Episodes
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One of the pleasures of putting the Talkhouse Podcast together is that the guests often leave their promotional hats at home and just dig into conversations about life, and that’s definitely what happened this week with Matty Matheson and Jennifer Castle.
Matty Matheson you’ll surely recognize either as a superstar chef and restaurateur who appeared on a bunch of VICE shows way back when—or if not that then as a star and consultant on the hit TV show The Bear, where he plays the sublimely ridiculous Neil Fak. Matheson has lived several lifetimes, building a reputation as a wild partier in his youth, which eventually led to a heart attack at just 29—that’s touched on briefly in this conversation. He’s also authored a bunch of super down-to-earth cookbooks, including the great new Soups, Salads, Sandwiches—you can guess what that one covers.
Matheson’s connection to singer-songwriter Jennifer Castle goes way, way back. They met working in Toronto restaurants and became good friends over the years: Castle sang at Matty’s wedding and she was a doula at the birth of his first child, a topic that comes up in this chat. Castle has been making music for the past 20 or so years, first under the name Castlemusic but more recently under her own name. Don’t let the gentleness of her indie-folk fool you; there’s a lot that cuts deep in her songs. Speaking of those songs, one of the songs from her latest album Camelot was featured in season three of The Bear—a great way for Matheson to help get the word out on the person he calls the greatest Canadian singer-songwriter ever. Check out “Blowing Kisses” right here.
In this lovely conversation, Castle and Matheson talk about how music and food can both bring people together, but they get really excited talking about two other natural pursuits: childbirth and farming. (Matheson co-owns a farm called Blue Goose that you’ll hear a bit about.) Matheson talks a bit about his family and his current book tour, and Castle shows off a touching gift that Matheson gave her many years ago. Enjoy.
0:00 – Intro
2:09 – Conversation starts
2:59 – Matty’s airport adventures
6:12 – “Eat little shrimps!”
8:10 – Matty loves Jennifer’s music, as you’ll see
12:10 – Matty gets melancholy about their shared Toronto past
21:25 – The birth of children and the birth of Blue Goose
36:58 – Living the creative life
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Matty Matheson and Jennifer Castle 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!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse
Find more illuminating podcasts on the Talkhouse Podcast Network.
Visit talkhouse.com to read essays, reviews, and more.
Follow @talkhouse on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter (X), Threads, and Facebook. -
On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of performers—and also friends—who recently collaborated on a great single: Suki Waterhouse and Ashe.
Waterhouse came into the public eye as a model and later an actress, but she’s always had a passion for music: As you’ll hear in this chat, she started recording songs before she had any notion that they might end up out in the world. Her slightly subdued Sub Pop debut came out in 2022, after which she had a sort of unexpected viral hit with an older song called “Good Looking.” A second album, the more upbeat Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, came out just a few months ago, and she’s been on tour behind it while also juggling new motherhood. In fact, she Zoomed into this conversation while visiting her movie-star dude in Boston before heading out to play more shows. (You can Google the boyfriend if you must know.)
The other half of today’s conversation is Ashe, a Nashville-based songwriter who had a pretty big hit with her 2019 song “Moral of the Story” and another a couple of years later with Finneas, “Till Forever Falls Apart.” But the grind of success forced Ashe to hit the brakes on her career for a bit in order to regroup and hang on to her sanity. But a collaboration with Waterhouse lit the spark for Ashe once again, and she came back this year with a great record called Willson—and retook the stage to perform their song, “Pushing Daisies” at the Greek Theater. Check out that song right here.
In this lively chat, Waterhouse and Ashe talk about the intensity of performing live in front of thousands of people, about how Suki is having fun playing the more lively songs from her new record, and about the need to not overschedule yourself, even when the pressure is on. Enjoy.
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Suki Waterhouse and Ashe 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!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse
Find more illuminating podcasts on the Talkhouse Podcast Network.
Visit talkhouse.com to read essays, reviews, and more.
Follow @talkhouse on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter (X), Threads, and Facebook. -
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Rising singer-songwriter Andrea Cruz shares how she fell in love with folk music as a young girl in Aibonito. We hear about how the plants, birds and animals of Puerto Rico have shaped the fabric of her work, and the profound ways in which her art connects her to the island she calls home. Hollywood film director Miguel Arteta recalls his colorful childhood in Río Piedras, shares the Puerto Rican role model who inspired him to pursue a creative career, and teases his upcoming project, which is set on the island of birth.
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Oscar-nominated screenwriter and playwright José Rivera shares with us his rich memories, both old and new, of his time in Puerto Rico: of spiders, thunderstorms and a deep sense of community in his childhood town of Espino. We hear about the joy of watching one of his plays performed in Santurce alongside the family members who inspired it, and how the island has been a constant source of inspiration that has enriched so much of his work.
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The Río Piedras-based comedy band Los Rivera Destino talk about their musical childhoods, how making a music video in Bayamón changed their lives and careers forever, and the extremely unlikely place that has become their source of inspiration. Award-winning author Jaquira Díaz shares how salsa, bacalaítos and coquís defined her time growing up in the east coast towns of Humacoa and Fajardo. We also hear the wild story her grandmother told about aliens in El Yunque, and Jaquira describes the incredible sense of adventure she feels every time she explores the island.
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Legendary actress, singer, dancer and EGOT winner Rita Moreno shares memories of sugar cane, coquís and parrandas during her idyllic childhood in Humacao and Juncos. We hear about her recent trips back with Lin-Manuel Miranda, and how she almost turned down West Side Story because of her loyalty to the island. Dub star innovator Pachy García (aka Pachyman) opens up about growing up in Guaynabo’s vibrant reggae scene, the integral role Puerto Rico plays in his music now that he lives in Los Angeles, and the “unmistakable breeze” that greets him every time he comes back home to the island.
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On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got two guys with more than a hundred years of music-making experience between them and the endless stories to match: Tucker Zimmerman and Tony Visconti.
You’ll be forgiven if you don’t recognize Tucker Zimmerman’s name: The songwriter existed on the fringes of the folk scene in the late 1960s but in spite of acclaim from fellow musicians—including David Bowie, as you’ll hear—he never broke out. That may be because Zimmerman left America for Belgium, where he’s continued to quietly create music and write for the past 40 years. But you can only keep a secret like Zimmerman for so long, and Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker happened to hear one of his records a couple of year ago and was inspired enough that one thing led to another and Big Thief ended up creating an entire record with Zimmerman called Dance of Love, which came out earlier this year. It’s an odd, beautiful collaboration that’s well worth checking out. In fact, check out “Burial At Sea” from Dance of Love right here; it features Lenker and Zimmerman’s voices together.
The other half of today’s conversation is a legendary musician and producer who also had a lot to do with bringing Tucker Zimmerman into the public consciousness. Tony Visconti is best known for his many, many collaborations with David Bowie, with whom he worked closely over Bowie’s entire career. Visconti has also produced records for T. Rex, Morrissey, Sparks, and way more others than I have time to list here. But for purposes of this conversation, we need to note that he helped created Zimmerman’s Ten Songs album back in 1968, which they get into in this chat. They’ve stayed in touch over the years, and you’ll hear the affection in their voices. Speaking of voices, the third person who pops up briefly in this chat is Tucker’s wife Marie Claire, who also appears on the cover of Dance of Love and contributes some vocals.
Elsewhere in this conversation, Tucker and Tony talk about their early adventures together, include an acid trip facilitated by a guy named Dr. Sam. They chat about Bowie, of course, and Tucker gets a chance to thank Tony for helping him out over the years—and how he’s glad Tony didn’t agree to produce an ABBA record when he had the chance. Enjoy.
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Tucker Zimmerman and Tony Visconti for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and be sure to 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!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse
Find more illuminating podcasts on the Talkhouse Podcast Network.
Visit talkhouse.com to read essays, reviews, and more.
Follow @talkhouse on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter (X), Threads, and Facebook. -
Narrated by Luis Guzmán, Sound Influence: The Art and Soul of Puerto Rico pairs stories from some of the Island’s most exciting musicians, including Los Rivera Destino, Pachyman, and Andrea Cruz, with major artists outside of music, such as Hollywood film director Miguel Arteta, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jose Rivera, author Jaquira Diaz, and legendary EGOT Rita Moreno. Listeners will get to know Puerto Rico’s incredible towns, cities, beaches, rainforests, mountains, bars, and dance clubs that not only shaped their work but ultimately influenced global culture. Sound Influence: The Art and Soul of Puerto Rico is a production of Talkhouse and Atlas Obscura, presented by Discover Puerto Rico.
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On this week's Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got two of what I’m going to call alt-rock lifers, guys with vast catalogs and the stories to match, who’ve ridden the highs and lows over the years and continue to make fantastic music for dedicated fanbases: John Flansburgh and Matthew Caws.
Flansburgh is half the core of They Might Be Giants, one of the two Johns—along with Linnell—who started making quirky pop records about 40 years ago. They’ve released nearly two dozen albums, wriggling their way into the mainstream on occasion, from “Birdhouse in Your Soul” to the Malcolm in the Middle theme to popular albums aimed at kids. It’s been a remarkable ride that shows no signs of stopping; They MIght Be Giants is still on tour, still making new music, and still seeming to have as much fun as they ever did. Their latest record is called Book—it’s available in many formats including, you guessed it, a giant book—and there are some sparklers on it, including one in particular that the guys talk about in today’s episode. Check out “Brontosaurus.”
The other half of today’s conversation is Matthew Caws, singer and guitarist of the fellow New York band Nada Surf. Nada Surf had a really odd start to what’s turned into a long and fruitful existence. Their first album featured the song “Popular,” which turned into something of a novelty hit / summer anthem back in 1996. It wasn’t particularly representative of the band’s smart, layered pop—which is no knock on “Popular” itself—which confused their record label, Elektra. But after a bit of a slow period, Nada Surf found their way into indie-rock hearts with 2002’s Let Go, and they’ve earned a place in those hearts ever since. The tenth Nada Surf album came out earlier this year, and it’s among their best. It also features a surprisingly high number of more uptempo songs, as Flansburgh mentions in this chat. Check out “Second Skin” from Nada Surf’s newest album Moon Mirror.
In this chat Flansburgh and Caws take a deep dive into the genesis of “Popular,” which Caws had no idea would be a hit but is happy to still play. They also chat about Flansburgh’s love of the new Nada Surf record, both of their time on the same major label in the 1990s, and whether it’s appropriate for a band to take a group bow at the end of a good show. Enjoy.
0:00 – Intro
2:42 – Start of the chat
2:58 – Welcome to Fresh Air
9:45 – The unusual origins of "Popular'
17:45 – Nada Surf's ignoble split with Elektra Records
22:40 – John's theory on Matthew's doubled vocals
32:21 – The ups and downs of sharing your political point of view as a musician
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to John Flansburgh and Matthew Caws 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!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse -
On this week's Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a timely conversation recorded just hours after the presidential election was called, and yes, it was on their minds. It’s frequent Talkhouse alum Julien Baker and her old friend Nick Carpenter, aka. Medium Build.
Baker is a powerhouse singer and songwriter who’s best known these days as one third of the supergroup Boygenius—you’ll hear her refer in this chat to Lucy and Phoebe, her bandmates Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers. But we’ve been fans here since way before that; her amazing debut Sprained Ankle will be 10 years old next year, and she’s built herself an incredible catalog—and fanbase—since. Baker’s last solo album was 2021’s Little Oblivions, and I imagine there’s some new music coming in the not-terribly-distant future. She has loaned her powerful voice to other artists since, though, including her old friend Nick Carpenter’s project Medium Build—his new EP Marietta, out tomorrow, features a duet with Baker called “Yoke,” check out that song right here.
Carpenter, who’s based in Alaska, has made five full-lengths as Medium Build, and his deeply personal songs strike a chord in the same way that Baker’s do: They have similar backgrounds, having grown up queer in religious households in the South. As you’ll hear in this chat, Carpenter explores his background in his music, and his honesty tends to melt audiences that let him in.
I’ll be truthful: I thought these two were going to bail on chatting the morning after the election, and I wouldn’t have blamed them one bit. It doesn’t seem like the cheeriest time in America to be a proud member of a marginalized population. But I was so cheered up by listening to them talk: They’re not psyched, naturally, but they remain undeterred and committed to spreading honesty and love. Sure, there’s some earned cynicism about commercialism and the less pleasant parts of their jobs, but mostly it’s the joy of homies, sincerity, and consensual hugs with your local barista. Enjoy.
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Julien Baker and Nick Carpenter 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!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse -
On this week's Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a special episode recorded live just last weekend in New York featuring two artists that appear on an amazingly ambitious new conceptual compilation album called TRANSA, Asher White and MIZU. The album comes from our friends at the Red Hot organization, was conceptualized largely by Dust Reid and Massima Bell, and features more than 100 artists honoring trans and non-binary artists. There are huge names like Sade, Sam Smith, Andre 3000, indie heroes like Julien Baker and Laura Jane Grace, and incredible up-and-comers like today’s two guests, who worked on separate tracks. The whole thing comes out November 22, and you can pre-order it now. I won’t say much more because former Talkhouse producer Mark Yoshizumi was on hand to introduce Asher and MIZU at the event. Enjoy.
0:00 – Intro
1:39 – Producer Mark Yoshizumi Intro
5:01 – Start of the chat
12:20 – MIZU and Asher's differing musical backgrounds
20:00 – Ad break
22:20 – "The music that I made is aesthetically different than the music I consume"
25:15 – Musical processes
31:37 – The origins of MIZU and Asher's songs on the TRANSA comp
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to MIZU, Asher White, Mark Yoshizumi, and Honey Moon Coffee in Ridgewood. Also thanks to Urosh Jovanovich, who recorded the event, and Myron Kaplan, who produced this episode. The Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse -
A preview of the new season of Santigold's podcast, Noble Champions. Subscribe now.
Episode 1 with John Jennings and Terence Nance dives into Afrofuturism and the power of human imagination in shaping our future. In a time of global uncertainty, art that envisions a better world is essential. Santi sits down with acclaimed graphic novelist, comic book author, illustrator, and professor John Jennings, alongside artist, filmmaker, and musician Terence Nance (creator of HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness) for a rich discussion. Together, they explore the tools of imagination, the role of rituals, the concept of deindustrializing oneself, nonlinear time, and much more. -
Note: This episode originally aired on June 20, 2019.
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.
Episode recorded by Gideon Brower, and recorded and co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook & Fade Studios in Brooklyn.
The Talkhouse Podcast's theme song was composed and performed by The Range.
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse -
On this week's Talkhouse episode we’ve got a pair of talented musicians in a chummy chat about making songs and making a life while making songs. It’s Melina Duterte, aka. Jay Som, and Pascal Stevenson, aka. Fashion Club.
Stevenson just released the second Fashion Club album, A Love You Cannot Shake, but it’s different enough than the first that it almost feels like a debut. That surely has something to do with the fact that it’s the first Fashion Club music since Stevenson’s gender transition; there’s a genre freedom that wasn’t as evident on the first one, which felt a bit closer to Stevenson’s indie-leaning band Moaning. A Love You Cannot Shake clearly honors big pop music but it frequently swerves before giving into any obvious trappings. She found some fantastic guests to add to the sideways fun, too, including Talkhouse Podcast alumni Perfume Genius and Julie Byrne as well as the other half of today’s conversation, Jay Som.
Now Jay Som made a splash with her first couple of bedroom-pop albums in 2015 and 2016, and though she hasn’t released a new album since 2019’s fantastic Anak Ko, she’s been busy nonetheless, both starting some new projects, producing for other musicians, and playing bass for the indie-rock supergroup Boygenius. She’s been working on new material of her own as well, and she had a song on the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed movie I Saw the TV Glow alongside like-minded artists like Caroline Polachek and The Weather Station. And of course there’s her contribution to the Fashion Club record, “Ghost.” Check out that song right here.
In this lively conversation, Stevenson and Duterte chat about songwriting, including Stevenson’s tendency to start with the biggest parts and Duterte’s opinion on what constitutes a “treat” while you’re producing. They tell each other toward the end of the conversation which pop star they’d most like to write for, and we learn that Stevenson’s specialty is what she calls “fucked-up ballads.” Enjoy.
0:00 – Intro
2:20 – Start of the chat
4:45 – On Fashion Club's album, A Love You Cannot Shake
9:20 – Melina loves Pascal's record
13:30 – Contrasting approaches to songwriting
16:36 – "Everyone's a little different when it comes to what I call 'treats'"
31:36 – "Do you think it's easier now to become a producer?"
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Pascal Stevenson and Melina Duterte 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!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse -
I’m gonna call this week’s Talkhouse Podcast a very special episode, since it’s focused on a specific topic and also offers a call to action and hopefully some inspiration for you, the listener. It certainly did that for me, the host guy.
Our guests today are frequent Talkhousers Nick Sanborn and Amelia Meath, better known as Sylvan Esso, along with fellow North Carolina musician Libby Rodenbough, who’s played with a bunch of bands, most notably Mipso. These three share a home state, North Carolina, which as you know was hit hard by Hurricane Helene just a couple of weeks ago. The devastation that hit the western part of the state didn’t seem to get a ton of national media attention, perhaps because Helene was followed so quickly by Hurricane Milton. But as you’ll hear at the beginning of this conversation, parts of North Carolina have been affected in ways that will take years to bounce back from.
Just days after the storm, Rodenbough—along with David Walker and Grayson Haver Currin and lots of others—conceived of a fundraising effort to feature musician friends, many of whom have deep ties to the area. The idea quickly ballooned into a 135-song compilation called Cardinals at the Window, available on Bandcamp and featuring previously unreleased music from huge names like R.E.M., Phish, Jason Isbell, and Sylvan Esso along with tons of other folks, both native to the area and from well beyond. In just over a week, the compilation has raised over $300,000 to provide direct relief to people whose lives have been turned upside-down by the storm. The area will need lots more than that, of course, to get back on its feet, but it’s a heartening reminder that when given the chance to help, people still do, even when folks seem hopelessly divided.
That’s part of the focus of this chat: Meath, Sanborn, and Rodenbough have been out there helping people over the past couple of weeks, and while they’re crushed by the indescribable devastation that towns like Marshall, North Carolina have seen, they’re also heartened by the notion that its people have been quick to lend a hand to their neighbors. I found their actions and this conversation inspiring, and I hope you do, too. You can buy the compilation on Bandcamp or check out cardinalsatthewindow.org and lend a hand that way if you can.
0:00 – Intro
2:17 – Start of the chat
4:21 – For all you listeners out there, here's a summary of what's up.
10:23 – How being a touring musician inspires empathy
20:38 – "I've got a generator, and I've got room."
26:24 – Anarchy, anthropology, and helping each other
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Libby Rodenbough, Amelia Meath, and Nick Sanborn for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and definitely search Cardinals at the Window to see how you can help the people of North Carolina. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse -
We’ve had legends on the Talkhouse Podcast before, but perhaps none quite as legendary as Pete Townshend, who’s in conversation on today’s episode with a younger band he recently worked with, The Wild Things.
It seems a bit silly to offer a short bio of Townshend—after all, you have chosen to listen to a podcast about music, so you’re probably familiar—but here goes: Pete Townshend is the guitarist and primary songwriter of The Who, a band that cracked open the world of rock and roll in the early 1960s and inarguably changed the direction of popular music forever. He’s often credited as the first guitarist to treat feedback as an essential part of his sound, influencing the likes of Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, among many others. And that was all 50 years ago: Townshend has built on the legacy of The Who since, continuing to make music with the only other surviving member, Roger Daltrey, as well as writing books, musicals, and opera. He also keeps his eyes and ears out for new music, even at age 79, which is where the other half of today’s chat comes in.
Two members of the UK band The Wild Things, Sydney Rae White and Rob Kendrick, met Townshend when they were cast in the musical stage production of The Who’s rock opera Quadrophenia. Though she’s spent much of her career acting—you may have seen her in the Netflix series Uncle or the Michael Keaton movie American Assassin—White’s passion seems to be focused at the moment on the band, which also includes her brother Cameron White and drummer Pete Wheeler. When it came time to record new Wild Things music, Townshend offered his help both as a musical ear and a man with a studio, which resulted in the new album Afterglow. Fittingly for a man with Townshend’s history, Afterglow is something of a concept album, which is a big topic of discussion here. Check out “My Heart is in New York” from Afterglow, which features a guest vocal from Townshend.
Townshend and the Wild Things talk about telling stories through your music, about concept albums, about working together to make Afterglow, about trying to connect with people in an overwhelming media world, and much, much more. Enjoy.
0:00 – Intro
2:32 – Start of the chat/the concept behind Afterglow
6:55 – Why Pete wanted to work with The Wild Things
16:06 – "You know, this is a real fucking Rick Rubin conversation!"
21:58 – The advantages to being able to experiment in the studio
29:15 – "The thing about Sid is that she can do fucking anything."
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Pete Townshend and all of the Wild Things for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting service, 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!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse -
On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a great chat between two guys who’d never met before: Steve Marion, aka Delicate Steve, and the one and only Reggie Watts.
Delicate Steve is one of those monikers that describes both a person and a band, though Steve Marion has been the only constant member over the past 15 years or so. His music is largely instrumental, but you don’t miss the singing since his intricate, emotional guitar lines tend to do the work that a vocalist might otherwise do. His latest album is cheekily titled Delicate Steve Sings, and it’s a nod to records like Willie Nelson’s Stardust, mixing original compositions with covers and putting Delicate Steve’s inimitable guitar tone atop them all. Check out “I’ll Be There” from Delicate Steve Sings.
The career of today’s other guest, Reggie Watts, can be tough to describe. He’s part musician, part comedian, I guess, but that doesn’t begin to describe what it’s like to see his performances, which can include jokes, beatboxing, a variety of sampled sounds, and lots of improvisation. You may have seen Watts in his most mainstream role over the past decade as the announcer/bandleader for The Late Late Show With James Corden, where he was able to inject some spontaneity and weirdness into the late-night talk-show genre. His latest special is called Never Mind, and it seeks to warp the comedic spacetime continuum. I won’t spoil it by saying any more than that.
This chat starts with Delicate Steve talking about a mindblowing Reggie Watts performance that he saw recently, and heads into conversation about busting out of genre constraints, finding the brilliance in even the most popular pop, the Kanye West/Delicate Steve collaboration that was then wasn’t, and how there’s no substitute for sincerity. Enjoy.
0:00 – Intro
2:22 – "You are like Jimi Hendrix to me."
12:09 – The dance-music festival that Reggie thinks is the ideal.
17:05 – The Kanye/Delicate Steve collab that wasn't.
29:20 – Art meeting capitalism keeps sincere stuff extra cool
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Steve Marion and Reggie Watts for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please give us a review on your favorite podcasting platform and make sure you 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!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse -
On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a couple of guys who are big parts of hardcore’s current wave: Julian Cashwan Pratt of Show Me The Body and Graham Sayle of High Vis.
Show Me The Body was conceived when Pratt was still in high school in New York City, enamored of the town’s history of aggressive punk—and that music’s propensity for political lyrics. But Show Me The Body, like other current hardcore bands making waves in the past few years, doesn’t stick with the genre’s typical signifiers. For one, Pratt’s primary instrument is banjo, and it’s attached to sounds that draw not only from hardcore’s past, but also electronic blasts of noise and even some hip-hop. Show Me The Body’s latest album is called Trouble The Water, and it’s both tense and intense. It’s a hell of a listen, though the band needs to be seen live to fully experience it.
The other half of today’s conversation is Graham Sayle, whose band High Vis formed in London around 2016, and whose version of hardcore dials in a healthy dose of British post-punk. They’ve been described as a mix of Factory Records and Cro-Mags—that’d be the legendary label that spawned Joy Division and New Order plus the legendary New York hardcore band—which is sort of perfect. There are elements of goth in there as well, but with a smart, sneering energy that’s tough to deny. Show Me The Body and High Vis just started a US tour together, and they collaborated on a song and accompanying video that was just released on an EP called Corpus II EP II. You can find tour dates at showmethebody.com, and check out a little bit of their collaborative track, called “Stomach,” right here.
As hardcore dudes often do, these guys chatted about what hardcore means to them, including that sense of community you can’t get anywhere else. They also talk about how having a child has changed Pratt’s outlook a bit, but how he’s still fired up politically and ready to put it all out there on the stage. Enjoy.
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Julian Cashwan Pratt and Graham Sayle for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please give the Talkhouse Podcast a review on your favorite platform, and don’t forget to 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!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse -
On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of fantastic songwriters in a sweet conversation about craft and life in general: Sima Cunningham and Roberto Lange.
Lange has been making fascinating, lovely music under the name Helado Negro since 2009, mixing breezy indie-rock with electronic sounds, frequently with more than a passing nod to his Ecuadorian roots. His sonic world is always inviting, even as it’s sort of otherworldly, and he often matches those sounds with cool visuals—which is no wonder considering his background in computer art. Earlier this year, Lange released the eighth Helado Negro album; it’s called Phasor, and it’s among his best, mixing tranquil sounds with his searching spirit. You might be lulled and puzzled at the same time, which is a great feeling. Check out the song “Colores del Mar” right here.
The other half of today’s conversation, Sima Cunningham, is best known as half the core of Chicago band Finom, originally known as OHMME. Finom released its Not God earlier this year, and it’s full of unexpected pop turns tied together by the harmony between Cunningham and her longtime musical partner Macie Stewart. But the occasion for today’s conversation is actually Cunningham’s second solo album, just out on Ruination Records. It’s called High Roller, and it explores a more personal side to her songwriter. For example, there’s a great song written for Cunningham’s brother Liam Kazar, himself a musician and one-time Talkhouse Podcast guest as well. Check out “For Liam” right here.
In addition to that song, which Lange points out as a favorite on High Roller, these two chat about Cunningham’s adventures in Ireland, what it’s like to create an on-stage persona and interact with your audience, and how Cunningham’s new album was a 10-year journey that was worth the wait. Enjoy.
0:00 – Intro
2:40 – Start of the chat
5:56 – Sima’s mom is the most punk-rock person in their musical family
14:58 – Roberto on getting to a certain age in music
15:39 – Finding new ways to have a love affair with your audience
22:39 – Sima on figuring out how to be honest and vulnerable with her solo material
29:59 – Sima on playing new Finom songs and trying to figure out where to play solo
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Sima Cunningham and Roberto Lange for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and be sure to 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!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse -
On this week's Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got an absolute legend of a singer-songwriter in conversation with a guy who’s no slouch himself: Lucinda Williams and M. Ward.
Williams has been writing and recording incredible songs since the late 1970s, though she didn’t really break through in a huge way until 1998’s stone classic Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, which garnered her the Best Contemporary Folk Album Grammy—her second Grammy—but also some of the most well-deserved critical accolades of that year. She certainly didn’t rest on those laurels, having released close to a dozen more revered albums since, many of which found themselves also at the Grammy and Americana awards ceremonies—as well as in the hearts of listeners and other songwriters. Last year, Williams released a fantastic memoir about her journey from small-town Louisiana to the music business and beyond. It’s a lovely look at a life well lived called Don’t Tell Anyone the Secrets I Told You.
The other half of today’s conversation is M. Ward, another literate singer-songwriter with a varied career whose music can’t be easily pinned down—he’s been called folk, Americana, and indie-rock, none of which quite do his songs justice. Ward has been making records for 25 years now, and his discography includes not only thoughtful, beautiful solo records, but an entire catalog of albums made with actress Zooey Deschanel under the name She & Him. Ward’s latest is last year’s Supernatural Thing, another set of songs that feel like they exist out of time. Check out “Too Young to Die” from that album right here.
In this conversation, Ward and Williams talk about the time they worked together, when Williams contributed vocals to an M. Ward record back in 2009. Then they get into Williams’ memoir and just scratch the surface on her incredible life and career before the conversation turns to their literary influences and more. Enjoy.
0:00 – Intro
2:33 – Start of the chat
4:30 – Williams on the hard part of writing a memoir
8:13 – Ward reads his favorite passage from Williams' book
12:58 – Williams recalls meeting famous writers as a child
23:50 – "I want to be James Joyce!"
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Lucinda Williams and M. Ward 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!
This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse - Show more
