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!