Ed O’Brien – Radiohead

This spring, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien released a beautiful and soul-stirring album called Blue Morpho, and in this episode, he shares with great depth and candor what inspired the album, his approach to recording it, and the transformative self exploration required to make it. One of the elements of the project was his desire to…More

Genesis Owusu

“Words were always my weapon,” says Genesis Owusu, talking about the love of creative writing he discovered as a child. “Also kind of ironically, conversation wasn’t always my weapon, so I always felt like the truest and rawest and most authentic of myself came out when I was writing stories or poetry. I’ve always loved…More

Corook

Like many of their fans, I discovered ⁠Corook’s⁠ music on ⁠TikTok⁠, and I was immediately charmed by the sweetness and humor and directness of their songs. Honestly, as someone who is newer to using TikTok — I only set up ⁠my page⁠ about a year ago — I’ve been surprised that many artists who are…More

American Football – Mike Kinsella

Talking about his band American Football’s latest return following a long absence, frontman Mike Kinsella invokes the notorious D.B. Cooper, saying, “I feel like we jumped out of a plane with a suitcase of money, except it was old demos, and then we faked our own death. We didn’t know we were faking it, we…More

Kneecap

“⁠Kneecap⁠ was born out of this need to represent the identity of young people who speak Irish in the city, an identity a lot of people around the world wouldn’t know exists,” says MĂłglaĂ­ Bap of Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap. “When I was growing up, you wouldn’t have seen the language on mainstream radio or…More

Arlo Parks

“I just remember being fascinated by language, it felt like this treasure I was discovering,” says ⁠Arlo Parks⁠, of her childhood affinity with words. “I remember being obsessed with the word ‘pebble,’ and the sense of different shapes. Maybe it’s because I learned French before English, so my approach to the English language was quite,…More

Snail Mail – Lindsey Jordan

“When I started going to rock & roll camp once a summer, I definitely always felt like there was a lot to be proven of being like a girl, a small girl,” says Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan. “My whole brain was just this ‘Be better than the boys, I have to in order to be…More

Iron & Wine – Sam Beam

“I had never played a concert until I got a record deal with Sub Pop and they were like, ‘Well, you should consider going on tour,’” says ⁠Iron & Wine⁠‘s Sam Beam. “I was like, ‘Oh shit.’ It’s a very atypical story, and it also made me suffer from a lot of imposter syndrome for…More

Dry Cleaning

“It is important to have faith when you’re making something,” says Florence Shaw, frontwoman for U.K. post-punk band Dry Cleaning, regarding the hyper-specificity of her lyrics and how they can still feel very relatable, even when she’s referencing something unfamiliar. (This, by the way, is one of my favorite things about Dry Cleaning’s music.) “You…More

Sudan Archives

In episode 133, ⁠Sudan Archives⁠‘s Brittney Parks shares the story of her creative evolution, beginning with falling in love with violin when she was in fourth grade (thanks to a school visit by Canadian fiddle group Barrage), how playing in church led to learning songs from the MTV countdown to impress her friends, and eventually…More