Falcon’s old friend DJ A-Trak, a superstar of the electronic world whose resume makes me feel very lazy. As a young guy, he was a championship-level turntablist in his native Canada, which led to a years-long role on stage with Kanye West. His career continued as a headlining DJ and producer in his own right: He’s known both for creating his own sounds and remixing big names. He also runs the vaunted Fool’s Gold label and collaborates with lots of other folks, including Armand Van Helden in Duck Sauce. A-Track’s latest project is a collaborative album with elusive hip-hop icon Cam’ron called U Wasn’t There, which comes out September 23. Check out “All I Really Wanted” from that upcoming record. In this chat, Braxe, Falcon, and A-Trak talk about the sonic intersections of house music and old-school hip-hop, they discuss the ups and downs of the forced Covid break, and there’s a lot of gear talk—which is a whole different thing when you’re talking about samplers and keyboards instead of guitars and pedals. It’s a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy it.  Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Braxe, Falcon, and A-Trak for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out Talkhouse.com for all kinds of great written features. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a conversation between two young performers who are just this week starting a huge tour together: Marcus King and Neal Francis. King is a blues-rock prodigy who, at 26, already has a lifetime of music under his belt—both as leader of the Marcus King Band and, more recently, as a solo artist. Though he wasn’t alive for the 1970s, King clearly has an affinity for that decade, with nods in his music to players like Jimi Hendrix and ZZ Top. He’s earned a huge following over the years, which makes sense since he’s been gigging since his teens. King’s first solo disc, 2020’s El Dorado, earned him a Grammy nomination, and for the brand new Youngblood he once again hooked up with producer Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. It’s a scorcher. Check out a little bit of “Hard Working Man” from Youngblood, from a recent performance on Jimmy Fallon's show. Neal Francis is similarly enamored of 1970s sounds, though he leans more toward the funk and soul sides of things. Francis was in a band in his hometown of Chicago called The Heard, but graduated to more sophisticated sounds as a solo artist: Think Sly Stone and Elton John and you’re on the right track. His latest album for ATO Records is called In Plain Sight, and it was partly inspired by Francis’ time living in a haunted church in Chicago. Check out “Problems” from In Plain Sight right here. What both Marcus and Neal’s records share is a little more seriousness than you might immediately hear in what sounds like party-friendly music. Both have had their bouts with substance issues and messy breakups, and those things make it into their songs. They’re both also really interested in ghosts, as you’ll hear: King isn’t sure whether alcohol made him see a demon, but he’s definitely seen it. They also talk about growing up bluesy, how David Lynch might translate into music, and the time-honored tradition of drawing dicks on dressing room walls. Enjoy. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a couple of fantastic songwriters from the indie-rock world: Kenny Becker and Doug Martsch. Martsch I’m guessing our listeners will know as the chief songwriter and sole consistent member of Built to Spill, the band that made Boise, Idaho famous. Built to Spill has been an ongoing concern since the early 1990s, releasing a ton of great albums at a fairly leisurely pace, including stone classics like There’s Nothing Wrong With Love and Keep it Like a Secret. The Built to Spill lineup has mutated a bunch of times over the years, and that’s never been more true than for the genesis of their latest album, When the Wind Forgets Your Name. Writing and recording the album was done with members of the Brazilian band Orua, but the latest live lineup features Martsch alongside a pair of incredibly talented young women from up-and-coming bands: Prism Bitch’s Teresa Esguerra and Blood Lemon’s Melanie Radford. They bring a new energy to this storied band. Check out the hilarious video for “Fool’s Gold” from When the Wind Forgets Your Name. Goon has a much shorter history than Built to Spill, having really started as Kenny Becker’s solo project around 2015. Along with some college friends, Becker recorded Goon’s dreamy debut album Heaven is Humming. But that lineup was slowly lost to attrition and now, like Martsch, Becker has an entirely new set of players alongside a brand new album, Hour of Green Evening. This new one was recorded in a more bandlike setting, as you’ll hear in this chat, and Becker even had some help from Alex Fischel of Spoon. Check out the sweet and tender “Emily Says” from that new record. In this chat, Becker and Martsch talk about recording in a studio versus recording at home; they talk about finding those eureka moments in the studio, Built to Spill’s recent cover of a Cate Le Bon song, and getting musical ideas from TikTok. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Doug Martsch and Kenny Becker for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all of the other Talkhouse network shows and written pieces at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

New from Talkhouse: Join Björk in conversations with collaborators about her sound experiences. In the podcast you’ll learn about the moods, timbers, and tempos that vibrate through each album. Subscribe at: https://pod.link/bjork

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve paired a couple of friends who recently worked together on an incredible project: Ethan Hawke and Hamilton Leithauser. Ethan Hawke you surely know as the Academy Award-nominated actor in a million great films, from Reality Bites to Training Day to Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy to 2018’s First Reformed. Hawke is also a writer and director, and the impetus for today’s conversation is his six-part HBO Max documentary The Last Movie Stars. The series tells the story of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, both their personal lives as a married couple and their professional lives as two monumental actors of their generation. Far from a typical documentary, The Last Movie Stars uses archival footage alongside dramatizations of interviews featuring current movie stars. It even gets a bit meta, with Hawke revealing some of his process during the series via Zoom calls with contemporaries. It’s a fascinating way to tell this incredible story. Another way that Hawke brought this story into the present was with music from his old friend Hamilton Leithauser, who’s best known as the singer of the Walkmen, and who’s had a fruitful solo career since that band went on hiatus a while back. As you’ll hear in this chat, Hawke had the idea that Leithauser would be great at soundtrack work ages ago, so when he started working on The Last Movie Stars, Leithauser immediately came to mind. There’s a lot of Leithauser in the doc, and one song that they cover in this chat quite a bit is called “1959,” from an album that Leithauser made with Vampire Weekend co-founder Rostam. Elsewhere in the chat, Hawke and Leithauser talk about their processes for this project: Hawke originally envisioned a two-hour feature, but quickly realized that he needed much more time to tell this huge story. They talk about Bob Dylan’s influence—musical good, acting not so much—and the greatest soundtracks of all time. That, and much more. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Ethan Hawke and Hamilton Leithauser for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform—and check out The Last Movie Stars on HBO Max. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by The Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of old friends with a ton of records and history between them: Kelley Stoltz and Spiral Stairs. Spiral Stairs—aka. Scott Kannberg—is a founding member of indie-rock kingpins Pavement, a band he formed in Stockton, California with his high school friend Stephen Malkmus. What started as a noisy, ramshackle outfit bloomed into one of the most important and influential bands of the 1990s. Their albums have only grown in stature over the years, getting the sort of deluxe reissue treatment that was once reserved only for the gods of classic rock. And though Pavement split up in 1999, they’ve reunited twice—and are about to launch a pretty hefty tour of the US and Europe. Outside of Pavement, Kannberg has kept plenty busy releasing music under both his Spiral Stairs moniker and, for a while, as Preston School of Industry. He’s had an incredibly prolific last few years, too, releasing three albums since 2017—the latest is the fantastic Medley Attack!!! It was a record born of some hardship, including Covid, worldwide relocations, and most unfortunately, the sudden death of Kannberg’s bassist Matt Harris. But those events resulted in what’s probably his best solo outing yet. Check out a little bit of the song “Pressure Drop (End of the Hurricane)” right here. Kannberg enlisted the help of several friends in making that record, including the other half of today’s conversation, singer-songwriter Kelley Stoltz. Stoltz is one of those guys who just has a knack for writing incredibly tuneful pop songs. If they were recorded with more slickness, you might mistake them for radio hits of the ‘60s and ‘70s—I mean that as a high compliment. Stoltz recently released his seventeenth studio album, The Stylist, and it’s a great place to start in a catalog that includes plenty of stone classics. Check out “Your Name Escapes Me.” As you’ll hear in this conversation—though not necessarily in either of those songs—Stoltz and Kannberg first bonded over a mutual love of Echo & The Bunnymen. Stoltz actually recorded a full album cover of that band’s Crocodiles album, and Kannberg joined him on some live shows to perform it. Weirdly, that led to Stoltz, who as a teen worshiped Ian McCulloch, to a brief stint as rhythm guitarist for the British band. Talk about Echo leads to talk about copycat haircuts of their youth, formative years working in record stores, and lots more. And you’ll even get to hear two songs in very early stages—one that Kannberg (maybe) wants to bring to his Pavement bandmates, and one that Stoltz has started writing for his infant daughter. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Kelley Stoltz and Scott Kannberg for chatting. If you liked what you heard, check out both of their new albums, and of course follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by The Range. See you next time!

To celebrate the release of the new Deftones album Ohms, we paired frontman Chino Moreno with his old friend and tourmate — and long-time Deftones fan! — comedian/musician Reggie Watts for a Talkhouse Podcast conversation. The guys were very psyched to catch up, and their freewheeling talk took in the making of the new Deftones LP; the ups and downs of long-term collaborations; their very different writing and recording approaches; and… bikes. Turns out they're both waaay into bikes. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themselves. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

In Listening, a new series from Talkhouse and Mailchimp Presents, we invite some of the world’s most beloved and inventive musicians to create new compositions that allow us to intimately experience a time and a place in their lives. We’ll join each artist to hear about the creation of their piece, how deeper listening informs their process and how that practice can enrich all of our lives. Subscribe today!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got two old friends whose bands started around the same time, and who’ve had very different albums hit the 20-year-mark recently: Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World and Davey von Bohlen of the Promise Ring. I had the idea to pair these guys after seeing a bunch of “best of emo” lists floating around the internet ether lately, and it reminded me of the heady days of the late ‘90s and early 2000s, and how many fond memories I have of those times. I saw the Promise Ring and Jimmy Eat World plenty of times back then; full disclosure: I was then and am now friends with the guys in the Promise Ring. It occurred to me that while the two bands had been on similar trajectories back then, that they diverged right around 20 years ago in a really interesting way. I figured it’d be fun to reconnect them and see what they had to say about it. The Promise Ring were at the top of the emo heap in the late 1990s, though everybody hated that word with a passion back then. They were early fans of Jimmy Eat World’s music, and the bands toured together a few times over the years. By the end of the century, The Promise Ring had hit a weird rough patch: Von Bohlen had surgery for a brain tumor, and the band was naturally forced to slow down considerably. When they returned with their much anticipated fourth album, Wood/Water, it represented what felt at the time like a pretty intense left turn: The songs were slower and more melodic—not necessarily what fans were expecting, though the album has gotten a rightful reappraisal in the 20 years since its release. The Promise Ring split up soon after its release, and Davey went on to form the band Maritime with Promise Ring drummer Dan Didier, and they released a string of great records. Jimmy Eat World also found themselves at a crossroads 20 years ago; having parted company with a major label, they self-funded a new album. That album, 2001’s Bleed American, spawned a leftfield hit for the band, a song called “The Middle.” It launched Jimmy Eat World into the mainstream before they knew what hit them, and it’s one of those songs that to this day you might hear on the radio. It was a blip, of course, in a consistently fantastic career: Jimmy Eat World kept making records and touring—their latest is 2019’s Surviving.  So it was an interesting point in time for both of these guys, who as you’ll hear remain fast friends after all these years. Playing music isn’t a huge part of von Bohlen’s life anymore, though he does point out that Maritime is technically still a band. These two chat about their 20-ish-year-old records, fatherhood, drinking, touring in the ‘90s, and lots more. Davey tells a great story I hadn’t heard before about the Promise Ring’s insane pact with each other in their earliest days. Sadly, Jim and Davey never get around to talking about Davey’s guest vocals on Bleed American, but maybe we’ll just have to have them chat again sometime. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Davey von Bohlen and Jim Adkins for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great written pieces elsewhere on this very site. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a comedian and a musician who recently joined forces to make a music video: Joe Pera and Dan Wriggins. Joe Pera is a stand-up comedian who’s best known as the star and creator of Joe Pera Talks With You, the Adult Swim TV show about the beautifully modest existence of a middle-school choir instructor in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s a show unlike anything else on TV, past or present, and it’s a direct reflection of Pera’s unassuming comedic persona: In other words, it’s hard to tell where Joe Pera the character ends and Joe Pera the guy begins. It’s also insightful, weird, and decidedly sweet. And while the show just finished its three-season run recently, it won’t be the last the world sees of Pera. In fact, he’s in the midst of a stand-up tour right now, and you can find dates at joepera.com. Oh, and he also just landed the role of James Bond, which you can hear all about on his recent Seth Meyers appearance. Seems like kind of a big deal. Yet Pera still has time to help out indie bands like Friendship, whose singer and songwriter Dan Wriggins is the other participant in today’s chat. Friendship is made up of old friends—no surprise there—though the band is actually named after a town in Maine near where they grew up. They’re currently based in Philadelphia, though Wriggins Zoomed in for this chat from Little Cranberry Island, Maine, where he also spent time as a kid. That island is also where Friendship and Joe Pera shot the video for “Hank,” from the band’s brand new album, Love The Stranger. It’s the band’s fourth full-length and first for the always reliable Merge Records. It’s a beautiful record full of straightforward but nuanced observations about life and love. Check out the video for "Hank" right here, which comes up in this chat quite a bit. As I said earlier, that “Hank” video comes up in this conversation, and it leads to Joe and Dan talking about craftsmanship, lobster fishing, and lots more. They talk about touring as a comedy act versus touring as a band, and about how each of them works hard to make their respective art look easy. Oh, and at the end of the chat, Joe finally reveals who his celebrity spouse is, so stay tuned for the whole thing! Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Joe Pera and Dan Wriggins for chatting. If you liked what you heard, they’re both on tour—separately—right now. Please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great written features we’ve got on Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got what might seem at first to be an unusual pairing, but that has its genesis in some serious fandom: Taylor Bennett and Matt Johnson. Taylor Bennett is a musician, entrepreneur, and community activist who has helped guide the career of his older brother Chance the Rapper while also busting genres on his own records. Bennett is a restless musician, rarely content to make the same moves twice. He raps and sings, and has proudly been sample-free on his last few records. A few years back, he released Be Yourself, a manifesto of sorts that championed inclusivity and positivity—he also told the world around the same time that he’s proudly bisexual. For this year’s Coming of Age, Bennett once again found inspiration in all different kinds of music, even bringing in some guests from various areas on the musical spectrum. One guest he was particularly excited to work with was Matt Johnson of Matt and Kim, the New York indie duo behind some of the past two decades’ most invigorating songs. Johnson contributed vocals to “Kick Back,” from Coming of Age—check out that song right here. As I said, Matt Johnson is half of Matt and Kim—you can probably guess which half—the life-affirming duo behind one really big hit, “Daylight,” a breakthrough music video that you’ll hear about in this chat, the end-credits song in a Lego movie, and perhaps most importantly, the sort of we-did-it-our-way career that should be the envy of their peers. Matt and Kim have released six albums in their two decades together, and they’ve built a relationship with their audience through undeniably joyous live shows and a sense of gratitude you don’t always see in bands. Their energy is, to use a true rock cliche, infectious, and it’s a big part of their appeal—along with damn catchy songs, of course. The inability to get out in front of his fans has made Matt a little itchy over the past couple of years, which you’ll hear about in this chat. Johnson and Bennett also talk about giant dildos in this podcast, so prepare yourself for that. If that’s not enough to pique your interest, the two also talk about trying to separate the art from the artist, about the real reason to remain independent, and about what it’s like to get completely naked in Times Square in the dead of winter for a video shoot. It’s a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Taylor Bennett and Matt Johnson for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out our great written pieces and vast podcasting network on this very site. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast we’ve paired up a couple of old friends and onetime tourmates, Sharon Van Etten and Jonathan Meiburg. This pairing was especially fun for me, since I had the pleasure of putting these two together in a different context many years ago, when I was editor of The A.V. Club: Sharon and Jonathan performed an amazing version of the Tom Petty/Stevie Nicks duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” for the site’s A.V. Undercover series. Seeing their faces together brought back that fun memory, and it was great seeing them reconnect. Van Etten is a singer and songwriter who’s been making records for the past decade plus, growing and changing and taking chances in exactly the way you hope truly talented people will. Her amazing early records were quietly intense, very confessional affairs, but she burst from the seams with subsequent releases. In 2019, she released Remind Me Tomorrow, which brought in bigger sounds and colors and an entirely different kind of confidence to her songwriting and performance. She gives partial credit in this chat to producer John Congleton, who was recommended to Van Etten by none other than Jonathan Meiburg. Earlier this year, Van Etten released another incredible album called We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, which puts into intense songs some of the feelings we’ve all been feeling the past couple of years. You know what I’m talking about. Check out “Mistakes” from that new album, and check out Van Etten on the Wild Hearts tour over the next few months, with Angel Olsen and Julien Baker.  Today’s other guest, Jonathan Meiburg, is best known in the music world as the driving force behind the band Shearwater, which he started way back in the late ‘90s as an offshoot of his previous band, Okkervil River. But under this name, Meiburg has created a vast and varied catalog that combines his writerly mind with sometimes-moody, sometimes-joyous music. Shearwater just released their first album in six years: It’s called The Great Awakening, and it’s what a lazy podcast host might refer to as a return to form—or at least more austere earlier vibes. Don’t let that six-year gap fool you, though: Meiburg has been plenty busy. He’s got another band called Loma with the members of Cross Record, and they’ve got a third album on the way. Oh, and Meiburg wrote and released an incredible book called A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey, which rolls up history, science, and travel into one really beautifully written piece. (Around Talkhouse HQ, we like to brag that Meiburg has written a bunch of pieces for us over the years.) As you’ll hear in this conversation, he’s already started working on another book. Check out “Empty Orchestra” from The Great Awakening. As you’ll hear, Van Etten and Meiburg are old friends who toured together long ago, but hadn’t seen each other in person until very recently, when Van Etten’s tour took her to Hamburg, where Meiburg is currently living. They talk about writing songs—and specifically about how gibberish can become lyrics, which I always find interesting. Meiburg remarks on Van Etten’s transformation as a stage performer over the years, and they even chat about Sharon’s son—specifically his relationship to the movie Cool Runnings. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Sharon Van Etten and Jonathan Meiburg for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please do follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time.

This week we’re revisiting a Talkhouse episode that was originally released in October of 2020, when perhaps you missed it because you had other things on your mind. It happens. This one features a great chat between two women at different phases in their careers: Carly Rae Jepsen and mxmtoon. You might recognize mxmtoon’s name from her podcast 365 Days, which is part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Speaking of, did you know we have a network full of other great shows, including Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions, Sing for Science, Craig Finn’s brand new podcast That’s How I Remember It, and What Had Happened Was with Open Mike Eagle? We do! Anyway, just before this episode, Carly Rae and mxmtoon had just collaborated on a track called “Ok on your own,” and they dove right into a great conversation about songwriting and much, much more. Check it out, and we’ll be back with a brand new episode next week!   To celebrate Carly Rae Jepsen and mxmtoon's rad collab track "ok on your own," we paired the pop stars for what turned out to be a deep dive into the art of making music and learning to thrive in the complicated music industry. In this very warm and insightful conversation, Carly and Maia each share their (very different!) origin stories, and explore both the art of songwriting and live performance. Carly also shares clutch career wisdom. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Plus, ICYMI: mxmtoon just kicked off her yearlong podcast project 365 days with mxmtoon in collab with Talkhouse, which features quirky stories from history that occurred on each day, old diary entries and more; it’s really fun, and like eight minutes long.  —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  For this week’s episode, Carly was recorded by Nick Theodorakis, and everyone else you hear recorded themselves. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi.  The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. 

On this Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got one of those chats that feels like it’s going to lead to something bigger down the road: Jonathan Davis and Danny Brown. Neither of these guys probably needs an introduction, but here goes anyway: Jonathan Davis is the frontman of the band Korn, which basically invented a sound and subsequent genre about 30 years ago. I’m not sure if people still say “nu metal,” but whatever you want to call it, it never really seemed to leave the cultural zeitgeist once it took hold. Korn always seemed to have a wider variety of influences than some of their peers, taking bits and pieces from goth, metal, and hip-hop to make a strange new brew. They’ve released an impressive 14 albums, taking stylistic turns like 2011’s The Path of Totality, which incorporated dubstep and drum-and-bass elements. The band’s latest is Requiem, which was written and recorded during Covid’s enforced ban on touring. It’s a bit of a return to their classic sound, and it’s gotten incredibly positive reviews from fans and critics. Danny Brown is a rapper and, more recently, a comedian who broke out of his hometown of Detroit around 2010, and has released a series of groundbreaking, incredible records that never seem to sit still—just like him. He’s had huge singles and collaborated with everybody from Eminem to Purity Ring to Kendrick Lamar to A$AP Rocky. And though he hasn’t put out a proper album since 2019’s killer U Know What I’m Sayin’, Brown has kept busy making music, making his stand-up comedy debut, doing the hilarious Danny Brown Show on YouTube, and allegedly prepping a new record with the working title Quaranta. He’s described the record as “all over the place,” which makes sense considering Brown’s varied list of influences—one of which is Korn, which is how we got here in the first place. This genesis of this conversation, Davis and Brown’s first, was Brown covering Korn’s classic “Freak on a Leash” live in concert last year. Like I said, this is the first real conversation that Brown and Davis have ever had, and they get along great—great enough that they’re instantly talking about meeting up in person to collaborate at Davis’ Bakersfield, California studio. They get into Korn’s songwriting process, Covid-inspired depression, and how the internet provides the kind of instant rejection you had to work harder for in the old days. It’s a great chat, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Jonathan Davis and Danny Brown for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe via your favorite podcasting app, and while you’re already there, go ahead and rate us. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of musicians who both suffer from the effects of LSD—that’s lead singer disease—Stuart Murdoch and Ramesh Srivastava. Ramesh was and is now again the lead singer and chief creative force behind the Austin, Texas band Voxtrot, which burned bright but maybe too quick in the early 2000s. They released a series of rapturously received EPs and one LP that were beloved by fans of deeply British institutions like Sarah Records and The Smiths. But the band had split by 2010, and Ramesh went on to release a pair of solo albums that didn’t quite have the impact his band did. For a while, he was content to leave Voxtrot in the past, but gathering material for two reissues gave him the spark to get thing going again. The next few months will see the release of both Early Music—which gathers the band’s beloved EPs—and Cut from the Stone, which features rarities and B-sides. And then, like some unstoppable force of nature, Voxtrot will tour the U.S. again. Dates can be found at voxtrot.net. And in case you’re not familiar, here’s a great Voxtrot song called “The Start of Something.” Do you hear a bit of Belle and Sebastian in that song? They’re a pretty clear influence on Voxtrot, and Srivastava met Stuart Murdoch while living in Glasgow in his younger days—you’ll hear about their meet-cute in this conversation. Belle and Sebastian, of course, have had an incredible career over the past quarter century or so. They started life as a school project for Murdoch, a shy young man whose feelings spilled out into his gentle songs in a way that seemed then—and now—to be almost magical. Over the years, Belle and Sebastian developed from a sort of bedroom-pop project to a massive pop machine, while never losing that spirit of playfulness and sincerity that Murdoch has always projected. The band recently released their ninth studio album, called A Bit of Previous. The title is a bit tricky in that it seems to reference the good old days but also Murdoch’s longtime interest in Buddhism, which he explored in greater depth during the pandemic. In this conversation, you’ll actually hear a bit about how both Ramesh and Stuart approach spirituality, both Christianity and Buddhism. You’ll hear how being a “gay brown person” pushed Ramesh away from religion for a long time. They talk about the aforementioned “lead singer disease,” and how that affects everyday life. And we get to hear about a young Stuart Murdoch making his way to the London flat of one of his musical heroes, but then deciding not to actually knock on his door. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Ramesh Srivastava and Stuart Murdoch for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite social channels and check out talkhouse.com for lots of great written pieces, too. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of songwriters who are meeting for the first time, which we haven’t had in an episode in quite a while. Martin Courtney and Tim Darcy. Until recently, Darcy was the frontman of the band Ought, which released three fantastic, brainy art-punk albums from their home base of Montreal—despite the fact that Darcy is, in fact, “secretly American.” Ought split up pre-pandemic but that wasn’t really public news until the announcement of the existence of Darcy’s new band, Cola, which he started just a couple of years ago along with Ought bassist Ben Stidworthy and Weather Station/US Girls drummer Evan Cartwright. Just last month, Cola released their debut album, Deep In View, and it feels like a sort of back-to-basics take on their old band—but still fresh and exciting. Darcy is a guy who takes his lyrics seriously, and though he clearly had a great time making the record, there’s a darkness to it that recalls the best post-punk and trebly art-rock of the past 40 years, from Talking Heads to Parquet Courts. Martin Courtney is the singer and guitarist of Real Estate, the New Jersey-born band that has released five albums of songs that battle gently the urges toward pop-song structure and a slight psychedelic haze. Real Estate had particularly bad timing luck with regard to that worldwide pandemic we’ve all talked so much about over the past couple of years, releasing an album just weeks before the world shut down, resulting naturally in canceled tours and other plans. Instead of diving into another Real Estate album during the lockdown, Courtney decided to take a path of less resistance and record his second solo album. As he jokes in this conversation, most solo albums tend to be an excuse for an artist to indulge their more out-there impulses, but his impulses tend to lead him back toward more structured pop songs. He came up with a killer batch for this record, which is called Magic Sign. Darcy and Courtney hadn’t met before this chat, but that doesn’t stop them from getting into a great conversation: They talk about how podcasts might be boring—and how that’s okay (!?). They get into Courtney’s slight sense of disillusionment with music in general. Then they bring it back to creative desires: They are both guys itching with ideas and ready to get them out to the world. And, as fate would have it, both are going to be touring this summer, god willing. So get out there and see them, but first, check out this chat. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Tim Darcy and Martin Courtney for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcast platform, and check out the great new records by both of this week’s guests. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

Hello Talkhouse listeners and readers. We’ve got a special treat for you this week: Instead of the usual Talkhouse Podcast, we’re featuring the debut episode of a podcast called That’s How I Remember It. Craig Finn, as you hopefully already know, is the singer of The Hold Steady as well as a solo artist. He’s got an excellent new solo record called A Legacy of Rentals, and it inspired him to start a new podcast that explores the intersection of memory and creativity. The Talkhouse gang helped him put it together, and we’re happy to present the first episode here. If you like it, which you undoubtedly will, please subscribe! Here it is, the first episode of That’s How I Remember It, featuring Craig in conversation with Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers. Enjoy, and we’ll be back to regular Talkhouse episodes next week! Subscribe to That’s How I Remember It to catch future episodes with Brian Koppelman, Fred Armisen, and many more.

Hello Talkhouse listeners; this week we’re resurfacing a talk featuring a frequent Talkhouse contributor who seems to be having yet another career moment: Michelle Zauner, aka. Japanese Breakfast. You may have caught Zauner and her band on the season finale of SNL, or playing your local theater, or on every playlist worth a dang. This talk, which originally ran on June 3, 2021—around the time the latest Japanese Breakfast album, Jubilee, came out—features Zauner in conversation with Rostam, the musician and producer best known as part of Vampire Weekend. If you like what you hear, there are two more Zauner-led Talkhouse Podcasts in the archives, one with Alex Cameron, and the other with Rachel Goswell of Slowdive. --------  Today’s Talkhouse Podcast started with a little bit of serendipity in the form of album release dates: Both of our guests, Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast and producer/musician/former Vampire Weekend guy Rostam, have excellent records coming out on June 4. They’re also fans of each other’s work, so we figured it made plenty of sense to put them together. Zauner’s album, her third under the Japanese Breakfast name, is called Jubilee, and as you’ll hear in this conversation, it took a deliberate turn toward slightly happier themes than her first two. It comes hot on the heels of Zauner’s first book, a heartbreaking memoir called Crying In H Mart, that deals with her mother’s death—also a theme in her early music—and food, lots of food. It’s a really touching read, and an ideal companion to her musical catalog, which grew in really compelling ways with Jubilee. Rostam is best known as a founding member of Vampire Weekend, and even though he officially left the band a few years ago, he still contributes some songwriting and production work. He’s kept plenty busy otherwise, producing records and writing songs with an incredible array of other artists, from Hamilton Leithauser to HAIM to Clairo. His first proper solo album is the gentle, string-filled, fantastic Half-Light, which came out in 2017, and now he’s releasing Changephobia, which as you’ll hear ditches the string section and brings in a sax, among other things. These two jump right into a conversation that flits around from silly to deep: On one hand, they talk about childhood loves of chess and fencing and the importance of song five on an album. On the other, Zauner gets rightfully annoyed at interview questions she gets that other people don’t, and Rostam talks about being Persian in a band that was sometimes pegged as particularly white. It’s a funny, smart chat. Enjoy. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by The Range.  

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of electronic-music duos whose histories, as you’ll hear, are intimately intertwined: The Knocks and Sofi Tukker. The Knocks—consisting of James Patterson and Ben Ruttner—just released their third album, and it’s once again dancefloor-ready and heavy on the collaborations with indie icons. It’s called History, and it’s their first since 2018’s New York Narcotic, which featured the massive Foster the People collaboration “Ride or Die.” The guys used the extra time granted them by the pandemic to refocus and make History exactly what they wanted it, and it shows. The album includes guest spots from Cold War Kids, Cannons, and another jam with Foster the People. Check out “Slow Song,” which features Dragonette. Speaking of features and collaborations, The Knocks have worked with Sofi Tukker—the duo consisting of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern—a bunch over the years, and as you’ll hear in this conversation, Sofi Tukker might not even be a chart-topping outfit at all without the help and influence of James and Ben. Together they scored a bit hit with “Best Friend,” though if you only know one Sofi Tukker song it’s probably the massive “Drinkee.” But the duo has a brand new record out with the provocative title Wet Tennis, and they’re about to embark on a massive tour that includes two huge California shows with the Knocks as special guests. Check out “Kakee” from Wet Tennis. In this conversation, these four talk about their shared history in New York, right down to a specific building that the Beastie Boys used to own. They talk about the old days playing college shows and the new days playing the massive Greek Theatre. And you’ll hear them graciously compliment each other on their latest songs. It’s a regular lovefest. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Sophie, Tucker, Ben, and James for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite social channels and podcasting platforms. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!  

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of musicians from the UK who recently collaborated for the first time, Dana Margolin and Joseph Mount. Mount has been the driving force behind Metronomy since 1999, and he’s found success not only with a series of winning electro-pop records, but also by remixing tracks for big names like Franz Ferdinand, Gorillaz, and Lady Gaga. If you’re unfamiliar with Metronomy, a good place to start is 2008’s Nights Out, which is a sort of concept album about, as you might guess, a night out. But Metronomy’s catalog is intriguingly all over the map; the band’s latest is called Small World, and it features a much gentler side of Mount’s songwriting personality overall. It also features a stunning duet with the other side of today’s conversation, Dana Margolin of Porridge Radio. Like Metronomy, Porridge Radio really started out as a solo project but grew into more of a band situation—though each is still the brainchild of one person. Margolin started recorded under the Porridge Radio name back in 2015, but it was her second proper studio album, 2020’s Every Bad, that really made the world stand up and take notice. It’s a powerful, intense record that stands alongside current heatseekers like Dry Cleaning and Wet Leg, but that has a stamina all its own. Margolin is just about to release the follow up to Every Bad, an equally bracing and incredible set of songs called Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky, once again on the Secretly Canadian label. In this conversation, Mount and Margolin talk about their collaboration, about the time that Mount almost but didn’t quite catch Margolin performing, and about the importance of lyrics—you’ll hear how eczema factors into a new song. They also get to Kierkegaard, Michael Stipe, and Margolin’s desire to—but inability—to write a “nice little love song.” Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Dana Margolin and Joseph Mount for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcast platform and all social media channels. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of guests who I can call legends without hesitation: Shirley Manson and John Doe. Doe is a founding member of the insanely influential punk band X, which started life way back in 1977 Los Angeles. They were part of a scene that leaned into hardcore punk, but X set itself apart by sneaking elements of country and Americana into their blistering records and live sets. And the chemistry between Doe and his co-lead singer Exene Cervenka was legendary: In fact, it still is. Though the band has split a few times over the years, they’re still actively rocking all these years later, and in fact released a really great record in 2020, called Alphabetland—it was their first in about 20 years. Doe has also been an active solo artist as well, and he’s got a great new album coming out May 20, 2022: It’s called Fables in a Foreign Land, and it’s a concept record whose tales take place in the 1890s. It’s dark and folky, and includes some songwriting help from a bunch of amazing folks, including today’s other guest, Shirley Manson. Manson of course is the singer and frontperson of Garbage, which she’s been a part of steadily since the early 1990s. Garbage was formed by producer Butch Vig—he of Nirvana’s Nevermind fame—and was a massive success right out of the gate, with hits like “Queer,” “Stupid Girl,” and “Only Happy When It Rains.” They even did one of the best James Bond themes in recent memory, “The World is Not Enough.” The band has released a steady stream of great records over the years, including last year’s No Gods No Masters. A bonus track from that album, “Destroying Angels,” was written with and features both John Doe and Exene Cervenka, and an entirely different version of it also appears on this great new John Doe record. In this chat, Manson grills Doe on his intentions as a songwriter, and he asks her about Garbage’s process as well. Manson wants to know whether Doe considers himself a singer or songwriter first, and she refers to Butch Vig more than once in her charming Scottish accent as "Butchie." They also talk about the afterlife, and how playing new music for the people closest to you can be a little deflating. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Shirley Manson and John Doe for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcast platform and all social media channels. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! CORRECTION: May 12, 6:17 PM Shirley claims via Twitter that she never referred to Vig as “Butchie,” and upon further review of the tapes, it seems I was misinterpreting a breath as another syllable. Apologies to Ms. Manson!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a legendary guitarist and songwriter in conversation with one of our favorite repeat guests: Mike Campbell and Margo Price. Campbell is best known as Tom Petty’s right-hand man, a position he proudly held for five decades until Petty’s untimely death in 2017. Together they wrote some of the Heartbreakers’ best known songs, including “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” and “You Got Lucky.” Campbell also produced a bunch of Petty solo and Heartbreakers songs, and has contributed his playing and writing skills to lots of other artists, too. I was surprised to learn just recently that Campbell co-wrote Don Henley’s massive “Boys of Summer,” too. Who knew? But even before the end of the Heartbreakers’ run, Campbell would spend time with his side band, the Dirty Knobs, where he not only plays guitar but also sings and writes the lyrics. The band recently released their second studio album, External Combustion, which is where today’s other guest comes in. Margo Price is a firecracker of a singer and songwriter who doesn’t exactly fit neatly into the world of country—which is perhaps why she’s been so embraced by folks outside of that world. Jack White’s Third Man Records released Price’s first two albums, including her killer debut from 2016, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, and though she lives in Nashville, her sound is more old-school country than new. Her last album is 2020’s That’s How Rumors Get Started, though as you’ll hear in this chat, she’s been working on both new music and an upcoming memoir. She pulls no punches, so both should be great. Oh, and she found some time to help out with some vocals on The Dirty Knobs’ latest, specifically on a song called “State of Mind.” As a longtime fan of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, she was excited as hell to work with Campbell, and the feeling was mutual. Check out “State of Mind” here. Classic sounding, right? In this chat, Campbell and Price talk about getting back on the road after so long away. They talk about songwriting with other people: Price thinks it can be more personal than sleeping with someone. Campbell gets Price excited by revealing that he’s being joined on some dates by old-school Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch. And the two make plans to meet up on the road, specifically when they’re both opening huge amphitheaters for Chris Stapleton in June. Enjoy! Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Margo Price and Mike Campbell for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platforms and social media channels. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got two leading lights of modern psychedelic indie-rock, Melody Prochet and Lila Ramani. Prochet is the creative force behind Melody’s Echo Chamber, whose evocative name is taken from a dream she once had. Her debut album under the name, which Prochet recorded with help from Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, was released in 2012. She has since released two more full-lengths while bouncing around the planet and raising children. The new one, Emotional Eternal, was partly inspired by Prochet’s move from Paris to the idyllic quiet of the Swiss Alps. It features assists from members of the Swedish band Dungen, though it’s more spare and stripped down than that might suggest—and more spare than her past work, too. There are bits of psych in there, along with echoes of bands like Stereolab. Lila Ramani of the New York band Crumb shares some of those influences, and Melody Prochet’s music influenced what Ramani wanted to do in her band, too. Crumb got going while its members were still in college in 2016, but really picked up speed with their debut full length, Jinx, which came out in 2019. Crumb released a second album, Ice Melt, in 2021, further incorporating jazzy rhythms into their psychedelic stew. In this conversation, the mutual admirers talk about their personal lives, including Prochet’s side gig as an art therapist as well as Ramani’s childhood growing up near the Gowanus Canal. They chat about Coachella, “grinding vs floating,” and Prochet’s favorite American city—which will almost certainly surprise you. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Melody Prochet and Lila Ramani for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe to Talkhouse on your favorite platform, and tell your friends that we’re the best. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! View the full transcript of this podcast here.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a lovefest between two musicians who came together to create one of the year’s most electrifying records: Eno Williams of Ibibio Sound Machine and Joe Goddard of Hot Chip. Ibibio Sound Machine has been mashing up sounds for just under a decade now, blending elements of Afrobeat and electronic music into a fierce combination that inspires dancing, chanting, and sweating—at least when they’re allowed to hit the road. Williams is a force of nature on their newest album, Electricity. She was born in London but grew up in Nigeria—specifically the Ibibio region—and was exposed to those incredible regional sounds before moving back to London for school and steeping herself in the electronic music happening there. Electricity captures her vision pretty perfectly, thanks at least in part to today’s other guest, Joe Goddard of Hot Chip. As you’ll hear in this chat, Goddard was a fan of Ibibio Sound Machine, having seen one of their incredible live performances at a festival, and the feeling was mutual. Goddard and his Hot Chip collaborators came in to produce Electricity, which was the first time Ibibio had used an outside producer. You can hear the Hot Chip fingerprints all over the record; it’s an amazing collaboration that both sides are clearly very happy with, as evidenced by this chat. And just moments ago—for me, anyway, it will be later for you—Hot Chip announced a brand new album as well. Freakout/Release will be out in August, and Hot Chip will play the second weekend of Coachella this Saturday.  In this podcast, Goddard and Williams get deep into musical influences, including Nigerian electronic music pioneer Wiliam Onyeabor, Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, and more. They also talk about how sometimes the audience doesn’t know you’re having a bad show, and about the “super synth power” they found while working together. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Eno Williams and Joe Goddard for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! View the full transcript of this podcast here.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got two veterans of ‘90s rock who went on to form bands that referenced air travel in their name and whose biggest bands both start with Jaw: Blake Schwarzenbach of Jawbreaker and J. Robbins of Jawbox. Sorry if that was confusing, I’ll clear it up for you. Blake Schwarzenbach was and is the singer and guitarist of the band Jawbreaker, which had its initial run from 1986 until 1996, at which time they acrimoniously splintered after longtime fans turned their backs on 1995’s Dear You, mostly because these dogmatic listeners were mad that the band had signed to a major label. These things were a big deal then, which seems kind of quaint now. History was incredibly kind to both Jawbreaker and Dear You, so much so that in 2017 they reformed to headline Chicago’s massive Riot Fest, and they’ve been playing together on and off ever since. In the intervening years, Schwarzenbach also played in other great bands, most notably Jets to Brazil, which is what I was referencing earlier. Jawbreaker is on tour now, and they’re bringing along some of their favorite bands to open, which brings us to… Jawbox, which followed a sorta similar trajectory to Jawbreaker. They came together in the late ‘80s, released a couple of incredible albums for a respected independent label, and then moved into the big leagues, with all the baggage and joy that might bring. Jawbox split in 1997, and Robbins went on to form Burning Airlines—are you seeing a pattern here?—but Jawbox reconvened in 2019. Those two bands certainly aren’t the beginning and end of Robbins’ amazing contributions to the world of music, though: Prior to Jawbox he was in Government Issue—you’ll hear them referred to as GI in this chat—he’s served as producer for a number of bands over the years, including Jets to Brazil, the Promise Ring, the Dismemberment Plan, Against Me, and other bands that make my 1990s heart sing. I hope you’ll notice I haven’t said emo once yet. In this conversation, J. and Blake talk about what it feels like to play shows together again after all these years—and all this pandemic. Blake compliments J. on his psychedelic guitar playing, and J. isn’t sure what to make of that. And we learn—I think for the first time—that Jawbox briefly considered calling themselves Jawbreaker, before J. discovered Jawbreaker’s first single at a record store and crossed it off his list. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to J. Robbins and Blake Schwarzenbach for chatting. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of Norwegian friends who both have excellent new records out this year: Sondre Lerche and AURORA.  Lerche started writing gorgeous pop songs while he was still a teen in the suburbs of Bergen, Norway. It wasn’t too long before his music started finding its way out into the world, and he’s released a bunch of albums since the early 2000s. Though clearly starting from a pop background—his songs are incredibly catchy—Lerche has nimbly moved through various permutations over the years, flirting with jazzy sounds, more intimate acoustic numbers, touches of Brazilian sounds, and the occasional out-and-out new wavey rock. Not long before the pandemic, Lerche recorded Patience, which he intended to tour behind, but instead he ended up moving back to Norway from Los Angeles and recording another excellent album, called Avatars of Love. For this one, his tenth, Lerche recruited a bunch of friends to help out, including another Norwegian star from a younger generation, AURORA. Here’s a bit of the sensual duet they performed together for the album, it’s called “Alone in the Night.” As you can hear, AURORA has a kind of otherworldly quality to her voice, though on her own records it’s more often set against a more electronic backdrop: You may have heard her killer single “Cure for Me,” which came out last year and appears on her latest album, which came out earlier this year. It’s called The Gods We Can Touch, and she’s once again—like Lerche—supremely interested in lyrics, this time around going heavy on love and relationships.  You’ll hear the two of them chat about the importance of love in this podcast, as well as their native Norway, earlobe hair, and more. One minute they’re deep into how music can help us overcome grief, and the next they’re talking about how religion and music are both like penises, in that they are beautiful and lovely, but you shouldn’t shove any of them in someone’s face. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to AURORA and Sondre Lerche for letting us listen in on their fun. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

I’m thrilled to share a special preview of the Broken Record podcast from Pushkin Industries. In honor of the Red Hot Chili Peppers new album, Unlimited Love, the band members sit with their legendary producer Rick Rubin to share exclusive insights about the band’s dynamic. In this preview, Rick, John, and Anthony discuss John rejoining the band after a 10 year hiatus and how right it felt to be playing together again. You can hear the full episode, and more from Broken Record at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/brokenrecordrhcp?sid=talkhouse. 

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of songwriters who share a serious dedication to the craft, a slightly sardonic outlook on life, and deep, incredible catalogs: Neil Hannon and Ben Folds. Neil Hannon is from Northern Ireland, and it’s safe to say that he and the band that he’s fronted for the past 30 years, the Divine Comedy, are a bit better known in Europe than in the States. Under the Divine Comedy name, Hannon has released a dozen delightfully clever albums, the latest of which is 2019’s Office Politics. If you’re a newbie and that seems far too much to catch up on, you’re in luck: Just this year, the Divine Comedy released a fantastic greatest-hits set called Charmed Life. Hannon has also kept himself busy over the years writing an opera of sorts, as well as composing the theme songs to two beloved British sitcoms, The IT Crowd and Father Ted—the latter show comes up at the beginning of this conversation. Another thing you’ll hear Hannon reference in this chat is “Wonka money”—he’s referring to the fact that he’s composing the music for the upcoming Willy Wonka movie starring Timothee Chalamet. Not too shabby. Here’s a little bit of the Divine Comedy’s “The Best Mistakes.” Ben Folds, as you’ll hear in this conversation, is a huge fan of Hannon and his music. They’ve played together in the past and they plan to again; you’ll even hear them chatting about an orchestral series of concerts that Folds helps produce at the Kennedy Center. Folds, of course, is the piano-playing maestro who led the Ben Folds Five during the ‘90s, then struck out on his own for a vastly varied career in music. In addition to more pop-oriented albums, he’s collaborated with everyone from William Shatner to Weird Al; he’s written a piano concerto for the Nashville Symphony, released a well received memoir, and started a podcast in which he interviews interesting folks from various walks of life. Another guest who makes us all feel lazy. Damn it, Folds! For this chat, the old friends were in vastly different time zones: Hannon in Ireland and Folds in Australia, the former ready for bed and the latter just waking up. They talk about their admiration for each other—and how they don’t really understand current pop music, because they know they’re not supposed to. They talk about the downsides of ProTools and the upsides of the pandemic. And you get to hear Ben Folds say the phrase “getting on fucking Talkhouse and kissing ass,” which made my week. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Ben Folds and Neil Hannon for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

Sometimes Talkhouse Podcast participants have never met, sometimes they're acquainted, and on rare occasions, they know each other really well. For this week's chat, it became clear pretty quickly that Sasha Spielberg—a.k.a. Buzzy Lee—and Alana Haim already spoke the same language. As it turns out, and you'll hear this in the conversation, they're close enough to share a Hulu account. The occasion for this conversation is the debut full-length from Buzzy Lee, the excellent Spoiled Love, which is out now. And of course, it's not too late to enjoy the latest album from HAIM, Women In Music Pt. III, which came out in 2020. The two old friends talk about young love, bat mitzvahs, "cozy boys," and songwriting. It's charming as hell.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a funny pairing that proves that good things do occasionally result from the existence of social media: Steve Albini and Max Collins. You almost certainly know Steve Albini’s name and probably some of his work, too, but I’ll share this brief summary anyway: As a musician, he has played in some incredibly influential bands, most notably Big Black and Shellac. As a producer/engineer/studio owner, he has helped make records by thousands of small independent bands and several huge mainstream ones, most notably Nirvana, with whom he recorded In Utero. (Other notable credits include PJ Harvey, Pixies, and the list goes on.) Albini is also a poker enthusiast who holds a World Series bracelet, though that part of his life doesn’t come up here. Throughout his career, Albini has been an outspoken champion of independence from the major-label system, and even penned a widely shared essay way back in the day about the general shittiness of the mainstream music business. Which makes it kind of funny that he’s speaking today with Max Collins, frontman for the band Eve 6, who were sort of a prime example of the major-label machinery in the ‘90s—though through no fault of their own. Signed to a huge deal just out of high school, the band had a pretty massive hit with a song called “Inside Out,” whose chorus features the phrase “heart in a blender.” Eve 6 largely disappeared after the turn of the century, but Collins found a hilarious new way to connect with fans during the pandemic: Twitter. His no-holds-barred tweets are funny and self-effacing, and they gained him an instant following. He refers to himself frequently—even once during this podcast—as the “heart in a blender guy,” and he openly shares his stories about other alt stars of the ‘90s, his opinions on current and older bands, and even some of his personal life. Albini, no stranger to no filter himself, became a fan after the two started playfully sparring about the relative merits of Counting Crows. A Twitter beef was born. If you don’t like that phrase, this is not the episode for you. Eve 6 has since started recording and releasing new music, and the two talk a bit about that in this episode. They also get into Eve 6’s financial history, the evils of major-label deals in the ‘90s, and for brief moment of non-playfulness, the idea of art as the antidote for the hellscape we all live in. Then there’s talk of starting a new beef, this time with Dave Grohl. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Steve Albini and Max Collins for chatting. If you liked what you heard, follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and please rate us—it actually does help. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse episode, which we recorded as part of the On Air Festival, we’ve got a kind of unusually focused conversation about another person entirely: It’s Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie along with Meg Remy of U.S. Girls, talking at length about legendary artist Yoko Ono. It’s not just out of nowhere, though: Ben Gibbard, who you almost certainly know as the frontman of Death Cab For Cutie, whose impressive catalog has shaped indie-rock over the past two decades, recently curated a compilation that pays tribute to Ono’s music. He’s a man on a mission, which as you’ll hear is not to re-evaluate Yoko Ono’s vast catalog, but really to evaluate it in the first place. What people tend to know about Ono’s music doesn’t reflect the variety of her output, and her narrative as the villain in the Beatles story is ridiculous. To that end, Gibbard gathered a killer lineup to cover Ono’s songs for an album called Ocean Child. Musicians features in the collection include David Byrne with Yo La Tengo, Sharon Van Etten, Jay Som, Japanese Breakfast, the Flaming Lips, and of course Death Cab for Cutie themselves. Also included on Ocean Child is U.S. Girls, the musical project of Meg Remy. She’s been making music under the name for the past 15 years or so, amassing an impressive collection of records up to an including 2020’s Heavy Light–a Pitchfork best new music designee. She’s a perfect fit for a tribute to and conversation about Yoko Ono, since she’s not only a huge fan but clearly influenced by Ono’s sonic and political fearlessness. Before they get to chatting Yoko, Gibbard and Remy talk about Covid—there were some positives in it for Remy, who also gave birth to twins recently—and hotel notepads. Then it’s on to Yoko, whom they both deeply admire: They talk about her records, her art, and how the recent Get Back documentary kind of exploded the narrative on her vis a vis the Beatles. It’s a great chat about a worthy, misunderstood subject. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Meg Remy and Ben Gibbard for chatting. If you like what you heard, check out Ocean Child. And if you enjoyed the podcast, please follow, like, and rate Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! View the full transcript of this podcast here.

This week's Talkhouse Podcast features a bit of a lovefest between two titans of the indie-rock world, Lou Barlow and Ben Bridwell. It’s a cliche, sure, but Lou Barlow probably doesn’t need an introduction around here. A founding member of Dinosaur Jr., he played on that band’s formative 1980s albums before not very amicably parting ways with frontman J Mascis. But Barlow found plenty of subsequent success in the 90s with Sebadoh, whose 1994 masterpiece Bakesale is referenced in this chat. Barlow also, weirdly, had kind of a mainstream hit with his side project Folk Implosion—and there’s some very interesting, unexpected Folk Implosion news in this podcast that I won’t spoil for you. Barlow eventually rejoined Dinosaur Jr. in 2005, and the band has found a fruitful third life, making vital new records. Speaking of vital records, the prolific Barlow has also found time to make new Sebadoh music and solo records. The latest Lou Barlow record came out just last year, and it’s called Reason to Live, and there was also an excellent Dinosaur Jr. album from 2021 called Sweep it Into Space. As Ben Bridwell points out in this chat, Lou Barlow has been making music in public for damn near 40 years, while the group that Bridwell leads, Band of Horses, is approaching 20 years now. As you’ll hear in this conversation, Bridwell moved from the South to various other cities, ending up in Seattle—and specifically at the legendary Crocodile Cafe—where he played in bands and listened to lots of music. He loved Sebadoh, as did pretty much everybody in the 90s, and it was one of the inspirations for Bridwell to launch Band of Horses, which subsequently found its own substantial fanbase—no surprise considering Bridwell’s passionate voice and fantastic songs. Band of Horses hasn’t put out a full length in more than five years—blame the pandemic for at least some of that delay—but is just now releasing a great new record that feels a bit more like their early stuff, and they’re about to head out on a huge tour supporting the Black Keys. The new album is called Things are Great. It’s clear from the very start of this conversation what a huge fan of each other these two guys are—and also that neither of them are very good at accepting compliments. Barlow talks about the magical moment he connected with Bridwell’s voice, Bridwell talks about discovering the power of that voice, they talk about how a Camel cigarettes tour brought them together, and eventually, Bridwell makes up his own segment for the Talkhouse Podcast called “rapid fire.” It’s a delight. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Lou Barlow and Ben Bridwell for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform and social media service. Oh, and rate us, too—it really does help! This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

As a music fan of a certain age, I can be a bit partial to the 1990s, and to that era’s emo-rock in particular, so this week’s Talkhouse pairing speaks to me: It’s Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World and Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional. Jimmy Eat World started life in 1993 in Arizona, pretty much straight out of high school. Before they knew what hit them, they had a major label deal with Capitol and a hearty underground following for their catchy, raw songs. A rollercoaster of a career eventually led to a massive radio hit in 2001: “The Middle”—you know it, believe me—which launched them to new heights but didn’t really change the band’s fundamentals. They’ve continued making excellent records since, up to and including 2019’s Surviving. One of that album’s best songs is the focus of part of today’s podcast, too: “555.”  Dashboard Confessional, which is the product of singer-songwriter Chris Carrabba, started life a little later in the ‘90s, but also with a bang. His heart-on-sleeve lyrics almost immediately inspired sold-out shows and tear-stained singalongs. In other words, the “emo” tag actually makes some sense for once. The pandemic cut short Carrabba’s touring look back at 20 years of Dashboard Confessional, but it allowed him to finish a brand new album called All the Truth That I Can Tell. Now Carrabba and Adkins aren’t just here because they’re pals and they come from similar backgrounds. They’re also bringing their bands together through March on a co-headlining tour dubbed “Surviving The Truth" and then both bands will be part of the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas in October. All the dates can be found on either band’s website, naturally. Adkins and Carrabba chat a lot about songwriting here, specifically about techniques for letting a song find itself. They also ponder whether it’s better to have a big radio hit, like Jimmy Eat World did, or to be associated with a huge Spider-Man movie, as Dashboard Confessional was. And both seem delighted, even after all this time, to be able to make music their living. Enjoy.  Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Chris Carrabba and Jim Adkins for chatting. If you liked what you heard, check out Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform and social channels. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

This week’s episode, while not particularly hilarious, might set a new Talkhouse record for the sheer amount of laughter. You’ll see why when you listen: It’s the members of BadBadNotGood in conversation with Laraaji.  BadBadNotGood is a Canadian band that straddles the line between jazz and instrumental hip-hop, but has gone well beyond those two things in the last decade, incorporating electronic elements, Brazilian sounds, and much more. They’ve collaborated with everyone from Kendrick Lamar, who sought them out after seeing them at Coachella, to Tyler the Creator to Ghostface Killah to Future Islands’ Samuel Herring. The list goes on and on. BadBadNotGood returned last year after a five-year album gap with a collection called Talk Memory. On it, they proved more collaborative than ever, bringing in a bunch of incredible musicians to expand their sound. One of the musicians they called on was the legendary yet under the radar Laraaji, who’s had a remarkable career over the past 40 years or so. After a winding road that included acting and stand-up comedy, Laraaji was eventually discovered while busking in Washington Square Park by none other than Brian Eno, who produced and released Laraaji’s Day of Radiance album as part of his Ambient series. Since then, he’s released dozens more recordings. Laraaji’s main instrument is an electrified zither, which as you’ll hear in this conversation, came to him in kind of a magical way. Once you hear him talk, though, that won’t surprise you: He’s obviously open to whatever experiences the world wants to bring him. On record that most recently includes a collaboration with the improvisational ensemble NOUS and his old friend Arji OceAnanda called Circle of Celebration. In this conversation, you’ll hear Laraaji laughing a lot, because in addition to his music, he leads laughter workshops—which are exactly what you might think they are. You’ll also hear about Laraaji’s past, about the brain that exists inside your abdomen, creative trances, and why the color orange has played a big part in his life. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Laraaji and the members of BadBadNotGood for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got an unlikely pairing of two performers who share a home state, but it would seem at first glance not too much else—though that’s just first glance: Britt Daniel of Spoon and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Now the genesis of this conversation was actually a comment that Britt Daniel made around the time the band announced its new album, Lucifer on the Sofa. About the song “The Hardest Cut,” he simply said that he’d been listening to a lot of ZZ Top in the years leading up to the album’s recording. And while the song is certainly no tribute to ZZ Top, you can hear the snarl and bite coming through in its tones and lyrics as well as on a few other place on this collection. It’s album number 10 for Spoon, who have had an incredibly strong run over the past almost three decades. Lucifer on the Sofa is out this week, and it stands among their best—catchy, considered, and a bit more raw than recent records. Maybe that’s because they recorded it back in Britt’s home state, which of course is where the legendary ZZ Top was born as well. Billy Gibbons formed the band with Dusty Hill and Frank Beard way back in 1969, and the original trio rocked consistently for five decades until Hill’s death in 2021. The blues-inspired rock band gained traction in the ‘70s with songs like “La Grange” and “Tush,” then took off in the ‘80s as they became superstars of the early MTV era with “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs.” They were shoo-ins for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, of course, and not even Hill’s death could stop them: His guitar tech and friend Elwood Francis stepped in, and ZZ Top will play shows with Cheap Trick this April—all the dates, naturally, are at ZZTop.com. Daniel and Gibbons talk a lot about what they have in common, which is the state of Texas and specifically its myriad Mexican restaurants. Daniel asks about the legendary photo inside ZZ Top’s classic 1973 album Tres Hombres, and Gibbons gets a chance to talk about some of his contemporaries and friends, including Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators and Bo Diddley, with whom he collaborated on a guitar design, among other things. Enjoy.  If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platforms and social media channels. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got the guitarist-singer of a great young-ish band from Minneapolis in conversation with a hotshot guitarist who’s just starting to make a name for herself: Nathan Stocker of Hippo Campus and Yasmin Williams. Hippo Campus formed just under a decade ago, while Stocker and his bandmates were still in high school. They came out of the gate just as you might expect: eager and excited, releasing a series of EPs followed by a bang-bang pair of excellent albums and inspiring crowds at pretty much every festival you could think of. After touring behind 2018’s Bambi, Hippo Campus took some time to stretch their legs, with each member heading off into side projects of various sounds and sizes. But the band reconvened with fresh motivation and a clearer-eyed outlook last year, and they came up with a powerhouse of an album with the simple title of LP3. It’s slightly more mature in the best ways, but still incredibly catchy and true to their sound. There’s a lot of inward looking existential lyrics, but wrapped in fantastic hooks. It was Stocker’s idea to chat with guitarist Yasmin Williams, who he had recently come across via NPR’s long-running, always reliable Tiny Desk concert series. That performance was particularly captivating, because you’re not just hearing what Williams can do with an acoustic guitar, but you’re seeing it as well. She takes the foundation built by fingerstyle masters like John Fahey and Michael Hedges but brings a modern sensibility to it: In this conversation, she talks a lot about her love of metal and math-rock, bits of which you can almost hear in her beautiful playing. Williams has released two albums so far, and as you’ll also hear in this chat, she’s working on a third. The latest is Urban Driftwood. Williams and Stocker didn’t know each other at all prior to this chat, but it turned out that she’s a Hippo Campus fan. The two talk about gear nerd stuff, YouTube videos by Andy McKee, being in competition with yourself, and of course the inspiration for Williams’ interest in music to begin with: a little game called Guitar Hero 2. Enjoy. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, highly acclaimed actor Harry Melling and writer-director Amanda Kramer chat over Zoom from their respective homes in London and Los Angeles. The two recently collaborated as star and filmmaker on Kramer’s latest feature, Please Baby Please, which also stars Andrea Riseborough and Demi Moore and is the opening film at 2022 International Film Festival Rotterdam. In a wide-ranging conversation, Kramer and Melling touched on many subjects, from making Please Baby Please during COVID in Montana, to Harry’s love of dancing, why Amanda almost had a breakdown on set, actors’ misplaced obsession with playing real people, how Amanda expanded Harry’s love and knowledge of English cinema, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

This week’s Talkhouse conversation features a pair of indie musicians—one of whom is known a bit better for another career—who recently collaborated on a song, and who have lots to say about creativity and the current state of the music biz: Hrishikesh Hirway and Melina Duterte, aka. Jay Som. If you recognize Hirway’s name, chances are good it’s from one of his popular podcasts: The best known is probably Song Exploder, on which Hirway and a guest break down a single song, spending time to get at its component parts and to explore the creative process. (Perhaps it goes without saying that it shares some DNA with the Talkhouse Podcast.) Guests over the years have included Bjork, Spoon, St. Vincent—the list goes on and on. Song Exploder became a Netflix series in 2020, with Hirway acting host on the TV version as well. In addition to that, he’s behind some other great podcasts, including the fun pandemic-era food chat show Home Cooking, which he co-hosts with Samin Nusrat. With all of that on his plate, it’s easy to overlook that Hirway spent many years making gentle, melancholy indie music under the name The One AM Radio. That part of his life took a backseat to his other pursuits, but music called him back, and he spent some time over the pandemic recording some songs that he’s slowly releasing under his own name. The first was a collaboration with famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and just this week came the second: a collaboration with today’s other guest, Melina Duterte, who’s better known by her project’s name, Jay Som. The two met because Duterte was a guest on Song Exploder, where she spoke about her song “Tenderness.” Though he didn’t actually host that episode, Hirway loved what he heard, and the two struck up a friendship that led to Duterte guesting on the touching song “Home.” If you like what you hear, the Jay Som catalog is thoroughly fantastic. Her last album under the name was 2019’s Anak Ko, but she’s spent time producing and collaborating with other folks over the past couple of years, including production duties for the latest album by Julia Shapiro of Chastity Belt—a recent guest on this very podcast. Jay Som’s music is often called “bedroom pop,” but after people hear this conversation, they may have to start calling it “attic pop,” since Duterte recently relocated to a private top floor of her own. Elsewhere in this conversation, she and Hirway talk about the hot mess that is the music industry, the software they sometimes use, and the alt-rock band that Duterte obsessed over as a pre-teen. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Hrishikesh Hirway and Melina Duterte for chatting. Check out their collaborative song, “Home,” and be sure to follow them both—and Talkhouse!—on your favorite social media channels. See you next time!

For the first new Talkhouse Podcast episode of the new year, we’ve got an unlikely pairing—which is one of our favorite kinds of pairings. But it wasn’t exactly our idea to connect Michael Vincent Waller and Lex Luger, it was theirs. The contemporary classical composer and the extremely prolific hip-hop producer made a really cool record together that came out in 2021, called Classic$. Waller is not your typical classical composer, he’s a real musical searcher. His compositions range from avant-garde to minimalist to slightly more classic-sounding classical music. But over his career he hasn’t stayed in one place musically for very long. He made a record back in 2019 with electronic producer JLin, which you may have read about in an interview with the pair right on this very website. So maybe it’s no surprise at all that Waller didn’t let genre get in the way of his love for hip-hop when he reached out to Luger for an assist on Classic$—which I should note is credited to MVW, rather than Waller’s full name, in case you have trouble finding it on your favorite streaming service. The two collaborated on the music, as you’ll hear, and they brought in a bunch of voices to help flesh things out.  Luger has had an incredible career in hip-hop. For the last decade-plus, he’s been a go-to producer for some huge names, starting with Waka Flocka Flame—who he connected with via MySpace—and Rick Ross, but running through tracks by Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Snoop Dogg, among many, many others. He famously used to make hundreds of beats at a stretch: If you didn’t like one of his spooky trap sounds, he had a dozen others ready for you. I guess the place that Luger and Waller might intersect is that Luger’s beats often feature symphonic elements: They can sound, at times, like horror-movie scores. In this conversation, Luger and Waller talk about how working together affected them: It was more than just another job for Luger, who feels like he learned something valuable from Waller’s acoustic-first approach. They also talk about what music actually means to them, which is a very Talkhouse-friendly subject. They clearly want to work with one another again, which says something about the deep connection they made on Classic$. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Lex Luger and Michael Vincent Waller for chatting. Be sure to follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting services and social media outlets. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by The Range. 

This week we’re resurfacing a delightful episode that originally ran in April of 2020, and which features two of our favorite songwriters/performers: Matt Berninger of The National and Aimee Mann. Their chat was inspired by the release of an excellent documentary about Other Music, the revered New York record store that closed in 2016. The conversation veers into many other areas as well, including creativity during the pandemic. The challenges of the past couple of years were no match for these two: Berninger released a solo album called Serpentine Prison last year, and Mann just released Queens of the Summer Hotel, a set of new songs inspired by the book Girl, Interrupted. Enjoy, and we’ll be back with a brand new episode next week. —Josh Modell This week on the show, we celebrate the wonderful Other Music documentary with two Grammy-winning artists: singer-songwriter Aimee Mann and the National's Matt Berninger. The two discuss the iconic record store and the creative importance of having physical spaces dedicated to musical community, plus we hear how they're managing to work during the pandemic, and Matt reveals that he's both writing a musical and launching a label imprint. The Other Music doc features many wonderful artists that have appeared on our show — TV on the Radio, the Magnetic Fields, Superchunk, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jason Schwartzman, Animal Collective, William Basinski, Frankie Cosmos and more — this is truly a #talkhousecore film! Other Music is currently being screened via a "virtual theatrical release," with more than 200 independent record shops and movie theaters offering it to rent, and splitting the profits 50/50. This is a wonderful chance to support your local purveyor of brilliant art, and catch one of the must-see music films of the year. Click here to find your local favorite store or theater that's screening it! (Our producer Mark Yoshizumi rented it from his alma mater Reckless Records in Chicago; Talkhouse Film's Editor-in-Chief Nick Dawson supported Permanent Records in L.A., and I went with Record Grouch in Brooklyn, where I've spent many and many a happy hour amongst the hallowed racks.) Enjoy today's show, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming talks like Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) with the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, and Black Belt Eagle Scout with Sasami. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This week’s show was recorded by Aimee Mann, Matt Berninger, Nick Dawson, and myself in our respective #stayhome studios. The Talkhouse Podcast's co-producer is Mark Yoshizumi. Our theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

We’ve hosted some incredible Talkhouse conversations in 2021, and for our final brand-new episode of the year, we’ve got two people responsible for some of the best records of this year: Julien Baker and Aaron Dessner. Baker released her third album, Little Oblivions, back in February, and it’s a doozy. Expanding her sonic palette massively, Baker delivered her powerful, vulnerable songs with much bigger sounds. That might have felt like a gamble, but it paid off massively—she produced it herself and pushed herself into new spaces. Dessner is of course a founding member of the National, with whom he’s played for the past 20+ years. While his main band slowed down over the past couple of years, Dessner has been operating at hyperspeed. He was one of the main co-writers and producers on Taylor Swift’s Folklore and Evermore albums. He won an Album of the Year Grammy for the former, and was nominated for five more Grammys for the latter. He somehow also found time to release a new album with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon under the name Big Red Machine called How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? In addition to loads of guest singers, that record features Dessner on occasional lead vocals. These two have a fantastic conversation about creativity and, specifically, production: Aaron has done a lot of producing for other artists, and Julien is just getting into it. Julien talks about what it’s like to have a full live band backing her, rather than being a quote-unquote masochist and playing alone. They talk about what it was like to be deprived of live audiences for so long, and Aaron gets into how his studio setup has changed over the years. Also, they both know what it’s like when music can make you cry—that’s the kind of thing we love here at Talkhouse. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Julien Baker and Aaron Dessner for having such a wonderful chat. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting service and social media channels--we’re everywhere. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan and Keenan Kush, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

This week’s Talkhouse episode features a pair of legends from the alt-country or country or No Depression or Americana worlds—you pick. It’s Jay Farrar of Son Volt along with singer-songwriter (and many other things) Steve Earle. Jay Farrar started his career as part of the seminal band Uncle Tupelo alongside another noted songwriter (and frequent Talkhouse guest) Jeff Tweedy. After their split, Tweedy went on to Wilco while Farrar formed the band Son Volt, which has since released an impressive catalog—their tenth and latest album was recorded during pandemic downtime, and you can hear it in the deliberateness of the songs. It’s called Electro Melodier. Steve Earle is one of those guys who makes you feel lazy. He’s not only an incredibly accomplished singer and songwriter with literally dozens of albums to his credit, he’s also a producer, an actor—most notably on The Wire—a novelist, a Sirius XM DJ, and as you’ll hear here, an aspiring TV show creator. His 2020 album Ghosts of West Virginia was spun off from an off-Broadway show he worked on, while this year’s J.T. is a tribute to his talented son, Justin Townes Earle, who passed away just last year. As you’ll hear, he’s got even more projects in the works, including a tribute to singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker. As you’ll hear, Steve Earle loves to chat, while Jay Farrar is a bit more subdued—a fact that these friends acknowledge right off the bat. But they get into a great conversation about their favorite subject: music—what they listened to growing up, the great shows that Earle saw as a kid, and even selling some weed to Leslie West of Mountain. Steve talks about missing the whole genesis of alt-country for good reason—he was in jail—but catching up with it, and with Son Volt in particular. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Jay Farrar and Steve Earle for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on all your favorite podcasting services and social media channels. This week’s episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a lively conversation between some people whose relationship got off to kind of a rocky start, but who’ve since become friends: Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and all three members of Mountain Man: Amelia Meath, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, and Molly Sarle. Now the occasion for this conversation is the recent reissue of the first Mountain Man record, 2010’s Made the Harbor, which features new liner notes written by Tweedy. This gorgeous, strange record was made back when these three women were just getting to know each other as college students in Vermont. Somehow, as if by magic—you’ll hear about that in this chat—their voices perfectly intertwined, and some of the very first songs that any of them wrote ended up becoming these timeless little gems. And then they went their separate ways for quite a long time: Meath ended up as half of Sylvan Esso, most notably. They’ve since regrouped for shows and more excellent music, most recently a live album called Look at Me, Don’t Look at Me. The members of Mountain Man first met Jeff Tweedy when they played Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival—and apparently snubbed Tweedy when he introduced himself. No offense was taken and a friendship was eventually formed, though as you’ll hear, Tweedy still finds himself a little intimidated in their presence. Tweedy’s latest entry in an incredibly prolific career is a deluxe edition of Love is the King, the album he recorded and released during the first part of the pandemic. It’s now getting a bonus disc called Live is the King, which as you may have guessed, features live renditions of these excellent songs. Tweedy and Mountain Man will meet again in person in January during Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky festival in Mexico. Presumably they will recognize him this time. In this funny, winding conversation, they begin by talking about seasonal depression, pivot quickly to a discussion of candy, and then move on to the serious business of creating music—and what that means to them. So we’ve got everything from Mountain Man’s magical discovery of their own voices—like a unicorn in the woods—to Jeff’s story about the time he thought he could lose weight by eating only Snickers. One minute, Amelia Meath is talking about sexy lumberjacks on TikTok, the next Jeff Tweedy is pining for an honorary Bachelor’s Degree. Won’t somebody give him one? We’re looking at you, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Jeff Tweedy and Mountain Man for chatting. If you liked what you heard, follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform and all relevant social channels. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time.

Hey Talkhouse friends, this week we’re re-surfacing an episode that originally ran in May of 2020. Unlike most Talkhouse Podcast episodes, which feature two or more creative folks in conversation, this one is mostly just one guy talking: Joe Talbot of the band IDLES. It was recorded in front of a live audience in Glasgow, just before the pandemic hit, and it’s a fascinating look at an incredible artist—Talbot is a guy who’s unafraid to put it all out there, in both interviews and in his music. Speaking of music, part of the reason we’re re-promoting this episode this week is that Idles just released another incredible album: Crawler is the British band’s fourth, and it’s unsurprisingly being met with pretty ecstatic reviews. Check out this fascinating chat with Joe and a live audience, and have a great Thanksgiving. —Josh Modell ---- This week's show is a bit different from usual Talkhouse Podcast episodes. While it's nominally hosted by the legendary Alan McGee of Creation Records — the man who signed The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, and a lil ol' band called Oasis — it's not at all a two-person conversation. Instead, this episode features Joe Talbot, frontman of the incredible post-punk group IDLES, in one of the funniest, most viscerally honest live audience Q&A's I've ever witnessed. Both Joe and the attendees are willing to go to deep and often uncomfortable areas: Buckle up for a discussion of toxic masculinity, the role of violence in IDLES' music, and the difficult process of developing one’s own artistic language. We also hear about Joe collabing with Mike Skinner of The Streets, turning Sleaford Mods’ taunts into a song, putting human ashes into vinyl records, and... we even get an unexpected lesson on mindfulness. This Q&A was recorded at the wonderful Barras Art & Design in Glasgow. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming talks like Helado Negro with Buscabulla, Julien Baker and Katie Harkin (Harkin, Sleater-Kinney), Black Belt Eagle Scout with Sasami, and Scott Avett (The Avett Brothers) with Eef Barzelay (Clem Snide). — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s show was recorded in Glasgow by Nadar Shahzad of Blue Audio (thx Nadar!). Our co-producer is Mark Yoshizumi. Thanks so much to Matt Sadowski of Alt Waves Records and to Barras Art & Design for allowing us to share this event. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a roundtable of old friends who are also, as it happens, all New York City legends: Cynthia Sley and Pat Place of Bush Tetras with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, and director Jim Jarmusch. Cynthia and Pat — vocalist and guitarist, respectively — started the “groove-centric” post-punk band Bush Tetras in 1979 with Laura Kennedy on bass and Dee Pop on drums. They broke up just a few years later, but over the decades they’ve reunited periodically, and are back in action now — though, sadly, without Kennedy, who died in 2011, and Dee Pop, who passed away last month after the recording of this conversation. But as Cynthia told the New York Times, “Bush Tetras is a force that cannot be stopped.” Their pioneering work lives on, archived in a new box set called Rhythm and Paranoia: The Best of Bush Tetras, which came out on Wharf Cat last week and includes three LPs and a booklet featuring essays by Moore, Jarmusch, members of The Clash and Gang of Four, and many others. Thurston Moore was a founding member of Sonic Youth. Now based in London, he performs and records solo — his latest album is last year's By The Fire. Jim Jarmusch is the director of films like Stranger Than Paradise, Down By Law, Coffee and Cigarettes, and so many more. He’s also a musician, and currently performs with the avant-rock band SQÜRL. As Cynthia says at the beginning of their conversation, they have about 40 years of friendship between the four them, but this is the first time all four of them have gotten to talk together. Their decades-in-the-making conversation covers a lot, including Pat’s influence on Thurston as a guitarist, Tier 3 and Mudd Club memories, and an era of New York when there were still chicken slaughterhouses on Prince Street. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Bush Tetras, Thurston Moore, and Jim Jarmusch for chatting. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, longtime friends and collaborators Rosario Dawson and Talia Lugacy sit down for a chat, on the occasion of the release of their latest film together, This is Not a War Story, the moving drama about combat trauma which Lugacy wrote, directed and stars in and Dawson executive produced. In a wide-ranging conversation, the two started off by talking about the recent tragic death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust and how it connects with persistent problems in both indie and studio filmmaking, and moved on to touch on everything from the human aspect of cinema, art as therapy and Rosario’s thoughts on directing, to their time as teenagers at the Lee Strasberg Institute with Scarlett Johansson and Hayden Christensen, the changing of the guard that is currently taking place in Hollywood, and the journey they have taken together, both creatively and personally. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse Podcast theme music is composed and performed by the Range.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a little more focused conversation than usual, as Matthew Houck—the driving force behind the band Phosphorescent—chats with legendary songwriter Nick Lowe, largely about Lowe’s recently reissued 2001 album The Convincer. Even if Nick Lowe’s name isn’t super familiar to you, some of his songs almost certainly are. He’s had an incredible career that stretches back to the late 1960s, with his biggest mainstream moment coming via his dear friend Elvis Costello, who covered Lowe’s “(What’s so Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding” and made it a hit. Lowe also produced Costello’s first five albums, as well as a bunch of other classic British records, in addition to his solo work and his time with the band Rockpile. Today’s conversation is focused largely on Lowe’s 2001 album The Convincer, which was something of an artistic rebirth for him. He wanted to age gracefully and continue to challenge himself, which he did with a trilogy of albums that ended with this one. It’s a beautifully written and performed set of songs that didn’t set the commercial world on fire, but which has quietly found its way into many people’s hearts over the past two decades. The song “I’m A Mess” is the reason for this conversation. Matthew Houck, who has been making incredible music of his own under the name Phosphorescent since the early aughts, is an obsessive fan of The Convincer, so much so that he’s been working on a cover of “I’m A Mess.” A mutual friend of Houck and Lowe’s sent Lowe a copy of the song, which isn’t available yet, and they chat about it here. The most recent Phosphorescent release is the BBC Sessions EP, and it strips a set of Houck’s songs down to their barest essentials—much of his studio material is far more gussied up, and this is a great chance to hear them naked. As you’ll hear in this conversation, Houck is a huge fan of Lowe’s, and specifically of The Convincer. They get into specifics about a bunch of the songs—and you’ll find out if Lowe agrees that this was indeed his finest hour. You’ll also hear about how The Bodyguard soundtrack changed Lowe’s fortunes forever, how his onetime girlfriend Margot Kidder made her way into a song, and how Wilco helped him win fans in Indianapolis. Enjoy.   Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Nick Lowe and Matthew Houck for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting services and social media outlets. This week’s episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by The Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve put together a pair of tourmates—past and present—who are separated by decades but united by a deep respect of American music: Patterson Hood and Carl Nichols. Patterson Hood has been in rock bands since he was a pre-teen, and he’s been the co-leader of Drive-By Truckers since 1996. The band has explored the sounds and ideas of Southern rock—Hood is from Alabama—over the years, with sounds and lyrics that stretch the boundaries well beyond the world of Lynyrd Skynyrd. As you’ll hear in this conversation, Hood is a nuanced thinker and writer. You’ll also hear that, of course, on his records, both as a solo artist and a Drive-By Trucker. The band actually released two albums last year, The Unraveling back in January, and then its companion, The New OK, in October. Carl Nichols, aka Buffalo Nichols, toured with Drive-By Truckers in the past, and he’s in the midst of another touring opening for them now. Nichols, as you’ll hear, has an interesting musical history of his own—he’s been more of a genre jumper than his friend Patterson, playing in punk bands early on and then in the Milwaukee folk-ish duo Nickel and Rose. He just released his debut as Buffalo Nichols, and it takes a turn toward what Rolling Stone called “existential blues.” It’s just out on the venerated Fat Possum label. Nichols and Hood—that sounds like a great name for a duo, come to think of it—talk here about the protests in Portland, where Hood now lives; how Hood’s politics drove off a certain percentage of his audience; and a mutual love of Outkast. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Patterson Hood and Carl Nichols for chatting. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time.

This week’s Talkhouse conversation features a pair of performers who came up in the ‘90s, and who have followed each other’s careers since: Tim Burgess of the Charlatans, and Joan Wasser, aka. Joan as Police Woman. Tim Burgess has had a fascinatingly diverse career: He first came to prominence as singer of the Charlatans, who were part of the early '90s Madchester scene along with the likes of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. But unlike many of their contemporaries, the Charlatans have had a long and prosperous career, releasing more than a dozen albums in addition to Burgess’ solo output. This week sees the release of a massive Charlatans box set called A Head Full Of Ideas that spans their career and includes hits and rare tracks. In addition to the box set, a Charlatans tour that’s just about to start, and a solo album slated for next year, Burgess has kept himself busy through the pandemic with a fun concept he named Tim’s Twitter Listening Party. It’s simple enough: He coaxes other musicians to essentially live-tweet their own albums, and it’s resulted in literally hundreds of sessions with everyone from his UK contemporaries like Oasis and Blur to a session with Sir Paul McCartney himself. A hundred of those parties have now been gathered into a hardcover book, which also includes rare photos from the participants and lots more. One of those hundred is Joan Wasser, who also got her start in a ‘90s band—the Dambuilders—and subsequently launched an incredibly varied career. She was in Antony and the Johnsons for a bit, and she’s recorded a bunch of great records under the name Joan As Police Woman. The first of those, 2006’s Real Life, knocked Tim Burgess over when he first heard it—as you’ll hear in this conversation. Wasser is just about to release an incredible collaborative album that she made with Dave Okumu and Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen, not long before Allen’s death last year. It’s called The Solution is Restless, which is a pretty perfect title, and it’ll be out in November. These two have a great chat: Tim is super chill and loves to meditate; Joan is a total firecracker. They talk about how Joan’s album “knocked Tim for six,” the myth of Lou Reed—Tim met him as a fan, Joan toured with him—and how Tim, in addition to everything else, has a coffee business. Sort of. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Tim Burgess and Joan Wasser for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting services and social media outlets. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

For this week’s Talkhouse Podcast episode, we rounded up a pair of friends who deeply admire each other’s playing and songwriting—and who ultimately met because of a different episode of the Talkhouse Podcast: Kurt Vile and Julia Shapiro. Kurt Vile first came into music fans’ consciousness as part of The War On Drugs, though it wasn’t long before he decided to dedicate his time to his solo material. He’s released a string of incredible albums since, including 2013’s instant classic Wakin’ On A Pretty Daze and 2018’s Bottle It In. As you’ll hear in this conversation, he’s been hard at work, writing "too many" songs for a new album. In 2017, Vile collaborated with Australian singer Courtney Barnett on an album called Lotta Sea Lice, and it was Barnett who turned him onto Julia Shapiro and her band Chastity Belt. When Barnett and Shapiro chatted on this very podcast back in 2017, that sealed the deal for Vile, who became a huge Chastity Belt fan—and eventual friend of Shapiro’s. Now Chastity Belt, which started life about a decade ago in Washington State, has released four powerful albums over the years, most recently a self-titled set in 2019. But the occasion for this conversation is actually Shapiro’s second album as a solo artist. It’s called Zorked, a word that means kind of what you might think: extremely stoned, or maybe just completely out of it. That’s how Shapiro felt after moving to Los Angeles at the beginning of the pandemic, where her social circle was smaller and the world kind of closed in on her. The result is a weird, incredible set of songs Shapiro co-produced with her roommate Melina Duterte—aka Jay Som. That might sound a little serious, but Julia and Kurt have a fun chat here, talking about how they met, how Kurt mistook Chastity Belt for another band at first, how Julia once crowdsurfed at one of Kurt’s shows, and Julia’s love of TikTok. She even tries to convince Kurt to sign up. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Kurt Vile and Julia Shapiro for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcast and social media outlets. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of songwriters separated by a generation, but united by a serious dedication to the craft: Carl Newman and Liam Kazar. Carl Newman—aka. A.C. Newman—is best known as the gravitational center of The New Pornographers, the lark of a supergroup that he started back in 1997 but that quickly found great enough success that it became his main gig. As you perhaps already know, the band also features the prodigious talents of Neko Case and Destroyer’s Dan Bejar, though Newman does the vast majority of the songwriting. The band’s latest album is 2019’s In The Morse Code of Brake Lights, but as you’ll hear—maybe for the first time?—in this conversation, they’ve spent part of the pandemic working on a new one. If that’s not enough, the band’s classic debut Mass Romantic has just been reissued on vinyl, and in November and December the New Pornographers will do a tour on which they perform both that album and 2005’s Twin Cinema in their entirety. Newman has also been spending some time on Twitter in the past couple of years, and that’s how he heard about Liam Kazar’s song “Shoes Too Tight.” Another Talkhouse guest from this year, Eric Slick, tweeted about the song, and Newman heartily endorsed it. It’s from Kazar’s debut solo album Due North, which came out earlier this year on Kevin Morby’s new label, Mare Records. And while it may be his first album as a solo artist, it’s far from the first thing Kazar has done: He was part of the Chicago collective Kids These Days, which also featured Vic Mensa, and he’s part of the band Tweedy with his pal Spencer Tweedy and Spencer’s famous dad, Jeff. But Due North is the first time that Kazar has been front and center as a songwriter, and he sounds like an old soul. Newman and Kazar talk a lot about songwriting on this podcast, and they also get into social media, Liam’s talented family, and lots more. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Carl Newman and Liam Kazar for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting services and social media channels. Today’s episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Tiller Russell – the man behind both the doc series The Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer and real-life drama Silk Road – sits down with Oscar winner Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee’s screenwriting partner on BlacKkKlansman, Chiraq and Da 5 Bloods and a fine director in his own right om films such as C.S.A: Confederate States of America and The 24th. In a fascinating conversation, the two filmmakers discuss the parallels between their work, the theme of duality that runs through Willmott’s movies, making work that resonates in a post-January 6th world, how Errol Morris changed Tiller’s life, Kevin’s path to becoming Spike Lee’s collaborator, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a couple of friends who both happen to have new but very different projects out this month: Amber Tamblyn and Mac McCaughan. Tamblyn is an actor-writer-director-poet-activist with a wildly diverse resume. She may be best known for roles on Joan of Arcadia and Two and a Half Men, but that’s only the tip of a pretty incredible iceberg. She’s written well received books of poetry—including 2015’s Dark Sparkler. She directed the 2016 film Paint it Black, which features a score by today’s other guest. She’s one of the founders of the Time’s Up movement and the author of a book about feminism and activism called Era of Ignition. And now she’s starring the FX/Hulu adaptation of the comic book Y: The Last Man, in which every man on earth suddenly dies—except one. It’s pretty awesome so far, and she’s great in it. Mac McCaughan also wears many hats, chiefly as singer-guitarist of the long-running band Superchunk and co-owner of the righteously vaunted independent record label Merge. During the pandemic—after suffering a sort-of writer’s block—McCaughan wrote and recorded a solo album, though he didn’t exactly do it alone. The Sound of Yourself features a bunch of guests that Mac wrangled over the internet—one of the only good uses for that damn thing—including Mackenzie Scott of Torres, Michael Lerner of Telekinesis, and many more. It’s a quietly contemplative record that mixes McCaughan’s perfect pop with some more ambient instrumental passages—something he and Tamblyn talk about in this podcast. Elsewhere in this lively conversation, we get to hear about how Mac and Amber didn’t quite cross paths during the pandemic, when he graciously loaned his house to Amber, her husband David Cross, and their young daughter. They also chat about writer’s block, and whether that exists, what it was like for Tamblyn to play an ultra-conservative in Y The Last Man, and their other recent projects, which include the score for Amy Poehler’s movie Moxie (for Mac), and a bunch of new books (for Amber). They also connect about ambient music and the sheer power of Bob Mould. Enjoy. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a fabulous cross-generational conversation between two women separated by a good number of years but united by a punk spirit: Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s and Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13. It’s no overstatement to say that Kathy Valentine has a massive place in music history as part of The Go-Go’s, who burst from the L.A. punk scene of the late ‘70s and into the musical mainstream in the early ‘80s. They were the first (and still only!) all-woman band who wrote and performed their own songs to top the Billboard charts, and their debut album Beauty And The Beat remains a classic to this day.  It’s been an amazing career for Valentine and her band, some of which she recalls in her excellent memoir, called All I Ever Wanted, which came out last year. If you’re more of a viewer than a reader, there’s also a great Go-Go’s documentary on Showtime that covers the remarkable band’s career. This year—finally, after being eligible for 15 years—the Go-Go’s have been voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They’ll be inducted next month alongside Foo Fighters, Todd Rundgren, Jay-Z, Tina Turner, and Carole King. Good company. These days, Valentine lives in Austin, makes her own music when she’s not writing or doing charitable work, and occasionally gigs with The Go-Go’s. Sadie Dupuis lived in Austin very briefly—the two get into that—not long before she started the band that would launch her career, Speedy Ortiz, in Massachusetts. With Speedy, she’s released three albums—the latest is 2018’s Twerp Verse—and as Sad13, she’s released another two, including last year’s fully vibing Haunted Painting. She’s also released a book of poems called Mouthguard, and perhaps most importantly, she’s been dissecting every episode of the Gossip Girl reboot exclusively for the Talkhouse newsletter. Yes, you should subscribe. Valentine and Dupuis have a great conversation about everything from Sadie’s punk-rock parents—and her dad’s odd connection to the Rock Hall—to the Greenbrier alternative school to the soundtrack that Valentine created to go along with her book. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Kathy Valentine and Sadie Dupuis for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on all your favorite podcast providers and social media channels. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme was composed by the Range. See you next time!

Comedian Joe Pera (Joe Pera Talks With You) and singer-songwriter David Bazan (Pedro The Lion) have elevated self-aware open-heartedness and detailed observation of humanity into, well, art. When David discovered Joe's show, he fell for it hard, and reached out to Talkhouse to see if we could arrange a convo. We loved the idea, and think you'll really enjoy the result. Joe and David discuss a lot, including: their granular writing techniques; appreciating the gentle joys of life, like wearing green hats on St. Patrick’s day; how some performers only achieve their maximum authenticity onstage; and why live performers must be doms. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a lively conversation between a pair of Nashville friends who also happen to be incredible songwriters and performers: Margo Price and Tristen. Price grew up in small town Illinois, but made her way to Music City and played in a couple of pop-leaning bands before giving into the allure of country music. (It can be hard not to, and she’s great at it.) After going solo, Price released a pair of albums on Jack White’s Nashville-based Third Man Records and built up a loyal fanbase with amazing songs and even better live shows. For album number three, she moved to a new label and engaged some incredible session musicians to help her out, including Benmont Tench, Matt Sweeny, Pino Palladino, and her old pal Sturgill Simpson, who co-produced. It’s called That’s How Rumors Get Started. Tristen also grew up in Illinois and made her way to Nashville, though her musical journey has taken her to more out of the way sounds than her friend Margo over the course of five albums. She’s one of those songwriters and performers absolutely beloved by other musicians, and for good reason. She’s a risk-taker in the studio, venturing out into unknown territory and pretty much always finding something at least interesting, and often incredible. Her latest album is this year’s Aquatic Flowers. Tristen and Margo get into it right away, talking about the financial realities of today’s music industry, how working with their significant others works, and “the trick of capitalism at its core.” That might sound heavy, and sometimes it is, but it’s also super informative and fun. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Margo and Tristen for chatting. If you liked what you heard, definitely check out their recent records—and of course check out Talkhouse on all your favorite social channels. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

This week on the Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got one of those fun conversations where the reverence is on full display from the get-go. When we asked singer-songwriter Beabadoobee who she’d be interested in speaking with for the podcast, she immediately responded Nina Persson of The Cardigans—one of her heroes, as you’ll hear. For those unfamiliar with Beabadoobee, she was born in the Philippines, raised in London, and found fame over the past couple of years via social media platforms like TikTok. Canadian rapper Powfu built his song “Death Bed” around Bea’s song “Coffee,” giving her a huge hit with what was essentially the first song she ever wrote. She followed that with a string of really strong EPs, and then dropped her proper debut album, called Fake It Flowers, in October of last year. It’s a fantastic set of fuzzy pop songs that clearly found a ton of inspiration in the music of the 1990s—bands like The Sundays, Pavement, Belly, and even Daniel Johnston have bandied about in reviews. Beabadoobee is hitting the road this year with her fantastic labelmates Blackstar Kids; you can see all the tour dates down below. And maybe if you’re listening closely you’ll hear a little bit of the Cardigans in there as well, another band that found fame in those alternative-nation days. The Swedish band had a huge hit in 1996 with the song “Lovefool,” whose chorus was imprinted on a generation, and released a string of excellent albums right up through 2005, when they went into a sort of semi-retirement, emerging occasionally to play shows. At the front of the band was charming lead singer Persson, who went on to form a band called A Camp, as well as release a solo album. She’s also, admiringly, enjoying not being all that busy. She plays the occasional show but also teaches and does pottery. Sounds nice. Bea and Nina had a really lively cross-generational conversation: You can hear the admiration in Bea’s voice, and the real interest from Nina about how things are different as a twentysomething woman in the music business now versus when she was topping the charts. They also talk about social media, Nina’s favorite moments from the Cardigans catalog, red pandas, and gross hotel rooms with shag carpet, sperm, and toenails. Yuck. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Nina and Bea for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platforms and social channels, and don’t forget to check out all the great written content at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! 

This week’s Talkhouse Podcast features a couple of names you almost certainly know, because each of these guys has had a pretty incredible career in music: Richard Marx and Jakob Dylan. Marx, of course, wrote and performed some of the most indelible pop hits of the late ’80s and early ’90s, including “Endless Summer Nights,” “Hold on to the Nights,” and the super smash “Right Here Waiting,” which comes up in this conversation. But even as the era of mullets and frosted jeans faded, Marx couldn’t be stopped—or rather Marx’s songs couldn’t be stopped. He’s continued releasing music over the years, and his influence can be felt deeply to this day: Just check out the audio and visual vibe of John Mayer’s latest album, which basically pays tribute. And it’s not just music: Marx recently released a funny, candid memoir called Stories To Tell, in which he details some of the incredible memories he’s made in the music business over the years. And that’s where Jakob Dylan enters the picture, as you’ll hear. Though the two didn’t know each other, Dylan went on Joe Rogan’s podcast to praise Marx’s book, and a friendship was born. Dylan is no slouch in the music department, either—you can’t be, with that family name. He’s been the main creative force behind the Wallflowers for the past 30 years, releasing seven Wallflowers albums, two solo sets, and criss-crossing the globe. The latest Wallflowers record, Exit Wounds, just came out, and its lyrics and vibe are reflective of the times we’re living in, which is to say it’s a bit harrowing but also incredibly catchy. A bunch of the songs feature Shelby Lynne on backing vocals as well, which is a great bonus. In this chat, the two songwriters talk about process, about how writing a book is different than writing a song, a special moment Marx recently dedicated to his ailing mother, and how Barbra Streisand has no regrets about not recording Marx’s biggest hit. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Richard Marx and Jakob Dylan for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting service as well as all your favorite social media services. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range.

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a great conversation between two guys who don’t necessarily have a ton in common musically, but who approach creativity in similar ways—and who happen to be great fans of each other’s work: Mike Hadreas of Perfume Genius, and composer-performer-multi-hyphenate Max Richter. Hadreas, whom you’ve hopefully heard on the Talkhouse Podcast in the past, has been recording and performing under the name Perfume Genius since 2008, and he’s one of those artists whose music just inexplicably gets better with each passing day—even when you think it couldn’t. His records are this incredible combination of fearlessness and joy, whether he’s singing about dealing with homophobia or just making bodies move. The latest Perfume Genius record, which came out right as Covid was entering the world’s consciousness, bears the fantastic title Set My Heart On Fire Immediately. Perfume Genius will start playing shows again next month; check out perfumegenius.org for dates. As for Max Richter, it would take far more than this limited space allows just going over his resume. From contributing to a classic Future Sound of London album back in the ‘90s through his incredible score for HBO’s The Leftovers to a dozen other things, the musician/composer has an incredibly full plate. He composed an eight-hour minimalist classical piece called Sleep, which was performed for audiences that were provided with beds and encouraged to, y’know, fall asleep. (It’s now an app, too!) His latest release, just out last week, is called Exiles, and it features a lengthy new track that he composed for a ballet alongside some reimaginings of pieces he’s composed over the years. In this conversation, Richter and Hadreas talk about how making music is about articulating what can’t otherwise be articulated, where to start when you’re working on a soundtrack, and the joys of being influenced by other music. Enjoy. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

This week’s episode of the Talkhouse Podcast began somewhere not particularly known for good or fruitful ideas: Twitter. That’s where the poet Maggie Smith dropped a funny notion, which songwriter John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats picked up and ran with. Smith, whose was in the process of splitting up with her husband, suggested a photo essay in which she’d take her old wedding dress on a tour of the country, Weekend at Bernie’s style, only the dead thing isn’t a guy—it’s her marriage. Never one to shy away from life’s darkest moments, Darnielle jokingly suggested—or at least it seemed like a joke—that there was a song in Smith’s idea, and he suggested calling it “Picture of My Dress.” And then, wouldn’t you know it, he went and wrote the song, releasing it on last year’s excellent album Getting Into Knives. It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that Darnielle came up with the song: He’s so prolific that it makes the average person—meaning me—really jealous. The Mountain Goats released two studio albums and a live album in 2020, and another new album this year, called Dark In Here. He’s also an accomplished novelist and served as a judge for the 2020 National Book Awards. Speaking of writers, Maggie Smith had the unusual distinction of being a poet who broke through to the wider world with a poem called “Good Bones” back in 2016. Last year, she released the well received essay collection Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity and Change, and just last month released a poetry collection called Goldenrod. All are well worth your time, and Smith is on a sort of virtual book tour at the moment: You can check out the details on that at her site, maggiesmithpoet.com. In this conversation, Darnielle and Smith talk about the unusual nature of their kinda-sorta collaboration, a delightful thing she calls “the cake sound,” John’s failed attempt at writing a song about NASCAR, and much more. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Maggie Smith and John Darnielle for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow us wherever you get your podcasts and/or your social media. This week’s episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

Jason Narducy is a Chicago guy, but he spends a ton of his time—or at least he used to—on tour, playing bass for both Bob Mould and Superchunk. In early 2020, a local theatre mounted a production of a musical called Verboten, which was based on Jason’s life—specifically his time as a pre-teen in a punk band. As a grown-up, in addition to providing the low end for those other great folks, he fronts his own band, Split Single. Under that moniker, Narducy writes the songs and recruits incredible musicians to record and play with him. For the excellent new Split Single album, Amplificado, Narducy once again asked Superchunk’s Jon Wurster to play drums, and he summoned the bassist from a certain famous Athens, Georgia band to play as well. That’d be R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, who fleshes out the Split Single sound with his bass and backing vocals on Amplificado, which the trio recorded here in Chicago before the pandemic ground everything to a halt. Mills has kept himself busy since R.E.M. split up about ten years ago, playing with the Baseball Project and playing golf, as you’ll hear. (He’s earned it, right?) In this conversation, he also talks about a long-gestating solo album, a project that incorporates classical music, and his rescue pooch. In case you missed it, Mills’ R.E.M. bandmate Michael Stipe was on the Talkhouse Podcast just six weeks ago—we’re two for four! Elsewhere in this conversation, Mills and Narducy talk about the pandemic, of course, as well as hope for the future, passing the baton to the next generation, and the majesty of working with excellent drummers—specifically Jon Wurster and Bill Berry. Enjoy. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by The Range. Thanks for checking it out!

Nick Murphy is best known for his downtempo electronic project Chet Faker, which is confusing because it also sounds like a guy’s name—but which released one of the best albums of 2014, Built On Glass. But as you’ll hear in this Talkhouse chat, Murphy put the Chet Faker name on a shelf at the height of its popularity in order to go in a more organic route under his own name. He subsequently released a pair of albums—including one initially through a meditation app, which is very 21st century and awesome. This year, he decided to bring the Chet Faker name and sound out of the attic, and he’s just released a killer new record called Hotel Surrender. And that’s where the Belgian musicians/DJs Stephen and David Dewaele come in. The two are the principal players in a band called Soulwax, but they’ve made a massive second career as a DJ duo called 2 Many DJ’s. Back in the early aughts, 2 Many DJ’s reignited the mash-up trend with a classic mix called As Heard on Radio Soulwax Part 2. That’s right, they incorporate the name of their band right in with their other lives as DJs. They also recently opened a studio called DeeWee. Oh, and did I mention that they’re super in-demand, Grammy-nominated remixers as well? They are. And they remixed a song from the new Chet Faker album called “Whatever Tomorrow," which is what brought them together for this chat. This intercontinental conversation—Murphy is Australian but lives in New York, the Dewaele brothers are from Belgium—gets into a lot of great stuff really quickly, including the confusing but smart way both acts can diversify, how Murphy initially found the whole idea of EDM distasteful, and a little something called “spacebar energy.” I won’t tell you what it is, but I’ll say that you probably want your songs to have it.  Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Nick, Stephen, and David for chatting. Check out their various guises—you won’t be disappointed. This week’s episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and special thanks to Keenan Kush for stepping in to record it. The Talkhouse theme song is composed and performed by the Range.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of incredible young songwriter-performers whose music isn’t super similar, but who both embrace a sort of ultra-modern mish-mash of styles: Dorian Electra and Claud. Claud was the first performer signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ new label, Saddest Factory, after spending some time in a duo called Toast. Claud’s debut album, Super Monster, is most often described as “bedroom pop”—that term is brought up in this chat—but that’s only a small part of it. There are hints of all kinds of sounds here, from vaguely Latin-esque to pop-punkish on the delightful “That’s Mr. Bitch to You.” Dorian Electra has been at it a bit longer than Claud, having made a splash around ten years ago with playful, politically charged songs about money and gender fluidity, among many other things. Electra was featured on the Charli XCX track “Femmebot” a few years back, and in 2020 released their second album, My Agenda, which features everyone from Pussy Riot to Village People. Electra and Claud have a great conversation, tackling everything from the importance of Spotify playlists—which played a role in each of their success—to college to the complicated commercialization of Pride Month. Enjoy. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

Liz Phair crashed into the indie-rock world in a huge way in the early ‘90s with her instant classic album Exile In Guyville, and she was already the talk of the town—in this case Chicago—before she had even performed publicly. It was an auspicious start to a fascinating career that went from indie-world stardom to Lilith Fair to composing for films and TV to a consciously pop-leaning album to a fantastic memoir called Horror Stories. And it comes full circle, sort of, with her new album Soberish, which she created with the help of producer Brad Wood, with whom she worked on her early albums, including Exile.  Zella Day took a very different path in her music life, starting out very young—at age 15—trying to write songs and make it in Nashville. That led to a revelation that she’d rather perform herself, and eventually a record deal and 2015’s pop-centric album Kicker. She played Coachella and other huge festivals, but wasn’t fully satisfied with where she was artistically, as you’ll hear in this chat. After relocating to L.A., she fell in with a slightly more serious crowd, included pals like Lana Del Rey and Weyes Blood, and her music shifted a bit. She’s currently working on an album with producer Jay Joyce, and recently released a song with Natalie Mering of Weyes Blood called “Holocene.” Phair and Day hit it off right away in this conversation, diving right into a conversation about restarting their careers post-COVID—Phair’s dad is a retired infectious diseases expert, which gave her some unique insight—as well as the challenges of not giving too much of yourself during an album’s promotional cycle. They also tackle the meaning of the word “sober-ish,” which is pretty great. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Liz Phair and Zella Day for chatting. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

This week on the Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a special treat for the drummers and drum geeks out there: a conversation between Morgan Simpson of Black Midi and Bill Bruford of, as he says in their chat, about 101 bands. That number for Bruford isn’t too far from reality. Over a 40+ year career, he played with some incredible names in the world of progressive music, most notably Yes and King Crimson, but also his own projects, including Earthworks. He’s an astoundingly versatile and musical drummer, and we were delighted to hear that he’s still got his ear to the ground all these years later, as a fan of the relatively young band Black Midi. You can hear it in Morgan Simpson’s voice that he’s both pleased and excited to make Bruford’s acquaintance as part of the podcast—and it’s actually the first episode we’ve recorded in quite some time where the participants are in the same room with each other! Simpson pays Bruford the ultimate drummer compliment when he says that he can recognize his playing within a couple of seconds, and Bruford isn’t shy about his love for Black Midi. He even compares them—rightfully so—to King Crimson. Bruford himself actually retired from performing about 10 years ago, while Black Midi is just getting started. The band released their second album, Cavalcade, in May, and it’s a massively eclectic, fantastic collection of songs—a little more focused than their first, perhaps, but no less rangy and striking. They’ll hit the road for a huge tour this fall, kicking off with a slot at Pitchfork Fest in Chicago. Bruford and Simpson have a lot of fun, as you’ll hear, talking about other drummers—Phil Collins, Billy Cobham, etc—as well as the similarities in their own playing. If you’ve never realized that a snare drum could sound like you’re quote “being slapped around the head with a wet kipper,” then this conversation is for you. Enjoy.   Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks so much to Bill Bruford and Morgan Simpson for chatting. If you like what you heard, follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting service, and all available social channels. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by the Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, former REM frontman Michael Stipe talks with veteran indie director Jim McKay about the production company they’ve run together since the late 1980s, C-Hundred Film Corp, and the amazing work that has come out of it. In a fascinating conversation, the two best friends not only walk us through the history of the company – its humble beginnings in Athens, GA, to creating PSAs with KRS-One and Natalie Merchant, and Michael making the *original* Orange is the New Black at the Sundance Film Festival back in the ’90s – but also touch on their latest projects (McKay’s new film, and the photography book which Stipe just published) and how the pandemic has affected them, both creatively and personally. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, director Edgar Wright chats with musicians Ron and Russell Mael of the beloved cult band Sparks, who are the subject of Wright’s deeply enjoyable new documentary, The Sparks Brothers. In a wide-ranging conversation, the friends and collaborators veer from gripping discussions about food to in-depth explorations of the Mael brothers’ longstanding love of their other creative passion, cinema, which finally resulted in Leos Carax directing their film Annette – which opens the Cannes Film Festival next month! They also discuss record-store hijinks, the genesis of past projects, compare notes on trailers, and much, much more. A veritable smorgasbord of an episode, it’s a real pleasure to listen to three people who so obviously relish each others company. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range.

Meghan Trainor burst into the public consciousness with her 2014 hit “All About That Bass,” which was accompanied by a triple-platinum album and loads of subsequent success. Two more albums followed, as did judging roles on the British version of The Voice, and perhaps more important to this conversation, a singing competition called The Four, where she was on a panel with Sean Combs and DJ Khaled. That show is where Trainor first encountered the spectacular singing voice of VINCINT, who wowed her and the other judges with his incredible stylistic range, culminating in a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” that was all around the internet a couple of years ago. VINCINT has since released a bunch of songs, and he’s finally ready to drop a proper debut album: There Will Be Tears is packed with what sound like future hits, and includes guest spots from Tegan and Sara, Parson James, Qveen Herby, and more. You’ll be hearing a ton more from VINCINT this month and year: He’s going to be on the Today Show, as you’ll hear in the chat, and he’s headlining HBO Max’s Pride programming. Trainor is awfully busy herself, having recorded and released a holiday album during quarantine and, in bigger news, signed a huge cross-platform deal with NBCUniversal that will include a comedy series at NBC. But she was so psyched about VINCINT’s album that she made some time to chat about it with him, and about their favorite songwriters, mutual acquaintances, and advice on dealing with stardom. Enjoy. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by The Range.

Today’s Talkhouse podcast started with a little bit of serendipity in the form of album release dates: Both of our guests, Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast and producer/musician/former Vampire Weekend guy Rostam, have excellent records coming out on June 4. They’re also fans of each other’s work, so we figured it made plenty of sense to put them together. Zauner’s album, her third under the Japanese Breakfast name, is called Jubilee, and as you’ll hear in this conversation, it took a deliberate turn toward slightly happier themes than her first two. It comes hot on the heels of Zauner’s first book, a heartbreaking memoir called Crying In H Mart, that deals with her mother’s death—also a theme in her early music—and food, lots of food. It’s a really touching read, and an ideal companion to her musical catalog, which grew in really compelling ways with Jubilee. Rostam is best known as a founding member of Vampire Weekend, and even though he officially left the band a few years ago, he still contributes some songwriting and production work. He’s kept plenty busy otherwise, producing records and writing songs with an incredible array of other artists, from Hamilton Leithauser to HAIM to Clairo. His first proper solo album is the gentle, string-filled, fantastic Half-Light, which came out in 2017, and now he’s releasing Changephobia, which as you’ll hear ditches the string section and brings in a sax, among other things. These two jump right into a conversation that flits around from silly to deep: On one hand, they talk about childhood loves of chess and fencing and the importance of song five on an album. On the other, Zauner gets rightfully annoyed at interview questions she gets that other people don’t, and Rostam talks about being Persian in a band that was sometimes pegged as particularly white. It’s a funny, smart chat. Enjoy. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by The Range.

Chris Gethard is a comedian whose stories are often so serious and touching that they make people cry, and Jeff Rosenstock writes and sings heartfelt songs that are also witty and funny enough to make you laugh. So it’s no wonder that these two are friends and comrades in arms: From practically the moment they met, they could tell they were on the same page. Gethard has had a boundary-defying career that I’ll try and fail to quickly encapsulate here. He’s been a stand-up comedian, but perhaps more importantly the host of a public access show bearing his name that eventually ran for three seasons on a couple of different cable networks and was, to put it bluntly, kind of insane. He spun his stand-up into an off-Broadway show about depression, alcoholism, and suicide called Career Suicide, which later became an HBO special produced by Judd Apatow. Somewhere in there, he started several podcasts, the most popular of which is Beautiful/Anonymous, wherein he spends an hour with an anonymous stranger telling him their deepest secrets. I have yet to mention his books, his other podcasts, his appearances in movies and TV shows like Broad City and The Office, and more. The occasion for this conversation is the release of Gethard’s newest thing, called Half My Life, which is sort of a hybrid tour documentary and stand-up special that he recorded at ten venues around the country, including one with an audience of live alligators. It’s available on demand starting June 1. Jeff Rosenstock has been making music in various guises and with lots of people since the late 1990s, when he was in a ska-punk band called the Arrogant Sons of Bitches. He went on to greater renown in Bomb the Music Industry before launching a pretty incredible solo career, in which he combines super thoughtful, personal and political lyrics with catchy, genre-blending sounds. So maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise when, earlier this year, he released a song-for-song reworking of his 2020 album No Dream called Ska Dream, on which he re-recorded every track… but ska. He roped in amazing guests, too—from Angelo Moore of Fishbone to members of PUP and Deafheaven. In this conversation, Gethard and Rosenstock are, unsurprisingly, both funny and serious. They’ve got doubts about whether audiences will be there when they return from lockdown, but they’ve also got a relentless desire to create art and to do the right thing. It’s refreshing, and I hope you enjoy it. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme was written and performed by The Range.

Blake Mills has the kind of resume that might make the average person feel really lazy. Not only is he an active musician, but also a Grammy-winning producer (for Alabama Shakes’ 2015 album Sound and Color), a collaborator to the stars—including the likes of Fiona Apple and Bob Dylan—and most recently, one of the guys in charge of the legendary Sound City studio in L.A. Mills’ newest musical project is a collaboration with legendary bassist Pino Palladino called Notes With Attachments. Just prior to that, it was the Pitchfork Best New Music designee Mutable Set, from 2020. Nick Sanborn is half of Sylvan Esso, along with Amelia Meath. The duo recorded their third and latest album, the excellent Free Love, while they were constructing a brand new studio, called Betty’s, on their farm in North Carolina. The album came out in September of last year, which obviously meant touring was off the table, but Sanborn got plenty busy with production work, including helping to create the most recent Flock of Dimes record with recent Talkhouse guest Jenn Wasner. Since the album’s release, Nick and Amelia have kept busy, releasing videos, a killer remix of their song “Numb,” and a live album called WITH. And now they’ve rescheduled a big tour for this fall, kicking off at Bonaroo, where they’ll host the Super Jam. Check out sylvanesso.com for tour dates. Sanborn and Blake get right into it in this conversation, covering the intimate relationships that make for good records, the joy and trepidation about returning to public stages, and even how weird it is to do the Talkhouse Podcast. Enjoy. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse Podcast theme is composed and performed by the Range.

This week, we revisit a chat from last year, featuring Mac DeMarco and Dayglow's Sloan Struble. The second Dayglow album, Harmony House, comes out May 21. Check it out! ------------------- On this week’s show, a young gun picks a veteran’s brain. A youngish veteran, admittedly — Mac DeMarco’s only 30, but compared to 21 year old Spotify-wunderkind Sloan Struble, aka Dayglow, he’s already spent a lifetime in the music industry trenches. The two take in a lot in this conversation. We hear Mac’s origin story, and get a nice overview of his career. We get insight into what it’s like finding fast fame online in 2020, and the two dissect the term “DIY” and the changing definition of “indie.” Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.  —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This week’s talk was originally produced by Mark Yoshizumi and Elia Einhorn. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

The way that Mary Lattimore and Sarah Neufeld met is kind of a rock and roll dream. Lattimore went to see Neufeld’s band, Arcade Fire, before they were huge stars, and they got to talking. When Lattimore mentioned that she’d be moving to Philadelphia soon, Neufeld and her bandmates asked her to perform with them—so her first time playing on stage outside a more classical setting was in front of a huge Arcade Fire crowd, and it gave her the performing bug. Both Neufeld and Lattimore have released fantastic records recently: Lattimore’s Silver Ladders came out last year on the Ghostly International label, and it met with widespread acclaim. Sarah Neufeld’s brand new record, Detritus, was born via a collaboration with Canadian dancer Peggy Baker. Neufeld wrote the songs that would become this album to accompany Baker’s choreography, and she even went on the road to accompany the dance performances. She later went into the studio and, with help from her Arcade Fire bandmate Jeremy Gara, set to recording them. It’s an incredible collection that blends her primary instrument with ambient electronics, drums, and other sounds.  In this conversation, Neufeld and Lattimore talk about the night they met and subsequent nights they don’t remember, a harp that lives in Prague, writing music to accompany dance, and how a harp might actually help induce labor in an expecting mother. Enjoy. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by The Range.

It’s no secret that Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard deeply admires Norman Blake’s band, Teenage Fanclub. In fact, he’s called 1991’s masterpiece Bandwagonesque his favorite album of all time; he loves it so much that just a few years ago, he recorded and released a cover of the entire thing. With that album turning 30 this year, and with a fantastic new Teenage Fanclub album, Endless Arcade, out this week it seemed the perfect time to get the two together. For this conversation, the two old friends dive into what their pandemic lives have been like, which includes lots of songwriting and record collecting. They also talk about the joy that comes from being a lifer in the rock and roll business, how streaming has affected all of the above, and how deeply emotional a return to rocking is likely to be for both of them. Enjoy.

Merrill Garbus and Jenn Wasner released monumental records just a week apart this year: Tune-Yards fifth album—sixth if you count their score to Boots Riley’s film Sorry to Bother You—is called Sketchy, and it’s as puzzling and progressive as you’ve hopefully come to expect. Garbus and bassist Nate Brenner are never content to rest on their past glories: They’re always searching for new modes of thought and expression, and Garbus’ lyrics meld the personal and political into one fiery concoction. Jenn Wasner is best known for singing and playing guitar in Wye Oak, and she’s also released albums with Dungeonesse and solo style under the name Flock of Dimes, in addition to being a recent touring member of Bon Iver. It’s her Flock of Dimes project that’s garnering some incredible, well deserved attention this year, including a huge feature in the New York Times. It makes sense, considering that the album she’s promoting is so extraordinary: Head of Roses will be both familiar to her fans and unexpected, with new sounds, textures, and lyrical motivations. The story is that it’s an album about heartbreak, but it’s so much more. It's a great conversation between two great friends. Enjoy.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we have two artists who recently became writer-directors after finding success in other creative fields: singer-songwriter Bonnie McKee and actor Carlson Young. McKee, a Grammy-nominated hit songwriter best known for her collaborations with Katy Perry, is now on the festival circuit with her powerful and very personal short April Kills the Vibe, while her friend Young, who broke through on the small-screen version of Scream in 2015, just made her feature debut with The Blazing World, which world premiered at Sundance this past January. In their compelling conversation, the two talk about their journeys behind the camera, their COVID experiences, making movies as a form of psychodrama, Bonnie’s upcoming music-inspired film project, Carlson’s recent nightmare experience with a moving scam, and much, much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

It might feel like a lifetime ago, but it was just over a year ago in February of 2020 when we got new albums from both Tame Impala and Caribou. For Kevin Parker, The Slow Rush was his fourth full-length record following an extended break after Currents. Caribou fans had a slightly longer wait for Dan Snaith's tenth record, Suddenly. Now both artists have rereleases in 2021. Kevin Parker and company recently celebrated ten years since their debut record, Innerspeaker. There's a new behind-the-scenes short film chronicling the 2010 recording process, a box set, and an upcoming livestream performance later this month, April 21 (more info on tickets here), of the full album from the Wave House. Dan Snaith has also been in the news recently, releasing Suddenly Remixes, featuring reworked tracks by Toro y Moi, Four Tet, Floating Points, and others. This conversation, which originally aired in October of 2020, never has a dull moment and features the pair chatting about how and when they first met, having confidence as an artist, and their "de facto lockdown albums." Don't forget to subscribe to the Talkhouse Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. —Keenan Kush, Talkhouse Director of Operations This week's talk was originally produced by Mark Yoshizumi and Elia Einhorn. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Sharon van Etten and Jamie Stewart met a few years ago, when producer John Congleton recommended the Xiu Xiu frontman as a contributor to the singer-songwriter's 2019 album, Remind Me Tomorrow. Though their music isn't super similar sounding, each traffics in a kind of emotional honesty that's difficult to pull off but incredibly rewarding. Van Etten contributed vocals to the song "Sad Mezcalita" on Xiu Xiu's new all-duets album, OH NO, and the two chat about that collaboration here, along with the creative process, being open in their songwriting, and much more. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range.

In this week's Talkhouse Podcast, we hear from old friends Dan Deacon and the members of Future Islands. Both came up in the super fertile Baltimore scene, and both released new albums in 2020. Future Islands asked Deacon to remix their recent track "For Sure," and he took it to epic new heights, which they discuss on this chat—along with the reality of staying home during the pandemic, what their writing/road-testing/recording processes are like, and a brand new genre that they hope to create when this is all over. Sports Jazz! Enjoy. This episode was produced by Kevin O’Connell. The Talkhouse Podcast theme was composed and performed by The Range.

Two very funny people have a very funny conversation on this week's Talkhouse Podcast: Michael Ian Black and Jen Spyra. Black you probably know as part of the sketch-comedy troupe The State, or from his many podcasts—the latest is Obscure—or maybe one of his books, including last year's more serious A Better Man. Jen Spyra just released her first book, a collection of darkly hilarious short stories called Big Time. The two were fans of each other's work before their chat, but you can hear them get to know each other better. They talk about their writing processes, self-doubt, Michael's poker playing and Cameo birthday-ing, and lots more. Enjoy.

Andrew Bird and Jimbo Mathus have known each other for decades, going back to the beginning of Bird's solo career and Mathus' earliest days with Squirrel Nut Zippers. Most of their work together has been assistive—Bird would add his fiddle to the Zippers' records, and Mathus would return the favor with some horns. But a couple of years back, the old friends decided to write some songs together, and the result is These 13, a truly collaborative album featuring just their voices, guitar, and fiddle, for the most part. It's spare and surprising. In this Talkhouse conversation, they chat about the old days and the new, as well as a shared love of Charley Patton. Enjoy. —Josh Modell, Executive Editor This episode was produced by Kevin O'Connell. The Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range.

Todd Rundgren is a legendary musician and producer whose list of credits is impressive as the man himself is down to earth. He had his own string of pop hits—including the novelty song “Bang on the Drum All Day”—and experimental albums, both as a solo artist and with the Nazz. He produced Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, as well as New York Dolls’ self-titled debut, one of the most influential. This month, he’s been on the “Clearly Human” tour, which—due to obvious reasons—is all virtual. As a tech pioneer, he’s doing things a bit different, as you’ll hear in the podcast. Eric Slick is a fellow Philly boy and longtime fan of Rundgren’s who was excited to chat with him. Slick is best known as the drummer in the excellent Dr. Dog, and he’s also a frequent Talkhouse contributor. If that’s not enough, Slick recently released a magnificent solo record called Wiseacre. The two chat about making records, playing shows, and—of course—a certain former president. This episode was produced by Kevin O’Connell. The Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by The Range.

Mike Ness and Ben Nichols both front bands that blur the already-blurry genre lines between punk, Americana, country, and more—so it's no surprise that the two get along. Nichols' band, Lucero, opened for Ness' band, Social Distortion, on a tour about a decade ago, and the two hit it off. Since then, Lucero returned the favor by taking out Jade Jackson's band—which features Ness' son Julian on guitar. The occasion for this Talkhouse conversation is the release of Lucero's newest album, When You Found Me. The two songwriters talk about their craft, their kids, and how to write a song that makes a statement without getting political. —Josh Modell, Executive Editor This episode was produced by Kevin O’Connell. The Talkhouse Podcast theme was composed and performed by The Range.

Tamara Lindeman and Julia Jacklin are spending the pandemic thousands of miles away from each other, but you’d never know if from the closeness of this Talkhouse chat. Lindeman, who’s based in Canada, just released her fifth album as The Weather Station—and Ignorance is already making waves. It got the coveted Best New Music designation from Pitchfork, as well as a five-star review in The Guardian, both well deserved. Jacklin, who’s from Australia, finished touring her last album, Crushing, not long before the lockdown hit. Here, they discuss the ins and outs of how much they share in their songs, what they’re looking forward to when normalcy returns, and Joni Mitchell. This episode was produced by Kevin O’Connell. The Talkhouse Podcast theme was composed and performed by The Range.

In the third episode of McIntosh's "for the love of music..." podcast series presented by Talkhouse, Elia Einhorn spoke with one of the most recognizable names in popular jazz and soul: Gregory Porter. Gregory has been using his powerful baritone on both Broadway and concert stages for decades. His smooth take on classic American pop forms has earned him critical accolades, and fans the world over. The multiple Grammy-winning singer-songwriter has long had an intense touring schedule, and while the pandemic has forced him off the road, he’s been staying very busy. Gregory has a podcast of his own—called The Hang—and recently released a new album of original music, All Rise, which was nominated for Best R&B Album at this year’s Grammys. In this episode, Gregory talks about writing songs in the sky, English accents in gospel music, recording in some of the coolest studios in the world, and much more. 

Jenny Lewis—she of Rilo Kiley, The Postal Service, and numerous excellent solo albums—met Chicago rapper Serengeti when they were both performers at the PEOPLE Festival in Berlin, back in 2018. They struck up a fast friendship that led to Serengeti asking Lewis to provide some music—a very specific amount of music—for him to rhyme over. They’ve since released two excellent songs together via Lewis’ Love’s Way label, “Unblu” and “Vroom Vroom,” and there are more on the way, as you’ll hear in their conversation. There’s also a mysterious appearance by Mr. Peanut. This episode was produced by Kevin O’Connell. The Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by The Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, the iconic actor Viggo Mortensen sits down with his longtime friend and fellow filmmaker Alix Lambert. The occasion for their talk is the release of Falling, Mortensen’s debut as writer-director, an intense family drama starring Lance Henriksen, Laura Linney and Mortensen himself. In a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation, Mortensen and Lambert discuss not only Falling and the pandemic, but also Viggo’s musical collaborations with the guitarist Buckethead, the various cinematic exploits of Mortensen’s son Henry, Lambert’s current non-fiction project, the shared love that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and Mortensen have for a very surprising TV show, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

Sometimes Talkhouse Podcast participants have never met, sometimes they’re acquainted, and on rare occasions, they know each other really well. For this week’s chat, it became clear pretty quickly that Sasha Spielberg—a.k.a. Buzzy Lee—and Alana Haim already spoke the same language. As it turns out, and you’ll hear this in the conversation, they’re close enough to share a Hulu account. The occasion for this conversation is the debut full-length from Buzzy Lee, the excellent Spoiled Love, which is out this week. And of course, it’s not too late to enjoy the latest album from HAIM, Women In Music Pt. III, which came out last year. The two old friends talk about young love, bat mitzvahs, “cozy boys,” and songwriting. It’s charming as hell.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we bring together a pair of singer-songwriters who share a love of intimate, thoughtful compositions and recordings. Robin Pecknold has been the chief creative mind behind Fleet Foxes since the band’s beginnings back in 2005; the latest Fleet Foxes album was surprise-released in September of 2020, and Shore was met with lots of well-deserved love. Elijah Wolf is just starting out on his career. The Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter was raised in upstate New York, and was a fan of Fleet Foxes before a chance meeting with Pecknold in a New York guitar shop. Wolf, who was working at Crandall Guitars, was playing music by a band called Holy Hive in the store, and it turned out that both Pecknold and Wolf were friends with that band. They got to know each other and started sharing works-in-progress with each other during the pandemic. Pecknold’s songs would end up on Shore, and Wolf’s would become his first album, Brighter Lighting, which is due out February 26 on Trash Casual Records. Both records, funnily enough, feature drummer Josh Jaeger—it’s a small world after all. The two songwriters get into a great chat about their process, their pandemic work strategies, and the idea of what defines an album. Enjoy the talk, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes. This week’s episode was produced by Kevin O’Connell, and the Talkhouse Podcast theme is composed and performed by The Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, actress Robin Tunney chats with multihyphenate extraordinaire Alexi Pappas, the filmmaker and Olympic athlete whose excellent new memoir, Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Pain and Other Big Ideas, is out now through Random House. Tunney, most recently seen in ABC’s The Fix and best known for her roles in Empire Records, The Craft and TV’s The Mentalist, is not only one of Pappas’ mentors, but she’s also her cousin by marriage, and their familial ease with each other is evident in a very open, insightful and sometimes funny conversation that takes in such topics as the shadow of mental illness, the challenges of finding the balance between career and family, bonding with others over trauma, how the thing we’re best at may still give us discomfort or pain, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast, we bring together a pair of legends from different generations: Bootsy Collins and Mix Master Mike. Collins is of course best known for his long stints with Parliament-Funkadelic and James Brown's band, and Mike for his unstoppable contributions to the Beastie Boys. But each musician has spread his wings much farther than those Hall Of Fame acts, up to an including powerful new music. For Bootsy, it's The Power of the One, and for Mix Master Mike, it's Beat Odyssey 2020—what those albums share, beyond a spiritual connection to creativity itself, is a long list of collaborators, because these guys love to find new connections. This chat is one of those connections: Mike is clearly a fan of Bootsy's, and they get deep into conversation about history, music, and—eventually—some more cosmic topics. I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if this meeting leads to a collaboration between the two in the future. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes. This week's episode was produced by Kevin O'Connell, and the Talkhouse Podcast theme is composed and performed by The Range. —Josh Modell, Executive Editor

This week’s show is presented in collaboration with The Hideout and Seminary Co-op Bookstore. Big thanks and love to both of those Chicago institutions! To celebrate the release of his new book How To Write One Song: Loving The Things We Create and How They Love Us Back, Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) caught up with his friend and collaborator, comedian Nick Offerman. Their funny and illuminating conversation is followed by an audience Q&A, and an exclusive solo performance by Jeff. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Plus be sure to check our Soundcloud archives for recent shows featuring Tame Impala with Caribou, Carly Rae Jepsen with mxmtoon, Diplo with Charlie Crockett, and Jeff Tweedy with Norah Jones. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, Nick recorded himself and Jeff was recorded in Chicago by Mark Greenberg. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The researcher for this episode was Reese Higgins. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. PEEEEEAAAACE!

This week's show is presented in collaboration with Murmrr and Community Bookstore. We give big thanks and love to those two Brooklyn institutions! To celebrate the release of his new book How To Write One Song: Loving The Things We Create and How They Love Us Back, Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) sat down with his friend and collaborator Norah Jones for a deep dive into the creative process. Their warm and insightful conversation is followed by an audience Q&A, and an exclusive solo performance by Jeff. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Jeff Tweedy again(!), this time with comedian Nick Offerman, and Bootsy Collins (it's Bootsy, baby!) with Mix Master Mike (Beastie Boys). Plus be sure to check our Soundcloud archives for recent shows featuring Tame Impala with Caribou, Carly Rae Jepsen with mxmtoon, Diplo with Charlie Crockett, and loads more. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, Norah recorded herself, and Jeff was recorded in Chicago by Mark Greenberg. Our patient producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The researcher for this episode was Reese Higgins. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com. I adore hearing from you guys. And, I mean, how long do we all stay in the same place, right? Who knows where I'll be, come 2021...

On this week's episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we share a deep-diving conversation about the idea of space for BIPOC folks in indie rock venues — a discussion with the explicit intent "to talk about brown voices, and to talk about how we can uplift them." Black Belt Eagle Scout — real name Katherine Paul — is a self-described “radical indigenous queer feminist” who grew up on the Swinomish Indian Reservation in Northwest Washington state. KP, as she's known, is Swinomish and Iñupiaq (a Native community in Alaska). Here, she speaks with Sasami Ashworth, aka SASAMI, a Korean-American singer/songwriter and musician based in Los Angeles. Sasami made her name playing synth in Cherry Glazerr before going solo in 2018. Our special guest-host is Vagabon, or Lætitia Tamko, a Cameroonian-born singer/songwriter/producer. This episode was inspired by the Twitter backlash after a conversation Black Belt Eagle Scout had with Ailsa Chang on the NPR show All Things Considered. With Chang, KP discussed feeling uncomfortable with so many white people at her shows, as her music is intended for BIPOC folks, and stated: "It's for people of color, for indigenous people, for queer people, and white men are so fragile when I say stuff like that. It's because of white privilege and they don't often get told that." KP was obviously not advocating for banning white men from her shows, but for there to be more room at each performance for her community. Still, of course, a number of fragile white men took to Twitter calling KP racist, and hating on the show for having her on. I saw Lætitia and Sasami tweeting support for KP, with Sasami doing full on UFC-style e-battle with some trolls! I reached out the next day to offer the platform of the Talkhouse Podcast for an extended convo on the topic, one without journalists or "fragile white men" involved. This talk was recorded back in March, just before Covid-19 slammed the States, and before the Black Lives Matter movement's incredible recent strides. Keep it locked to hear about issues of safety and space in DIY touring, the importance of land acknowledgments, and actionable things that bands and fans can do. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, Sasami Ashworth was recorded by Eric Rennaker at bedrock.LA; Katherine Paul, Lætitia Tamko and I each recorded ourselves. Our producer extraordinaire is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

On this week's show, we pair in conversation the artists behind two of 2020's best albums: soul and blues legend Bettye LaVette and indie wunderkind Phoebe Bridgers. Though separated by five decades in age, when the two met backstage at a Tibet House US benefit at Carnegie Hall earlier this year, they immediately developed a mutual friend crush. Now that we've gotten them reconnected here, it appears something very dope is on the horizon... but more on that in the talk! Their warm, freewheeling convo takes in a lot, including: a wonderful overview of a career Bettye calls “tenuous at best”; the unexpected benefits of promoting a new album during the pandemic; and privilege in the music industry. We also get to hear about making Pete Townshend cry, quirky Little Stevie Wonder, and learn the answer to Bettye's query "What is a Princess Nokia?" Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Norah Jones with Jeff Tweedy, and then Jeff again(!) with comedian Nick Offerman, and Bootsy Collins (Bootzilla, baby!) with Mix Master Mike (Beastie Boys). Plus be sure to check our Soundcloud archives for recent shows featuring Tame Impala with Caribou, Carly Rae Jepsen with mxmtoon, Diplo with Charlie Crockett, and loads more. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, Bettye LaVette was recorded by her adoring hubby Kevin Kiley, and Phoebe Bridgers by her pal Marshall Vore. Our long-suffering producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Dude released gorgeous new music this year — check it out! Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com. Seriously, I love hearing from you guys. And if we're honest with ourselves, isn't the end always sneaking up on us?

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, three of the creative talents behind the new movie The Nest – writer-director Sean Durkin, actor Jude Law and composer Richard Reed Parry – sit down for a deep-dive conversation about their work together and their respective artistic processes. Over the course of their talk, the trio discuss how their deeply collaborative creative approaches aligned in creating a collective vision for The Nest, how Sean and Richard met and became friends and collaborators, how Richard approached writing music for The Nest (and how Sean was able to “find” the film through the music), the way Jude and Sean together sketched a backstory for Jude’s protagonist Rory, the ways in which they each “submitted to the moment” while making the movie, and much more. For more filmmakers and musicians in conversation, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

For this week's show, we pair two truly virtuosic musicians — legendary fingerstyle guitarist Leo Kottke and Phish bassist-extraordinaire Mike Gordon. Their wonderful new collaborative album Noon just came out on CD and vinyl, so we knew we had to get these brilliant musical minds together for a deep-diving Talkhouse convo. Tune in to hear the guys share their superhero origin stories; what The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir taught Mike about rock & roll; Leo’s tricks to never playing predictably; the importance of violating one's own musical expectations; Trey Anastasio's literary recommendation; and so much more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Norah Jones with Jeff Tweedy, and then Jeff again(!) with comedian Nick Offerman, and Bootsy Collins (Bootzilla, baby!) with Mix Master Mike (Beastie Boys). Next week's show features actor Jude Law with director Sean Durkin and composer Richard Reed Parry (The Arcade Fire) discussing their film The Nest. Plus be sure to check our Soundcloud archives for recent shows featuring Tame Impala with Caribou, Carly Rae Jepsen with mxmtoon, Diplo with Charlie Crockett, and loads more. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, Mike Gordon was recorded by Jared Slomoff, and Leo Kottke by Miles Hanson. Our incredible producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com. Seriously, I love hearing from you guys, and I won't be around forever.

It turns out that Tegan and Sara, Talkhouse Podcast producer extraordinaire Mark, and lil ol' me all share a favorite new band: Dehd. Hailing from Chicago, the jangle-tastic indie-rocking three-piece recently released their second LP Flower of Devotion, a tour de fookin' force of boy/girl vocals, Sarah Records-worthy guitar, and lyrics that make you wonder if the tears in your eyes are from loneliness or laughter. When we saw Sara tweeting her, um, devotion to the band, we knew a Talkhouse convo was in order! Keep it locked to hear about the vicissitudes of intense intra-band relationships; how musical joy isn't necessarily part and parcel of "success"; and pets as surrogate babies, tourmates, and social media fodder. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Phish‘s Mike Gordon with Leo Kottke, Norah Jones with Jeff Tweedy, and then Jeff again(!) with comedian Nick Offerman. And be sure to check our Soundcloud archives for recent shows featuring Tame Impala with Caribou, Carly Rae Jepsen with mxmtoon, Diplo with Charlie Crockett, and loads more. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, each band recorded themselves. Our long-suffering producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com. Seriously, I love hearing from you guys.

To celebrate the release of the new Deftones album Ohms, we paired frontman Chino Moreno with his old friend and tourmate — and long-time Deftones fan! — comedian/musician Reggie Watts for a Talkhouse Podcast conversation. The guys were very psyched to catch up, and their freewheeling talk took in the making of the new Deftones LP; the ups and downs of long-term collaborations; their very different writing and recording approaches; and… bikes. Turns out they're both waaay into bikes. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Tegan and Sara with Dehd, Phish‘s Mike Gordon with Leo Kottke, and Norah Jones with Jeff Tweedy. And be sure to check our Soundcloud archives for recent shows featuring Tame Impala with Caribou, Carly Rae Jepsen with mxmtoon, Diplo with Charlie Crockett, and loads more. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themselves. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

Devonté Hynes, aka Blood Orange, had an incredible 2019. He dropped the mixtape Angel's Pulse; scored the critically acclaimed film Queen and Slim; released a classical album with Third Coast Percussion; directed a music video for Beck; and, as a fan, finally saw the brilliant composer/vocalist Beverly Glenn-Copeland live. Glenn-Copeland (as he prefers to go by in his day-to-day life) had his own amazing year: At the age of 74, he had his first international tour, released the new LP Primal Prayer, and saw his previously obscure, decade-spanning seven album catalog finally embraced in music communities around the world. And he met Dev, whose music he adores. We introduced Dev and Glenn right here on the Talkhouse Podcast, and the ensuing convo was warm, vulnerable, funny, and potent. The two sat on a sofa at Hook and Fade Studio in Brooklyn, and instantly formed a world all their own; they stared into each other's eyes, and spoke so softly that it was difficult to hear them from even a few feet away. In their wide-ranging conversation, Glenn and Dev discuss discovering parts of themselves by traveling out of their home countries; the way they each approach their songwriting; and the story behind Glenn’s seminal 1986 album Keyboard Fantasies. We also learn the importance of nature and its role in their music; how recently Dev began to honor music as the foundation of all his creativity; and the trick Glenn’s mother used to make him a musician while still in utero. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today's show was engineered and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Additional editing by Katie Lau. Research by Reese Higgins. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

TAME IMPALA AND CARIBOU ARE ON THE SHOW THIS WEEK!!! Sorry, I tried to write a more "professional" first line, but this is just SO DOPE! Tame Impala's Kevin Parker and Caribou's Dan Snaith are two of the most fascinating artists working today, and when the Talkhouse Podcast discovered they're also huge fans of each other's work, we knew we had to get them together to chop it up. In this warm and open conversation, the guys get into their very different creative processes; the pluses and minuses of having confidence in your artistic output; the clutch piece of gear Kevin uses to help get that sweet sweet Tame Impala sound; and much more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Tegan and Sara with Dehd, Deftones‘ Chino Moreno with comedian Reggie Watts, and Phish's Mike Gordon with Leo Kottke. And be sure to check our Soundcloud archives for recent shows featuring Mac DeMarco with Dayglow, Carly Rae Jepsen with mxmtoon, Diplo with Charlie Crockett, and loads more. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themselves. Our producers are Mark Yoshizumi and Elia Einhorn. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

To celebrate Carly Rae Jepsen and mxmtoon's rad collab track "ok on your own," we paired the pop stars for what turned out to be a deep dive into the art of making music and learning to thrive in the complicated music industry. In this very warm and insightful conversation, Carly and Maia each share their (very different!) origin stories, and explore both the art of songwriting and live performance. Carly also shares clutch career wisdom. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker with Caribou’s Dan Snaith, and Deftones‘ Chino Moreno with comedian Reggie Watts. Plus, ICYMI: mxmtoon just kicked off her yearlong podcast project 365 days with mxmtoon in collab with Talkhouse, which features quirky stories from history that occurred on each day, old diary entries and more; it’s really fun, and like eight minutes long. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, Carly was recorded by Nick Theodorakis, and everyone else you hear recorded themselves. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

On this week’s show, a young gun picks a veteran’s brain. A youngish veteran, admittedly — Mac DeMarco’s only 30, but compared to 21 year old Spotify-wunderkind Sloan Struble, aka Dayglow, he’s already spent a lifetime in the music industry trenches. The two take in a lot in this conversation. We hear Mac's origin story, and get a nice overview of his career. We get insight into what it's like finding fast fame online in 2020, and the two dissect the term "DIY" and the changing definition of “indie.” Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker with Caribou’s Dan Snaith, Carly Rae Jepsen with mxmtoon, and Deftones' Chino Moreno with comedian Reggie Watts. Follow @talkhouse across socials to catch upcoming installments of Talkhouse Podcast Live On Insta. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themselves. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

For this week's episode of the show, we paired two brilliant rockers from different generations, each of whom has a fantastic new record out: Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü, Sugar) and Bully's Alicia Bognanno. They chop it up about a lot, including the making of their new albums; how the music industry has changed since Bob’s early days in the game; the ups and downs of sharing one's life — including familial and mental health issues — with the public; and so much more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Tame Impala's Kevin Parker with Caribou's Dan Snaith, and Mac DeMarco with Dayglow. Follow @talkhouse across socials to catch upcoming installments of Talkhouse Podcast Live On Insta. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themselves. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

To celebrate the release of their collaborative live LP To Be Surrounded By Beautiful, Curious, Breathing, Laughing Flesh Is Enough, experimental indie rockers Deerhoof and avant garde trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith chop it up on the Talkhouse Podcast. Recalling the shows they've played together — including the one at Le Poisson Rouge here in New York that the record captures — they discuss the magic of collaboration, improvisation, and other matters of cosmic music philosophy. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Bob Mould with Bully's Alicia Bognanno and Mac DeMarco with Dayglow. Follow @talkhouse across socials to catch upcoming installments of Talkhouse Podcast Live On Insta. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themselves. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

In the second episode of the McIntosh "for the love of music..." podcast series presented by Talkhouse, Elia Einhorn spoke with Ben Blackwell, head honcho and co-founder of the world-renowned Third Man Records alongside Jack White, and drummer of Detroit band the Dirtbombs. In the talk, Blackwell discusses Third Man's approach to the music industry — their business model, their philosophy, and the decisions behind their curation process. He also touches on Third Man's commitment to integrity and "doing things the old fashioned way;" tells the story of Neil Young and a very old (and expensive) recording booth; and gives a full rundown on the gear that he and Jack White use to listen to records.

For this week's show, we paired two game-changing artists working in different mediums who are obsessed with each other's output: musician Paul Banks (Interpol, Muzz) and visual artist/designer Shepard Fairey (Obey). Originally aired as part of our Talkhouse Podcast Live On Insta series, their talk takes in a lot, including the evolution of their art; the thrills and intricacies of collaborating; the direct and passive political work they're involved in; and, of course, Paul's new Muzz LP! Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Bob Mould with Bully's Alicia Bognanno, Deerhoof with Wadada Leo Smith, and Mac DeMarco with Dayglow. Follow @talkhouse across socials to catch upcoming installments of Talkhouse Podcast Live On Insta. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

Singer/songwriter Perfume Genius — aka Mike Hadreas — and playwright Jeremy O. Harris (Slave Play) are each boundary-shattering artists. Their takes on queer sexuality, trauma, and, in Jeremy's case, race have seen them deified in their respective fields. They're also massive fans of one another's work, and while the two have been "internet friends" for a while, we were truly thrilled to pair them for their first-ever conversation right here on the Talkhouse Podcast. In this insightful discussion, they share their artistic processes, including consciously pushing boundaries and avoiding comfort zones by showing the world one’s metaphorical — and literal — asshole. They also share deets on the amazing celebs Mike has written with, and who Jeremy is getting ready to work with. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Bob Mould with Bully‘s Alicia Bognanno, Deerhoof with Wadada Leo Smith, and Mac DeMarco with Dayglow. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themself. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

Here's the mark of a great Talkhouse Podcast pairing: For this week's show, we introduced legendary producer Diplo (Major Lazer) and rising country star Charley Crockett, and by the end of the talk, the two had decided to work together! In this wonderful conversation, Charley and Diplo go deep on the connections between country music and hip hop, their love of flashy cowboy fashion, the changing looks and sounds of country, and much more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Perfume Genius with Jeremy O. Harris (Slave Play), Bob Mould with Bully‘s Alicia Bognanno, Deerhoof with Wadada Leo Smith, and Mac DeMarco with Dayglow. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, Charley Crockett was recorded by Gary Calhoun James at King Electric in Austin, and everyone else recorded themself at their #stayhome studios. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we reunite two filmmaking greats who first talked on the show back in 2017: Alejandro Jodorowsky and Darren Aronofsky. The iconic directors this time spoke on the occasion of the release of Jodorowsky’s new documentary about the therapy he created, Psychomagic: A Healing Art (now available on Alamo on Demand), with the 91-year-old maestro Skyping from his home in Paris and Aronofsky from New York. The two discussed a variety of subjects including, of course, psychomagic, but also touched upon the “idiot moment” of the current pandemic, how Jodorowsky maintains his physical and spiritual health, his desire to live many hundreds of years, how he would script the end of 2020, and much, much more. For more filmmakers talking film, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On this week's show, we present a deep dive conversation between mutual fans — and newly minted collaborators! — Bruce Hornsby and James Mercer (The Shins, Broken Bells). To celebrate Bruce's single "My Resolve," which features James, the guys sat down for a talk that takes in each of their earliest musical moments, right up to their new collab. Tune in for some wonderful stories of the roles Sir Elton John, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, Zach Braff, and even the musical The Music Man played in their careers. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Diplo with Charley Crockett, Bob Mould with Bully's Alicia Bognanno, Deerhoof with Wadada Leo Smith, and Mac DeMarco with Dayglow. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themself at their #stayhome studios. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. (But not, you know, Bruce Hornsby's The Range...) Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary deluxe reissue of Mirah's iconic debut You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This as well the surprise return of The Microphones with The Microphones in 2020, today's show pairs Phil Elverum (also of Mount Eerie) and Mirah in conversation. The dear old friends and collaborators share memories — and explore the act of remembering — in this touching, often very funny talk. Stay tuned for insights into the incredible Olympia, WA music scene of the late '90s/early '00s; why Phil is recording as The Microphones again; and metaphorically — as well as literally — carrying your trash around with you. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Bob Mould with Bully's Alicia Bognanno, Deerhoof with Wadada Leo Smith, and Mac DeMarco with Dayglow. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themself at their #stayhome studios. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

Today’s show, originally aired as part of our Talkhouse Podcast Live on Insta series, features a thoughtful and often hilarious conversation between poet Hanif Abdurraqib and singer/songwriter/poet Adia Victoria. Tune in for a celebration of Little Richard, the history and context of the blues (including why Beyonce is a blues artist!), a nuanced view of Flannery O’Connor, and so much more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Bob Mould with Bully‘s Alicia Bognanno, Deerhoof with Wadada Leo Smith, and Phil Elverum (The Microphones, Mount Eerie) with Mirah. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themself at their #stayhome studios. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

This week’s show pairs up newly minted friends — and mutual fans — Shamir and Liza Anne. Originally broadcast on our Talkhouse Podcast Live on Insta series, we now present their hilarious and thoughtful convo in podcast form for your listening pleasure! Keep it locked for their deep dive into religion and spirituality, including why Shamir longs to act the part of “the evil queer person in a corny low budget Christian movie.” They also take in finding one’s literal — or metaphorical — New York; Liza Anne’s determined focus on mental health; and which folk star Shamir was in a past life. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Bob Mould with Bully's Alicia Bognanno, Hanif Abdurraqib with Adia Victoria, and Phil Elverum (The Microphones, Mount Eerie) with Mirah. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themself at their #stayhome studios. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

Surprise! Jarvis Cocker has moved his wonderful new LP Beyond The Pale's release date up two months to... tomorrow! Get ready for it with a listen to this rebroadcast of Jarvis' fantastic Talkhouse conversation with The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt. On this week's show, we pair two of the greatest living songwriters, artists who've reimagined what the form can look like, and what it can accomplish. The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt and ex-Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker each have great new music in the world; when I heard the latter was coming to NYC, I instantly knew I had to try to get these two together in person for a Talkhouse Podcast convo. Thankfully, when presented with the idea, both were psyched! Over cups of tea at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn (before the pandemic), the guys sat down for a delightfully freewheeling conversation about songwriting — and how they both love to subvert its norms in different ways — as well as the vastly different approaches they took to making their new LPs. But of course with these two, there's so much more here, including (but not limited to!): a moving discussion of reunions with their showbiz fathers who had abandoned them; the bad omen that nearly caused Jarvis to quit music in the year 2000; why Stephin’s new sexual fetish might be a “one time only” experience; and their shared love of that "hippy writer" Richard Brautigan. This episode is dedicated to all you "mis-shapes, mistakes, misfits" — enjoy! Pick up The Magnetic Fields' Quickies here, and Jarvis's Beyond The Pale here. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming talks like Helado Negro with Buscabulla and Black Belt Eagle Scout with Sasami. Make sure to revisit Stephin Merritt and Daniel Handler (aka the author Lemony Snicket)'s 2019 look back on 69 Love Songs on its 20th anniversary. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This week’s show was recorded by the Talkhouse Podcast's producer Mark Yoshizumi. Josh Modell and I recorded ourselves in our respective #stayhome studios. Our theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

This week’s show pairs friends, tourmates, and mutual fans Julien Baker (boygenius) and Katie Harkin (HARKIN, Sleater-Kinney). Originally broadcast to kick off the Talkhouse Podcast Live on Insta series, we now present Julien and Katie’s insightful and hilarious convo in podcast form for your listening pleasure! Keep it locked to hear about the unwelcome expectation that artists be creative during quarantine; elitism in the already intimidating world of synthesizers; and the importance of taking control of your own work. Plus — of course, with these two! — John Milton and dick pics… Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including Bob Mould with Bully‘s Alicia Bognanno, Shamir with Liza Anne, and Hanif Abdurraqib with Adia Victoria. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, everyone you hear recorded themself at their #stayhome studios. Our producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

On this week’s episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we share a deep-diving conversation about the idea of space for BIPOC folks in indie rock venues — a discussion with the explicit intent “to talk about brown voices, and to talk about how we can uplift them.” Black Belt Eagle Scout — real name Katherine Paul — is a self-described “radical indigenous queer feminist” who grew up on the Swinomish Indian Reservation in Northwest Washington state. KP, as she’s known, is Swinomish and Iñupiaq (a Native community in Alaska). Here, she speaks with Sasami Ashworth, aka SASAMI, a Korean-American singer/songwriter and musician based in Los Angeles. Sasami made her name playing synth in Cherry Glazerr before going solo in 2018. Our special guest-host is Vagabon, or Lætitia Tamko, a Cameroonian-born singer/songwriter/producer. This episode was inspired by the Twitter backlash after a conversation Black Belt Eagle Scout had with Ailsa Chang on the NPR show All Things Considered. With Chang, KP discussed feeling uncomfortable with so many white people at her shows, as her music is intended for BIPOC folks, and stated: “It’s for people of color, for indigenous people, for queer people, and white men are so fragile when I say stuff like that. It’s because of white privilege and they don’t often get told that.” KP was obviously not advocating for banning white men from her shows, but for there to be more room at each performance for her community. Still, of course, a number of fragile white men took to Twitter calling KP racist, and hating on the show for having her on. I saw Lætitia and Sasami tweeting support for KP, with Sasami doing full on UFC-style e-battle with some trolls! I reached out the next day to offer the platform of the Talkhouse Podcast for an extended convo on the topic, one without journalists or “fragile white men” involved. This talk was recorded back in March, just before Covid-19 slammed the States, and before the Black Lives Matter movement’s incredible recent strides. Keep it locked to hear about issues of safety and space in DIY touring, the importance of land acknowledgments, and actionable things that bands and fans can do. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast; next week’s is Julien Baker with Katie Harkin. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer For this week’s episode, Sasami Ashworth was recorded by Eric Rennaker at bedrock.LA; Katherine Paul, Lætitia Tamko and I each recorded ourselves. Our producer extraordinaire is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

In this inaugural episode of the McIntosh "for the love of music..." podcast series presented by Talkhouse, Elia Einhorn caught up with former Grateful Dead electronics outfitter, and renowned music gear creator, Janet Furman. Janet grew up in New York City, graduating from Columbia University in the late 1960s with an engineering degree before moving to San Francisco and finding work with Alembic, the Grateful Dead’s preferred recording studio and sound crew. Janet recorded the Dead’s live sets on multiple tours, as well as engineering sessions for other rock stars like Steve Miller. She went on to found her own pro audio equipment manufacturing company, Furman, whose products are used in almost every studio and live venue around the world, and which we here at Talkhouse work with every day. Janet shared some amazing stories about working for Owsley Stanley, touring Europe with the Dead and recording some of their most famous work, and even commandeering a helicopter in order to save a massive rock festival… with McIntosh amplifiers.

Sexuality, violence, gender, anger, technology, love. Singer/actress/writer Jehnny Beth (Savages) and Norwegian experimental pop musician and author Jenny Hval are both aesthetically very dark artists who brilliantly dissect these topics in their respective music and erotic novels. On this week's show, we introduce the mutual fans for the very first time; what follows is a powerful, deep dive conversation. Zola Jesus joins me as special guest host. I recently woke up at 5:30AM to set up this conversation between Jehnny's home in Paris, and Jenny's in Oslo. A couple hours later, my almost-three-year-old daughter Conwy woke up just after the talk ended; I took her out of her crib and told her "Dada just listened to a fantastic conversation between two very strong and talented women!" And it really is a fantastic conversation. With Jehnny Beth's debut solo LP To Live Is To Love out just last week, and her book of erotic fiction and photography, Crimes Against Love Memories dropping in early July, and Jenny's new single "Bonus Material" out now and second novel Girls Against God coming later this year, they had a lot to talk about. The two chop it up on their complex relationships with their countries of origin, and the powerful role of language in self-identity; their reasons for functioning primarily outside of the mainstream; and the artist's necessary freedom to express the darker sides of their humanity. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming shows featuring Black Belt Eagle Scout with Sasami, Fusilier with Bartees Strange, and Julien Baker with Katie Harkin. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This week’s show was recorded by Jehnny Beth, Jenny Hval, Zola Jesus, and myself at our respective #stayhome studios. The Talkhouse Podcast’s co-producer is Mark Yoshizumi. Our theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Research assistance was provided by Samantha Small. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

Did you catch the first of our two podcasts this week? It featured Yrsa Daley-Ward reading her powerful new poem "Making The End," and Helado Negro in convo with Buscabulla. Check it out on talkhouse.com Today's show sees The Avett Brothers' Scott Avett chop it up with Eef Barzelay of Clem Snide. The friends and collaborators cover a lot, including: the role of faith in their music; being true to their art even when it hurts; and some amazing stories about Jason Molina and David Berman. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming shows featuring Black Belt Eagle Scout with Sasami, Jehnny Beth with Jenny Hval, and Julien Baker with Katie Harkin. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This week’s show was recorded by Scott, Eef, Talkhouse’s Executive Editor Josh Modell, and myself at our respective #stayhome studios. The Talkhouse Podcast’s co-producer is Mark Yoshizumi. Our theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Research assistance was provided by Samantha Small. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

Today's show opens with poet Yrsa Daley-Ward reading her new work "Making The End." Helado Negro and Buscabulla kicked off the Talkhouse Podcast Live on Insta series last month with this warm, thoughtful conversation. The old friends and regular collaborators each have wonderful new music out: Helado Negro recently dropped the single "I Fell In Love" featuring Xenia Rubinos, while Puerto Rican art-poppers Buscabulla just released their hotly tipped debut LP Regressa. As flags from across Latin America and beyond were posted in the comments, they chopped it up on a lot: The experience of releasing music during quarantine; the tight community of “everybody in New York that makes weird music in Spanish”; why Nick Hakim is really Neo from The Matrix; and lots more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming shows featuring Black Belt Eagle Scout with Sasami, Jehnny Beth with Jenny Hval, and Julien Baker with Katie Harkin. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This week’s show was recorded by Buscabulla in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, Helado Negro in Marfa, Texas, Talkhouse’s Executive Editor Josh Modell in Chicago, and myself in Philadelphia. The Talkhouse Podcast's co-producer is Mark Yoshizumi. Our theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Research assistance was provided by Samantha Small. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

This week's show is a bit different from usual Talkhouse Podcast episodes. While it's nominally hosted by the legendary Alan McGee of Creation Records — the man who signed The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, and a lil ol' band called Oasis — it's not at all a two-person conversation. Instead, this episode features Joe Talbot, frontman of the incredible post-punk group Idles, in one of the funniest, most viscerally honest live audience Q&A's I've ever witnessed. Both Joe and the attendees are willing to go to deep and often uncomfortable areas: Buckle up for a discussion of toxic masculinity, the role of violence in Idles' music, and the difficult process of developing one’s own artistic language. We also hear about Joe collabing with Mike Skinner of The Streets, turning Sleaford Mods’ taunts into a song, putting human ashes into vinyl records, and... we even get an unexpected lesson on mindfulness. This Q&A was recorded at the wonderful Barras Art & Design in Glasgow. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming talks like Helado Negro with Buscabulla, Julien Baker and Katie Harkin (Harkin, Sleater-Kinney), Black Belt Eagle Scout with Sasami, and Scott Avett (The Avett Brothers) with Eef Barzelay (Clem Snide). — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s show was recorded in Glasgow by Nadar Shahzad of Blue Audio (thx Nadar!), and in Philadelphia and Chicago by Elia Einhorn and Josh Modell. Our co-producer is Mark Yoshizumi. Thanks so much to Matt Sadowski of Alt Waves Records and to Barras Art & Design for allowing us to share this event. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Research assistance was provided by Samantha Small. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

We here at the Talkhouse Podcast have been nominated by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for a Webby Award! Woo hoo! It’s in the "Best Live Podcast Recording” category, and we got the nod for our musical episode with Snail Mail, Fred Armisen, and Mary Lynn Rajskub. The show took place last summer at FORM Fest in Arcosanti, Arizona, and the three of them play, sing, and talk… at the same time. In case you missed it the first time around, or are in the mood to crack up again, check it out!  BREAKING NEWS! Indie rock it-band Snail Mail has an all-new lineup! Don't worry, Lindsey Jordan is still there — only now, so is Fred Armisen and comedian Mary Lynn Rajskub (24, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). On our second Talkhouse Podcast episode recorded backstage at the wonderful FORM Fest, the three form a group on the spot, then, with instruments in hand, improvise songs about: How they’re actually the new Snail Mail lineup; Chef Boyardee; Neil Young; "lemon squares that Mommy made"; Jesus’ selective saving tendencies (that one's titled called “Here Comes The Son”), and loads more. We also witness spoofs of Queen and Beyonce; hear thoughts on fergiepeepants.jpg; learn about foot fetishists and Wikifeet; take in some sarcastic breakdancing; consider gentle piss modulators; and find out why Mary Lynn is convinced Lindsey needs to get pregnant immediately. This Talkhouse Podcast and video was recorded in the Conservatory backstage at FORM Fest in Arcosanti, Arizona. Pulp Arts and Patreon teamed up to co-present The Conservatory, a rad backstage visual arts installation and recording studio. Talkhouse recorded six episodes there throughout the weekend, so subscribe to make sure to catch upcoming shows, including: Kelsey Lu & Yrsa Daley-Ward Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore American Football & Pelican L’Rain & Melanie Faye You can also check out the just-released first episode from the fest, featuring jazz and hip hop legend Robert Glasper with a giant of African music, Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, plus an appearance by Lonnie Holley. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at FORM Festival in Arcosanti, Arizona, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi, Danny Clifton and Ian Jones.  Research assistance was provided by Madalyn Feltus.  The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On this week's show, we pair two of the greatest living songwriters, artists who've reimagined what the form can look like, and what it can accomplish. The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt and ex-Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker each have great new music in the world; when I heard the latter was coming to NYC, I instantly knew I had to try to get these two together in person for a Talkhouse Podcast convo. Thankfully, when presented with the idea, both were psyched! Over cups of tea at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn (before the pandemic), the guys sat down for a delightfully freewheeling conversation about songwriting — and how they both love to subvert its norms in different ways — as well as the vastly different approaches they took to making their new LPs. But of course with these two, there's so much more here, including (but not limited to!): a moving discussion of reunions with their showbiz fathers who had abandoned them; the bad omen that nearly caused Jarvis to quit music in the year 2000; why Stephin’s new sexual fetish might be a “one time only” experience; and their shared love of that "hippy writer" Richard Brautigan. This episode is dedicated to all you "mis-shapes, mistakes, misfits" — enjoy! Pick up The Magnetic Fields' Quickies here, and Jarvis's Beyond The Pale here. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming talks like Helado Negro with Buscabulla, Black Belt Eagle Scout with Sasami, and comedian Chris D'Elia with filmmaker Amanda Kramer. Make sure to revisit Stephin Merritt and Daniel Handler (aka the author Lemony Snicket)'s 2019 look back on 69 Love Songs on its 20th anniversary. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  This week’s show was recorded by the Talkhouse Podcast's producer Mark Yoshizumi. Josh Modell and I recorded ourselves in our respective #stayhome studios. Our theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

This week on the show, we celebrate the wonderful Other Music documentary with two Grammy-winning artists: singer-songwriter Aimee Mann and the National's Matt Berninger. The two discuss the iconic record store and the creative importance of having physical spaces dedicated to musical community, plus we hear how they're managing to work during the pandemic, and Matt reveals that he's both writing a musical and launching a label imprint. The Other Music doc features many wonderful artists that have appeared on our show — TV on the Radio, the Magnetic Fields, Superchunk, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jason Schwartzman, Animal Collective, William Basinski, Frankie Cosmos and more — this is truly a #talkhousecore film! Other Music is currently being screened via a "virtual theatrical release," with more than 200 independent record shops and movie theaters offering it to rent, and splitting the profits 50/50. This is a wonderful chance to support your local purveyor of brilliant art, and catch one of the must-see music films of the year. Click here to find your local favorite store or theater that's screening it! (Our producer Mark Yoshizumi rented it from his alma mater Reckless Records in Chicago; Talkhouse Film's Editor-in-Chief Nick Dawson supported Permanent Records in L.A., and I went with Record Grouch in Brooklyn, where I've spent many and many a happy hour amongst the hallowed racks.) Enjoy today's show, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming talks like Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) with the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, and Black Belt Eagle Scout with Sasami. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This week’s show was recorded by Aimee Mann, Matt Berninger, Nick Dawson, and myself in our respective #stayhome studios. The Talkhouse Podcast's co-producer is Mark Yoshizumi. Our theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

Comedian Joe Pera (Joe Pera Talks With You) and singer-songwriter David Bazan (Pedro The Lion) have elevated self-aware open-heartedness and detailed observation of humanity into, well, art. When David discovered Joe's show, he fell for it hard, and reached out to Talkhouse to see if we could arrange a convo. We loved the idea, and think you'll really enjoy the result. Joe and David discuss a lot, including: their granular writing techniques; appreciating the gentle joys of life, like wearing green hats on St. Patrick’s day; how some performers only achieve their maximum authenticity onstage; and why live performers must be doms. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming shows featuring Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) with the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, and Black Belt Eagle Scout with Sasami. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This week's show was recorded by Joe Pera, David Bazan, Talkhouse's Executive Editor Josh Modell, and myself in our respective #stayhome studios. The Talkhouse Podcast's co-producer is Mark Yoshizumi. Our theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

Today’s episode is produced in collaboration with Murmrr Ballroom and Community Bookstore. We are so pleased to, for the first time on the Talkhouse Podcast, present two authors in conversation. And what authors! To celebrate George Saunders’ new short story in the New Yorker, his appearance on Cheryl Strayed’s new podcast Sugar Calling, and many of us having a little more time to read now, we wanted to share from our digital vault his wonderful 2018 talk with Dana Spiotta. George and Dana share quite a bit in their conversation, including: why it’s important to read fiction right now; trying to write in the style of '90s chat rooms; Jesus the Temple-trashing tough guy; and… dreaming of goiters. This show includes great readings by both authors, and kicks off with a live intro from Michael Miller of Bookforum. It closes with an audience q and a. Check it out. Huge thanks to Brian Kelly and all at Murmrr. Also to Community Bookstore in Park Slope, Brooklyn; they’re one of the greats here in New York, and during this time of social isolation, are still open for deliveries, with free media mail. Regular listeners might remember we collaborated with these great folks on previous episodes including Jeff Tweedy with Abbi Jacobson and Judd Apatow with David Duchovny. Today’s show was recorded in Brooklyn by Justin Hrabvosky, Eric Lemke and our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com or @eliaeinhorn on Twitter.

This harrowing virus and quarantine have brought infinite terrible things with them. Still, I want to take a moment to celebrate a ray of sunshine — some truly incredible live-from-their-home sets from brilliant artists. “The Tweedy Show,” the nightly show that Wilco‘s Jeff Tweedy and his family stream on Instagram each weeknight is not to be missed. Jeff, his wife Susie, and their sons Spencer (The Blisters, Tweedy… um, the band, that is) and Sammy broadcast whatever they feel like: impromptu live versions of Wilco songs, Jeff’s from-a-dream lyrics for a song called “Grandma’s A Cyborg Now,” or a chat with Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s Jeff Garlin. So this week, we’re re-airing a wonderful live talk between Jeff Tweedy and genius comedian Abbi Jacobson (Broad City, Disenchantment). After you listen, make sure to check out the new Mavis Staples song “All In It Together” that Jeff produced and sang on, as well as Spencer Tweedy‘s past Talkhouse Podcast episodes with NE-HI (RIP) and Whitney.  Until catching this talk live last month, it would never have occurred to me that there could be a deep similarity between Jeff Tweedy’s songs and Abbi Jacobson’s Broad City character, but—there is! Jeff (Wilco, Tweedy) and Abbi (Broad City, Disenchantment) sat down at the beautiful Murmrr Theater in Brooklyn to celebrate the release of Jeff’s memoir Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. and his new solo album Warm. Their thoughtful and funny conversation took in a lot, including the difficulties they each had writing books after focusing their careers on other types of writing; opening up about mental health and addiction; Jeff breaking into comedy; and so much more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded by Mark Yoshizumi with Eric Lemke and Justin Hrabovski at Murmrr Theater, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Big thanks to Brian Kelly at Murmrr. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

Singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, aka Waxahatchee, and comedian Whitmer Thomas have each released perhaps the best work of their careers thus far in the past month or so: Waxahatchee with her new LP, Saint Cloud, Whitmer with his HBO comedy special The Golden One. The two are huge fans of each other's emotionally vulnerable work; having recently met, they have, as Katie puts it in this talk, “a weird kismet connection." In their open and honest conversation, Katie and Whitmer take us through their careers, from their beginnings as teenage rockers in Alabama to their current professional successes, and the processes of making their powerful new works. We also hear about the benefits of a slower professional trajectory; pre-album-release shame when you’ve been completely open about your life in your art; and how Katie getting sober changed her music. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming shows featuring Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) with the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt; Black Belt Eagle Scout with Sasami; and George Saunders with fellow author Dana Spiotta. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  This week's show was recorded by Claire Morison at Bedrock.la and in Brooklyn by Talkhouse Film's Editor-in-chief Nick Dawson and myself in our respective #stayhome studios. The Talkhouse Podcast's co-producer is Mark Yoshizumi. Our theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we feature a very special conversation recorded live at On Air Fest in Brooklyn earlier this month between The Roots’ lead MC Black Thought (aka Tarik Trotter) and comedian Wyatt Cenac. The two friends have a hilarious, highly entertaining talk about everything from beard grooming and the need for adult playgrounds, to their initial forays into showbiz (Tarik went to school with Questlove, Boyz II Men and Beanie Sigel!), to Wyatt’s disastrous gig hosting a CMJ hip-hop show and the awful time Tarik forgot the lyrics to the Jay-Z song he was performing – as part of a tribute to Hov himself! For more filmmakers and musicians in conversation, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com and subscribe to the Talkhouse Podcast to stay in the loop about future episodes. This episode was recorded by Sam Bair at On Air Fest, Elia and Nick recorded themselves in quarantine, and was co-produced Mark Yoshizumi.

With Public Enemy in the news recently, and Rage Against the Machine active this year, we were immediately reminded of this talk with Tom Morello and Public Enemy's Chuck D. A lot has changed since we recorded the new intro for this episode a week ago. We want to wish all of our listeners good health. Talkhouse will be continuing to publish new and archival conversations with your favorite musicians, actors, and filmmakers at our usual pace. Take care and thanks for listening.   Chuck D (Public Enemy) and Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, the Nightwatchman) have been sending radical political messages up the pop charts for decades. On the occasion of the debut LP by their new supergroup, Prophets Of Rage, the two musical revolutionaries bum-rush the Talkhouse Podcast to discuss protest music. Their conversation also covers why new groups are afraid to be overtly political, the democratization of music via technology, how Rage Against the Machine fooled MTV and Viacom, and "Puff the Magic Dragon." Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today's episode was recorded by Susan Valot, and mixed and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

A.C. Newman of The New Pornographers and Wesley Toledo, the drummer for psych/prog rockers Post Animal, are big fans of each other's music. When we paired 'em up for a Talkhouse convo, the guys were thrilled to dive deep on embracing irony and ridiculousness in their songwriting. Their talk also takes in how hip hop and psych are getting closer and closer, what can be learned from Electric Light Orchestra, and the lengths Andrew Bird will go to to get the right take. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming episodes featuring Jarvis Cocker with The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt; The Roots' Black Thought with comedian Wyatt Cenac; and George Saunders with Dana Spiotta.  —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  Wesley Toledo was recorded by Talkhouse's dear pal Alex Hall at Reliable Recorders in Chicago, A.C. Newman recorded himself, and Annie Fell and I were committed to 1s and 0s by our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios, Brooklyn.  The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range.  Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, two of the greatest living filmmakers, Kelly Reichardt and Olivier Assayas, sit down for an intimate conversation. Recorded last fall when Reichardt’s First Cow (in theaters March 6 through A24) and Assayas’ Wasp Network were both playing at the New York Film Festival, this talk sees the two comparing notes on the intricacies of their respective creative processes, from writing through to editing. They discuss the ways in which they differ (such as Assayas’ enforced spontaneity and Reichardt’s love of preparation), the personal backstories to Assayas’ films Cold Water and Summer Hours, Reichardt’s past growing up in a law-enforcement family in Miami, the way new technology figures in their work, and much more. For more filmmakers and comedians talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, there’s a meeting of kindred spirits as Maria Bamford sits down with fellow stand-up Chris Gethard. Bamford and Gethard are both famous for having put their own mental health struggles at the center of their comedy, and Bamford’s new Topic show, What’s Your Ailment?, is a series of in-depth discussions with other comedians about depression, addiction and the like. Unsurprisingly, the two swap stories about meds and therapists, but also share their fantasies of quitting comedy (and what other jobs they dream of doing), debate the relative merits of different hotel franchises, and dish on social media attacks, how to deal with hecklers, and much, much more. For more filmmakers and comedians talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

Robbie Robertson is a songwriter and guitarist who redefined American music with The Band, redefined what a concert film could be with The Last Waltz, and redefined movie soundtracks via his scoring of critical Martin Scorsese films like Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, and, most recently, The Irishman. To celebrate the release of the new documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, Robbie sat down for an incredible Talkhouse conversation with an artist at Americana's vanguard, M.C. Taylor, AKA Hiss Golden Messenger. The guys chop it up on some truly incredible stories, including (but by no means limited to!) Robbie's touring with Bob Dylan, working with Martin Scorsese, and corresponding with the brilliant classical composer Krzysztof Penderecki. Their talk also takes in the meaning and process of songwriting, Levon Helm absolutely hating country music, and Robbie’s “incredible jukebox in the sky." Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming episodes with authors George Saunders and Dana Spiotta, filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Kelly Reichardt, and musicians A.C. Newman (The New Pornographers) and Post Animal. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today's episode is brought to you by Current.com. It was recorded in North Carolina by M.C. Taylor, in Los Angeles at Village Studios by Karl Wingate, and in Brooklyn at Hook and Fade Studios by our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com

Today's episode is produced in collaboration with Murmrr Ballroom and Community Bookstore.  Judd Apatow and David Duchovny absolutely adored their friend and collaborator Garry Shandling. Since Garry's death in 2016, Judd has been memorializing the game-changing comedian, first with his HBO documentary The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, and more recently through the book, It's Garry Shandling's Book, comprised of journal entries, photos, and contributions from peers. To celebrate Garry's life via the book's release late last year, Judd and David sat down at a sold-out Murmrr Ballroom to share some heartfelt and hilarious stories, and to answer audience questions.  In this very special episode, tune in for tales of boxing and meditating with Garry; on-set shenanigans; wild times at his famous Hollywood basketball games with the likes of Adam Sandler, George Clooney, and Brad Pitt; and so much more.  Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming episodes with George Saunders and Dana Spiotta (another Murmrr Lit collaboration), the New Pornographer’s AC Newman and Post Animal, Robbie Robertson of The Band and Hiss Golden Messenger, and filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Kelly Reichardt.  —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  Huge thanks to Brian Kelly and all at Murmrr, and to Community Bookstore in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Today’s show was recorded in Brooklyn by Justin Hrabvosky and our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi, at Murmrr and Hook and Fade Studios.  The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range.  Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com

Michael Shannon (Knives Out, The Shape Of Water) and Jason Narducy (Superchunk, Bob Mould) met while playing in a Lou Reed cover band put together by Robbie Fulks, and their friendship has only gotten more interesting from there.  On the occasion of the new musical Verböten — which tells the story of Jason’s real-life punk band that formed when he was just 11 years old — opening at Chicago's Chopin Theatre, the old friends sat down for a wonderful conversation. Tune in for insider stories of Michael's newest film Knives Out, Jason's journey to seeing Verböten through to curtain, hangs with The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, and so much more. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast, including upcoming episodes with Judd Apatow and David Duchovny, The New Pornographer's AC Newman and Post Animal, and Robbie Robertson of The Band and Hiss Golden Messenger. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today's show was recorded in Chicago by Stephen Shirk at Shirk Studios, and in Brooklyn by our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com 

This week on the show, we revisit a fan-favorite episode: legendary producer and musician Steve Albini, and the game-changing Devo's Jerry Casale. Enjoy! The Talkhouse Podcast recently headed out to the fantastic Desert Daze festival at Moreno Beach at Lake Perris in Southern California. When we weren't catching sets by Tame Impala, King Gizzard, and My Bloody Valentine, we recorded a trio of great talks; this week, we present the first. When I saw that both Steve Albini and Devo's Jerry Casale were going to be at Desert Daze giving talks, I knew we had to pair these two icons of alternative music. They're big fans of each other's work, and halfway through their conversation, Steve said, “This is the sort of stuff no one ever talks about. These are the questions I’ve had for 30 years.” Their fascinating talk takes in the beginning years of Devo’s existence; their complex relationship with Neil Young; Brian Eno’s proclivity for ménage à trois; the differences between poker and making records; and how the name Devo became a category alongside jocks, squares and nerds. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  This episode was recorded by Keenan Kush at Desert Daze, and by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook & Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Big thanks to Desert Daze for hosting the Talkhouse Podcast. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we feature the second of our talks recorded live at last year’s LA Comic Con. Though the pairing of actors Juliana Harkavy (aka Black Canary on Arrow) and Ryan Hurst (best known as Opie on Sons of Anarchy) came together at the last minute, the two clicked instantly, helped by their joint love of dogs (Ryan has 12 and is a dog trainer!) and the fact that both of them have acted on The Walking Dead. As well as swapping stories about eating lunch with zombies, the two discuss the bliss of sky-diving (which Ryan has done about 1000 times), their (sometimes embarrassing) early acting experiences, Ryan shares a hilarious Marlon Brando story, and Juliana teases a possible sideways career move into music. For more filmmakers on film, go to talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Today’s show was recorded at LA Comic Con by Ali Nikou, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Devonté Hynes, aka Blood Orange, had an incredible 2019. He dropped the mixtape Angel's Pulse; scored the critically acclaimed film Queen and Slim; released a classical album with Third Coast Percussion; directed a music video for Beck; and, as a fan, finally saw the brilliant composer/vocalist Beverly Glenn-Copeland live. Glenn-Copeland (as he prefers to go by in his day-to-day life) had his own amazing year: At the age of 74, he had his first international tour, released the new LP Primal Prayer, and saw his previously obscure, decade-spanning seven album catalog finally embraced in music communities around the world. And he met Dev, whose music he adores. We introduced Dev and Glenn right here on the Talkhouse Podcast, and the ensuing convo was warm, vulnerable, funny, and potent. The two sat on a sofa at Hook and Fade Studio in Brooklyn, and instantly formed a world all their own; they stared into each other's eyes, and spoke so softly that it was difficult to hear them from even a few feet away. In their wide-ranging conversation, Glenn and Dev discuss discovering parts of themselves by traveling out of their home countries; the way they each approach their songwriting; and the story behind Glenn’s seminal 1986 album Keyboard Fantasies. We also learn the importance of nature and its role in their music; how recently Dev began to honor music as the foundation of all his creativity; and the trick Glenn’s mother used to make him a musician while still in utero. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer @eliaeinhorn Today's show was engineered and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Additional editing by Katie Lau. Research by Reese Higgins. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Please direct all podcast-related ideas, vitriol, and compliments to elia@thetalkhouse.com

Suzi Quatro and L7's Donita Sparks are iconic rockers who have each paved the way for generations of women in music. And on today's show — for the first time ever — they meet! To celebrate the theatrical release of the documentary Suzi Q, which Donita appears in, as well as the L7 doc L7: Pretend We're Dead and new LP Scatter The Rats, the two chop it up in a wide-ranging, rapid fire convo. They talk refusing to "do gender" when it comes to their music, while also knowing when to pull what they call the “female card” and charge a “pussy premium” for their work. We also hear about Suzi's astrological studies; Donita’s time-travel crush; Suzi’s life mantra — in lyrics — and what she's gonna do to get ready when it comes time for her to kick the bucket. Today's show was recorded at Elevate Studios in Hamburg by Jan Strehl, in Los Angeles by Ali Nikou, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, singer-songwriter Damien Jurado and standup comedian and actor Nick Thune sit down together in advance of their upcoming joint “Sad Music, Sad Comedy” tour, which is hitting the East Coast this January. The two became friends after the passing in 2018 of their mutual friend, producer and musician Richard Swift, who both Nick and Damien made records with. As well as swapping stories about Swift, the two discuss how Swift’s death pushed Nick to get sober, how comedians want to be musicians (and vice versa), Nick teaching his kid manipulative behavior so he can excel at Made You Look and how Damien discovered the Beatles in his forties, plus they set the ground rules for their tour – Cracker Barrel, look out! For more filmmakers and musicians in conversation, subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Today’s show was recorded at Bedrock.LA by Eric Rennaker and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

What a FOOKIN' TRULY RAD YEAR it's been here at the Talkhouse Podcast! Thx for being on this wild ride with us! As we hurtle towards 2020, I've been doing a bit of year-end tallying; can I share just a few stats with you? Please? Ok, thx. We released a whopping FORTY NINE new episodes in 2019. (WHO DOES THAT?! WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!) This year we featured artists like Brian Wilson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tierra Whack, Harmony Korine, Chelsea Peretti, Portugal. The Man, Fred Armisen, Shabazz Palaces, Nikki Glaser, Drew Carey, Chris Redd, The Flaming Lips, Robert Glasper, Snail Mail, The Magnetic Fields, Animal Collective, Karen O, Tim Heidecker, Kate Nash, Karen Gillan, Jon Cryer, and Ariel Pink, plus so many more greats. The Talkhouse Podcast held live tapings from LA Comic Con to Rough Trade NYC, with stops at SXSW in Austin, both Tomorrow Never Knows and Pitchfork x The Art Institute of Chicago's Midwinter in Chi, Life Is Beautiful in Las Vegas, and loads more. Oh, and did you see the videos from our time at FORM Fest in Arcosanti, Az?? They're gorgeous! We celebrate 2019 on the show this week with a roundtable of Talkhouse's editorial team looking back on some of our fave moments from the show this year. Enjoy, and happiest of holiday seasons to you! Can't wait to share the incredible episodes we've already got in store for you next year. xoxo Elia Today’s show was recorded at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Dearest Talkhousers! As we near the end of an incredible year at the Talkhouse Podcast, we wanted to re-air one of our fan fave episodes: Cate Le Bon in conversation with Ariel Pink. Make sure to tune in next week for the Talkhouse Podcast Best of 2019 all-star bonanza show! Sending posi-core choose-your-own-holiday vibez, Elia To celebrate Mexican Summer’s ten year anniversary, we paired two of the fantastic record label’s most fascinating artists: Ariel Pink and Cate Le Bon. Backstage at A Decade Deeper: Mexican Summer’s 10 Year Anniversary party at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works arts space, Cate and Ariel—fans of each other’s work who'd never met irl—sat down for a talk before their sets. The two really hit it off, and their wide-ranging conversation takes in a lot: the deep flaws they see in the way music press works; Ariel not always working well with others; and the difficult genesis of Cate’s upcoming LP. Ariel also talks about his favorite site on the internet, and Cate divulges the, um, very weird act she was asked to perform for a shoot. Check it out. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Big thanks to Justin Frye and Pioneer Works for hosting this taping. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Comedian Chelsea Peretti and Imperial Teen's Will Schwartz are working on a secret collaboration. Well it was secret, that is, until they sat down together for this week's podcast! Tune in to hear about their upcoming musical project, Will's wild connection to the Clinton impeachment scandal, Chelsea dishing on her and hubby Jordan Peele's complicated (and hilarious) relationship with ordering in, and “the trick to singing good.” Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s show was recorded at Bedrock.LA by Eric Rennaker and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

We announced this surprise Talkhouse Podcast live episode at Life is Beautiful less than 45 minutes before it started. But by the time the venue where we were recording opened its doors, an impossible line snaked through rows of metal dividers, down the block, and out of sight around the corner. How could it not be a standing-room-only situation, though, when the artists on stage were Fred Armisen, Chris Redd, and Portugal. The Man??? Over the next 50 minutes, in convo and Q&A, the guys hilariously tackled impersonating the arpeggiator on a synthesizer; shared the secrets to continuously reinventing their art; and spilled tea on mind-blowing Saturday Night Live moments as well as PTM's most epic onstage meltdown. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Thanks so much to Life is Beautiful for hosting the Talkhouse Podcast! Today’s show was recorded at Life is Beautiful by Logan Shields and Mark Yoshizumi, and in NYC by our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, friends and Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return co-stars Felicia Day and Jonah Ray sit down for a live on-stage conversation at LA Comic Con to find out all the stuff they realize they don’t actually know about one another! The two are inveterate multi-hyphenates – Day is an actress (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog to Supernatural), web video creator (most famously of The Guild) and best-selling author (most recently of Embrace Your Weird) and Ray is a stand-up comedian, podcast host, TV host (Hidden America with Jonah Ray) and writer-director – so there’s no shortage of topics to dive into. In their wide-ranging talk, the two discuss everything from their plan Bs (if showbiz fails), Jonah’s planned indie movie about his Hawaii upbringing (which Bobcat Goldthwait is helping him with!), Felicia’s permissive, poop-friendly parenting approach, early bedtimes, accidentally ripping off Fleabag, and much, much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On this week's show, we share a talk that took place as a fans-only live taping at Rough Trade NYC last year. Curated by Talkhouse intern Lauren McGrath, the episode sees Shannon Shaw of Shannon And The Clams and Hunx and his Punx chop it up with Happy Fits' singer/cellist Calvin Langman. Their revealing backstage convo takes in the time Shannon met Andre 3000; Calvin’s experience having his very first single blow up on Spotify; recording with The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach; and even Shannon's job working at a mental institution for the criminally insane. Check it out, and catch Shannon and The Clams on tour with the Black Keys through November: all dates @ http://shannonandtheclams.com/ This episode was recorded and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Our theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Big thanks to Jill Wheeler and Rough Trade NYC for hosting us!

For our fifth consecutive year there, the Talkhouse Podcast crew flew out to the fantastic Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago this past July to record artists in conversation backstage. Over the years, this series has featured talks between Brian Wilson & Carly Rae Jepsen, Frankie Cosmos & Vagabon, Priests with LCD Soundsystem's Tyler Pope, and many more. This week’s show is our second from the fest this year (the first was Tasha & Lillie West of Lala Lala), and it's Talkhouse's first ever bilingual conversation! In this episode, all four members of Nagoya, Japan's CHAI — whose "neo-kawaii" post-punk-pop record Punk is one of our favorites of the year — talk to Stef Smith from the stellar Chicago-based indie pop band Varsity. With the help of CHAI's translator Rena, they chat about what it’s like touring in a country where you don’t speak the language (and how that’s actually been a good thing for CHAI when it comes to getting interviewed); the real, unexpected danger of being interviewed by Nardwuar; and why dogs make such great musical inspiration. They also cover where to find the best deep dish in Chicago — controversial! — and the food Nagoya is famous for. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast! —Annie Fell, Talkhouse Senior Editor This episode was recorded by Joe Darnaby and Mark Yoshizumi, and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi, Annie Fell, and Elia Einhorn. Our theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Big thanks to Pitchfork Music Festival for hosting Talkhouse!

Last month, Ian Williams (Battles) and Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) chopped it up in front of a fully packed house at the grand opening of Everlane's flagship store in Williamsburg for a live taping of the Talkhouse Podcast. The experimental guitar legends shared the unusual processes of making their new LPs (Battles' Juice B. Crypts came out last week, and Lee's drops early next year). Their talk also takes in Sonic Youth's versus Wilco's insane touring guitar collections; how a chance encounter with Les Savy Fav led to the first ever Battles show; the cross-genre pollination of 1980s New York; and their thoughts on recently departed icons Ric Ocasek of The Cars and Daniel Johnston. Stay tuned after the talk for an audience Q&A with Lee, Ian, and myself. Links galore: If you enjoy this episode, keep an eye peeled for the wonderful Consequence of Sound podcast This Must Be The Gig's upcoming show featuring Lee Renaldo and his collaborator Raül Refree; I attended the live taping in New York and just loved it. You can also check out past Talkhouse Podcast episodes featuring Battles' Juice B. Crypts collaborators Xenia Rubinos, Tune-Yards, and Shabazz Palaces. And finally, here's Lee and Ian's first meeting on the show from back in 2016. Today's show was recorded by Stephan Kimbel Olson and Mark Yoshizumi at Everlane, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Ever bring your family to Burning Man? Sorry, let me back up. A bit of context: The Talkhouse Podcast spent a fantastic weekend in Las Vegas last month at Life Is Beautiful Music and Art Festival. We put on two live Talkhouse tapings as part of their comedy lineup: Nikki Glaser x Bachelor Nation superstar Kaitlyn Bristowe, and Fred Armisen x Chris Redd x Portugal. The Man (which'll be released as a podcast soon). We also hosted a live talk under the fest's Ideas banner, featuring legendary entrepreneur Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (insanely famous actor, founder of HitRecord). The two friends take a heady dive into the question of what collaboration will look like in the future. Along the way we hear about parallels between artistic and entrepreneurial creativity; how the '80s show MacGyver shaped Tony's business philosophy; and, yep, taking your family to Burning Man. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer @eliaeinhorn Today’s show was recorded at Life Is Beautiful by Logan Shields and Mark Yoshizumi, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Singer/songwriter Pete Yorn knows how to pick collaborators — he's worked with The Pixies' Frank Black, Scarlett Johansson, and REM's Peter Buck to name just a few greats. When he and Day Wave's Jackson Phillips began making music together, Yorn knew he'd found the right co-pilot for a new musical undertaking. To celebrate Yorn's new LP Caretakers, co-produced by him and Phillips, the two sat down for a deep dive on the Talkhouse Podcast. They examine the benefits and drawbacks of a musical education; discuss the pluses and minuses of working in both small and big recording studio; and take in how hearing The Cure & The Smiths changed the course of Yorn's life. Check it out, and subscribe to the Talkhouse Podcast to catch upcoming episodes featuring Portugal. The Man with SNL's Chris Redd and Fred Armisen, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) with Battles' Ian Williams, and CHAI in convo with Varsity. Today’s show was recorded in New York by Dan Arnes and Mark Yoshizumi. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

What's uuuuuuup!! Dearest listeners, the Talkhouse Podcast team is back from Life Is Beautiful Fest in Las Vegas and we can definitively report that it totally. fookin'. RULES! We saw Billie Eilish start five separate mosh pits; watched famous DJs spin to a rooftop pool full of three-drinks-in, beach-ball-tossing, all-gender hotties at 1:00 in the afternoon; made it rain on 11th Street Records picking up rare original-pressing Smiths 12"s; and danced like fools down strobe-lit alleyways soundtracked by blasting synth-drenched four on the floor. (Fine, I'll admit that those last two were just me...) Oh, yeah, and we also put on three live Talkhouse Podcast events! For the Life Is Beautiful Comedy series, we paired SNL's Chris Redd, Fred Armisen, and Portugal. The Man, then comedian Nikki Glaser with Bachelor Nation mega-star Kaitlyn Bristowe. And as part of the Life Is Beautiful Ideas vertical, we brought together actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. This week we share Nikki and Kaitlyn's HILARIOUS talk. Tune in for Kaitlyn spilling tea on Ashley I and Jared's wedding, Nick Vial, JJ Lane, and her beef with The Bachelor creator Mike Fleis. Nikki tells us which Bachelor she's dying to get with, how her stint on Dancing With The Stars left her a wreck, and about her brilliant just-dropped new Netflix special Bangin'. And of course, with these two, we hear all about the benefits of getting tied up in bed; why men should “explore their assholes;” and dating bisexuals. Plus, Nikki changes Kaitlyn’s life by teaching her how to fart silently. Our special guest co-host for this episode is Liam Mathews, co-host of A Beautiful Podcast to Fall in Love, TV Guide’s unofficial Bachelor Nation podcast. Check it out! Today’s show was recorded at Life Is Beautiful by Logan Shields and Mark Yoshizumi, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by our co-producer Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Did you have any idea that Drew Carey is a deep music nerd??? Yeah, that Drew Carey, the one from The Drew Carey Show, Who’s Line Is It Anyway, and The Price Is Right. Did you realize that he hosts a show called Friday Night Freak Out on Little Stevie’s Underground Garage Sirius XM radio station? He does, and it gets wonderfully weird. Drew sat down with legendary Philly musician — and fellow Underground Garage DJ — Palmyra Delran (The Friggs, The Coolies) for a fun trip down the musical rabbit hole. The two chop it up on Drew’s history playing in polka bands; the culture clash that occurred when Palmyra hired a classical cellist for a session; meeting Dick Clark, Brian Wilson, and a couple of Beatles; and so much more. Check it out! Today’s show was recorded by Eric Rennaker at Bedrock.LA in Los Angeles, and Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

The Talkhouse team just returned back from Life is Beautiful 2019 with an amazing group of talks. This week we revisit one of our favorite conversations recorded out at last year's Life is Beautiful festival. Subscribe today to keep up to date with future Talkhouse Podcasts. In September, the Talkhouse Podcast squad rolled out to Las Vegas for Life is Beautiful Music and Arts Festival. In between performances from Talkhouse faves A$AP Ferg, CHVRCHES, and Death Cab For Cutie, we recorded some epic convos for the show. Comedian Jaboukie Young-White (The Daily Show, American Vandal) and indiepop legends The Drums’ Jonny Pierce are whip-smart queer artists who have intricately bound together their work and sexuality. Backstage at the fest, they and newer Drums' member Bryan de Leon dissected what exactly it means to be a "queer artist." Their talk takes in coming out through one’s art, "conveniently Christian homophobes," Balenciaga daddies, and how the world needs a gay Shrek. Oh, and Bryan also got Jaboukie to give some inside scoop on American Vandal season two... Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer @eliaeinhorn This episode was recorded by Mark Yoshizumi at Life is Beautiful, and at Hook & Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Big thanks to Life Is Beautiful for hosting the Talkhouse Podcast.

Alison Mosshart (The Kills, The Dead Weather) has been painting with remote control cars; Devendra Banhart's been obsessively pondering Christian Slater's '89 skater flick Gleaming The Cube. To celebrate Alison's new art book about cars — Car Ma — and Devendra's LP Ma, the two got together over salted egg brainless shrimp heads to discuss the above as well as skateboarding as a gateway drug to dope music, the multi-hyphenate magic of Captain Beefheart, how Guns N' Roses' November Rain video shaped Devendra's idea of Americans, and so much more. Check it out! Today’s show was recorded by Michael Harris at Electro-Vox Studios in Los Angeles, and Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Brian Wilson and The Zombies are touring together!!! I repeat, head Beach Boy Brian Wilson and recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Zombies are touring America together right now! To celebrate these legendary artists sharing the stage, we got 'em together at the first gig of the run for a Talkhouse Podcast conversation. The Zombies’ songwriter/keyboardist Rod Argent and singer Colin Blunstone roundtable some wonderful ideas with Wilson, fellow Beach Boys founder Al Jardine, 1970s Beach Boys addition Blondie Chaplin (who also plays with The Rolling Stones), and Darian Sahanaja, who’s played with Brian for two decades and was key in the making of the fantastic Smile LP. Their talk takes in the early days of The Beach Boys and The Zombies, and the bands' love of each other's music; challenges in playing songs you haven’t played in 50 years; recording Friends in Brian’s living room; and "balls out" Hammond B3 organ that'd make Argent proud. Check it out, and stay tuned after the featured conversation for clips of our favorite Brian Wilson and Zombies appearances on the show from 2016, including Brian and Carly Rae Jepsen in a "one-question wonder" chat from Pitchfork Music Festival, and The Zombies chatting with Hollis Brown at the Samsung store in NYC. Catch Brian Wilson and The Zombies on tour: 9/12: Los Angeles, CA — Greek Theatre 9/13: Oakland, CA — Fox Theater 9/16: Seattle, WA — Paramount Theatre 9/17: Portland, OR — Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 9/19: Sandy, UT — Sandy Amphitheater 9/20: Denver, CO — Paramount Theatre 9/22: Milwaukee, WI — The Riverside Theater 9/23: Cincinnati, OH — Taft Theatre 9/24: Detroit, MI — Masonic Temple 9/26: New York, NY — Beacon Theatre 9/27: Waterbury, CT — Palace Theater 9/28: Upper Darby, PA — Tower Theater Today's show was recorded by Malcolm Harrison of National Southwestern in Las Vegas, and Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

As I learned from today's episode, comedian Chris Gethard and singer-songwriter Mal Blum are "self-deprecating sad boys from Jersey" who are attracted to “erratic or controlling people who will blow your life up.” What I already knew going in is that the two are old friends, occasional collaborators, and incredibly talented at their art. Gethard and Blum joined us on the Talkhouse Podcast to celebrate the release of Blum's excellent new LP Pity Boy, and their conversation is predictably openhearted, neurotic, and fucking hilarious. Tune in to hear them consider going to a Love Addicts 12-step meeting, share their writing processes (Gethard even opens up his joke notebook and shares some new ideas!), unpack Mal's lack of boundaries, and learn why Gethard wants to wind up his career. Today’s episode was co-produced and recorded by Mark Yoshizumi. It was cut at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. Research assistance was provided by Madalyn Feltus. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. With this week's episode, Chris Gethard has joined the (sort of) rare and (moderately) coveted Talkhouse Podcast Hat Trick Club! Check out his previous appearances, talking with Todd Barry and Tim Heidecker.

Our latest installment of the Talkhouse Podcast at FORM Fest 2019 is a love letter to Chicago's post-rock, punk and emo scenes from the '00s to today. Windy City music legends — and old friends — Trevor de Brauw (Pelican, RLYR, TUSK) and Nate Kinsella (American Football, Joan of Arc, Make Believe) caught up backstage for a warm and hilarious convo, as well as a rad improvised ambient musical collaboration. The guys' talk takes in a lot: playing in bands with family members; having your musician father hate on your experimental work; and balancing parenthood and tour life. Oh and, of course: tone clusters, alternate tunings, death metal, and odd time signatures. This Talkhouse Podcast episode was recorded in the Conservatory backstage at FORM Fest in Arcosanti, Arizona. Pulp Arts and Patreon teamed up to co-present The Conservatory, a dope backstage visual arts installation and recording studio. Talkhouse recorded six episodes there throughout the weekend. You can also check out the other episodes in this series, including Snail Mail with Fred Armisen & Mary Lynn Rajskub, Robert Glasper & Vieux Farka Touré with special guest Lonnie Holley, Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore, and Kelsey Lu with Yrsa Daley-Ward. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer @eliaeinhorn Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at FORM Festival in Arcosanti, Arizona, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi, Danny Clifton, and Ian Jones. Research assistance was provided by Madalyn Feltus. The performance includes Trevor de Brauw on guitar and Nate Kinsella playing the drums. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Lulu Wang — writer-director of the summer indie hit The Farewell — chats with one of her favorite directors, Ruben Östlund, the award-winning Swedish director of such acclaimed films as The Square and Force Majeure. Talking from New York City and Gothenburg, respectively, the two filmmakers have a profound and highly entertaining conversation that touches on everything from the crucial role cinema plays in society and the importance of making films from lived experience, to how the internet turns us into shitty people and what Lulu and her boyfriend Barry Jenkins watch when they just want to relax. Special thanks to Katey Rich from Vanity Fair for collaborating on this special conversation, and for joining us on the podcast. Check out today's episode of Vanity Fair's awards podcast Little Gold Men for more from Lulu and Ruben. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

For our fifth consecutive year there, the Talkhouse Podcast squad rolled out to the fantastic Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago last month to record artists in conversation backstage. Over the years, this series has featured talks between Brian Wilson & Carly Rae Jepsen, Kamasi Washington & Thundercat, HAIM and Chvrches, and many more. This week's show features two young Chicago singer-songwriters who are both blowing up fast: Tasha and Lala Lala's Lillie West. The two chopped it up on how much they're learning all the time as their careers explode (including adjusting to having teams working around them); dealing with impostor syndrome; and the perils of making jokes onstage. Their talk also took in Jack White's technophobia, the pluses and minuses of freeing the nipple onstage, and Marie Kondo-ing your Instagram. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded by Joe Darnaby and Mark Yoshizumi, and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi, Annie Fell, and Elia Einhorn. Big thanks to Pitchfork Music Festival for hosting Talkhouse.

In honor of the release of Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’, Talkhouse paired three notable Frightened Rabbit collaborators and friends for a live conversation at Rough Trade NYC. Craig Finn (The Hold Steady), Katie Harkin (Sleater-Kinney, HARKIN), and Grammy-winning producer Peter Katis joined Talkhouse’s Executive Editor Josh Modell — a friend and fan of the band — to share favorite stories about the making of The Midnight Organ Fight, and Scott Hutchison’s life and legacy. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was produced by Mark Yoshizumi, Josh Modell, and Elia Einhorn. It was recorded at Rough Trade NYC, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi. Front of house engineering at Rough Trade was by Alex Payne. Research assistance was provided by Madalyn Feltus. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Our latest installment of the Talkhouse Podcast at FORM Fest 2019 pairs the brilliant poet/actress Yrsa Daley-Ward with avant-pop singer/songwriter/cellist Kelsey Lu in powerful conversation and musical collaboration. Their talk takes in a lot, including just how much effort is the right amount to put into a piece of art; how to make spaces your own when on the road; and how important the right clothes and hair are to each of their attitudes. They also touch on what it’s like to date a taurus (comfy!), and the devilish fun of writing disco revenge tracks. This Talkhouse Podcast episode was recorded in the Conservatory backstage at FORM Fest in Arcosanti, Arizona. Pulp Arts and Patreon teamed up to co-present The Conservatory, a rad backstage visual arts installation and recording studio. Talkhouse recorded six episodes there throughout the weekend, so subscribe to make sure to catch upcoming shows, including: — American Football & Pelican — L’Rain & Melanie Faye You can also check out the first three episodes in this series, including Snail Mail with Fred Armisen & Mary Lynn Rajskub, Robert Glasper & Vieux Farka Touré with special guest Lonnie Holley, and Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore. For their performance, Lu and Daley-Ward are joined by Max André Rademacher. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at FORM Festival in Arcosanti, Arizona, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi, Danny Clifton and Ian Jones. Research assistance was provided by Madalyn Feltus. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

For today’s show, legendary record producer and Garbage drummer Butch Vig and Silversun Pickups frontman Brian Aubert sat down for some deep musical shop talk. The occasion was the release of Widow’s Weeds, the new album by Silversun Pickups that Vig produced. Their convo takes in the nitty gritty of writing, recording, doing press, and touring. To that end, we hear about: a German journalist being a bit too honest; Butch’s psychic connection with his crack engineer; Brian’s reason for having lots of guests in studio; advice on how to keep your band together for the long haul; and so much more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded in LA by Butch Vig (yes, that Butch Vig), and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi. Research assistance was provided by Madalyn Feltus. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore are two of ambient music's most brilliant artists working today. On our third Talkhouse Podcast episode recorded backstage at FORM Fest, the two sit down for an in-depth conversation, as well as a wonderful improvised musical collaboration. Their talk takes in a lot, including making up stories about your art for the press; creating a 24-hour long score; hanging with an oracle friend of Grouper’s; and a “dead corpse” putting babies to sleep. This Talkhouse Podcast — and video of the performance element of today's show — was recorded in the Conservatory backstage at FORM Fest in Arcosanti, Arizona. Pulp Arts and Patreon teamed up to co-present The Conservatory, a rad backstage visual arts installation and recording studio. Talkhouse recorded six episodes there throughout the weekend, so subscribe to make sure to catch upcoming shows, including: — Kelsey Lu & Yrsa Daley-Ward — American Football & Pelican — L’Rain & Melanie Faye You can also check out the first two episodes in the series, including Snail Mail with Fred Armisen & Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Robert Glasper & Vieux Farka Touré with special guest Lonnie Holley. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at FORM Festival in Arcosanti, Arizona, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi, Danny Clifton and Ian Jones. Research assistance was provided by Madalyn Feltus. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Ahead of their much-anticipated upcoming US co-tour, the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne and The Claypool Lennon Delirium's Les Claypool and Sean Lennon catch up on the Talkhouse Podcast. The three legends have known each other for years, and they get into a lot here, including: how Wayne comes up with new ideas for the Lips' incredible stage visuals; CLD playing to pachyderms; life lessons they've learned from Butthole Surfers, Bootsy Collins, and Mike Watt; and having the best New Years Eve ever... every night. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded in Sacramento, California at Ace of Spades by Matthew Maxwell, at Wayne's Oklahoma City, Oklahoma studio by Michael Ivins, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi. Research assistance was provided by Madalyn Feltus. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

BREAKING NEWS! Indie rock it-band Snail Mail has an all-new lineup! Don't worry, Lindsey Jordan is still there — only now, so is Fred Armisen and comedian Mary Lynn Rajskub (24, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). On our second Talkhouse Podcast episode recorded backstage at the wonderful FORM Fest, the three form a group on the spot, then, with instruments in hand, improvise songs about: How they’re actually the new Snail Mail lineup; Chef Boyardee; Neil Young; "lemon squares that Mommy made"; Jesus’ selective saving tendencies (that one's titled called “Here Comes The Son”), and loads more. We also witness spoofs of Queen and Beyonce; hear thoughts on fergiepeepants.jpg; learn about foot fetishists and Wikifeet; take in some sarcastic breakdancing; consider gentle piss modulators; and find out why Mary Lynn is convinced Lindsey needs to get pregnant immediately. This Talkhouse Podcast and video was recorded in the Conservatory backstage at FORM Fest in Arcosanti, Arizona. Pulp Arts and Patreon teamed up to co-present The Conservatory, a rad backstage visual arts installation and recording studio. Talkhouse recorded six episodes there throughout the weekend, so subscribe to make sure to catch upcoming shows, including: — Kelsey Lu & Yrsa Daley-Ward — Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore — American Football & Pelican — L’Rain & Melanie Faye You can also check out the just-released first episode from the fest, featuring jazz and hip hop legend Robert Glasper with a giant of African music, Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, plus an appearance by Lonnie Holley. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at FORM Festival in Arcosanti, Arizona, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi, Danny Clifton and Ian Jones. Research assistance was provided by Madalyn Feltus. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

With Pitchfork Music Festival 2019 closely approaching, we thought we'd highlight this double feature from last year's fest. Happy holidays! Welcome to this week’s bumper double feature of a show! We’re thrilled to bring you two fantastic conversations recorded backstage at Pitchfork Music Festival 2018: a short chat between Fleet Foxes main-man Robin Pecknold and Nilüfer Yanya, and a deep dive between Dev Hynes—aka Blood Orange—and super-producer Raphael Saadiq. PLUS we’ve got a brand new theme song created just for us by one of our favorite artists, The Range! Tune in to hear firsthand accounts of Solange‘s impromptu shopping trips, how Joanna Newsom helped get Fleet Foxes back together, the inside scoop on Yanya’s upcoming debut LP, how Deadheads influenced Saadiq’s musicality, and how Hynes created his powerful brand new album Negro Swan. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  This episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Big thanks to Pitchfork Music Festival for hosting Talkhouse, and to Karolina Barej for all of her coordination work. I’m very pleased to write for the very first time that the Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

FORM is a festival unlike any other. It takes place in the “eco-city” of Arcosanti, an architectural marvel in the middle of the Arizona desert. Attendance is limited to 2,000, but they still bring in massive headliners like Florence + The Machine and Anderson .Paak. Fans get to see their favorite stadium artists in an incredibly beautiful and intimate space — and discover their next five favorite bands, all in the same day. There’s no VIP section, but there is a cliffside pool with DJs, rooftop yoga, and immersive listening stations. I'd been hearing rave reviews for years from musicians who'd played the fest, so this spring Talkhouse Podcast producer Mark Yoshizumi and I headed out to FORM to get our glamping on, and record some amazing artists in convo. As an added dimension, we also paired them in musical collaboration. Pulp Arts and Patreon teamed up to co-present The Conservatory, a backstage visual arts installation and recording studio. Talkhouse recorded six episodes there throughout the weekend, so subscribe to make sure to catch upcoming shows, including: — Snail Mail, Fred Armisen & Mary Lynn Rajskub — Kelsey Lu & Yrsa Daley-Ward — Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore — American Football & Pelican — L'Rain & Melanie Faye Our first episode from the fest features jazz and hip hop legend Robert Glasper with a giant of African music, Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré. The two were excited to meet and chop it up, and immediately found a lot of common ground. They get into a lot, including: the role their musician parents played in their own artistic development; the difficulties of being a professional musician in Mali; Vieux’s fear of playing jazz; and the inspiration Vieux drops that Robert wants tattooed on his… well, check it out. After the talk, keep it locked for a trio of breathtaking improvisations between Vieux on guitar and Robert on keys, accompanied by Vieux’s rhythm section of bassist Marshall Henry and drummer Tim Kiper. The uniquely brilliant singer, songwriter, and sculptor Lonnie Holley, who’d stopped in to watch the session after his own incredible set at the fest, also jumped in to sing on a jam. Sinat Giwa, Events Director at OkayPlayer, OkayAfrica, and OkaySpace, joins me to intro this first episode from FORM. You can also enjoy today's show as a video via Talkhouse.com —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at FORM Festival in Arcosanti, Arizona, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. Research assistance provided by Madalyn Feltus. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, two good friends, actor-writer-director Lake Bell and singer Santigold, sit down for a long-awaited chat together. The pair are both very busy performers – Bell is hard at work on the second season of her new show Bless This Mess and can be heard in the new animated feature The Secret Life of Pets 2, and Santi recently dropped I Don't Want: The Gold Fire Sessions and just came back from a U.S. tour – but are also highly involved mothers, and a large focus of their talk is on the challenges of balancing family life with creative work. They discuss how you can’t in fact do it all or have it all, how the making art changes after you have kids, how filmmaking and parenting are (kind of) the same thing, plus Santi’s social media struggles, where the roots of Lake’s comedy lie, what Lake is doing to address the current political situation, Santi’s move into directing, and much, much more. For more filmmakers musicians in conversation, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

I'm a father. It's awesome. The best! Seriously. And also simultaneously exhausting and sleepless. And complicated. But eminently worth it! This week, we here at Talkhouse salute the dads, and father figures, of music and cinema. Our Father's Day episode pairs two creative father-and-son duos; one pair defining the sound of hip hop, the others prolific film multi-hyphenates. — Segment one: Prince Paul & DJ PForReal aka Paul Huston Sr. and Jr. The legendary hip-hop producer Prince Paul — known for his pioneering work with Stetsasonic, De La Soul, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Gravediggaz, BROOKZILL! and more — raised his son, DJ PForReal, in the music game. Paul Jr, DJ for rap star Lil Uzi Vert, joined his dad for today's show to discuss pushing one’s comfort zone, never taking the straight path, faking it till you make it, and what it's like when your first ever DJ gig is opening up for Wu-Tang’s GZA. — Segment two: Larry Fessenden and Jack Fessenden The great horror director, producer and actor Larry Fessenden (The Last Winter, Habit) also brought his kid up in his chosen craft. Jack Fessenden, who's still a teenager (!), has already directed one feature, Stray Bullets, and is in pre-production for his next. The two sat down to chop it up on the highs and lows of coming up in a cinematic family, why Larry likes to mentor young people, and the reason Jack hasn’t seen many of his dad’s films. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. DJ PForReal was recorded in Atlanta by Luther Banks at Patchwerk Studios. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

To celebrate the release of A$AP Ferg's new joint "Pups," which features fellow Mob member A$AP Rocky, we're re-sharing the Hood Pope's rad 2017 Talkhouse convo with culinary icon — and, as we learn, former rap producer — Andrew Carmellini. Check it out. On Talkhouse's premiere food culture episode (part of its new Talkhouse x Food Republic series), New York City chef and restaurateur Andrew Carmellini meets Harlem rapper A$AP Ferg at the flagship Sonos store in NYC. In their conversation, they discuss the challenges of their respective crafts, their role as leaders, branding, cooking and more. Check out these two New York cultural titans chopping it up, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

Stephin Merritt is one of the most brilliant songwriters of our time. Through his projects The Magnetic Fields, The Gothic Archies, Future Bible Heroes, and The 6ths, he’s deconstructed and reimagined the art of the song. Stephin’s lyrics are wonderfully dark and witty, often gender-bending, sometimes intellectual, occasionally utterly heartbreaking. His melodies are addictive enough to be illegal under drug-dealing laws. Stephin is able to make listeners laugh, cry, and think, all in the same song. This year marks the 20th anniversary of 69 Love Songs, widely considered the crown jewel of Stephin Merritt's vast catalog. A three CD (now also a six 10” vinyl) box set, the album is a meta conceit: a record not only full of love songs, but also about love songs themselves. Running 172 minutes and 35 seconds, the songs stylistically jump between indie rock, synth-pop, country, faux punk and jazz, Sondheim-esque showtunes, folk, a capella, '70s singer-songwriter, world music and much more. For today’s show, Stephin sat down with Daniel Handler — aka, A Series Of Unfortunate Events author Lemony Snicket — who played accordion on 69 Love Songs as well as interviewed Stephin for the liner notes. The old friends and collaborators chop it up on the triumphs and occasional difficulties of 69 Love Songs’ improbable existence — the arduous recording, uncharted release campaign, surprising live shows, initial reaction and beloved legacy. Their deep dive talk also takes in: Daniel’s theory that 69 LS has become a children’s album; “tweecore” beefs with Belle and Sebastian and Stereolab; the record release show that found Stephin trapped above the stage; the best music to get busy to; whispering hecklers; and why 69 Love Songs should’ve been sold in sex shops. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

This week on the Talkhouse Podcast, we’re celebrating artists who take music in unexpected and brilliant new directions. Tuesday’s show saw Tierra Whack and Nnamdi Ogbonnaya in conversation; today, we bring you a fantastic deep dive between Avey Tare of Animal Collective and Ishmael “Ish” Butler, aka Palaceer Lazaro in Shabazz Palaces, fka Butterfly of Digable Planets. Ish and Avey are massive fans of each other’s work — Animal Collective and Shabazz Palaces have even remixed tracks for each other. This convo takes in a lot: how seeing Animal Collective play live got Ish back into making his own records when he thought he was done with music; what artists they’re both vibing on rn; Ish’s goal to "elasticize minds" with his live shows; and the “secret sauce” that goes into writing Animal Collective and Shabazz Palaces songs. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Ish was recorded by Dan Arnes at The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Avey was recorded by Adam McDaniel at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, NC. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Duuudes! Those of you who follow us on Insta may know that Mark The Producer and I just got back from our first festival of 2019. As we glamped and recorded some of the best musicians in the world in convo for upcoming Talkhouse episodes, it occurred to me that full-on festival season is almost upon us. That means, of course, that this summer, Talkhouse will be returning to Pitchfork Music Festival for our fifth straight year of recording backstage talks with many of the brilliant artists rocking Union Park. We're so psyched for this year's lineup; get your tix now to catch Belle and Sebastian (playing Sinister in it's entirety!), Pusha T, Haim, Robyn, Earl Sweatshirt, Khruangbin and more. In anticipation, we wanted to share with you a special bonus episode this week. So, here's a fantastic conversation that happened spontaneously at last year's fest; it was too short to be released as a regular episode, but was too good not to share. Tierra Whack and Nnamdi Ogbonnaya both have sounds and visual aesthetics all their own. When the two met in our trailer studio, they connected immediately, cracking us all the f up in the process. Their hilarious and insightful chat takes in quite a bit in its brief runtime: their production techniques and studio vibes; fave bands and movies of all time (some very surprising answers here); wtf happened to those balloons from the Whackworld video; and some pretty great impressions of Oprah and Leonardo DiCaprio. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Big thx to the fantastic Pitchfork Music Festival for hosting the Talkhouse Podcast. PMF 2019 takes place in Chicago from July 19-21st, 2019. SEE YOU IN THE PIT, er PARK!

For today’s episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we sat down backstage at Desert Daze with Grasshopper of Mercury Rev and A Place To Bury Strangers’s Lia Braswell. The two are big fans of each others’ live sets, and were psyched to meet and chop it up. Their conversation takes in a lot: artistic community, DIY culture, the years of work it takes to succeed, and the restorative power of seeing live music. Oh, and we learn how Lia learned to appreciate the feedback. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. You can also now follow us on Spotify! —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at by Keenan Kush at Desert Daze, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark The Producer. Additional recording by Josh Modell. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Big thx for the fantastic Desert Daze for hosting the Talkhouse Podcast. Desert Daze 2019 takes place at Moreno Beach from October 10-13, 2019. The first two announced artists are Animal Collective and Stereolab. Find tix and info at https://desertdaze.org/

This week, we here at Talkhouse celebrate two monumental things: first off, this is the Talkhouse Podcast's 250th episode (holy shit, how did that happen?!?!? Thank you, listeners!) The second thing we're celebrating officially this week, and unofficially every other day of the year: mothers and maternal figures! For today’s show, we took a deep dive through the past five years of the podcast to share some of our favorite clips of artists discussing the myriad experiences that comprise motherhood. So buckle up for: — Christina Choe and Andrew Ahn on Christina's mom's star turn as an actress. — Tori Amos and Shirley Manson (Garbage) on the sacrifices and uncertainties of motherhood, and the continuing inspiration Tori receives from her own mother. — Fred Armisen and Alix Lambert on the crazy, sad true story of Fred’s stepmother's time in East Berlin. — Ben Lee and Jon Cryer on how Ben's mum helped him make a really important career decision when he was a teenager. — Tracy Droz Tragos and Martha Shane on how Tracy's maternal instincts guided her experiences on and off screen while making Rich Hill. — Julia Pott’s mum reviewing Get Out — on Julia's answering machine. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

“All night, I been drinking all night, I been drinking all night, I been drinking, ay ay” sang Knox Fortune on the hook of Chance The Rapper’s mega-hit single "All Night." For this podcast, Knox and his old buddy comedian Brandon Wardell (Yeah But Still) switched it up and did a little day drinking. The guys sat down late last year to chop it up on the Talkhouse Podcast backstage at Life Is Beautiful Music and Art Festival in Las Vegas, where they’d both performed. Their truly freewheeling convo takes in a lot: which pop stars have the best and worst fans; thoughts on Trippie Redd and Juice WRLD; Banksy’s true identity; the drug that fueled both Home Alone and Aladdin; The Beatles vs. Emo Rap; and loads more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. You can also now follow us on Spotify! —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at National Southwestern Recording in Las Vegas and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark The Producer. Additional recording by Josh Modell. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Thanks to Life Is Beautiful and Ronald Corso at National Southwestern Recording. This year’s Life Is Beautiful happens Sept 20-22, and the lineup is, as usual, incredible, featuring Chance The Rapper, Billie Eilish, The Black Keys, Desus and Mero, Pod Save America, and so many more. Tix can be purchased here.

Hot on the heels of Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)'s incredible new LP Lux Prima and Sam Spiegel (N.A.S.A.)'s new single "Perfect," the two old friends and collaborators sat down for a deep dive on the Talkhouse Podcast.  Buckle up for stories of working with everyone from Ol' Dirty Bastard to David Byrne to Danger Mouse; collab-ing with your literal family — Sam's brother is Spike Jonze — and your figurative one, as Karen does in the YYYs; and the rad audio-visual experiences that Sam and Karen created for each of their new projects. Check it out and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Stay up to date on live Talkhouse events with our Events tab. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded in at Sam's house in Los Angeles by Ali Nikou, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi. Additional engineering by Josh Modell. 

The brilliant composer and two-time Talkhouse Podcast guest William Basinski recently dropped me an intriguing email. He wrote of a “very talented young friend, a fine guitarist from Amarillo” who has “a great story.” If Billy recommends an artist, I look into them; the more I learned about this guitarist from Amarillo, TX — Hayden Pedigo — the more fascinated I became. A born and raised Amarilloan, Hayden is an ambient acoustic guitarist and soundscape composer who's written music dedicated to the landscape and beauty of his hometown. Changing artistic lanes late last year, Hayden undertook a satirical project inspired by Harmony Korine that was composed of a series of bizarre, Tim and Eric-esque fake campaign videos. When the vids went viral, he decided to run for City Council in Amarillo in earnest, and is now a leading contender with a real shot at being elected. With his gonzo comedic approach and dual life in music, we thought that a convo between Hayden and Tim Heidecker — who's fresh off the release of Us — would make for a quite a show. Talkhouse pals Nick Dawson (EIC, Film) and Josh Modell (Executive Editor, Music) join me to introduce this politically-minded conversation between two great weirdos. Check it out and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Stay up to date on live Talkhouse events with our Events tab. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded in Los Angeles by Tim Heidecker, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi.

Both Kate Nash and Cherry Glazerr’s Clem Creevy have talent, smarts, and attitude to burn; they've each also got incredible, recently-released music. To celebrate their new bops, the two friends sat down to chop it up at Clem’s home in LA. We hear about the truly unique story behind Kate’s new single "Trash" and the Maharaja musical she’s been writing; the curious empowerment Clem finds in singing from the perspective of a misogynist; and their takes on religion, rebellion, and life in Los Angeles. Check it out and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Stay up to date on live Talkhouse events with our Events tab. And if you’re in the New York area, come hang April 13 at our Record Store Day event! —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded in Los Angeles by Ali Nikou, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we feature a conversation between two of the most distinctive and original voices in American cinema: Harmony Korine and Caveh Zahedi. The two got together in New York City in advance of the release of Korine’s new movie, The Beach Bum, a wild Florida-set fantasia about cosmic poet Moondog, starring Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg, Jonah Hill, Martin Lawrence, Zac Efron and Jimmy Buffett. Korine and Zahedi, who used to be phone buddies years back, discuss seemingly everything under the sun, from The Beach Bum as an autobiographical portrait, to the art of parenting, to Korine’s recipe for joy – plus, Rimbaud vs. Rambo, the awesome thing about Bob Dylan playing minor league baseball grounds, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Hemingway’s six-toed cats, how Zahedi’s web series The Show about the Show kinda led to his divorce, and much, much more. For more filmmakers musicians in conversation, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Episode recorded by Elia Einhorn, and recorded and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook & Fade Studios in Brooklyn. The Talkhouse podcast producer is Elia Einhorn.

To mark the sad passing of the brilliant Agnès Varda, we are revisiting an old episode of the Talkhouse Podcast in which documentary cinematographer and Cameraperson director Kirsten Johnson sat down with the legendary French New Wave auteur when she was in town in 2017 for a gallery exhibit of her art at Blum & Poe and a French Institute film series. In a wonderfully thoughtful and engaged conversation, the two discuss Varda's artwork, how her films play with time, finding permission as an artist, Varda's feelings about New York City, Faces Places, her collaboration with the artist JR, her favorite color (!), and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Earlier this month, Talkhouse headed down to the legendary insanity that is SXSW in Austin, TX for bands, breakfast tacos, more bands, and — of course — podcasts! We were honored to be asked for the second consecutive year to curate a live Talkhouse Podcast recording on the official SXSW Podcast Stage, where we paired two of indie rock’s prolific singer/songwriters releasing exciting new music this year. John Vanderslice and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew are both fantastic artists and hilarious, thoughtful conversationalists. The two chopped it up in front of an audience of fans on everything from the various forms of therapy that each is currently undergoing (one is micro-dosing) to the Great SX Scooter Scourge of 2019. Their talk also takes in their new music, the economic realities of running a pro recording studio in 2019, Vanderslice’s near-death tour experience, and ordering cocaine on the dark web. Check it out and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Stay up to date on live Talkhouse events with our Events tab. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at JW Marriott in Austin by Sean Cherry and Kari Erickson, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi. Additional recording by Josh Modell. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Thanks to SXSW, Cadence 13, and all the Talkhouse fans who roll through our live events.

We here at the Talkhouse Podcast were psyched when Chicago-based indie festival Tomorrow Never Knows asked us to curate a live taping as part of their January 2019 lineup. So, we paired Andy Hull (Manchester Orchestra) and Mike Kinsella (American Football, Owen) for an exclusive conversation and acoustic performance. Thanks to all of you Midwest listeners who braved the winter chill to pack out Sleeping Village! Andy and Mike are old friends, and big fans of each other’s music. They were excited to catch up for this talk, and the ensuing conversation covered a lot, including: their ever-evolving songwriting chops and philosophies; how having kids changes one’s creativity; and what exactly went down at that craziest Owen show ever… The performance setlist is: Andy — “The Gold” Mike — “Love is Not Enough” Andy — “Untitled (Blue)” Mike — “The Desperate Act” Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Stay up to date on live Talkhouse events with our Events tab. You can also now follow us on Spotify! While you’re there, make sure to check out American Football’s American Football (LP3), out tomorrow. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at Sleeping Village in Chicago by Joe Darnaby and Greg Obis and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark Yoshizumi. Additional recording by Josh Modell. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Thanks to Tomorrow Never Knows, Sleeping Village, and all the Talkhouse fans who roll through our live events.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we mark the imminent return of Veep for its seventh and final season with a conversation between two of the show's cast members, Timothy Simons and Brian Huskey. Simons and Huskey – who play manchild Jonah Ryan and pesky political reporter Leon West, respectively – have a hilarious and wide-ranging talk that takes in everything from the perils (and occasional positives) of social media and getting sincere in middle age, to shilling for free stuff on podcasts and, of course, their show's swan song season. Plus, we see how long their pledge to not talk about Trump actually lasts and find out exactly what happened when Tim went to a Tony Robbins-designed Pitbull show at a celebrity golf tournament! For more filmmakers musicians in conversation, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, friends and fellow actor-writer-directors James Roday and Karen Gillan sit down for a chat at The Grant, James' bar-to-be in Los Angeles' Eagle Rock neighborhood. Roday and Gillan, best known as Shawn from Psych and Nebula from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, respectively, got together to discuss Roday's second feature as writer-director, the slowburning horror, Treehouse, which debuted March 1 on Hulu as part of Blumhouse's yearlong Into the Dark series. To the faint sounds of construction workers finishing The Grant, the two pals chat about Treehouse, Gillan's directorial debut The Party's Just Beginning, their mutual love of horror movies and Lynne Ramsay, Roday's obsession with Highland cows, that time Gillan wrote a letter to Michael Haneke, and much, much more. For more filmmakers musicians in conversation, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

When we paired them for a Talkhouse Podcast at the fantastic Life Is Beautiful Fest, Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn and SNL writer Anna Drezen got on, as they say in the talk, like a house on fire. A week after meeting, Sylvan Esso were posting pics backstage from SNL! In this chat, the trio do cover some artistic topics: the similarities and differences in the professional lives of bands and comedians; their worst gigs ever; and the emotional brutality of both writing songs and pitching sketches at SNL. And they also get into a tooon of riffing. (Turns out Sylvan Esso can hang with the best!) So we also hear about “egg sluts,” Property Brothers fan fiction, the problem with Steven Seagal flicks, and even witness a fiery debate on whether Sylvan Esso… make good hula hooping music. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. You can also now follow us on Spotify! —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded at National Southwestern Recording in Las Vegas and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn by Mark The Producer. Additional recording by Josh Modell. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Thanks to Life Is Beautiful and Ronald Corso at National Southwestern Recording.

This week, we're revisiting a unique talk recorded at last year's On Air Fest. On Air is a rad festival devoted to audio storytelling and the creative possibilities of sound. The festival returns later this month in Brooklyn. You can find more info about speakers and how to attend at onairfest.com Today's episode, a collaboration with The Players' Tribune, was recorded earlier this month in front of a live audience at On Air Fest at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn. When On Air Fest reached out to Talkhouse about curating a live episode for their podcast festival, we had an idea: What if we, the outlet where musicians and filmmakers write and speak about their experiences, partnered with Derek Jeter's The Players' Tribune, the site where athletes write about their own experiences, for a podcast discussion about what the first-person narrative really looks like? The Players' Tribune loved the idea, and brought in NFL linebacker Cameron Lynch to speak with frequent Talkhouse contributor Meredith Graves (Perfect Pussy). Their thoughtful and often funny conversation takes in a lot, from shutting down the "shut up and dribble" narrative, to the very real pressures of professionally rolling "the dice of life" every single day. It also touches on Fergie's National Anthem blowback, the truth and falsity of people's preconceptions about athletes and rock stars, the perils of Googling oneself, and reckoning with the fact that each of us is "an unpredictable consciousness driving a meat-covered skeleton." Dan Treadway, Deputy Editor at Players' Tribune, and I kick off the live conversation with some background on each of our first-person-driven media outlets. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was recorded by Mark Yoshizumi with Michael Bosworth, and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Happiest of Valentines Days to ya, listeners! To celebrate the duality of this love-filled and oh-so-fraught time, the Talkhouse Podcast asked five of our favorite artist couples to answer two questions: What’s the best thing about being in a two-artist relationship? And, what’s the worst?? Answering both Cupid’s and our calls are: — Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee) and Kevin Morby;  — Maliibu Miitch and Chase Money Marz;  — Heather Matarazzo and Heather Turman;  — Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz, Sad13) and Dylan Baldi (Cloud Nothings); — Natalie Prass and Eric Slick (Dr. Dog) So get ready to hear about inter-couple artistic competitiveness, the strains of touring in a relationship, having recording sessions on your spouse’s birthday, and the perils of dating “civilians.” As I couldn’t ask these artists to walk through a potential relationship minefield that I wasn’t willing to tread myself, I’m very pleased (and slightly afraid) to welcome my wife—and Pitchfork’s Managing Editor—Amy Phillips on to help intro this episode. Buckle up! Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. You can also now follow us on Spotify! —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded by each of the participating couples, and by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we get to listen in on two friends and recent collaborators in conversation: actor Jon Cryer (of Two and a Half Men fame) and musician Ben Lee. The pair, who teamed up on the musical B is for Beer, which Lee adapted with Tom Robbins from the iconic novelist’s book of the same name – and then roped in Cryer to both direct and play the role of the Beer Vendor. In a wide-ranging chat recorded at Lee’s house in Los Angeles, Jon and Ben discuss being famous in your teens (and then trying to become a grounded adult), their partnership on B is for Beer, how to deal with setbacks and failures in show business, Ben’s life-changing moment being cast at age 7 in Uncle Moishy and His Mitzvah Men, Jon’s memories of working on Superman IV, and much, much more. For more filmmakers musicians in conversation, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Episode recorded by Ben Lee in Los Angeles, and recorded and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook & Fade Studios in Brooklyn. The Talkhouse podcast producer is Elia Einhorn.

We're re-airing this talk with the news that Jlin and William Basinski are reconnecting for an upcoming Talkhouse Podcast happening live on Pitchfork Radio at Midwinter. Jlin and William Basinski are two of today's most fascinating and gifted composers. Basinski works with decaying analogue tape loops to create ambient soundscapes, while Jlin constructs brilliant, stuttering reimaginings of footwork rhythms. The friends and collaborators sat down in the Sonos room at Rough Trade NYC for one of three conversations that Talkhouse curated for Northside Festival. The two get into Basinski's tribute to his hero David Bowie, Jlin's boundary-pushing collaborations with cutting-edge dancers, and how a cat on the loose ended up significantly contributing to Basinski’s artistry. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today's episode was recorded and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

Hardcore porn, boring mega-fans, and ANOHNI dropping allegorical knowledge are just the start of this incredibly thoughtful and open conversation between John Grant and Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters, Kinky Boots). The two are huge fans of each other’s work, and were both nervous and excited at the opportunity to sit down and chop it up. Their talk also covers how they’ve each faced, and overcome, their worst performing nightmares; the inspiration chili and cheesecake brought to recording John’s Love Is Magic; and Jake’s uncomfortably intimate encounter with the String Cheese Incident. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. You can also now follow us on Spotify! —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. It was recorded by Ali Nikou at Shears’ home in LA, and by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Today's episode is an action-packed double-header! First up, we've got post-punk heavy-hitters Matt Flegel (singer and bassist of Preoccupations) and Joe Casey (Protomartyr frontman and new entrant into the Talkhouse Podcast Three Timers Club). The recent tour mates discuss their new 7" split Telemetry At Howe Bridge, intra-band fighting, how sports nerds and music nerds can be the same kind of insufferable, and so much more! Plus, we've got a short and sweet clip from a convo with Geoff Barrow (Portishead, Beak>) and Annika Henderson (aka Anika). They talk about how Annika found her band Exploded View just when she was about to quit the music industry forever, and how EV has benefitted from having members from three different countries. Check it out. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Joe Casey and Matt Flegel were recorded in Kansas City by James Grau; Geoff Barrow and Anika recorded themselves. This episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Today’s show is dedicated to the OG electronic music heads! Synthpop wizard Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yaz, Erasure) sat down with U.K. rave gods Paul and Phil Hartnoll of Orbital for a catch-up amidst the drool-worthy vintage synthesizer collection at Hook & Fade Studios here in Brooklyn. The old friends take us on a trip back through the dance scenes they were immersed in throughout the '80s and '90s, analyze the American and British music communities, and compare notes on the differences between the legendary old raves and today’s massive EDM festivals. And while on past podcast episodes we’ve heard very disparate takes on the way artists work up demos — Clams Casino’s iPhone apps, Yoshimi’s train riding — we’ve never heard anything remotely like Paul’s method. (And we’re guessing his dentist hadn’t, either.) Check it out. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

To celebrate Mexican Summer’s ten year anniversary, we paired two of the fantastic record label’s most fascinating artists: Ariel Pink and Cate Le Bon. Backstage at A Decade Deeper: Mexican Summer’s 10 Year Anniversary party at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works arts space, Cate and Ariel—fans of each other’s work who'd never met irl—sat down for a talk before their sets. The two really hit it off, and their wide-ranging conversation takes in a lot: the deep flaws they see in the way music press works; Ariel not always working well with others; and the difficult genesis of Cate’s upcoming LP. Ariel also talks about his favorite site on the internet, and Cate divulges the, um, very weird act she was asked to perform for a shoot. Check it out. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Big thanks to Justin Frye and Pioneer Works for hosting this taping. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Tbh, we didn’t mean to make our last episode before Christmas one that explores two fantastic singer-songwriters’ experiences growing up in very religious Christian homes and the effect it’s had on their art, but here we are — and it’s a damn fine talk! David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) and Sarah Beth Tomberlin (Tomberlin) are big fans of each other’s music, and jumped at the chance to meet via a Talkhouse Podcast episode. They got on so well, they’ve decided to hit the road together throughout February! You can find those dates at Talkhouse.com and hopefully catch them in your city; in the meantime, enjoy this conversation that takes in Sarah Beth’s experiences at bible school; David’s assessment of the biggest lie of Christianity; and finding personal salvation in ... the Beatles. Check it out. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Thanks so much to all of you listeners for an incredible year here at the Talkhouse Podcast; we truly appreciate the millions of you that tuned in, gave feedback, and sent rad suggestions for artists you’d love to see appear on the show. Happiest of holidays! —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was recorded by Joe Darnaby in Chicago, David Bazan at his home, and Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. Our co-producer is Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Until catching this talk live last month, it would never have occurred to me that there could be a deep similarity between Jeff Tweedy's songs and Abbi Jacobson's Broad City character, but—there is! Jeff (Wilco, Tweedy) and Abbi (Broad City, Disenchantment) sat down at the beautiful Murmrr Theater in Brooklyn to celebrate the release of Jeff's memoir Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. and his new solo album Warm. Their thoughtful and funny conversation took in a lot, including the difficulties they each had writing books after focusing their careers on other types of writing; opening up about mental health and addiction; Jeff breaking into comedy; and so much more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded by Mark Yoshizumi with Eric Lemke and Justin Hrabovski at Murmrr Theater, and at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Big thanks to Brian Kelly at Murmrr. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg chats with Adam Conover, the host and creator of Adam Ruins Everything, now in its third season on truTV. Bob-Waksberg and Conover – who met at Bard, where they were members of the Olde English comedy troupe, and then became post-college roommates – dive deep into their shared past in a conversation that only two longtime friends could have. They talk about everything from how Conover’s personal history informs Adam Ruins Everything, their comedy philosophies (and Adam’s alternate life as a philosopher!) and their time together in Olde English to their “dishes rule,” Howie Mandel’s prank TV show Howie Do It and their favorite tweets that Adam has deleted. Plus, there's a very special song improvised by Raphael during a Googling break! For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On today’s Talkhouse Podcast episode, old friends and collaborators Neko Case and Eric Bachmann (Archers Of Loaf, Crooked Fingers) catch up. The two—who most recently collaborated on a duet Eric wrote that they recorded for Neko’s new record Hell On—take in a lot here. We learn about Neko’s plans for when she retires from touring; get a deep dive into their favorite duet recordings of all time; and hear Eric give a long overdue apology for a very wet tour bus accident... Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Neko was recorded by Jody Peterson at Cliff House Audio in Montpelier, VT, and Eric at his home in Georgia by Joel Hatstat. This episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

In September, the Talkhouse Podcast squad rolled out to Las Vegas for Life is Beautiful Music and Arts Festival. In between performances from Talkhouse faves A$AP Ferg, CHVRCHES, and Death Cab For Cutie, we recorded some epic convos for the show. Comedian Jaboukie Young-White (The Daily Show, American Vandal) and indiepop legends The Drums’ Jonny Pierce are whip-smart queer artists who have intricately bound together their work and sexuality. Backstage at the fest, they and newer Drums' member Bryan de Leon dissected what exactly it means to be a "queer artist." Their talk takes in coming out through one’s art, "conveniently Christian homophobes," Balenciaga daddies, and how the world needs a gay Shrek. Oh, and Bryan also got Jaboukie to give some inside scoop on American Vandal season two... Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded by Mark Yoshizumi at Life is Beautiful, and at Hook & Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Big thanks to Life Is Beautiful for hosting the Talkhouse Podcast.

The Talkhouse Podcast recently headed out to the fantastic Desert Daze festival at Moreno Beach at Lake Perris in Southern California. When we weren't catching sets by Tame Impala, King Gizzard and My Bloody Valentine, we recorded a trio of great talks; this week, we present the first. When I saw that both Steve Albini and Devo's Jerry Casale were going to be at Desert Daze giving talks, I knew we had to pair these two icons of alternative music. They're big fans of each other's work, and halfway through their conversation, Steve said, “This is the sort of stuff no one ever talks about. These are the questions I’ve had for 30 years.” Their fascinating talk takes in the beginning years of Devo’s existence; their complex relationship with Neil Young; Brian Eno’s proclivity for ménage à trois; the differences between poker and making records; and how the name Devo became a category alongside jocks, squares and nerds. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded by Keenan Kush at Desert Daze, and by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook & Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range. Big thanks to Desert Daze for hosting the Talkhouse Podcast.

This week’s show was recorded during The Decemberists’ fantastic Traveler’s Rest Festival in Missoula, Montana. Death Cab For Cutie’s Dave Depper and Lucy Dacus (boygenius) sat down backstage for a freewheeling chat… and a tarot card reading. The two discuss the benefits of artist-curated fests, night terrors on the tour bus, the Sidemen's Guild of the United States, the importance of tuning out the music industry, and much more. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded by Keenan Kush at Travelers' Rest, and by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Today’s show features Blake Schwarzenbach (Jawbreaker, Jets To Brazil) and chef Graham Elliot (Masterchef, Top Chef) in conversation live from Virgin Hotels Chicago. Their talk covers some of the big experiences of their respective art forms — the inherent pressures of reuniting with a legendary band, or of being asked to recreate classic dishes in a high pressure public environment; false “perfection” vs. authenticity in the recording studio and in the kitchen — as well as Jawbreaker’s formation, rise and reunion, and the consequences of speaking out politically while being a star on Top Chef. It also takes in wet sax solos, keytars, Auto-Tune, Trump supporters at Jawbreaker shows, menu B-sides, being Gordon Ramsay’s “backup dancer,” and vocal fry vs. frying. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Don’t be shy to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded by Greg Panciera at Virgin Hotels Chicago, and by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook & Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

“I don’t know if this is a therapy session or a podcast,” says Katie Monks (Dilly Dally) part way through this conversation with her brother Dave Monks (Tokyo Police Club). We here at Talkhouse think it’s a bit of both. We're also excited to premiere a never-before-heard ambient collaboration between Katie and Dave. The sibling frontpeople chopped it up in their hometown of Toronto, and their talk takes in a lot: how they saved each others’ bands; the life lessons they learned from those two kids down the street who copied everything they did; their upbringing, and how it influenced their artistry; and learning about religion through The Simpsons. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded at Dine Alone in Toronto, and by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Craig Robinson and Aubrey Plaza sit down for a hilarious off-the-cuff conversation. Robinson and Plaza are two of the funniest people in Hollywood, and also two of the stars of An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn, the new movie by Jim Hosking, writer-director of The Greasy Strangler and Talkhouse repeat offender. Over the course of their delightfully unpredictable chat, Robinson and Plaza organize a radio call-in show, do a LOT of singing (including that song about the Swedish friend), share Molly Shannon’s sage advice about acting and exhaustion, and discuss dongles, being wheelchair-bound, Aubrey's failed prank on NBA All-Star Chris Bosh, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Episode recorded by Gideon Brower and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi; the Talkhouse podcast producer is Elia Einhorn. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Gretchen Peters sits down for a chat with Elizabeth McGovern, the iconic actress from Ordinary People, Once Upon a Time in America and Downton Abbey, who is a talented musician in her own right. The two friends, who connected just a few years ago via Twitter, discuss everything from their mutual commitment to telling women’s stories (especially women over 30), the pluses and minuses of collaborating creatively with one's spouse, the downsides of early success, what songwriters can learn from watching Inside the Actors Studio, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Rosanne Cash's love of Downton Abbey, and much more. For more filmmakers and musicians in conversation, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Jurassic World's Colin Trevorrow sits down with his fellow director and longtime friend Megan Griffiths, whose new movie Sadie, starring Melanie Lynskey, John Gallagher Jr and emerging star Sophia Mitri Schloss, is in select theaters from October 12. The two filmmakers, both veterans of the vibrant Seattle indie scene, discuss everything from the correct pronunciation of their names (spoiler: people always say Trevorrow's wrong) to how their upbringings shaped them as directors, while also touching on such topics as diversity in Hollywood, Bryce Dallas Howard's footwear in Jurassic World, why Griffiths is an ideal candidate to direct blockbusters, the myth of Trevorrow's “overnight success,” and much, much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast

Today’s episode features Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie and Low’s Alan Sparhawk—and it's the first to be curated by Talkhouse’s new Executive Editor Josh Modell, who joins me to introduce it. (Welcome, Josh!) Ben and Alan’s talk goes all the way back to the earliest days of their bands, and up to the present with the fantastic LPs they each recently dropped. We hear about the formative teenage moments when seeing bands changed their lives; staying open to new sounds as "men of a certain age playing rock & roll;" Ben blatantly ripping off Low on his earliest Death Cab material; and how Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock spent a long time looking like he’d just crawled out of a dumpster. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded at Bad Animals in Seattle, by Maija Jenson at KUMD 103.3 FM Duluth Public Radio, and by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards and Meghan Remy, who performs under the name U.S. Girls, are two of indie’s leftist vanguard. So it’s no surprise that the 4AD labelmates’ conversation takes in a ton of the big sociopolitical quandaries affecting today’s musicians, such as the ethical difficulties of playing festivals (and touring at all) and undoing white privilege. We also hear about how action movies pale in comparison to Meg’s real life; understanding Trump-supporting family members; whether people should be oil or sand in the machine; why Father John Misty must be "rich as fuuuuck," and much, much more. Buckle up! Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  This episode was recorded by Christopher Sandes in Toronto, Merrill Garbus in “a coffee shop by my hotel” somewhere in America, and Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, director James Ponsoldt sits down with longtime friend David Lowery, whose new movie, The Old Man and the Gun starring Robert Redford and an all-star supporting cast, just opened in theaters. In a conversation recorded at Soho House in Los Angeles, Lowery talks with Ponsoldt about reteaming with Redford on the legendary actor's final movie, his memorable phone conversations with Tom Waits, the joy of making movies with old cars, using the Kinks' “Lola” (at great cost!), the surprising influence of Robocop on the film, and much, much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On this week’s show, Mac DeMarco sits down with Neil Finn (Crowded House, Split Enz, Fleetwood Mac) and Liam Finn on the occasion of the father and son’s new LP Lightsleeper. Their chat took place in Mac’s Los Angeles garage studio (he's gone full Marc Maron!), and covered a lot. We hear about the artistic freedoms and constraints that Mac experiences; the pluses and minuses of falling in love with one’s demos; Neil’s shopping trip with Mick Fleetwood; why hiring a dominatrix can really help the recording process; and so much more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you'd love to see appear on a future episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded by Ali Nikou in LA and Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

When I got an email saying that Angel Olsen was a huge fan of a relatively new, still somewhat obscure singer-songwriter and wanted to record a Talkhouse Podcast episode with him, I knew I wanted to check him out immediately. As soon as I heard the new LP from Nic Russo (who goes by the name "Dick Stusso"), I was in. The two spoke from their homes in Asheville, NC (Olsen) and Oakland, CA (Russo), and covered a lot of ground. Nic talked about his skewed musicality and backstory, Angel spoke a ton about the direction she taking on her next LP, and even revealed which superstar producer she just worked with out in L.A. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded by Kenny Harrington in Asheville, Tarek Fouda in Oakland, and Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

To celebrate the release of Terence Nance's acclaimed HBO series Random Acts of Flyness, we thought we'd resurface his fantastic conversation with the inimitable Flying Lotus from last July. Here's that episode in its entirety; check it out. On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, two longtime friends who bridge the worlds of music and film – writer-director Terence Nance, who’s also a musician, and Steve Ellison, widely known as the recording artist Flying Lotus, whose supremely out-there debut feature film Kuso is out now – sit down for a chat. Over the course of their highly entertaining and unpredictable conversation, the pair talks about dick-stabbing, Steve’s traumatic first time getting tested for STDs, the unique mix of crude humor and transcendence in his work, their respective creative struggles, their greatest fears, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts. Episode engineered by the Talkhouse Podcast producer Elia Einhorn and mixed by Mark Yoshizumi.  

Welcome to the Talkhouse Podcast’s first ever guest-curated episode! Today’s talk was curated by Brandon Stosuy (Editor-In-Chief of The Creative Independent; manager of Zola Jesus, Diamanda Galas, and more; and curator for The Broad Museum and, until recently, MoMA PS1’s Warm Up) and Melissa Auf Der Maur (former bassist for Hole and the Smashing Pumpkins, and co-founder of the Hudson, New York arts center Basilica Hudson). Stosuy and Auf Der Mauer are part of the team behind the fantastic annual Basilica Soundscape “anti-festival,” which presents boundary-pushing artists creating music, film, visual art, literature and more, inside a converted 19th century forge and foundry for steel railway wheels. They join me to intro today’s episode. Past Basilica Soundscape artists have included Matthew Barney, JLIN, Amber Tamblyn, and Deafheaven. This year’s festival takes place September 14-16, and features a killer lineup. Two of the artists performing are this week’s Talkhouse Podcast guests; Taja Cheek—aka L’Rain—and Hisham Bharoocha (Boredoms, Black Dice, Lightning Bolt, Soft Circle). Fittingly, much of their talk focuses on curation and the line where it blurs with artistic creation; Taja’s day job is Curatorial Assistant at MoMA PS1, and Hisham organizes the large-scale Boadrum events. We also hear about the incredible way Boredoms drummer Yoshimi writes music, how time constraints can stimulate creativity, and the ups and downs of playing with 111 drummers simultaneously. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded by Ivan Kuraev, Ali Nikou, and Mark Yoshizumi, and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

Welcome to this week’s bumper double feature of a show! We're thrilled to bring you two fantastic conversations recorded backstage at Pitchfork Music Festival 2018: a short chat between Fleet Foxes main-man Robin Pecknold and Nilüfer Yanya, and a deep dive between Dev Hynes—aka Blood Orange—and super-producer Raphael Saadiq. PLUS we've got a brand new theme song created just for us by one of our favorite artists, The Range! Tune in to hear firsthand accounts of Solange's impromptu shopping trips, how Joanna Newsom helped get Fleet Foxes back together, the inside scoop on Yanya’s upcoming debut LP, how Deadheads influenced Saadiq's musicality, and how Hynes created his powerful brand new album Negro Swan. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Big thanks to Pitchfork Music Festival for hosting Talkhouse, and to Karolina Barej for all of her coordination work. I'm very pleased to write for the very first time that the Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

On this week’s episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, another powerful and funny conversation recorded backstage at Pitchfork Music Festival 2018. Zola Jesus—real name Nika Roza Danilova—and Circuit des Yeux, aka Haley Fohr, posses two of the most breathtaking voices in music today. The two sat down backstage at the fest to discuss all things vocals: finding non-traditional places to warm up while on tour, knowing when to party and when to rest, and how to react when your instrument gives out. They got into a lot more, too, including: diva moves for one's show rider; the difficulties of being people who go to 11 all the time; and why Joanna Newsom stayed silent for two months straight. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  This episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Big thanks to Pitchfork Music Festival for hosting Talkhouse, and to Karolina Barej for all of her coordination work. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song is “Plastic Man vs. the Giant Red Phase of the Sun” by Iced Ink.

On this week's episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, another of the incredible conversations recorded backstage at Pitchfork Music Festival 2018: a talk between two of the breakout artists of 2017, Julie Byrne and Vagabon’s Laetitia Tamko. Fresh off a national co-headline tour, the friends sat down backstage to discuss the physical and the metaphysical elements of self-care on the road; the often delicate symbiosis of creating art and managing one’s business; the pressures of creating new music when people are watching; and that one guy in the front row in St Louis. Fuck that guy. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Big thanks to Pitchfork Music Festival for hosting Talkhouse, and to Karolina Barej for all of her coordination work. The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song is “Plastic Man vs. the Giant Red Phase of the Sun” by Iced Ink.

The latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast is a conversation recorded at Sundance 2018 between directors Josephine Decker and Hannah Fidell, who were at the festival with, respectively, Madeline's Madeline and The Long Dumb Road. The fact that Decker's and Fidell's movies are so radically different – the former is an intense, female-centric drama about a young woman of color with mental health problems, the latter a fun, masculine road-movie comedy – is a focus of their discussion, but they also find points of connection in the incredible care they took in telling the stories of people of color — and also the remarkably creative storytelling games they played in their youth. Their talk also touches on their upcoming TV projects, how failure and success feel remarkably similar, silencing exercises, clown breakdowns, and much, much more. Madeline's Madeline is in select theaters from August 10 through Oscilloscope, and The Long Dumb Road is forthcoming in November through Universal. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

Each summer, Pitchfork Music Festival brings to Chicago musical legends, the hottest new acts, and the artists that are about to become your new favorites. And for the past four years, Talkhouse has been backstage to record these artists in conversation. Over the coming weeks, we'll be bringing you the rad episodes we cut at the fest last month, including: — Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold x Nilüfer Yanya — Blood Orange's Dev Hynes x Raphael Saadiq — Tierra Whack x Nnamdi Ogbonnaya — Zola Jesus x Circuit des Yeux — Vagabon's Lætitia Tamko x Julie Byrne This week, we kick off our series of Pitchfork Fest episodes with Japanese Breakfast's Michelle Zauner talking with Alex Cameron. Alex and Michelle chop it up about a lot, including their onstage electrocutions, the triumphs and tribulations of the hometown gig, Michelle's future music production goals, the massive on-stage panic attack that nearly ended Alex's career, and his collaborator Brandon Flowers’ extremely unorthodox way of recording The Killers’ vocals. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was produced by Mark “North Side” Yoshizumi. Big thanks to Pitchfork Music Festival for hosting Talkhouse, and to Karolina Barej for all of her coordinating work. The Talkhouse Podcast's theme song is “Plastic Man vs. the Giant Red Phase of the Sun” by Iced Ink.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, two hip-hop stars who have reshaped how we think about the genre – former Hamilton star Daveed Diggs and The Roots' MC Black Thought – sit down for a fascinating conversation at 30 Rock, recorded after a taping of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Over the course of their talk, the two friends discuss each of their long-gestating projects, Daveed's movie Blindspotting and Black Thought's album Streams of Thought, parallels between the current Oakland film explosion and the Philly music boom of the late '90s, Black Thought's (pre-Hamilton) dislike of musicals, life-work balance, John Malkovich's surprising on-set viewing habits, and much, much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

Life is busy, and it can be tough to stay up to date on your favorite shows. So, to highlight a few of the Talkhouse team’s favorite moments from the first six months of 2018, we bring you our semi-annual Best Of episode. This week’s show features clips of: — Aasif Mandvi and Jason Jones talking fashion at the flagship Sonos store — Natalie Prass and Matthew E. White discussing the challenges of writing political pop songs at the Strand — Meredith Graves and Cameron Lynch chatting the intersection of music and sports at On Air Festival (in collaboration with The Players Tribune) — An unreleased clip of Adam Goldberg and The Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd on confronting Nazi internet trolls — Oscar winners Guillermo del Toro and William Friedkin on Academy nominations and the apocalypse (in collaboration with Vanity Fair) — Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson and writer Samantha Irby recounting their hilarious path to collaborating on the upcoming TV show Meaty, recorded live at Books Are Magic For this special episode, I’m joined by joined by Talkhouse’s Brooklyn team: Film Editor-in-Chief Nick Dawson, Associate Editor Annie Fell and Operations Manager Keenan Kush. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode is produced by Mark “the new papa” Yoshizumi.

On the heels of covering each other’s music as part of Joyful Noise Recordings’ very cool Cause & Effect series, Devendra Banhart and Tim Kinsella (Joan Of Arc) sat down to record a Talkhouse Podcast episode about the project. They touch on it for a moment and then, as one might expect from such restless and prolific artists, veer away, never to return. Their talk instead covers their upcoming books, the poems that came out of Devendra’s “ashram-hopping in India,” and the nuts and bolts of what goes into staying sane as highly productive working artists. Oh, and we also hear their argument for a hallucinatory experience as a prerequisite to lead the United States of America … Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was recorded by Tim and Devendra, and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, two of the most exciting emerging writer-directors of the moment sit down together for a chat at the Sundance Film Festival. The filmmakers in question – Reinaldo Marcus Green, whose Monsters and Men is forthcoming this fall, and Boots Riley, frontman of the Coup and mastermind behind the current cinematic sensation Sorry to Bother You – talk about the contrasting routes they took to making their debut features, the stresses of selling your movie at Sundance, how internet-age distraction is the enemy of creativity, partying with Idris Elba, and much, much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

For the Independence Day break, we revisit one of our favorite Talkhouse Podcast episodes of the past year, a conversation recorded live at Sonos' flagship store in Soho NYC featuring Mr Show and Arrested Development's David Cross chatting with two of his longtime friends, comedian and hip-hop star Jean Grae and Fabrizio Moretti, the drummer from the Strokes and Little Joy. Over the course of a hilarious and thoroughly unpredictable conversation, the trio talk about David going into an old people's home, the ills of social media, Jean's inability to ride a bike, the mysterious “gum incident,” the movie and musical of Newsies, conspiracy theories, jobs they were fired from … and David and Fab give Jean an opportunity to prove her talents at the last job she was fired from: a phone sex operator. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts. Episode engineered and mixed by Mark Yoshizumi and produced by Talkhouse Podcast producer Elia Einhorn.

Natalie Prass' new LP, The Future and The Past, has been a long time in the making. Reeling from the results of 2016's presidential election, Prass made a last-minute decision to cancel the recording sessions she'd booked with producer Matthew E. White, feeling that the songs she'd written about a breakup had to be replaced with new ones which addressed what was unfolding in America. To celebrate the release of this powerful new record, Prass was joined by White at Manhattan's iconic bookstore The Strand for a deep-dive conversation about her creative process and vision for these songs. Their talk also gets into sexism in the studio, aborted attempts at writing with L.A. songwriters, and how Prass almost chose running a dog-clothing company over her music career. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode is in partnership with The Strand. It was recorded by Jason Kelly and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

This week’s Talkhouse Podcast episode features a fantastic conversation between The Raincoats and Protomartyr, recorded live at Rough Trade East in London, followed by an audience Q&A session. My special guest host is Jenn Pelly, Contributing Editor at Pitchfork — where she glowingly reviewed Protomartyr’s new Consolation EP last week — and author of the 33 1/3 series book on The Raincoats’ self-titled debut album. The bands’ talk takes in a lot: presenting oneself as you are versus a cultivated rock star image; Protomartyr’s collaboration with Kelley Deal of The Breeders and The Raincoats’ work with Angel Olsen; how Kurt Cobain’s fandom forever changed The Raincoats’ career; and much, much more. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode is in partnership with Rough Trade. It was recorded by James Spinks and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Broad City's Abbi Jacobson sits down with the hilarious blogger and memoirist Samantha Irby in a conversation recorded at Brooklyn's Books Are Magic. The two discuss Irby's first book Meaty – which not only just got re-issued in an all-new edition but which Jacobson and Irby are also currently turning into a TV show – as well as how Abbi first “courted” Sam five years ago, the perfect soundtrack to writing a great personal essay, Sam’s dream to put diarrhea on TV (and her other aims for the small-screen version of Meaty), her planned Emmy revenge (!), and much, much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Simon Baker (best known for playing the title role in The Mentalist) talks with fellow actor-turned-director Griffin Dunne, who he has known for two decades. The two friends discuss Breath, Baker's newly released directorial debut – a coming-of-age surfing movie, in which Baker also stars – as well as directing vs. acting, the challenges of making an authentic surfing movie, the documentary Dunne made about his aunt Joan Didion, how “human cinema” will outlast superhero franchises, a hilarious story about Dunne's father giving him “the talk,” and much, more. For more filmmakers talking film, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips chats with his longtime friend and sometime musical collaborator Adam Goldberg, the actor (and musician-writer-director-producer-editor-photographer) whose new record under the Goldberg Sisters moniker, Home: A Nice Place to Visit, is out now. In a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation, the two talk about having a split artistic identity, the impact of technology in our lives, the infamously wacky Flaming Lips movie Christmas on Mars, not to mention the reason Adam hasn't watched Breaking Bad or The Sopranos, their respective childhood obsessions with Kiss and Grease, and Drozd's appearances on both Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed. For more filmmakers and musicians talking film and music, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On today's Talkhouse Podcast episode, we bring you a bumper double feature recorded live on Pitchfork Radio at SXSW. To kick things off, Shame's Charlie Steen and Goat Girl's Clottie Cream, L.E.D and Rosy Bones give us some insights that only locals could into the rad young indie and post-punk scene popping off in their hometown of London. Part two of the podcast pairs Jamaican legend Konshens with fab Spanish newcomer Bad Gyal for an international dancehall summit. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was recorded and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

This week's Talkhouse Podcast episode features Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff in conversation with A.C. Newman, the lead singer and guitarist from the New Pornographers. The talk is a collaboration with the iconic Manhattan bookstore Strand Books, and was recorded live in their Rare Book Room to celebrate the release of Okkervil River's new L.P., In the Rainbow Rain. The old friends, occasional collaborators, and recent neighbors go deep into the writing, structuring and influences on Will’s new album. But they cover a lot more than that, including; predestination vs. free will; the joys and drawbacks of living in a political bubble; the magic of what A.C. calls "the nerd store;" and why the gig after New York City always sucks. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was recorded by Charles Mueller and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

This week's episode of the Talkhouse Podcast features Andrew W.K. and Albert Hammond Jr. (The Strokes) in an insightful, hilarious conversation. It was recorded in front of a live audience at South By Southwest and is a collaboration with TuneIn. Veterans of NYC's turbo-charged indie-rock aughts, Hammond and W.K. are currently making some of the most vital music of their careers. When the two caught up for this podcast chat, they naturally talked about their new albums, Francis Trouble (Hammond) and You're Not Alone (W.K.) But they certainly didn't stop there; this conversation also covers the pluses and minuses of total creative control, curating the live show experience for their fans, the joys of picking one's nose, glow-in-the-dark condoms, and how Hammond received inspiration for his alter ego ... from his dog. Party this podcast, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today's episode was recorded by Dutch Worthington and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, a meeting of great comedy minds: Paul Feig, the creator of Freaks and Geeks and director of Bridesmaids, Spy and Ghostbusters, sits down with actress-writer Alia Shawkat and writer-director Miguel Arteta, whose excellent new collaboration, the comedy drama Duck Butter, is now in theaters and on VOD. The trio, all in New York City for the Tribeca Film Festival, discuss a wide variety of topics including Duck Butter, the upcoming Freaks and Geeks documentary, using your personal problems and experiences in your art, morning routines, their collaborations with one another, why the Trump era is bad for creativity, getting high, and much, much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. The music featured in the podcast is as follows: 1. Intro / outro underscore: “Plastic Man vs. The Giant Red Phase Of The Sun” – Iced Ink Episode engineered by Charles Mueller and edited by Mark Yoshizumi. The Talkhouse podcast producer is Elia Einhorn.

The latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, recorded at Day for Night Festival in Houston, features Chelsea Manning and Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova. The program includes a talk by Manning on resisting "the data-driven society and the police state"; a conversation between her and Tolokonnikova on their experiences in resistance, incarceration and prison reform; and a talk by Tolokonnikova on bringing "punk feminism" to Russia and the problems with Putin. The two also share their views on how neighborhood communities have better answers than think tanks, the ways empathy can help make real change, and — powerfully — how political action can be more than voting. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This week’s episode is a collaboration with Day for Night Festival. It was recorded and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we feature the concluding part of an epic conversation between two Academy Award-winning directors, Guillermo del Toro and William Friedkin. Here, the longtime friends discuss the genesis of and remarkable stories surrounding Friedkin's compelling new documentary about the Vatican's exorcist, The Devil and Father Amorth. In the process, they tackle some of the most substantial topics imaginable, including: Christ, Hitler, religion, evil, reason vs. emotion, empathy vs. fear, free will, the impending apocalypse — and how filmmakers can make a difference in a world on the brink. Special thanks to Katey Rich from Vanity Fair for collaborating on this special conversation, and for joining us for Part 1 of this conversation. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, a casual cinematic chat between two friends, who also happen to be Academy Award-winning directors: Guillermo del Toro and William Friedkin. In the first part of their enthralling two-part conversation for the Talkhouse Podcast, the pair discuss winning big at the Oscars, surviving award season, how to stay a scrapper despite success, del Toro's apprenticeship under makeup legend Dick Smith, the remarkable story of Friedkin and the Pazuzu statue in The Exorcist, the plagiarism controversy surrounding The Shape of Water, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Eliza Hittman – the writer-director of It Felt Like Love and Beach Rats – chats with one of the great living filmmakers (and one of Hittman's personal heroes), Scottish writer-director Lynne Ramsay. The two talk about Ramsay's latest film, You Were Never Really Here starring Joaquin Phoenix, which is in theaters now, touching on such topics as the adaptation process, tackling violent subject matter, making a thriller for the first time, staying open to new ideas during all phases of the creative process, balancing life and work, and much more besides. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

Today’s show features a talk the brilliant English folk-punk activist Billy Bragg gave on skiffle music at NYC’s Strand Bookstore last year upon the release of his book Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World. Bragg traces the little-known genre from its distinctly American roots to its British chart-topping success, and consequent all-conquering return to America repackaged as the British Invasion. He describes how the short-lived “hillbilly” sound forever changed the course of Western music via its teenaged adherents, who included Van Morrison and, crucially, the Beatles. This utterly fascinating tale also touches on questions of cultural appropriation (and appropriation of appropriation), how young women wanting to jive created a new gig infrastructure, calypso hitting the U.K. charts due to a cricket match, and how the spread of skiffle — and, for that matter, rap — mimics the fidget spinner. Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This week’s episode is a collaboration with the Strand. It was recorded by Charles Mueller and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

Today's episode, a collaboration with The Players' Tribune, was recorded earlier this month in front of a live audience at On Air Fest at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn. When On Air Fest reached out to Talkhouse about curating a live episode for their podcast festival, we had an idea: what if we, the outlet where musicians and filmmakers write and speak about their experiences, partnered with Derek Jeter's The Players' Tribune, the site where athletes write about their own experiences, for a podcast discussion about what the first-person narrative really looks like? The Players' Tribune loved the idea, and brought in NFL linebacker Cameron Lynch to speak with frequent Talkhouse contributor Meredith Graves (Perfect Pussy). Their thoughtful and often funny conversation takes in a lot, from shutting down the "shut up and dribble" narrative, to the very real pressures of professionally rolling "the dice of life" every single day. It also touches on Fergie's National Anthem blowback, the truth and falsity of people's preconceptions about athletes and rock stars, the perils of Googling oneself, and reckoning with the fact that each of us is "an unpredictable consciousness driving a meat-covered skeleton." Dan Treadway, Deputy Editor at Players' Tribune, and I kick off the live conversation with some background on each of our first-person-driven media outlets. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was recorded by Mark Yoshizumi with Michael Bosworth, and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

Chris Frantz (Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club) and Richard Lloyd (Television) were key architects of punk and new wave, forever changing what music could be. Lloyd just published his memoir, Everything Is Combustible: Television, CBGB’s and Five Decades of Rock and Roll: The Memoirs of an Alchemical Guitarist, and to celebrate he sat down with his old friend Franz at N.Y.C.’s iconic Strand Book Store for a deep dive into the wild times of his youth and musical hijinks. Tune in to hear about Lloyd hanging with Jimi Hendrix, the advice John Lee Hooker gave him, and how he blew up a Chinese laundry. Plus Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club) pops up in the Q&A with a question of her own! Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was recorded by Mark Yoshizumi with Garrett Karrberg, and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. Big thanks to the Strand.

Kendra Foster and X Ambassadors’ Sam Harris know a thing or two about songwriting. Foster is a two-time Grammy winner for her work with D’Angelo on his seminal Black Messiah LP, while Harris has written for Rihanna and scored major song placements with Chrysler and ESPN College Football, and in the Will Smith movie Bright. We paired Foster and Harris for a deep-dive conversation on all things songwriting, and they delivered. This conversation covers co-writing, making time to work on new joints while on tour, how songwriting blends technical and spiritual elements, and working with and without producers. It also takes in the artistic and financial benefits of taking risks, how D’Angelo taught Kendra to be patient with her perfectionism, and the way Imagine Dragons forever changed X Ambassadors’ career. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, filmmakers Eliza Hittman (Beach Rats), Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson), Tom Kalin (Savage Grace) and Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men) talk all things Oscars. In a conversation recorded at Kickstarter HQ in Brooklyn, the four directors discuss this year's (historic!) nominees, notable snubs, changes the Academy has made as part of its diversity push, parallels to the awards in the 1970s, the experience of being a contender and an Oscar voter, and much more. Plus, of course, they offer up their predictions for the big night! For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

Before Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes) and Jana Hunter (Lower Dens) were famous musicians, they worked long shifts together in a Baltimore restaurant. The friends watched each other's artistic careers explode, and when they sat down in the Sonos room at Rough Trade NYC — for one of three conversations that Talkhouse curated for Northside Festival — their chat was both hilarious and moving. (You can listen to Jlin with William Basinski now, and Suicide's Martin Rev talking with Julianna Barwick will drop soon.) As well as tales of those early days washing dishes and lying to annoying customers, their talk takes in the baggage of being "a girl with a guitar," the pros and cons of ceding control in the creative process, and... Abba. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer @eliaeinhorn Today's episode was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we feature a conversation between friends and fellow Korean-American writer-directors Andrew Ahn and Christina Choe, recorded at the Kickstarter Lodge during last month's Sundance Film Festival. Choe was at Sundance with her debut feature Nancy (which won her the festival's Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award) and Ahn with his Sundance Now TV show This Close, about two deaf best friends. Over the course of their wide-ranging and extremely unfiltered conversation, Ahn and Choe discuss not only their new projects but also telling stories of one's own community, how Andrew came out to his parents through a short film, Christina's club KGB (Koreans Gone Bad) – and a whole lot about Christina's mom! For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

Jlin and William Basinski are two of today's most fascinating and gifted composers. Basinski works with decaying analogue tape loops to create ambient soundscapes, while Jlin constructs brilliant, stuttering reimaginings of footwork rhythms. The friends and collaborators sat down in the Sonos room at Rough Trade NYC for one of three conversations that Talkhouse curated for Northside Festival. (Upcoming episodes will feature the other two, Suicide's Martin Rev with Julianna Barwick, and Lower Dens' Jana Hunter with Jenn Wasner from Wye Oak and Flock of Dimes). The two get into Basinski's tribute to his hero David Bowie, Jlin's boundary-pushing collaborations with cutting-edge dancers, and how a cat on the loose ended up significantly contributing to Basinski’s artistry. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today's episode was recorded and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi

Like fans the world over, we here at Talkhouse were devastated to hear of the Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan's untimely passing. We felt that the best way to honor her was to share her sweet and funny conversation with her D.A.R.K. bandmate Andy Rourke from 2016. On this week’s episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Andy Rourke of the Smiths and Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries sit down to discuss their new supergroup, D.A.R.K, and we give their song “High Fashion” its world premiere. The new bandmates and old friends talk about Dolores’ teenage Smiths fandom, Stephen Street (who helmed production duties on iconic records for both groups), initial reaction from their legendary bands’ diehard fans to the new project, and getting pelted onstage at festivals back in the day by a half-eaten apple and a packet of sausages adorned with the note “Meat is Murder.” Take a listen and subscribe now on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer Today's episode was mixed by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we look back on the past year as Talkhouse Podcast host/producer Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Editor-in-Chief Amy Rose Spiegel, Talkhouse Film Editor-in-Chief Nick Dawson and Talkhouse’s marketing manager Keenan Kush discuss some of their favorite moments from the Talkhouse Podcasts of 2017. The highlights featured include: Taran Killam and Kyle Mooney discussing exercise routines (and doing a little beatboxing); Frankie Cosmos and Vagabon on setting boundaries with fans; Paul Major talking with the legendary Stephen Malkmus about listening to psychedelic music (but without the psychedelics); David Cross and the Strokes’ Fab Moretti helping Jean Grae recreate her past as a phone sex worker; Sam Esmail (Mr Robot) and Mark Frost (Twin Peaks) discussing TV vs. film (and Frost’s experiences writing Marvel movies); an extract from’s Shamir Voice Memos series; Sinkane dishing to Oddisee on his encounter with Usher; and Rob Corddry reminding Lake Bell about her unsuccessful attempt to be a vegan in Vegas. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

The latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast continues our delicious dive into the world of food, following recent episodes that paired Chef Andrew Carmellini with A$AP Ferg, and Chef Paul Kahan with Sonic Youth and Pavement's Mark Ibold.  For today's show, lifelong friends — and now A Chef's Life colleagues — chef Vivian Howard and filmmaker Cynthia Hill sit down to chat about bringing the food and culture of rural North Carolina to the rest of America via their Peabody- and Emmy-winning series, the difficulty of working professionally with one's spouse, and how the hardest critics to please can sometimes be one's own parents. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts. Today's episode was recorded by John Plymale, and mixed by Mark Yoshizumi. 

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, friends and longtime former colleagues on The Daily Show Jason Jones and Aasif Mandvi are reunited for a conversation at the flagship Sonos store in Soho, NYC. Over the course of a hilarious and wide-ranging chat, the two talk about their worst fashion choices, their respective exercise regimes, their ambivalent feelings about social media, the new documentary The Problem with Apu (which Aasif appears in), Aasif's desire to be (or to spawn) Hollywood's first Indian-American action star, during all of which Jason Jones Solves Everything. (Including how to repeatedly plug the new season of his show, The Detour.) For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the second episode of the Talkhouse x Food Republic podcast, Chicago chef and restaurateur Paul Kahan and musician Mark Ibold (of Pavement and Sonic Youth fame) find that they're at a very similar place in life. The two cultural icons are into cooking, music and family, and they trade stories in this special conversation at the flagship Sonos store in New York. The podcast opens with Ibold admitting that he spent the previous evening testing out a recipe from Kahan's new cookbook, Cheers to the Publican, Repast and Present: Recipes and Ramblings from an American Beer Hall, which takes its name from the chef's Chicago institution, The Publican — part of a restaurant and bar group that includes Avec, Blackbird, Big Star and many others. As they chat, Kahan also taps Ibold for recording advice and coaxes out a few stories from the bassist's days on the road with Pavement. It's a rare chance to hear two legendary figures who'd never met before assess where they're at in life, and share hard-earned wisdom. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, actor Michael Chernus (aka Cal Chapman on Orange is the New Black) sits down at the flagship Sonos store in New York City with Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, whose latest album, Beast Epic, came out in Summer 2017. The two longtime friends chat about Beam's roots as a painter and filmmaker, how Chernus has entered the Marvel Universe (playing the Tinkerer in Spider-Man: Homecoming), Beam's plans to make a movie in the near future, how Chernus has used Beam's music as part of his acting process, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, actor and comedian Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight on The Office) chats with two old friends, actor-writer-director Josh Radnor (best known as Ted on How I Met Your Mother) and Australian indie singer-songwriter Ben Lee, who now make up the musical duo Radnor & Lee. The three talk about how Josh and Ben became friends (and then later collaborators), the spiritual focus of their debut album, Josh and Rainn's shared history as drama students at NYU, the balance between spirituality and creativity in each of their lives, Ben's children's album about Islam, and much, much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, comedian and actor Sasheer Zamata is in conversation with her former Saturday Night Live castmate Noël Wells, whose debut feature as writer-director and star, Mr. Roosevelt, is out now in select theaters. Zamata and Wells, who shared a dressing room at SNL, talk about a diverse range of subjects, taking in everything from political activism to internet addiction and social media use, from Zamata's stint on The Talk and Brad Pitt's photography and sculpture work to their experiences returning to 30 Rock and Wells' fledgling music career. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

The latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast features rapper Oddisee and singer-songwriter Sinkane in conversation. The old friends powerfully — and hilariously — share the triumphs and travails of pursuing careers in music as Sudanese Americans. They also chat about the current and historic musical infrastructures of rap and punk, Oddisee’s amazing Hudson Mohawk connection, and how Caribou helped change Sinkane’s life. Plus Sinkane drops some "Sudanese Dad wisdom." Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded by Elia Einhorn, and mixed and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Spencer Tweedy (Tweedy, the Blisters) chops it up with NE-HI’s Jason Balla and Mikey Wells backstage at Pitchfork Music Festival 2017. Their talk takes in why bands ask for “gold-flaked burgers” on their riders, a theory of WWE’s progressivism, and how what really matters in life is rock ’n’ roll … and taxes. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Today’s episode is sponsored in part by Shure. Big thanks to Pitchfork for hosting Talkhouse at the festival. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  This episode was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

Singer Jamila Woods and Ohmme's Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham are ubiquitous collaborators working at the heart of Chicago's diverse and vibrant music scene. Between them they've worked with Wilco, Chance the Rapper, Twin Peaks, Vic Mensa and many more, and also release their own fantastic records. On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, the old friends catch up backstage at Pitchfork Music Festival 2017. Their wonderfully Chicago-centric talk takes in the city's vital musical infrastructure, free jazz, the Brown Girls web series, and how amazing sci-fi author Octavia Butler is. Oh, and Talkhouse Music Editor-in-Chief Amy Rose Spiegel gets me to revisit my pre-adolescent singing voice. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Today’s episode is sponsored in part by Shure. Big thanks to Pitchfork for hosting Talkhouse at the festival. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer  This episode was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail sits down to talk with one of his heroes, Mark Frost, the man who created Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Return with David Lynch – and is also a huge fan of Mr. Robot. The two talk about the unique circumstances under which Twin Peaks: The Return was conceived and made, the story behind Episode 8 (one of the great hours of TV in recent memory), the polarizing second season of Mr. Robot, pushing the boundaries of what TV can be, and much more – including insights into projects that Frost and Lynch worked on that sadly never came to fruition. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Javier Muñoz (currently playing the title role in Hamilton on Broadway) talks with his friend Stephanie Beatriz, best known for playing Rosa on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The two touch on a wide variety of subjects, including Beatriz's new film The Light of the Moon (in which she plays a rape survivor), Harvey Weinstein, the joys and perils of social media, the physical toll of performing Hamilton, the famous actors who gave them driving lessons, their love lives, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, LCD Soundsystem's Tyler Pope and Priests' Katie Alice Greer and Daniele Daniele chop it up backstage at Pitchfork Music Festival 2017. Their talk takes in the fantastic indie labels they run, D.C. punk, and LCD Soundsystem's earliest days. We also hear about the amplifier that nearly broke up Priests, and LCD's little-known Shellac connection. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Today’s episode is sponsored in part by Shure. Big thanks to Pitchfork for hosting Talkhouse at the festival. This episode premiered on Pitchfork Radio. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer This episode was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

Welcome to Voice Memos, a new audio diary series from the Talkhouse Podcast. Our featured artist for this inaugural episode is the brilliant and chameleonic singer-songwriter Shamir. Shamir Bailey rose to fame in 2015 with his oh-so-danceable debut LP, Ratchet, and its ubiquitous single, "On the Regular." Earlier this year, seemingly out of the blue, he self-released a followup, Hope. In stark contrast to its predecessor, Hope was an eminently DIY affair; it was recorded on a four-track over a single weekend in his bedroom in Philadelphia. Critics and fans were surprised and divided. What happened next, though, is the subject of today's podcast. A devastating manic episode saw Shamir admitted to a mental hospital. After being released, he retreated to his home city of Las Vegas to recuperate. As part of this healing, Shamir began speaking diary entries into his Voice Memos, trying to work through what had happened, and what life would look like going forward. He also began writing new songs in earnest all about his current experiences, again demoing them on his phone. Those powerful home-recorded journals and gorgeous unheard compositions comprise this episode. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Shamir is donating a portion of all pre-sales of his upcoming album, Revelations, to The Mental Health Association in Pennsylvania. Order the album and support this fantastic cause. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Today's podcast was recorded by Shamir Bailey. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi. 

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Greta Kline (Frankie Cosmos, aka my absolute favorite current band) and Lætitia Tamko (Vagabon, who released one of the best records of 2017) catch up backstage at Pitchfork Music Festival 2017. The friends and occasional collaborators talk the ins and outs of being mid-level indie musicians in today's musical climate — working your own merch, fans' frequent lack of physical boundaries, managing oneself, how to engage with corporate sponsors, and much more. They also take in Tegan and Sara's deep knowledge of the Brooklyn DIY scene, breaking edge in Paris, and finding wisdom in Kimya Dawson's LiveJournal. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Today's episode is sponsored in part by Shure. Big thanks to Pitchfork for hosting Talkhouse at the festival. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today's episode was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Baby Driver's writer-director Edgar Wright sits down for a chat with the legendary actor, martial arts star and director Jackie Chan, whose latest film, The Foreigner, is in theaters from this Friday. A self-professed “fanboy” of Chan's work, Wright talks with him about his game-changing films Police Story and Project A; making it in Hollywood on his own terms; how he approached doing some of his death-defying stunts (and fearing ghosts were trying to kill him!); his transition from action star to actor, being on set with James Cameron; receiving a special Oscar at this year's Academy Awards; and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

Chuck D (Public Enemy) and Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, the Nightwatchman) have been sending radical political messages up the pop charts for decades. On the occasion of the debut LP by their new supergroup, Prophets Of Rage, the two musical revolutionaries bum-rush the Talkhouse Podcast to discuss protest music. Their conversation also covers why new groups are afraid to be overtly political, the democratization of music via technology, how Rage Against the Machine fooled MTV and Viacom, and "Puff the Magic Dragon." Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today's episode was recorded by Susan Valot, and mixed and coproduced by Mark Yoshizumi. 

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Girls' creator and star Lena Dunham sits down with fellow actor-writer-director Danny Strong, whose J.D. Salinger biopic Rebel in the Rye – his debut as writer-director – is now in theaters. The two friends and officemates discuss the challenges of stepping behind the camera for the first time, owning one's failures, how they met, Lena's mentors David Carr and Nora Ephron, their creative beginnings, and much more – including the projects they are currently working on, such as Dunham's previously unannounced stage project at St. Ann's Warehouse. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio, Rachel Getting Married) and Ian Brennan (Grammy-winning producer of Tinariwen) are dedicated to making music that lays purposely apart from the mainstream. The old friends and collaborators sat down for the Talkhouse Podcast on the occasion of the release of the Brennan-produced Tanzania Albinism Collective’s White African Power record (my favorite album of 2017 so far). Their conversation takes in the persecution of people with albinism in East Africa, and Brennan’s trip to a remote albino colony in Tanzania where he recorded this incredibly honest and heartrending record. The chat also covers the Western music industry’s proximity bias, artists who prize spirit over virtuosity, the travails and triumphs of the Malawi Mouse Boys, and Celine Dion. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was recorded by Tunde Adebimpe and Ian Brennan. It was mixed and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

For today's episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we paired Tyler Pope (LCD Soundsystem, Interference Pattern Records) and Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) on the occasion of the release of Moore's new LP, Rock n Roll Consciousness. Pope is a lifelong Sonic Youth fan, and when Pitchfork asked me if I'd like to host an Over / Under with Moore earlier the same summer day that we were due to record this podcast, I asked if he had a subject he'd love to hear Moore's take on. His immediate response? "Ask him about techno." I did, and in his answer, Moore dropped the bombshell that he's got a fully recorded, unreleased techno record. This conversation, recorded minutes after that Over / Under taping, picks up on that teaser. Moore and Pope discuss that unreleased record and nerd out on techno, and their talk also takes in what drew each of them to "subversive" music, amazing black metal band names, Pope's new (mostly) electronic record label, being in a democratic band versus running the ship, and so much more. Today's episode features a special introductory conversation with Pope recorded the week that the new LCD Soundsystem album, American Dream, hit #1 in the charts.  In addition, Moore asked Pope for recommendations on which techno tracks he should hear; you can find that list on Talkhouse.com. Check it all out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Catch LCD Soundsystem and Thurston Moore on their current world tours. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was recorded by Tyler Pope and Mark Yoshizumi. It was mixed and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

Both Helado Negro and Sylvan Esso are rewriting the rules of what a pop song can sound like. The friends and current tourmates sat down for the Talkhouse Podcast to discuss the creative process and artistic evolution. Their talk takes in the songwriter's quest for self-expression, freedom, money, and transcendence — and just how bonkers searching for all of those things at once really is. It also covers artistically growing up in public, how creating can be a necessary escape during troubled times, vibing on YMCA boot-camp workout music, and how occasionally they write their best work ... while peeing. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Catch Sylvan Esso and Helado Negro on tour together through the end of September. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

On Talkhouse's premiere food culture episode (part of its new Talkhouse x Food Republic series), New York City chef and restaurateur Andrew Carmellini meets Harlem rapper A$AP Ferg at the flagship Sonos store in NYC. In their conversation, they discuss the challenges of their respective crafts, their role as leaders, branding, cooking and more. Check out these two New York cultural titans chopping it up, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Moonlight's Oscar-winning writer-director Barry Jenkins sits down with fellow filmmaker and (and fellow Talkhouse contributor!) Eliza Hittman to talk about Beach Rats, her sophomore feature which is currently in theaters. The friends discuss how they bonded while doing the Cinereach Fellowship (aka “filmmaker therapy”), the parallels between Moonlight and Beach Rats, the challenges of shooting on a beach at night, how they both feared overly muscular actors might “ruin” their films, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

Courtney Barnett and Julia Shapiro (Chastity Belt) love each others' songs so much that they admit to feeling like "creepy fans." The friends and frequent tourmates caught up on the Talkhouse Podcast to talk finger tapping, heavy metal guitar pedals, Chastity Belt's new LP I Used To Spend So Much Time Alone, Courtney Barnett's songwriting difficulties and her new project with Kurt Vile, and so much more. This episode premiered on Pitchfork Radio. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer Today’s episode was recorded by Courtney Barnett, Bill Marcus and Mark Yoshizumi. It was mixed and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, longtime friends and regular collaborators Lake Bell and Rob Corddry sit down for a conversation, timed to the September 1 theatrical release of I Do … Until I Don’t, which Bell wrote, directed and stars in. As well as Lake’s new movie, the pair talk about how they first met, their time working together on Childrens Hospital, the challenges of maintaining a film career as a parent, why Lake is a natural director (and Rob isn’t), Lake’s transitional phase as a vegan who ate meat, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.  

To celebrate the release of Feel the Music: The Psychedelic Worlds of Paul Major, Stephen Malkmus (Pavement, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks) sat down with Paul Major (Endless Boogie) at NYC's famed Bowery Ballroom for a live conversation. Their talk takes in Major's life as a preeminent private press psych rock collector, dealer and champion; how he was protected by the mob while slinging records in '70s Manhattan; the dog bite that prevented him from accepting Johnny Thunders' offer to shoot up; and so much more. Joining me for this episode's introduction is special guest Matt Sweeney (Chavez, ZWAN, Iggy Pop, Endless Boogie). Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.  — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer

On a very special new episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, two men who straddle the worlds of comedy and politics – Senator Al Franken and Late Night's Seth Meyers – sit down for a conversation timed to the publication of Franken's new book, Al Franken, Giant of the Senate. In a talk organized through NYC's legendary Strand Bookstore, the two friends and Saturday Night Live alums discuss Franken's transition from comedy to politics (including the “dehumorizing” process), our current president's sense of humor (or lack), Franken's take on both Republican adversaries Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham, SNL memories of George Harrison and the “Fart Doctor” sketch, and much, much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On today’s episode, Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011 author Lizzy Goodman sat down with Yeah Yeah Yeah's Brian Chase and TV On The Radio's Kyp Malone at the flagship Sonos store in NYC. In their conversation, they relive those halcyon years and see what everyone's staying busy with. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. 

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, writer-director Patrick Brice (The Overnight) and Miguel Arteta, the director of Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl and Cedar Rapids, sit down for a conversation at Arteta's house. The two, who are both currently editing films produced by Mark and Jay Duplass, have a lively talk which encompasses everything from Jason Schwartzman's reticence to take off his shirt to a nightmare TV project Arteta worked on with Martin Scorsese, but focuses most on two major topics: parenthood (Brice recently became a father for the first time) and the current political climate (Arteta's new film is the very prescient and Trump-inflected Beatriz at Dinner). For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Nicole Holofcener – the writer-director of such acclaimed comedy dramas as Walking and Talking, Please Give and Enough Said – talks with two of her biggest fans, Jenny Slate and Gillian Robespierre, the star and writer-director of Obvious Child and the newly released Landline. In a wide-ranging and often hilarious conversation, the trio talk about sex scenes, motherhood, humping furniture, the difference between male and female directors, their struggles with chewing sounds, telling time and counting – and Jenny and Nicole share their very different memories of working together on Bored to Death. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Saturday Night Live alum Taran Killam sits down with longtime friend and current SNL cast member Kyle Mooney at the flagship Sonos store in New York City, tied to the release of Mooney's new movie Brigsby Bear, which he stars in and also co-wrote. In a conversation rich with '80s and '90s pop culture trivia (and impromptu singing!), the two talk about their favorite karaoke songs, boy bands of decades past, Kyle's legendary collection of VHS tapes, Saved by the Bell and other teen TV shows, working with legends such as Mark Hamill and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, two longtime friends who bridge the worlds of music and film – writer-director Terence Nance, who’s also a musician, and Steve Ellison, widely known as the recording artist Flying Lotus, whose supremely out-there debut feature film Kuso is out now – sit down for a chat. Over the course of their highly entertaining and unpredictable conversation, the pair talks about dick-stabbing, Steve’s traumatic first time getting tested for STDs, the unique mix of crude humor and transcendence in his work, their respective creative struggles, their greatest fears, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, two cinematic titans are in conversation as Darren Aronofsky sits down with the legendary Alejandro Jodorowsky, to coincide with the theatrical release of the 88-year-old cult director's new film, Endless Poetry. The two have a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation that takes in the challenge of making art within the Hollywood system, the ability of films to heal, the vulgarity of Trump and life's big questions – death, God, aliens, the universe – and Jodorowsky also fulfills a longheld dream of the Black Swan director's by reading his tarot. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we continue our series of episodes recorded live at Sonos' flagship store in Soho NYC with a hilarious conversation between Mr Show and Arrested Development's David Cross and two of his longtime friends, comedian and hip-hop star Jean Grae and Fabrizio Moretti, the drummer from the Strokes and Little Joy. Over the course of a hilarious and thoroughly unpredictable conversation, the trio talk about David going into an old people's home, the ills of social media, Jean's inability to ride a bike, the mysterious “gum incident,” the movie and musical of Newsies, conspiracy theories, jobs they were fired from … and David and Fab give Jean an opportunity to prove her talents at the last job she was fired from: a phone sex operator. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, host Elia Einhorn sits down with Talkhouse Film's Editor-in-Chief Nick Dawson and then Talkhouse Music Editor-in-Chief Amy Rose Spiegel (with Talkhouse editorial intern Sophie Kemp in tow!) to discuss some of their favorite moments from the past few months, which include discussions of privilege, Tom Cruise's penis, clothing essentials, stripping, among other topics. Featured here are conversations between Talib Kweli and Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers, comedy multihyphenates Ken Marino and Paul Scheer, Cosey Fanni Tutti from Throbbing Gristle and Patti Smith Group's Lenny Kaye, standup stalwarts Todd Barry and Chris Gethard, and more. Plus there's an unreleased outtake in which Ryley Walker and Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake riff on the weirdness of settling back into real life after tour, and a closing moment that would move Alvin Ailey to tears. Subscribe to the Talkhouse Podcast now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future episodes, too!

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, writer-director Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper) sits down with the visionary Ana Lily Amirpour, whose debut feature A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night announced her as a major talent and whose second film, The Bad Batch, is released June 23. Their wide-ranging conversation covers the breadth of the filmmaking process, from the trials of writing to post-production anxieties, and takes in cinematic boners, being a “frame fucker,” their respective metaphors for making movies, Rian's experiences making his upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On today's episode, fingerstyle guitar wunderkind (and massive Teenage Fanclub fan) Ryley Walker chats with that legendary band's frontman, Norman Blake. Their talk takes in songwriting process, challenging oneself onstage, the excitement of collaborating with experimental musicians, studio techniques, and so much more. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse podcasts.  — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer.  Today's episode was recorded by Ryley and Norman, and mixed and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, writer-director and frequent Talkhouse contributor Jim Hemphill sits down with Lea Thompson, whose feature directorial debut, The Year of Spectacular Men, has its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 16. The two old friends talk about her new movie, collaborating on Jim's movie The Trouble About the Truth, Lea's memories of working on Howard the Duck, Some Kind of Wonderful and All the Right Moves (which includes a frank discussion of her and Tom Cruise's nudity!), sexism in Hollywood, Jim's lack of prowess as an actor, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) and Talib Kweli both make music to make a difference. On their respective new releases American Band and The Seven (Kweli’s EP in collaboration with Styles P), the lyrics directly address social and political issues. The Southern rocker and NYC rapper sat down for the Talkhouse Podcast last month and covered a lot of ground, including: Kweli’s experiences on the ground in Ferguson; Patterson’s desire to provide a visible alternative to white Southern men as bigots in the media; Dave Chappelle’s planning meeting with Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels; Harry Belafonte’s attempt to make a “We Are The World”-style song with rappers for Ferguson; and so much more. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer. Today’s episode was recorded by Mark Yoshizumi and Patterson Hood, and mixed by Mark Yoshizumi. Want to take action? Talib Kweli recommends: Indivisible.org is a bunch of congressional staffers, people who have worked in Congress who are giving people tools to be anti Trump, whether it’s to participate in a Hill Day or to go to your local town hall and stuff like that. Indivisible.org, they’re doing great, great work. Adopt-A-State is getting people to change the demographic, change the vote in some of the red states so we can change some of the electoral college nonsense. Very important to me is Sleeping Giants. I’m not sure if they have a website but they’re on Facebook and Twitter. Sleeping Giants is a group of people ... taking on Breitbart.com ... They’re going after their advertisers and getting advertisers to pull their ads and money out of Breitbart. That’s a strategy I feel like is working.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, Kumail Nanjiani, the writer-star of the forthcoming The Big Sick, talks with Zoe Lister-Jones, whose Band Aid – which she wrote, produced, directed, stars in and wrote the songs for – is in now in theaters on VOD. In a conversation interrupted both by gardeners and Zoe's Band Aid co-star Adam Pally, the two multihyphenates chat about putting their real lives in their movies, working with their partners, getting in touch with their emotions, why comedies have terrible third acts, why Boardwalk Empire made enemies in New York, and what it's like to make a movie with an all-female crew. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, comedian and actor Paul Scheer talks with his friend and former collaborator Ken Marino, whose directorial debut, the very funny How To Be a Latin Lover, is currently in theaters. In a fascinating and often hilarious conversation, the two discuss Marino's work on his new film with Mexican comedy star Eugenio Derbez and Salma Hayek; their roots in sketch comedy (Marino found fame with The State and Scheer with Human Giant); doing diverse work as writers, directors and actors; professional competitiveness; their comic histories; Pixar bloopers; Ken's love of dance, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts.

For the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we invited Talkhouse Music’s editor-in-chief, Amy Rose Spiegel, to choose one of her favorite episodes from the vault. The one she picked is the only episode of the podcast to ever be scored live: Caroline Polachek (ex-Chairlift) with Alan Palomo of Neon Indian. The episode, which originally aired in 2016, is presented here in its entirety with a new introduction from Amy Rose and me. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer New introduction recorded and mixed by Mark Yoshizumi. Last year, Alan Palomo of Neon Indian and Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek sat down at Samsung 837 in New York City for a live Talkhouse Music Podcast recording. As Alan played ambient self-generated sounds and Caroline spun an unreleased composition for atmosphere, the friends and mutual admirers discussed what can and can’t be co-opted in the arts, experimental and pop music, the music and arts scene in Williamsburg, collaborating with siblings, eating curried cow brains in Indonesia an hour before going onstage, and so much more. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts.

On the occasion of her autobiography Art Sex Music's American book release, industrial music pioneer and acclaimed performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti (Throbbing Gristle, Chris and Cosey) sat down with Patti Smith Group's Lenny Kaye to discuss her fascinating life on the margins. Their conversation, which took place at McNally Jackson bookstore in New York, takes in the rise and fall of Throbbing Gristle, transgressive art shows, a hilarious story about Tutti using "Because The Night" during her strip routine, and much more. It begins with a stage-setting reading from Art Sex Music. Many thanks to McNally Jackson and Faber and Faber for allowing Talkhouse to record and release this fantastic conversation. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, friends, filmmakers and fellow humanists Shannon Plumb and Azazel Jacobs get up close and personal. Snuggled in bed in a room at the Lower East Side Ludlow Hotel, the pair share a unique rapport that translates to their fascination with the human condition and the deeper understanding of human beings that informs their work. The freewheeling conversation includes how Jacobs tapped into his comedic side for his new film The Lovers, starring Debra Winger and Tracy Letts, and then transcends space and time, delving into Lenny Bruce, the Clash and the possible existence of space babies. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts. The music featured in the podcast is as follows: 1. Intro / outro underscore: “Plastic Man vs. the Giant Red Phase of the Sun” – Iced Ink Episode recorded by Susan Valot and mixed by Mark Yoshizumi; the Talkhouse podcast producer is Elia Einhorn.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, two of the funniest (and also most underappreciated) comedians around, Todd Barry and Chris Gethard, sit down for a conversation at Sonos' flagship store at 101 Greene Street in New York City. The two multihyphenates talk about their myriad projects, including Barry's newly published book Thank You for Coming to Hattiesburg, Gethard's one-person show Career Suicide (which hits HBO later this month), the Webby Gethard just won for his podcast, but focus most of their conversation on the minutiae that is the very stuff of comics' lives: clothing choices, frequent flyer miles, college gigs, life on the road. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

With the recent release of Julia Holter’s new LP In the Same Room (which features gorgeous new live-in-studio versions of songs from her last two albums) as well as an imminent new album from Broken Social Scene, we wanted to revisit the thoughtful conversation Holter and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew had last summer for the Talkhouse Music Podcast. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer Songwriter/composer Julia Holter and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew sat down backstage at Pitchfork Fest earlier this summer to discuss the difference between writing solo and with a group, how the next Broken Social Scene record needs some Bobby McFerrin-esque acapella… and a possible collaboration. Take a listen and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts.

For the latest episode of the Talkhouse Music Podcast, we invited Talkhouse Music's new editor-in-chief, Amy Rose Spiegel, to choose one of her favorite episodes from the vault. The one she picked happens to be one of my faves, as well: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge with Laura Jane Grace. The episode, which originally aired in 2015, is presented here in its entirety with a new introduction from Amy Rose and me. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer New introduction recorded and mixed by Mark Yoshizumi. “Transsexuals are the stormtroopers of the future.” So says Genesis P-Orridge, the iconic, visionary musician who has fronted influential bands like Psychic TV and Throbbing Gristle. While P-Orridge isn’t transgender — they* call themselves a pandrogyne — their partner in this Talkhouse Music Podcast, Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace, came out as transgender in 2012. Still, as P-Orridge points out, both musicians have done something very brave: they’ve transitioned, in one way or another, in front of their audience. And it was P-Orridge who paved the way. As Grace says here, “Someone like yourself is so important to me.” P-Orridge and Grace might hail from different generations, countries and musical communities, but they found plenty to talk about: what it was like to transition in public, the mind-body duality, paranormal phenomena, the perennial bathroom problem, the perennnial airport screening problem, courage, death, Caitlyn Jenner, a hilarious exchange about what to wear on stage, dealing with photographers who want you to show your boobs, and what P-Orridge calls “a gradual shift in the way that gender and sexuality are perceived in our species.” This is one of the more fascinating and potentially visionary exchanges we’ve ever had on the Talkhouse Podcast. It’s also one of the more risqué, so if you’re easily offended, maybe you’ll want to check out one of our other podcasts. * A word about pronouns: P-Orridge call themselves “we” because they feel at one with their late wife Lady Jaye. Much more about that in the podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Music Podcast, we look back on winter 2017. Talkhouse Music Podcast host Elia Einhorn and Talkhouse Music Editor-In-Chief Amy Rose Spiegel discuss some of their favorite moments from the podcast, including Starita and A Tribe Called Quest’s Jarobi White remembering Phife Dawg, Xenia Rubinos and Digable Planets’ Ladybug Mecca on intersectional feminism, the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne asking Prince Paul about De La Soul’s industry-changing sampling issues, and the Smiths’ Andy Rourke and Joy Division and New Order’s Peter Hook on the first time they saw each other. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts. —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

On the occasion of the episode becoming a Webby Award honoree, Talkhouse podcast producer Elia Einhorn and Talkhouse Film's Editor-in-Chief Nick Dawson revisit the very special conversation from 2016 between hip-hop star, actor and longtime Pee-wee Herman fan Kid Cudi and Pee-wee himself, Paul Reubens. In addition to the full original talk between the two — which touches on how they first met, Reubens' journey to bring Pee-wee Herman back to the big screen, Cudi's strong dislike of skunks (and recent encounter with a mountain lion), and a discussion by both of future creative projects — you get to listen to the full backstory of how this unlikely episode came together. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, Talkhouse podcast producer Elia Einhorn and Talkhouse Film's Editor-in-Chief, Nick Dawson, look back on the some of best moments from episodes recorded in the first quarter of 2017. Highlights include: Portlandia's Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein talking Wikipedia errors; Penelope Spheeris looking back on directing Donald Trump in The Little Rascals; Neal Brennan on how he and Seth Meyers thought they had “conquered” Trump through satire; Kirsten Johnson asking Agnès Varda about her favorite colors; and Morgan Spurlock and Louis Theroux discussing porn and Nipplegate. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Slowdive's Rachel Goswell and Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast are mutual fans of each other’s dreamy music. As their bands gear up to tour the US together, we thought it the perfect time to pair these two on The Talkhouse Music Podcast. Their chat covers the vicissitudes of Goswell’s professional and personal relationship with Neil Halstead over the decades, how Slowdive relearned old material via fan videos on YouTube, nerding out on gear, and exciting new details about Slowdive and Japanese Breakfast’s upcoming LPs. Check it out, and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer Today's episode was recorded by Mark Yoshizumi and Rachel Goswell and mixed by Mark Yoshizumi.    

To celebrate the release of Thundercat's excellent new album, Drunk, we're revisiting the time Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner and Kamasi Washington sat down backstage at Pitchfork Festival for The Talkhouse Music Podcast. In this episode, they discuss growing up playing music together, working with Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus, the last conversation Thundercat ever had with J Dilla, and much more. Their talk follows a bonus chat between Carly Rae Jepsen and Brian Wilson. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop about future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

Mastodon’s Troy Sanders and Bill Kelliher got together with their old pal Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage to talk metal for our podcast. Except, that didn’t really happen. Instead, the guys had an impromptu riff session, including hilarious off-the-cuff stories about how Mastodon’s Brent Hinds taught Jesse to save his tour per diems for drugs, Phil Anselmo of Pantera’s bathroom antics, Bill’s high school breakdance troupe, Troy’s recommendation for the perfect place to dump a body, and so much more. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, comedian Tim Heidecker sits down with Adam Curtis, the BBC filmmaker whose sprawling, epic political documentaries about have in recent years made him a cult figure. In a highly engaged conversation, the two discuss Curtis' past making films about “talented animals,” tropes in current pop music (and how dull music in docs is), Donald Trump, how John Oliver and Jon Stewart contributed to Trump's success, the power of storytelling in politics, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Mike Posner is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter whose megahit "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" has been streamed more than a billion times; last week, he released a book of poetry titled Teardrops and Balloons. Taraka Larson fronts the beloved psych-pop group Prince Rama, and is a pop music theorist who has lectured on the subject at New York University and Melbourne College in Australia. We thought it would make for a great conversation to pair this pop scholar with one of pop’s biggest current writers. And it was! In a talk that was part theory discussion, part psychoanalysis, the two discuss where truth is to be found in the inherent artifice of art, the temptation to glorify one’s suffering in one's work, how you know when you’ve created good art (and when you haven’t), Prince Rama appearing in James Franco’s new Lifetime film, and much more. Check it out. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer Today's episode was recorded and mixed by Mark Yoshizumi.

In conversation on the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast are Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock and Louis Theroux, whose latest documentary, My Scientology Movie, is in theaters now. In a highly entertaining discussion, the two talk about: Michael Moore; the joys and pitfalls of immersive journalism; Theroux's time with the infamous British TV presenter Jimmy Saville; getting up close and personal with bigots, pedophiles, Ted Nugent and other unsavory characters; whether or not Louis hates Alex Gibney (who, of course, made his own Scientology doc); Janet Jackson and Nipplegate; and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, documentary cinematographer and Cameraperson director Kirsten Johnson sits down with the legendary French New Wave auteur Agnès Varda, in town for a gallery exhibit of her art at Blum & Poe and a French Institute film series. In a wonderfully thoughtful and engaged conversation, the two discuss Varda's artwork, how her films play with time, finding permission as an artist, Varda's feelings about New York City, her forthcoming documentary with the artist JR, her favorite color (!), and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, to mark the release of Dolph Lundgren's latest movie, Mike Mendez's B-horror Don't Kill It, regular Talkhouse Film contributor Joe Lynch, also the director of Everly and the forthcoming Mayhem, talks with the iconic action star. Among the topics the two discuss, aside from Mendez's film, include: Lundgren modeling his career on Clint Eastwood, his move into writing and directing, what he's learned from directors as diverse Sidney J. Furie and Sylvester Stallone, why it's worse to be chased by a 50-year-old guy with a shotgun than a 20-year-old with a shotgun, the political incorrectness of movie violence, the "Harvey Keitel penis genre," and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Ladybug Mecca (Digable Planets, Brookzill) and Xenia Rubinos are genre-mashing, multicultural artists who bring socio-political commentary (and the party) to their music. After Rubinos wrote a glowing piece about Brookzill's LP for Talkhouse, and we heard that Mecca's fandom was reciprocal, we knew a Talkhouse Music Podcast was in order. The two sat down to mutually fan out and discuss being the only women in their touring parties, singing to their parents as they were dying, how travel triggers creativity, the difficulty of collaborations, why their early audiences were so white and male, intersectional feminism and so much more. Check it out! Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

Jarobi White (A Tribe Called Quest) and Starita, who worked on Tribe’s recent chart-topping album We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service, remember Phife Dawg in this edition of the Talkhouse Music Podcast. Jarobi talks about their earliest days, breaks down the meaning of Tribe lyrics, shares the last words Phife ever spoke to him and so much more. Starita was the last engineer to ever work with Phife, and brings us into those final days of frantic work and heavy emotions. Check it out. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

To celebrate Peter Hook’s (Joy Division, New Order, Peter Hook and the Light) new band memoir Substance: Inside New Order, he and old friend and bandmate Andy Rourke (the Smiths, D.A.R.K.), sat down to talk old times. Their amazing chat takes in Johnny Marr and Andy's adolescent love of Joy Division, Hooky's ongoing legal battle against New Order, Morrissey and Johnny Marr’s autobiographies, Hook’s longstanding personal issues with Bernard Sumner (a.k.a. Barney) and so much more. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, to mark the release of his new Netflix hourlong special, 3 Mics, writer, director and standup comedian Neal Brennan sits down with Michael Kirk, a documentary director who has made numerous award-winning films for PBS' current affairs show Frontline, Brennan's favorite TV show of all time. In their wide-ranging conversation, the two discuss fake news; Brennan and Dave Chappelle watching Frontline on the tour bus together; how Errol Morris, Michael Moore and Adam Curtis have reshaped documentary; what John Oliver told Seth Meyers three days after the election; which political power player refers to himself as Darth Vader; and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

To celebrate Frenchkiss Records’ deluxe reissues of the first two Hold Steady LPs, Craig Finn (The Hold Steady) and Syd Butler (The 8G Band, Les Savy Fav, Frenchkiss Records) sat down backstage at Late Night with Seth Meyers to share funny and poignant stories about the band’s early years. Their talk also takes in Butler’s high school straight edge band, how Seth Meyers’ house band writes the show’s music, and the time Finn and Butler’s groups were playing together and the one and only Joe Strummer showed up. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer

Today’s guests are indie-rock veterans: Stephen Malkmus (Pavement, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks) and Emil Amos (drummer for Om and Grails and main man at Holy Sons). During the conversation, Amos draws out Malkmus’ story: from his early music fandom in Stockton, California, to college in Virginia to the ups and downs of being a '90s indie guitar god in Pavement and beyond. Their chat also takes in venturing out of their DIY comfort zones to work with big name producers, Elliot Smith’s love of fine recording gear (and his studio size miscalculation), Silver Jews’ David Berman's the Cure obsession, and their thoughts on indie rock's '90s revival. Check it out. Grails LP Chalice Hymnal is out on February 17. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

Penn Badgley (Mothxr, Gossip Girl) and Kendra Foster (D’Angelo, Parliament Funkadelic) sat down at Samsung 837 in New York City last year to talk artistic collaboration, Black Messiah and all things D’Angelo. Foster also let slip that there are new D'Angelo tracks on the horizon. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

Old friends and bandmates Marky Ramone (the Ramones) and music fashion mogul Andy Hilfiger sat down at Samsung 837 in New York City last year to talk about Andy dressing everyone from Pete Townsend to the Wu Tang Clan, the Ramones working with Phil Spector and filming Rock 'n' Roll High School, Andy recording with Joey Ramone, Deedee Ramone getting lost in a graveyard at night while filming the "Pet Sematary" video, and how "Andy Hilfiger" almost became "Andy Ramone." Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, we celebrate the 25th anniversary re-release of Wayne's World with a conversation between the film's director, Penelope Spheeris – who also made the legendary trilogy of Decline of Western Civilization punk documentaries – and Jeanie Finlay, a maker of music docs herself and also a big Wayne's World fan. Over the course of their highly entertaining chat, the two discuss: all things Wayne's World, getting Ozzy Osbourne to make eggs in Decline Part II, IMDb errors, Spheeris' accidental career as a studio comedy director, the two mysterious documentary projects she's working on, exactly what she thought of Donald Trump when he made a cameo in Little Rascals, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, the Hold Steady's Craig Finn – whose new album We All Want the Same Things drops next month – sits down for a conversation with Late Night host Seth Meyers at his office at 30 Rock. Among the topics the two friends discuss include making the jump from SNL to late night, comedy in Trump's America, taking refuge in fiction and sports, why Bruce Springsteen is “the Harlem Globetrotters of music,” Meyers' favorite guests, the secret of a great skit (and a great song), and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Music Podcast, we look back on 2016. Talkhouse Music Podcast host Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Editor-In-Chief Brenna Ehrlich and Marketing Manager Dave Lucas discuss some of their favorite moments and the biggest news reveals. The highlights featured include Javier Muñoz (Hamilton) and John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) discussing inspiration and giving voice to their communities, Kamasi Washington and Thundercat chatting about wilding out in session with Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar and the Zombies discussing the legend of the Fake Zombies! Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, we look back on the year just past as the Talkhouse's podcast producer, Elia Einhorn, and Talkhouse Film's Editor-in-Chief, Nick Dawson, discuss some of their favorite moments from the Talkhouse Film podcasts of 2016. The highlights featured include Aidy Bryant on stealing Drake's candle and Jessi Klein confessing to calling Live Schreiber while day drunk; Kid Cudi opening up to Paul Reubens about his struggles adapting to fame; Max Landis pitching a found-footage Gremlins movie to Joe Dante; Michel Gondry talking with Terence Nance about his "disaster" of a love life; and Tim Heidecker and Chris Gethard inviting an army of fans to invade the podcast booth. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the eve of the release of the Flaming Lips’ new record Oxzy Mlody, Wayne Coyne sat down with legendary hip-hop producer Prince Paul at the Sonos store in New York City and got deep on creativity and collaboration. Their talk takes on the Lips’ creative process, De La Soul’s copyright issues, the joy of life, scaring neighborhood kids and how Wayne gets blamed for turning Miley Cyrus into a drug addict. After their conversation, Wayne and Prince Paul answered questions from members of Battles, Bauhaus/Love and Rockets, and Brookzill! Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, Portlandia's stars and co-creators Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein mark the start of the show's seventh season by sitting down together for a chat. Over the course of their wide-ranging conversation, the two friends and longtime collaborators discuss their cooking habits, bizarre medicinal uses for garlic, Fred's trip to Japan to find his roots, This is Spinal Tap, the difference between live comedy and live music, erroneous details on their Wikipedia pages, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Andrew W.K. and Dan Deacon are party-loving, arty outsiders who have had huge success in the pop realm. They’re also big fans of each other, and sat down last year to discuss the need to share underground music, being open-minded toward cuisine that potentially tastes like human feces (and eating vomit), personal and societal musical evolution, hope and their journeys from the underground to mainstream recognition. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. This episode premiered on Pitchfork Radio. As Andrew W.K. would say, party this podcast! — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer  

Tommy Stinson (the Replacements, Guns N’ Roses, Bash and Pop) and Wayne Kramer (MC5, Gang War) recently sat down at the flagship Sonos store in New York City to discuss the current political climate, A Tribe Called Quest and how music can forge deep connections in fractured times. Oh, and that time Gang War blew out Bob Mould’s guitar amp. Craig Finn (the Hold Steady) joined in to lead a fan Q&A session. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

The holidays are upon us, which means one thing: family. To celebrate that whole being related thing, the Talkhouse threw a special live podcast at New York’s Sonos store featuring a conversation between Saturday Night Live‘s Vanessa Bayer and her brother, musician and writer Jonah Bayer. The hilarious sibs sat down to discuss Jonah's first-ever cappuccino (at Lilith Fair), how Vanessa only gets into cool bands after they play on SNL, their sibling band and how the Bayer family spends the holidays. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

Ben Watt and Bernard Butler may have made their names with Everything But the Girl and Suede (respectively), but these two musicians have always reinvented their careers in fascinating — and successful — ways. The guys sat down to discuss their artistic transformations, following the Smiths on tour, concert bootlegging, and skillful, speedy collaboration. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

Earlier this year, Wyclef Jean sat down with the Arcade Fire’s Will Butler at Samsung 837 in New York City to discuss the twentieth anniversary of the Fugees’ seminal record, The Score. There's a great story about how they stole a beat originally meant for Fat Joe to make "Fu-gee-la." Oh, and they break into song. A lot. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

Analog synthesizer music pioneers Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yaz, Erasure) and Jean-Michel Jarre sat down for the Talkhouse Music Podcast and went deep on all things synth, gear, their music…and the one question Jean’s always wanted to ask Vince about Depeche Mode. Gavin Russom of LCD Soundsystem begins the episode with a synthesizertutorial. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer

For the first time ever on the Talkhouse Film podcast, we have two brothers in conversation as Jason Schwartzman chats with his brother Robert Schwartzman (best known as the frontman of indie band Rooney), whose first film as a writer-director, Dreamland, is out now. In between bouts of fraternal bickering, the two talk about making the jump from music to movies, working with actors, MIDI files and player pianos (cue a serious geek-out from Jason), how Gene Wilder found his way into playing Willy Wonka, crazy real-life experiences with agents and A&R guys, Robert's aptitude with money (at least in comparison to Jason), and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On Halloween, Soul Clap’s Eli Goldstein and Charles Levine sat down with their friend and collaborator George Clinton for a catchup on the Talkhouse Music Podcast. Inspired by the holiday, they talked about Clinton’s everyday costumes, and also covered their past and future collaborations: Parliament and Funkadelic, and Clinton’s upcoming record with Flying Lotus. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Perfect Pussy frontwoman talks with actress, director, singer and activist Rose McGowan. Their wide-ranging and compelling conversation touches on McGowan's troubled time in Hollywood; her move into directing; systemic misogyny, gender hypocrisy and violence against women; the no-holds-barred book she's currently writing, and much more – including a surprising and revelatory detour into their respective feelings about death. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Tori Amos and Garbage’s Shirley Manson ruled the ‘90s alternative music charts with hits like “Cornflake Girl” and “Only Happy When It Rains" (respectively), and they continue to make vital music today. On the eve of Amos’ Boys for Pele twentieth anniversary deluxe reissue release, the old friends sat down to talk revisiting their younger selves and early work, the constraints society puts on aging women, the film Audrie & Daisy being a powerful teaching tool against sexual assault and the song Amos wrote for it, motherhood, and the patriarchy in the music business. They even offer some advice to aspiring female pop stars. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

Matt Berninger (the National) and Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes, Desaparecidos) are two of rock’s heaviest-hitting lyricists. Turns out, they’re also huge fans of each other’s songs. The guys recently sat down to discuss all things songwriting (lyrics, finding melody, influences, “dick references," embarrassment and so much more) for the Talkhouse Music Podcast. They break down songs from across their catalogues, such as the National’s "All the Wine," "Fake Empire" and "Lemonworld," and Conor’s "Lua," "You Are Your Mother’s Child" and "Artifact #1." They also discuss their favorite songwriters, giving a lot of love to Leonard Cohen. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

DJ Premier and Prince Paul are two of the most influential DJs and producers in hip-hop history. The legends recently sat down at Sonos’ flagship store in New York City to talk staying dope while aging, the gear they’re currently using, stylistic changes in hip-hop through the years, how Premier was too afraid to dress like Prince (but did wear a full Devo suit), and Prince Paul and Ladybug Mecca’s fantastic new Brazilian/hip-hop project Brookzill! Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

Earlier this year, Alan Palomo of Neon Indian and Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek sat down at Samsung 837 in New York City for a live Talkhouse Music Podcast recording. As Alan played ambient self-generated sounds and Caroline spun an unreleased composition for atmosphere, the friends and mutual admirers discussed what can and can’t be co-opted in the arts, experimental and pop music, the music and arts scene in Williamsburg, collaborating with siblings, eating curried cow brains in Indonesia an hour before going onstage, and so much more. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

Two generations of feminist punk icons, Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, the Julie Ruin) and Meredith Graves (Perfect Pussy, MTV News), sat down at the flagship SONOS store in New York for an in-depth episode of the Talkhouse Music Podcast. They’re big fans of each other’s music, and this fantastic talk covers capitalism, rocking gunnysacks, trolls, today’s definition of punk, feminism, chronic illness, stalkers, the “Etsy-fication of riot grrrl," why we should vote for Hillary Clinton, and, as Kathleen says, how she and Meredith have “been living parallel lives like twenty, thirty years apart." Oh, and Kathleen drops the bomb that Le Tigre is reuniting! Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

Eric Slick (Dr. Dog, Lithuania) and Dominic Angelella (Lithuania) are hardcore “Danatics” — that is, Steely Dan fanatics. This summer, the guys stopped by Samsung 837 in New York City for a live Talkhouse Music Podcast. They nerded out and got very deep in explaining their “DanVinci Code” theory, which Slick expounded upon in his previous Talkhouse piece.  Oh! And fellow Danatics take note: Slick and the Talkhouse have teamed up to throw a Steely Dan tribute show at Shea Stadium in Brooklyn on October 8, featuring covers by Lithuania, Ian Sweet, Mikey Erg, Slonk Donkerson, Twiga and Bad Faces. Get your tickets here and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

Joe Casey of Protomartyr and Andrew Savage of Parquet Courts are two of modern rock’s most intelligent, biting lyricists. The two friends and mutual admirers sat down earlier this year to talk about writing highly personal lyrics about people they love, how Tyvek are “the Michigan Talking Heads," having ideas that are good in theory, and, in a followup to a piece Casey wrote for The Talkhouse, why they’d rather be compared to their peers than bands from the past. Take a listen and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

The Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and Interpol frontman Paul Banks (together Banks and Steelz) recently sat down for what may be the Talkhouse Podcast's most freewheeling conversation to date. Their talk includes: music production hardware versus software, RZA’s enthusiasm for a recent Donald Trump speech, the President of the Philippines, Banks’ feelings about Suicide Squad, why Bill Clinton was at a Chance the Rapper set, Jessica Alba, confusing Bill Hader and Johnny Depp, and, oh yeah, their collaboration on their debut record, Anything But Words. Check it out and subscribe now on iTunes orStitcher to stay in the loop! — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

Representing two generations of game-changing hip hop production technique, DJ Shadow and Clams Casino recently caught up in New York City to tape an episode of the Talkhouse Music Podcast. They discussed their new records, Shadow’s Endtroducing..... remake, the ways that recording and sampling have changed over the years, and how it’s sometimes worth giving a great MC (like A$AP Rocky) a beat you were saving for your own record. Take a listen and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

On this week’s episode of the Talkhouse Music Podcast, Andy Rourke of the Smiths and Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries sit down to discuss their new supergroup, D.A.R.K, and we give their song, "High Fashion," its world premiere. The new bandmates and old friends talk Dolores’ teenage Smiths fandom, Stephen Street (who helmed production duties on iconic records for both groups), initial reaction from their legendary bands’ diehard fans to the new project, and getting pelted onstage at festivals back in the day by a half-eaten apple and a packet of sausages adorned with the note "Meat is Murder." Take a listen and subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer NB: If you can’t contain your excitement and need to hear "High Fashion" before the talk, skip ahead to 4:30. We don't blame you.

Songwriter/composer Julia Holter and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew sat down backstage at Pitchfork Fest earlier this summer to discuss the difference between writing solo and with a group, how the next Broken Social Scene record needs some Bobby McFerrin-esque acapella… and a possible collaboration. Take a listen and subscribe now on iTunesor Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

Spencer Tweedy of the bands Tweedy and the Blisters sat down with Julian Ehrlich and Max Kakacek of Whitney backstage at Pitchfork Music Festival and talked about Chicago’s young rock scene, Wilco’s legendary studio, embarrassing moments with Wayne Coyne and Snoop Dogg, and, in an exciting twist, potentially collaborating. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop! — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

R&B singer BJ the Chicago Kid made his name guesting on tracks by Kanye West, Chance the Rapper, Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre and more. Now, he's dropped his own excellent new album, In My Mind. Rapper Mick Jenkins, also from Chicago and also a Chance collaborator, draws on his poetry background to deliver lyrics that are breathtakingly constructed. BJ and Mick caught up backstage at Pitchfork Fest earlier this summer and discussed violence in Chicago, the way rappers talk about women and much more. Bonus: There's an amazing story about working with Dr. Dre. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, standup comedian and Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani sits down with DANIELS (aka Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), the directors of one his recent favorite movies, Swiss Army Man. The trio talk about their latest projects – the aforementioned “farting corpse” movie, DANIELS' new interactive short Possibilia, and Nanjiani's upcoming feature as writer-actor The Big Sick – as well as the insurance-related impact of action thrillers and superhero movies, the effect ADHD and anxiety on Kwan and Nanjiani's careers and creativity, the perennial arguments Scheinert and Nanjiani have with their respective partners, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Shamir and Porches’ Aaron Maine sat down backstage at Pitchfork Music Festival to talk Taylor Swift, songwriting, Taylor Swift again, and how both started with guitars but are known for their electronic sounds. We recorded even more podcasts backstage at Pitchfork Music Fest, including Julia Holter and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew, BJ the Chicago Kid and Mick Jenkins, Spencer Tweedy and Whitney, and last week's episode with Brian Wilson and Carly Rae Jepsen and Kamasi Washington and Thundercat. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop!

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, White Reindeer director and regular Talkhouse Film contributor Zach Clark sits down with one of his filmmaking idols, John Waters, whose second feature Multiple Maniacs is now on release in a beautifully restored new version. Clark and Waters' highly entertaining conversation touches on such topics as Waters' encounters with people as diverse as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Justin Bieber, the theatrical stunts he used to pull to get publicity for his films, why he loves Terrence Malick's movies (even though he really shouldn't), his mother's reaction to seeing his first film, recent movies he and Clark have enjoyed, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film Podcast, Zac Stuart-Pontier, the editor of Catfish, Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Jinx, chats with his former collaborators Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the directing team behind Catfish and the new thriller Nerve. In a wide-ranging conversation, the three old friends talk about the genesis of Catfish, favorite New York films, their movie tattoo tradition, the crazy dare inNerve Lionsgate thought they’d done for real, their upcoming projects – including a surprising left turn from Stuart-Pontier – and their colorful memories of the Meatpacking District from back in the day. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

At Pitchfork Music Festival, we gave Carly Rae Jepsen the chance to ask head Beach Boy Brian Wilson any question she could dream of. Hear the "Call Me Maybe" singer kick off today's Talkhouse Music Podcast with her choice. Next, Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner and Kamasi Washington sat down to talk growing up playing music together, working with Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus, the last conversation Thundercat ever had with J Dilla, and much more. We recorded even more podcasts backstage at Pitchfork Music Fest, including Julia Holter and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew, Porches’ Aaron Maine and Shamir, BJ the Chicago Kid and Mick Jenkins, and Spencer Tweedy and Whitney. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop!

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, two legendary figures of the New York independent film scene, Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton and The Toxic Avenger director and Troma mastermind Lloyd Kaufman, sit down for a chat at Samsung 837. Their highly entertaining conversation touches on such subjects as how to survive as an indie filmmaker, their cinematic idols and influences, the advantages and disadvantages of working outside the system, all things scatological, Comic-Con, and Leni Riefenstahl's body odor. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, two of the funniest people around – Saturday Night Live's Aidy Bryant and Inside Amy Schumer's head writer, Jessi Klein – meet for the first time. Talking on the day Klein's new book, You'll Grow Out of It, is published, the two have a hilarious conversation about the very specific discomfort of SNL writing nights, Emmy awkwardness, casting nightmares, their SNL host crushes (which leads to a great story about Drake), the celebrity Jessi recently drunk-dialed, hot guys, bras and breasts, and a whole bunch more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

New York band Hollis Brown recently sat down with the legendary English group The Zombies for a Talkhouse Music Podcast recorded live at Samsung 837. Over the course of the conversation, Hollis Brown’s Mike Montali and Jonathan Bonilla drew out a history of The Zombies’ singular career as told by key members Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone. Get ready for tales of meeting The Rolling Stones in their hardcore R&B purist days, how the Zombies tried to meet Elvis while in Memphis but hung out with his dad instead, and how it feels to have their new record, Still Got That Hunger, in six Billboard charts after not touching those hallowed heights for 50 years. You’ll also hear about Hollis Brown singer Montali writing Aaron Neville’s new song “I Wanna Love You”, and how guitarist Bonilla got a little too drunk one night in Memphis… and ended up with an Elvis tattoo. 

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, filmmaker and regular Talkhouse Film contributor sits down for an intimate conversation with one of his favorite directors, Michel Gondry, whose latest film, Microbe and Gasoline, is in theaters now. The two discuss a variety of topics – including deep dives into music and romantic relationships, as well as film – and touch on such topics as the secret to Dave Chapelle's comic genius and to Noam Chomsky's romantic appeal, how Gondry played the drums with Paul McCartney and Kanye West, Gondry's fear of jokes and his love of the word "both,” and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, to mark the release of Nicolas Winding Refn's dark, stylish thriller The Neon Demon, filmmaker and Talkhouse Film contributor Aaron Stewart-Ahn sits down with the Danish director. In a highly entertaining conversation, Refn opens up about such diverse subjects as embracing narcism, how overcoming dyslexia taught him to turn his weaknesses into strengths, the filmmaking advice he received from Elia Kazan, the near-spiritual experiences he had communing with master auteurs Alejandro Jodorowsky and Dario Argento, his time as a club kid in New York City in the 1980s, his surprising home-viewing habits, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Sean Lennon (The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger) and Les Claypool (Primus) have formed the proggy psych supergroup the Claypool Lennon Delirium. The two recently recorded a Talkhouse Music Podcast live at Samsung 837 in New York City, where they discussed their new record, The Monolith Of Phobos, Les’ musical beginnings playing in Hells Angels bars, and the origin of Sean’s surname. Their conversation also covers Trump, Noel Fielding, Sean’s beliefs about body odors, how indie musicians will rule the planet and spirochetes. The Monolith Of Phobos came out June 3 on ATO Records, and the band is currently touring America.

On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, musician, actor, writer and broadcaster Henry Rollins sits down with longtime friend and collaborator Alex Winter, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker also known for playing Bill in the Bill and Ted movies. In an inspiring, wide-ranging discussion touching on their many creative pursuits, the two talk about numerous subjects, including: how Crispin Glover encouraged Rollins to pursue acting, Winter's classic response to MTV's request for him to VJ in character as Bill, Rollins' story about taking a bus to a catastrophic audition for The Lion King, his planned documentary which was nixed in record time by National Geographic. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry have a mutual appreciation society, and in today’s episode of The Talkhouse Music Podcast, they meet for the very first time. The two discuss songwriting, the Glasgow and Seattle music scenes, life on the road, and the co-headlining tour they were about to embark on (which is underway now).

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Tim and Eric's Tim Heidecker sits down in the Samsung 837 studio for a chat with Chris Gethard, of Broad City and The Chris Gethard Show. The two comedians discuss Heidecker's new record, In Glendale, their unusual career paths, Andy Kaufman, the SNL theme music, and more – before chaos (and even greater hilarity) ensues when they invite wave after wave of audience members to join them in the studio. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Two of experimental music's most important figures — Ian Williams of Battles and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth — talk lyrics, writing for bands versus scoring orchestral music, and the profound musical influence of the cheerleading movie Bring It On in this edition of the Talkhouse Music Podcast, recorded live at Samsung 837.

Two of the Talkhouse Music Podcast’s most beloved guests — the Roots’ Questlove and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney and Portlandia — reunited onstage recently to celebrate Questlove’s new book, Something To Food About: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs. Joined by celebrated Chef Dominique Crenn at Urban Outfitters’ Space Ninety 8 in Brooklyn, they discussed Madonna, soul food and how eating on tour gets a lot better once you get some real success… unless you’re Eminem. Many thanks to Urban Outfitters and Space Ninety 8 for allowing The Talkhouse to record and release this conversation.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Jason Reitman talks with fellow director Karyn Kusama, whose fine new film, The Invitation, is out now. Over the course of their fascinating and intimate conversation, Kusama and Reitman discuss misleading trailers, the impact of TV's golden age on cinema, the pros and cons of test screening, how parenthood affects their approach to filmmaking, the end of the world, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the new episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, as she winds up the Kickstarter campaign for Axis, her debut feature as director, the multi-talented Aisha Tyler talks with fellow actress-turned-director Amber Tamblyn, whose Paint It Black premieres in June at the LA Film Festival. In their very entertaining and funny conversation, the two discuss their respective paths to the director's chair, great L.A. movies (and Keeping Up with the Kardashians), why Amber is Aisha's "Oreo tit," how Aisha is a “machine,” and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On a very special new episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, to coincide with the release of Pee-wee's Big Holiday, hip-hop star, actor and longtime Pee-wee Herman fan Kid Cudi is in conversation with Pee-wee himself, Paul Reubens. The topics they talk about include how they first met, Reubens' journey to bring Pee-wee Herman back to the big screen, Cudi's strong dislike of skunks (and recent encounter with a mountain lion), plus a discussion by both of planned creative projects that they've never talked about before. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

When Brandi Carlile was an up-and-coming songwriter, she waited outside the Indigo Girls’ tour bus to meet her heroes. Fast forward a few years, and the Indigo Girls appeared on her 2007 album, The Story. By 2010, young musicians were waiting outside Carlile’s tour bus to meet her — including Mackenzie Scott, a.k.a. Torres. These two women are songwriters with a deep country influence who write lyrics that explore dark feelings — and deliver them like Armageddon is at their heels. They’re also huge fans of each other’s music. Hear Scott and Carlile discuss meeting their heroes, attempting to lead balanced lives while living on the road, and what it’s like being “gay Christ followers” on this episode of the Talkhouse Music Podcast.

The latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast is a conversation between Ari Shaffir, stand-up comedian and host of Comedy Central's This Is Not Happening, and one of the most recent guests on that show, Artie Lange, best known for The Howard Stern Show and MADtv. In a funny, provocative talk, the two share war stories about their lives as comics, such as Shaffir eating "tarnished" baked goods and receiving death threats for his videos, and Artie doing time in L.A. County Jail, working as a Santa in a strip club, and having a very memorable encounter with Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

This episode of the Talkhouse Music Podcast — our first in a series of live recordings at New York’s Samsung 837 space — is a Broadway takeover. It features Hedwig and the Angry Inch co-creator and star John Cameron Mitchell in conversation with Javier Muñoz, who starred in In the Heights and is currently Lin-Manuel Miranda’s alternate in the runaway smash hit hip-hop musical, Hamilton. These two truly believe musical theater can change lives and push society forward; their lives, and this talk, echo that sentiment. Muñoz and Mitchell cover a lot in this conversation: rock & roll and hip-hop on Broadway, sure, but also Pussy Riot, New York City’s constant evolution, Glee, the way social media can inhibit artistic development, and David Bowie. Oh, they also discuss figuratively — and literally — peeing yourself on stage. You don’t want to miss this chat. — Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast producer and engineer

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, stand-up comedy hero and Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani talks with Michael Showalter about his new movie, Hello, My Name is Doris (in which Nanjiani has a small role). As well as that film, the two longtime friends discuss their first collaboration, the differing paths their careers have taken, Showalter's tremendous love of money, the practical joke that former colleague Jessi Klein is still mad about, their upcoming movie together, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, filmmaker, prolific screenwriter Max Landis — whose first film as director, Me Him Her, is out now — talks with one of his favorite filmmakers, Joe Dante. In a wide-ranging, rapid-fire conversation, Landis and the Gremlins director discuss Max's corny '80s movie-style altruism, the ultimate screenwriter tattoo, fake film announcements, the death of big movies with personality, and much more, including Landis' awesome pitch for a reboot of Gremlins. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, filmmaker, actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead marks the release of her new movie, 10 Cloverfield Lane, by sitting down with Togetherness star Melanie Lynskey. Over the course of a frank and entertaining conversation, the two discuss everything from the inevitable insecurities that come from watching yourself on screen, to improvisation, their beginnings in the film business, the perils of making audition tapes, and their differing approaches to timekeeping. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

The latest episode is the first in a series of podcasts brought to you by Talkhouse Film and Soho House, with whom we are teaming up to curate a regular series of special advance screenings followed by a conversation between the director and another filmmaker. Here, Re-Animator director (and regular Talkhouse Film contributor) Stuart Gordon talks with Robert Eggers, director of the horror phenomenon The Witch, with the two touching on such topics as the influence of Kubrick and silent cinema, the experience of casting witches and the need for a "Ken Loach time machine to the 17th Century." For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, filmmaker, photographer and author Alix Lambert talks with her friend of almost 30 years, Fred Armisen. In a lively, wide-ranging conversation, the two touch upon such subjects as their mutual love of Bitmoji and airport texting, why Fred insisted The Wizard of Oz was a documentary to Alix's CalArts class, the incredible story surrounding Fred's half-brother's mother and the Stasi, and, of course, Portlandia, Documentary Now and his upcoming Spanish-language comedy show for Más Mejor. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, in a special conversation recorded after a screening of Laurie Anderson's documentary Heart of a Dog, the acclaimed musician, artist and filmmaker talks onstage with fellow New York director Darren Aronofsky, best known for his films Pi, Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan. The pair discuss Anderson's new film, which ponders questions of love, death and language, and touch on such other diverse subjects as Herman Melville's discussions with his editor about Moby Dick and the problems that can come from putting batteries in one's mouth. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

In 2000, Tunde Adebimpe and Dave Sitek formed TV on the Radio, one of the most creative, inspired and influential bands of their era. Fifteen years, five albums and a whole lot of ups and downs later, they've still managed to preserve that energy and vision. Which is pretty remarkable. Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Ruban Nielson has also sustained a very long creative streak. He'd played guitar in a hard-edged New Zealand post-hardcore band called the Mint Chicks, and when that ended, he found himself in Portland, Oregon, around 2010. He began messing around with music again — making highly wrought, idiosyncratic basement recordings with an odd psychedelic feel. This new project — Unknown Mortal Orchestra — got a record deal, and Nielson began touring and gathering crowds and critical praise. The UMO sound has broadened and morphed over the course of three albums, right through this year's release, the acclaimed and addictively strange Multi-Love. In retrospect, it's no surprise that Adebimpe and Nielson are huge fans of each other's music — they have a similar creative spirit — and they have lots of other things in common too, as you're about to hear. But, aside from the Mint Chicks opening for TV on the Radio many years ago, they'd never really met. What a great excuse to put them together and see what they talk about. And the answer is: a whole lot of very interesting things, like, when you write a song that comes from a deep emotional place, how do you find it in yourself to sing that song on stage, night after night — and sometimes for year after year? Where does inspiration come from? What does success do to creativity? And there's a lot more where that came from. Give a listen. 

If you come out of the indie community and you make synth-based music, you owe a huge debt to an iconic duo called Suicide. In fact, if you come out of the indie community at all, you owe a huge debt to Suicide. Starting in New York’s East Village in the early ’70s, Suicide were confrontational, tough, and absolutely visionary, and they were one of the first punk rock bands. But they had no guitars: it was just Martin Rev on cheap electric keyboards and drum machines, and notorious singer Alan Vega. This revolutionary, very DIY approach initially influenced English synth bands from Erasure to Throbbing Gristle, and went on to become a huge influence on industrial dance music, and everything from noise to ambient. Suicide has been covered by everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Savages, and their influence extends to bands like LCD Soundsystem, Liars and MIA, who sampled them on her 2010 track “Born Free.” Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo is a big Suicide fan, and he recently commissioned Martin Rev to remix “Annie,” a track from his new album VEGA INTL. Night School. So we invited these two representatives of different, but related, musical generations to sit down for a Talkhouse Music Podcast. They talked about all sorts of things: how you know when your music is done, the economic realities of being an artist, the evolution of New York City as an artistic capitol, creative cycles and the effect of the internet, and the birth of punk rock. Palomo knows his stuff, and Rev throws down a whole lot of hard-earned knowledge and wisdom, so listen closely.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Academy Award nominee J.C. Chandor, the director of Margin Call and All is Lost, is in conversation with Borderline Films' Josh Mond, a producer turned writer-director whose debut feature, James White, is out now. The two friends discuss Mond's personal and professional path to this semi-autobiographical film inspired by his own experiences with his late mother as she battled cancer, while their chat also touches on: Mond's aborted first feature, a sex comedy that was to star Jonah Hill; which of his collaborators had a full beard at 13; and how The Jinx, Andrew Jarecki's sensational doc miniseries about Robert Durst, threw a wrench into James White's editing process. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Lil BUB is a tiny, very special cat from outer space who has been an internet star since 2011, when her "dude" — recording studio owner Mike Bridavsky — posted some photos of her on Tumblr. She's been the subject of an award-winning documentary, she's the author of Lil BUB’s Lil Book: The Extraordinary Life of the Most Amazing Cat on the Planet and she hosts Lil BUB's Big Show, a web-based talk show. And on December 4th, 2015, BUB will release her debut album Science and Magic. The music was composed by Bridavsky's close friend, bandmate and official bubbysitter, Matt Tobey, and produced by Bridavsky. But the whole thing was guided by Bub, whom big-time fan Andrew WK recently described as "the most musically and compassionately gifted" animal he has ever met. As a rescue cat with several genetic mutations, BUB works to spread awareness about adoption and proper animal care. 25% of the net proceeds from the sales of Science and Magic benefit Lil BUB’s Big Fund for the ASPCA, a national fund for special needs pets. BUB's conversation partner for this Talkhouse Music Podcast is her fellow musician Jon Wurster, who plays drums — brilliantly — for Superchunk, Mountain Goats, Bob Mould among notable others. With Tom Scharpling, Jon is also one half of the team that does The Best Show, which is one of the funniest things you can listen to. And he's also a big-time animal lover. BUB and Jon have a conversation about BUB's new album, her intergalactic origins and… pooping on very expensive comforters. BUB also has a few probing questions for Jon and, well, he answers them as honestly as he can. These two do have a few tense moments, but they're both nice folks, so they patch it up nicely. As an extra bonus, this podcast features what just might be Jon's debut recording as a solo singer.

Lil BUB is a tiny, very special cat from outer space who has been an internet star since 2011, when her "dude" — recording studio owner Mike Bridavsky — posted some photos of her on Tumblr. She's been the subject of an award-winning documentary, she's the author of Lil BUB’s Lil Book: The Extraordinary Life of the Most Amazing Cat on the Planet and she hosts Lil BUB's Big Show, a web-based talk show. And on December 4th, 2015, BUB will release her debut album Science and Magic. The music was composed by Bridavsky's close friend, bandmate and official bubbysitter, Matt Tobey, and produced by Bridavsky. But the whole thing was guided by Bub, whom big-time fan Andrew WK recently described as "the most musically and compassionately gifted" animal he has ever met. As a rescue cat with several genetic mutations, BUB works to spread awareness about adoption and proper animal care. 25% of the net proceeds from the sales of Science and Magic benefit Lil BUB’s Big Fund for the ASPCA, a national fund for special needs pets. BUB's conversation partner for this Talkhouse Music Podcast is her fellow musician Jon Wurster, who plays drums — brilliantly — for Superchunk, Mountain Goats, Bob Mould among notable others. With Tom Scharpling, Jon is also one half of the team that does The Best Show, which is one of the funniest things you can listen to. And he's also a big-time animal lover. BUB and Jon have a conversation about BUB's new album, her intergalactic origins and… pooping on very expensive comforters. BUB also has a few probing questions for Jon and, well, he answers them as honestly as he can. These two do have a few tense moments, but they're both nice folks, so they patch it up nicely. As an extra bonus, this podcast features what just might be Jon's debut recording as a solo singer.

Sleater-Kinney singer-guitarist and Portlandia co-star Carrie Brownstein has published a critically acclaimed memoir, the candid, moving and eloquent Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl. And to kick off her book tour, she sat down and had a great conversation with another acclaimed musician-author, the Roots' Questlove, on October 27th, 2015 at St. Vitus, the beloved metal bar in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. The event was produced by the very cool WORD bookstore mini-chain, with stores in Greenpoint and Jersey City. WORD gave the Talkhouse permission to record and air the conversation — thanks, WORD! Carrie and Questlove might come from different backgrounds and make different kinds of music, but from reading each other's books, they realized have a whole lot of things in common, as you're about to hear.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, two of contemporary cinema’s most controversial, boundary-pushing directors are in conversation. From New York City, Gaspar Noé – whose new film, the pornographic 3D romance Love, is now out in theaters – chats with Abel Ferrara, a fellow scourge of the censors, who is currently living in Rome. Over the course of their highly entertaining talk, the pair discusses such topics as censorship, having their movies banned, what’s sexy in Saudi Arabia, the connections between Love and Ferrara’s first film, Nine Lives of a Wet Pussy, porn’s rightful place on the big screen, and their mutual hero, Pier Paolo Pasolini. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

JG Thirlwell came out of the early ’80s New York underground scene and, under multiple pseudonyms that all had the word “foetus” in them, made lots of intense albums that evoke what AllMusicGuide has called “a harrowing netherworld of death, lust, disease and decay.” You can hear the Foetus influence in bands like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. Over the years, Thirlwell broadened his musical scope to the point where he is now an acclaimed new music composer, as well writing scores for film and television, and developing site-specific audio installations. And he’s kept his hand in rock music, collaborating with a wide range of rock musicians, from the Melvins to Zola Jesus to Sonic Youth. He’s composed pieces for various renowned new music ensembles, including the Kronos Quartet. One could argue that the chart-topping, prize-winning, multiple Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet is the most famous string quartet in the entire history of string quartets. Over their 42-year existence, they’ve exposed many different kinds of audiences to many kinds of music by breaking down, or at least ignoring, barriers between genres. They’ve played art-tango with Astor Piazzolla, backed up Tom Waits, David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Björk, and covered Bob Dylan, Ornette Colemanand Sigur Rós. But most importantly, Kronos has been a major player in nurturing the contemporary repertoire, working closely with iconic composers such as Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, Terry Riley, Laurie Anderson, Henryk Gorecki, Osvaldo Golijov and Philip Glass. And lately, they’ve also begun collaborating with — and commissioning pieces by — a wide variety of younger musicians: Bryce Dessner (the National), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), Amon Tobin, Glenn Kotche (Wilco) and Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), among many others. Kronos has commissioned and performed two pieces by JG Thirlwell: “Eremikophobia” and “Nomatophobis,” with a third piece on the way. So we put together these two thoughtful and visionary musicians for a Talkhouse Music Podcast.

On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, in conversation are two former actors who are now two of the funniest and liveliest writer-directors in the U.S. indie sphere. Lynn Shelton, best known for her movies Humpday, Your Sister's Sister and Laggies, chats with the impishly provocative Bobcat Goldthwait, whose new film, the excellent documentary Call Me Lucky, reveals yet another facet of his creative personality. In their talk, they discuss their work in detail and also touch on such diverse topics as the unlikely location of one of Bobcat's tattoos, the reason he used to wear silly hats while directing, and why the U.S. is the People's Republic of Spring Break. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Back when they were in college in the late '80s, Laura Cantrell and Mac McCaughan were in a band called Bricks. That band didn't get very far, but Laura went on to become an acclaimed country singer-songwriter hailed by the likes of Elvis Costello and legendary BBC DJ John Peel. Mac soon founded Superchunk, who went on to 26 years (and counting) of indie-rock glory, as well as co-founding the phenomenally successful Merge Records. Even though Laura and Mac have taken different musical paths, they've not just maintained their long friendship, they've both stayed true to themselves and to their art, and carved out respected, sustainable careers. They actually still have a lot in common. So we figured we'd put them together for a Talkhouse Music Podcast and have them catch up, reminisce, compare notes and share a little wisdom.

El-P, legendary hip-hop producer and half of the celebrated rap duo Run the Jewels, and acclaimed new singer, rapper, songwriter, producer, musician and filmmaker Boots (Beyoncé, FKA twigs, Run the Jewels), sat down and recorded a Talkhouse Music Podcast while they were on tour, backstage at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They talked about lots of things: their jazz-musician dads, the creative value of sampling, drugs and music, the internet’s fascination with cats, their doomsday scenarios and whether iconic film director Stanley Kubrick predicted the iPhone. We also find out how Boots got his nickname — and the answer will amaze you.

On this new episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, two highly original and idiosyncratic British writer-directors are in conversation: Ben Wheatley and Alex Cox. In addition to their new projects (the current festival hit High-Rise and the multi-perspective Western Tombstone Rashomon, respectively), the two email friends discuss numerous movie-related topics, from their favorite portmanteau films and the difference between Charlie Kaufman and Charlton Heston, to the forgotten genius of Peter Watkins and how Repo Man invented supermarket generic brands. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

The iconic multimedia artist Laurie Anderson always has two or three projects going at any one time, and aside from her acclaimed new feature film Heart of a Dog, she’s unveiling an installation and performance called Habeas Corpus, which takes place at the cavernous Park Avenue Armory in New York, October 2nd through 4th, 2015. Among Anderson’s collaborators on the show are the great Syrian singer Omar Souleyman, ace multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and Anderson’s partner in this Talkhouse Music Podcast, Merrill Garbus from Tune-Yards. Garbus and Anderson actually met through a Talkhouse Music Podcast, and you can hear them hit it off in the course of that conversation. If fact, they hit it off so well that Anderson invited Garbus to develop a musical piece with her for Habeas Corpus. So, on the occasion of their collaboration, we brought these two remarkable artists back together for another chat. They spoke mostly about the show, but when you get two such brilliant, interesting people, the conversation is going to go to some fascinating places, and it sure did — everything from Anderson’s experiences with a psychiatrist to the reason why Garbus wanted to become an artist.

If there's a running theme in London neo-post-punk band Art Brut's rock music, it's rock music. The band's leader Eddie Argos isn't just a musician, he's a big-time music fan. And one of the musicians he's a big fan of is indie-pop sensation Ezra Furman, whose new album Perpetual Motion People takes inspiration from brilliant, nasal auteurs such as Bob Dylan, the Violent Femmes and Jonathan Richman to make smart, heartfelt music. But his songs are all over the map: sure, it's indie-pop, but he works in all kinds of sounds: mid-'60s pop, countrified ballads, '70s glam, doo-wop and sounds from a more recent vintage, like Destroyer and Built to Spill. Furman and Argos struck up a mutual appreciation society a few years ago when their two bands played some shows together, and it blossomed into a long-distance friendship. With Furman beginning to break through in the United Kingdom, we put the two musicians together for a Talkhouse Music Podcast. The two musicians found a lot to talk about: the time Furman accidentally got filmed naked, playing live as an opportunity to do something weird, parenthood and its effect on one's music, the advantages of being pretentious, and why "no" always beats "yes."

Hiss Golden Messenger’s most recent album Lateness of Dancers came out in the autumn of 2014, and found frontman M.C. Taylor’s songwriting process still evolving. He obviously thinks a lot about the craft and inspiration involved, so it’s no surprise that the songwriting process was the main thing he talked about with My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James in this edition of the Talkhouse Music Podcast My Morning Jacket brings in some disparate outside influences — prog-rock and disco, for instance — while Hiss Golden Messenger mostly keeps it local, with roots in country-rock, folk and Memphis r&b, but both musicians make their acclaimed music with a pronounced southern flavor. They have plenty in common, and they’re fans of each other’s work, which made for an interesting conversation. The two spoke via Skype while both were on tour — Taylor in Toronto and James in Niagara Falls, New York — and together they delved into the enduring mysteries of how songs are made.

This edition of the Talkhouse Music Podcast features Fred Thomas, longtime mainstay of the beloved, idiosyncratic lo-fi indie-pop band Saturday Looks Good to Me, with musician, motivational speaker, producer, nightclub impresario, advice columnist, and TV and radio host Andrew WK. It's a little-known fact that Mr. Thomas and Mr. WK go back a long way — 20 years, to when they were teenagers in the very weird and wild Ann Arbor, Michigan underground music scene. They're still good friends, and WK even guested on a song on Thomas' debut solo album All Are Saved, which came out this spring. These are two very thoughtful, well spoken and very experienced musicians, and conversation is filled with really great insights about what it's like to be a musician — any kind of musician. This is the kind of thing you won't get in an ordinary interview, so listen closely for an explanation of why your audience is your enemy, a great discussion about the value of criticism, a realistic definition of artistic success, musings on the intersection of life and art, and an attempt to pin down the mysterious miracle of artistic inspiration.

On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, writer-director Allison Anders talks with her mentor, iconic German filmmaker Wim Wenders, on the occasion of Wenders' new touring film series. In their fascinating and wide-ranging conversation, the two old friends talk about a possible sequel to Paris, Texas, why Wenders didn't direct True Detective, how Until the End of the World presciently anticipated everything from GPS to search engines to selfie culture – and also a lot of stuff about music, including how Wenders saved The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by digitally replacing an Elvis song with a copycat track, Wim buying Allison her first iPod, and a discussion of the art of the mixtape. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

This edition of the Talkhouse Music Podcast features two of the more acclaimed new singer-songwriters of 2015: Jessica Pratt and Tobias Jesso, Jr. Both musicians have deep roots in the sounds of the '70s, but two very different sides of the '70s. Jesso's piano-driven debut album Goon evokes superstar '70s singer-songwriters like John Lennon, Carole King, Harry Nilsson and Elton John. But Pratt's latest album On Your Own Love Again channels a very different, much more obscure side of the Me Decade: psychedelic folk from brilliant musicians such as Linda Perhacs and Vashti Bunyan. We put these two together backstage at this summer's Pitchfork Music Festival and they covered a wide range of topics: the recent Brian Wilson bio-pic, the difference between playing solo and with a band, dealing with stage nerves and insecurity, how malfunctioning equipment can be a blessing, the interview tricks journalists try to pull on them and the wonderfulness of the Train song "Drops of Jupiter." Jesso reveals his tricks for playing as few songs as possible in his set. Pratt recounts a synopsis of the film she has seen more times than any other: The Brave Little Toaster (1987), which prompts our guests to wrestle with a most vexing question: "How weird is it for a blanket to be chasing a kid through a forest?"

“Transsexuals are the stormtroopers of the future.” So says Genesis P-Orridge, the iconic, visionary musician who has fronted influential bands like Psychic TV and Throbbing Gristle. While P-Orridge isn’t transgender — they* call themselves a pandrogyne — their partner in this Talkhouse Music Podcast, Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace, came out as transgender in 2012. Still, as P-Orridge points out, both musicians have done something very brave: they’ve transitioned, in one way or another, in front of their audience. And it was P-Orridge who paved the way. As Grace says here, “Someone like yourself is so important to me.” P-Orridge and Grace might hail from different generations, countries and musical communities, but they found plenty to talk about: what it was like to transition in public, the mind-body duality, paranormal phenomena, the perennial bathroom problem, the perennnial airport screening problem, courage, death, Caitlyn Jenner, a hilarious exchange about what to wear on stage, dealing with photographers who want you to show your boobs, and what P-Orridge calls “a gradual shift in the way that gender and sexuality are perceived in our species.” This is one of the more fascinating and potentially visionary exchanges we’ve ever had on the Talkhouse Podcast. It’s also one of the more risqué, so if you’re easily offended, maybe you’ll want to check out one of our other podcasts. * A word about pronouns: P-Orridge call themselves “we” because they feel at one with their late wife Lady Jaye. Much more about that in the podcast.

Dan Zanes has long been one of the biggest names in the still-exploding genre of so-called "kindie-rock" — music made especially for kids. As the leader of the Grammy-winning Dan Zanes and Friends, he’s made over a dozen hugely popular and acclaimed albums and played concerts for adoring audiences all over the world. And Bill Sherman has not only won a Tony, a Grammy and an Emmmy, he's the music director of the iconic children's show Sesame Street. As a songwriter and orchestrator, he's responsible for the music you hear on the show, and works with the many musicians who drop in and sing: stars like Janelle Monae, Ed Sheeran and Will-I-Am, and many others. But perhaps more impressively, Sherman is one of the driving forces behind such magnum opuses as "Glory of Cookies," "Grover Can Do It All" and "Guacamole: the Musical." In the mid to late ‘80s, Zanes led the scrappy and beloved New England roots-rock band the Del Fuegos. Here, Zanes talks about how he went from playing in a rock band that, as Spinal Tap keyboardist Viv Savage once put it, had a good time all the time to making wholesome music for kids, and how it helped him rediscover what he loved about making music in the first place. Sherman discusses how Sesame Street music is made — with a lot of care, for starters — and what it's like to work with the many stars who drop by the show… and lots of other stuff you've probably wondered about music at Sesame Street. So these guys certainly had a lot of interesting things to say about making music for children, but they also had a lot of interesting things to say about making any kind of music. Like, why — and how — do you make music in the first place? A note to parents: while the music these guys make is rated G, some of the language here is definitely PG.

On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, acclaimed English composers Geoff Barrow (Ex Machina) of Portishead fame, and Clint Mansell (Noah, Black Swan) discuss their creative processes, working with filmmakers, Ennio Morricone's low­ opinion of modern composers, the questionable quality of most films today, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Lower Dens leader Jana Hunter is a frequent Talkhouse contributor and a fine writer — in April of 2015, she wrote a widely read piece for Cosmopolitan titled "What It's Like to Be a Female Musician When You Don't Identify as a Woman." And Perfume Genius, aka Mike Hadreas, has said he's pretty fluid with gender too. But that was only one reason why we invited these two to sit down and chat for the Talkhouse Music Podcast. Lower Dens and Perfume Genius make some of the most interestingly beautiful music around, and Hunter and Hadreas are two intriguing, well spoken people. Sure, they talked about "gay/gender stuff" but they also just related as musicians — and talked candidly about inspiration, how to conduct yourself on stage, the perils of social media and dealing with hate mail. And they related as people too — they talk about dealing with email, the awesomeness of Rihanna, their methods for quitting smoking and why Clark Kent is hot. Hadreas and Hunter had met only briefly once before, but they're fans of each other's music, and when they sat down at the Talkhouse Music mikes, they hit it off immediately — in fact, almost from the start these two very thoughtful people were giggling like teenagers. They do have one big difference, though: Hadreas believes in everything, but Hunter doesn't believe in anything.

On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Gayby's writer­-director Jonathan Lisecki talks about the best new TV show of the summer, UnREAL, with Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, its co-­creator, writer and supervising producer. The pair discuss Shapiro's background, her inspirations, how she turned an award­-winning short film into a hit TV show in record time, getting over "the Lifetime of it all," and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

In the late '70s, Andy Gill and Jon Langford were schoolmates at the University of Leeds in England. That was where Andy co-founded a band called Gang of Four and Jon helped start a band called the Mekons. Those bands went on to great things, such as helping to invent post-punk — and becoming iconic bands in the process. The Mekons are possibly the longest-running and certainly the most beloved post-punk band. Their music has encompassed punk rock, country music and dub reggae, and they've released a long string of truly great albums like Fear and Whiskey (1985) and The Mekons Rock & Roll (1989). Their history, their music and their perseverance through thick and thin, not to mention their sense of humor, are showcased in the 2015 documentary Revenge of the Mekons. In the late '70s and early '80s, Gang of Four made some classic albums of life-changing, canonical Neo-Marxist post-punk, like Entertainment (1979), Solid Gold (1981) and Songs of the Free (1982). They've influenced everybody from Rage Against the Machine to St. Vincent. With Andy Gill as the sole remaining original member, they released an album in 2015 called What Happens Next. Here, these two smart musicians and old friends recall their common roots, trace the evolution of the concept of punk rock as it traveled north through England, and how it inspired their respective bands. Punk's chief message, according to these guys: "You can really go anywhere you want with it."

On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Joe Swanberg becomes the first person to make a return appearance, here talking to Kris Swanberg, his wife and the writer-director of the recently released Unexpected. In a really frank and revealing conversation, they discuss the Sundance experience, selling a film, finding the right distributor, dealing with agents, taking meetings, shaping a career, and the challenges of being in a two-filmmaker household. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

You might think that Chicago rapper Vic Mensa and Samuel Herring, the frontman of Baltimore synth-pop band Future Islands, don't have much in common. But you'd be wrong. And it's not because Mensa used to rap in a rock band and Herring has been a hip-hop fan since he was a kid. And it's not because Mensa is a fan of the Beatles and Nirvana, and Herring is about to drop a hip-hop EP he recorded with Stones Throw producer Madlib. No, it's because Mensa and Herring are both musicians and they enjoy each other's work. So these guys, who had never met before, hit it off right away when they sat down at the Talkhouse Music microphones backstage at the 2015 Pitchfork Music Festival. In less than 30 minutes, they cover a whole lot of ground: their previous lives as shoplifters, music biz economics, compromising your youthful ideals, going to church, the ghettoes of Baltimore, the U.S. legal system and their mutual disappointment with the Obama presidency. And Herring even reveals the inspiration for his trademark sidestepping dance move!

Chvrches was playing a great set at the 2015 Pitchfork Music Festival when we noticed all three members of Haim rocking out by the side of the stage. Clearly, they're big Chvrches fans. When our producer bumped into Este Haim in the VIP area, he asked if she'd like to do a podcast with Lauren Mayberry, Chvrches' lead singer (and a regular Talkhouse writer). She absolutely did. Then Danielle Haim wanted in. And then Alana Haim wanted in too. So we wound up with Lauren chatting with all three Haim sisters in a noisy trailer right there on the festival grounds. Topics covered: how to deal with getting hit in the face with a beachball in front of thousands of people, mesmerizing Afros, panic-vomiting, forgetting lyrics on stage and, most importantly, how to pronounce GIF.

On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, writer­director Mary Harron sits down with Rose McGowan, the actress turned director who last year moved behind the camera for the acclaimed Sundance short, Dawn. Their wide­ranging discussion touches on everything from punk, religious cults and pyromania to Harron's experiences making American Psycho, McGowan's past as a teenage runaway and the ingrained sexism of Hollywood. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Belle & Sebastian co-founder Stuart David is the author of the critically acclaimed In the All-Night Café: A Memoir of Belle and Sebastian's Formative Year, which came out this year, and the Pogues' longtime accordionist James Fearnley is the author of the candid, vivid and appropriately rip-roaring Here Comes Everybody: The Story of the Pogues (2012). The two author-musicians discuss the tricky matter of writing about your bandmates, the vagaries of memory and taking out the bits that make you look like a knobhead. And there might just be an anecdote or two.

If you’re a pop musician of South Asian descent, not many like you have yet reached the toppermost of the poppermost. Some really famous ones include M.I.A., Norah Jones and Tony Kanal from No Doubt. Soundgarden lead guitarist Kim Thayil, whose folks came from India, was among the first. As a kid, acclaimed new singer-songwriter Bhi Bhiman, whose family emigrated from Sri Lanka, looked to Thayil as something of a role model. Which was wise, because Thayil is one of the brightest, coolest rock musicians one could hope to meet. Now Bhiman and Thayil aren’t just mutual fans, they’re also friends. We put them together at KEXP’s studios in Seattle for a Talkhouse Music Podcast, and sure, they talked about being self-described “outsiders in rock & roll,” but they talked about a lot of other interesting things, too: their musical backstories, ruminations on the nature of pleasure and pain, the role of baseball in assimilation, their first guitars, the Chi-Lites, Nirvana’s nickname for Thayil, dealing with fans and, perhaps most important of all, the meaning of the word “epistemological.”

In this episode of The Talkhouse Music Podcast, two great rock songwriters, Courtney Barnett and Kim Deal — of iconic alt-rockers the Breeders — get together, have a few laughs and talk about hearing the sound of your own voice, obsessing in the studio, the relationship between drugs and creativity, touring and seeing the world, what it's like to be 27, and playing guitar upside down. Don't miss Kim's imitations of English people speaking French. And she just may have come up with the title of Courtney's next album.

In this episode of the Talkhouse Music Podcast, Philip Selway (Radiohead drummer and outstanding solo artist) has a really lovely conversation with one of his favorite new musicians, Ghostpoet, who weds vivid poetry with flowing grooves. (Offstage, he's Obaro Ejimiwe, and he happens to be a big Radiohead fan.) The two had never met before, but you can hear them hit it off, as they get deep into their processes in a really candid and insightful way, and get to places that only two musicians can get. Selway has some really great reminiscences about the dawning days of Radiohead, and Ejimiwe has some really great reminiscences about the dawning days of Ghostpoet, and they talk about music theory vs. intuition, collaboration, self-doubt, the dangers and benefits of reading your own press, and much more. Although they make very different kinds of music, by the end, Selway declares, "We've got similarly wired brains."

In this episode of the Talkhouse Music Podcast, Philip Selway (Radiohead drummer and outstanding solo artist) has a really lovely conversation with one of his favorite new musicians, Ghostpoet, who weds vivid poetry with flowing grooves. (Offstage, he's Obaro Ejimiwe, and he happens to be a big Radiohead fan.) The two had never met before, but you can hear them hit it off, as they get deep into their processes in a really candid and insightful way, and get to places that only two musicians can get. Selway has some really great reminiscences about the dawning days of Radiohead, and Ejimiwe has some really great reminiscences about the dawning days of Ghostpoet, and they talk about music theory vs. intuition, collaboration, self-doubt, the dangers and benefits of reading your own press, and much more. Although they make very different kinds of music, by the end, Selway declares, "We've got similarly wired brains."

Erika Wennerstrom sings and plays guitar and keyboards with the great Heartless Bastards, whose new album Restless Ones came out June 15th. Her band has threads of garage rock, blues and country — and the music of the great Texan singer-songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard shares some of those same sounds. Wennerstrom and Hubbard are also fans of each other’s music, so we put them together for a Talkhouse Music Podcast and they dug deep into their songwriting process and had some laughs… and maybe a cry too.

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Matthew E. White and Delta Spirit lead singer Matt Vasquez had never met before they recorded this Talkhouse Music Podcast, but they just fell right into a great conversation, and they covered a whole lot of ground: their path into a career in music, the new music industry, the future of music, why they are musicians, and why and how they do what they do, and who is the greatest American rock & roll band.

In the second part of their conversation for the Talkhouse Music Podcast, Janet Weiss discusses her talent crush on Nick Cave and Meredith Graves talks about making music as a solo artist.

In this edition of the Talkhouse Music Podcast, Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney and Meredith Graves, formerly of Perfect Pussy, talk about creating safe spaces for women to feel empowered, crashing with your fans, and fist fights.

Big-time Gang of Four fan Annie Clark (St. Vincent) talks with the band’s guitarist Andy Gill about distortion pedals, soccer tricks and the Grateful Dead.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, husband-and-wife filmmaking team (and regular Talkhouse Film contributors) Lawrence Michael Levine and Sophia Takal discuss with Hollywood screenwriter Larry Karaszewski their Brooklyn-set screwball comedy Wild Canaries, plus the art of writing dialogue, acting in your own movies, mysteries, the movies of Milos Forman and Blake Edwards, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Daniel Schechter, the writer/director of Life of Crime and also a Talkhouse Film regular, is in conversation with actor/writer/director Desiree Akhavan about her debut feature Appropriate Behavior, plus women in film, bad actors, "director jail," finding your voice, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, legendary actresses Isabelle Huppert and Kim Cattrall -- who first met on the set of Otto Preminger's 1975 suspense drama Rosebud -- look back on their friendship and discuss such topics as achieving longevity in their careers, Sex and the City, Cattrall's new TV series Sensitive Skin, and the joys of producing. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, two Academy Award-winning filmmakers are in conversation as Errol Morris talks with James Marsh about his new Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything, plus Morris' own Hawking film, A Brief History of Time, Frederick Wiseman, cinematic misanthropy, Ed Gein, beating Donald Rumsfeld with a brick, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On this week's episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, James Marsh — the Oscar-winning director of Man on Wire and a regular Talkhouse Film contributor — sits down with Laura Poitras to discuss her gripping and revelatory Edward Snowden doc, CITIZENFOUR. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Joshua Marston, the director of the Oscar-nominated Maria Full of Grace, talks with his longtime friend Jesse Moss about Moss' surprising and compelling Sundance documentary hit The Overnighters, a portrait of a smalltown priest in North Dakota who houses incoming oil workers in his church. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Music podcast, Merrill Garbus from Tune-Yards talks with the iconic performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson. By turns funny and poignant, and always insightful, the conversation between these two affable powerhouses ranges from coping with sudden fame, "the art police," the healing power of puppetry, their upcoming projects, dehydrated kale bars, nutritional pantyhose and… hotel hotdogs. For more musicians talking music, visit Talkhouse Music at thetalkhouse.com/music.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Gareth Evans, director of the awesome martial arts thrillers The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2, talks with fellow fan favorite Ben Wheatley (Kill List, A Field in England), with their wide-ranging conversation touching on everything from fight choreography and their upcoming projects to musicals and gonzo filmmaking. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

This week on the Talkhouse Film podcast, Savage Steve Holland, writer-director of the classic '80s movies Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer, talks with filmmaker (and Talkhouse Film contributor) Michael Tully about Ping Pong Summer, Tully's heartfelt homage to '80s teen movies. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Rian Johnson, the writer-director Brick and Looper, talks with Terry Gilliam on the occasion of the U.S. theatrical release of Gilliam's new movie, The Zero Theorem. In the concluding part of their two-part conversation for the Talkhouse Film podcast, Johnson and Gilliam touch on such disparate subjects as piracy, directing opera, Star Wars, magic, the horror of nature and Gilliam's long-delayed Don Quixote project. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Rian Johnson, the writer-director Brick and Looper, talks with Terry Gilliam on the occasion of the U.S. theatrical release of Gilliam's new movie, The Zero Theorem. In the first part of a two-part conversation for the Talkhouse Film podcast, Johnson and Gilliam discuss topics ranging from modern movie-watching and the perils of social media to Stars Wars Episode VIII, which Johnson is to write and direct. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

The latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast was recorded earlier this summer at the Sundance Resort, where the Sundance Screenwriters Lab took place. In conversation are lab mentor Scott Z. Burns, a regular collaborator with Stephen Soderbergh, and lab fellow Oorlagh George, who won an Oscar for producing her father Terry George's 2012 short The Shore, as they share stories from trenches, screenwriting wisdom — and a very memorable Bob Dylan story. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

The latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast features a conversation between writer-directors Stacie Passon (Concussion) and Ira Sachs, whose film about two men who finally marry after 39 years, Love is Strange, is released this week. The two friends and fellow filmmakers discuss full frontal nudity, how to get great performances, and the necessity of being a "hustler" in indie film. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

Recorded at a live event at DCTV, the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast features Tracy Droz Tragos, one of the directors of Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary Rich Hill (now on general release), in conversation with After Tiller's Martha Shane. The two talk about the more personal aspects of non-fiction filmmaking, such as the art of co-directing (with your cousin!), building trust with subjects and how relationships shift after production has ended. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

In the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Robert Altman's frequent collaborator (and also one of the most interesting leading men in Hollywood history) Elliott Gould talks with Robert Downey, the legendary director of such cult comedies as Putney Swope and Greaser's Palace. To mark the premiere of the new documentary Altman, the two raconteurs not only discuss Altman and his movies, but also aging, marriage, baseball and the state of the world, and tell stories involving Warren Beatty, Francis Ford Coppola and Groucho Marx. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

In the latest Talkhouse Film podcast, I Origins writer-director Mike Cahill and True Detective director Cary Fukunaga are in conversation. Cahill makes emotionally acute sci-fi movies that ask big cosmic questions, while Fukunaga's work is darker and grounded in an often bleak reality; although their filmmaking styles couldn't be more different, the two have been good friends for years. Their wonderfully wide-ranging conversation here takes in everything from science to storytelling, with some gripping real-life stories of ghosts and the unexplained in there too. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

In the first ever Talkhouse Film podcast, we bring together in conversation two pivotal figures from the recent American independent film scene: erstwhile "mumblecore" ringleader Joe Swanberg (Happy Christmas, Drinking Buddies) and Hal Hartley (Amateur, Simple Men), one of the smartest, wittiest directors to emerge in the '90s. Over the course of their conversation, they discuss everything from film vs. digital and the changing landscape of the indie scene to the growing prominence of television and the role that technology plays in their lives, for better or worse. It's the kind of conversation that only two filmmakers could have. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film at talkhouse.com/film.

In the new Talkhouse Music podcast, underground art-hardcore-metal meets classic '80s hair metal: Liam Wilson of the Dillinger Escape Plan chats with Kip Winger of Winger. They're two very different musicians from two very different generations, but they find plenty of common ground: how to deal with being pigeonholed, how to be a mature band and still be exciting, great stories about how their bands started, and Liam introduces Kip to the concept of math metal. It's a conversation that only two musicians could have. And for more musicians talking music, visit Talkhouse music at music.thetalkhouse.com

In today's Talkhouse Music podcast, the Black Keys' drummer Patrick Carney speaks with Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney, Portlandia) and over the course of a fascinating 49-minute conversation, the two veteran musicians cover a whole lot of ground: working with Danger Mouse on the Black Keys' new, #1 album Turn Blue, withstanding the haters, the dark side of social media, the Black Keys' internal chemistry, surviving fame, and what it’s like to wing it in front of 35,000 fans. It's a candid and insightful exchange that only two musicians could have.

In this podcast from the acclaimed music site the Talkhouse, Hamilton Leithauser, formerly the lead singer of the Walkmen, talks with Carrie Brownstein (Wild Flag, Sleater-Kinney, Portlandia) not just about Leithauser's outstanding new album Black Hours and the joys of going solo, but also lame horn sections, working with Rostam from Vampire Weekend, singing when your voice is shot, and people eating hotdogs while they watch you play. There’s even a preview of Leithauser’s hilarious upcoming Talkhouse piece about bodily injury. It’s fascinating, witty and revealing conversation that only two veteran musicians could have.