Musician and writer Warren Zanes about his personal journey, his thoughts on stardom, work, The Beach Boys, family, addiction, songwriting, betrayal, college towns, fatherhood, Taylor Swift, working with machines, The Kinks, drummers, Booker T. and the M.G.s, Garth Brooks, artificial intelligence, Joseph Campbell, and his book Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.
Read MoreSinger songwriter Prateek Kuhad on his journey from economics grad student at NYU to superstar songwriter (he is one of the most popular singer songwriters in India), the differences between writing in English and Hindi, the universality of romance music, and how no one was more surprised by his success than him.
Read MoreFor the fifth consecutive year I interviewed my father on his birthday. This year he’s turning 80 and I surprised him with reflections and anecdotes by friends and colleagues from throughout his career, including Jeff Greenfield, Boz Scaggs, Jann Wenner, Michael Cuscuna, Glyn Johns, Phil Upchurch, Georgie Fame, Gil Goldstein, Janis Siegel, Jorge Drexler and many more!
Read MoreSinger, songwriter and pianist Laila Biali on her career, what it’s like being married to her closest collaborator, motherhood, loyalty, leaving New York to return to her native Canada, leaning into limitations, and how the pandemic led her to renew her “vows to music.”
Read MoreMulti instrumentalist singer-songwriter Theo Katzman (known for his work with the funk band Vulfpeck) bought a van from a teenager in California and drove across the country, settling in the woods of Michigan where he set up a studio, started a label, and got down to the business of writing a new record.
Along the way, he discovered the Wim Hof breathing and ice bathing techniques and came out with a transformed idea of “the self” and his own motivations, and decided that he wanted to make records with as few technological interventions as possible.
The result of this journey is his latest record Be The Wheel which he released recently on his 10 Good Songs label. Here he talks about the process of making that record, as well as thoughts on artificial intelligence, psilocybin, social media, touring, and honesty in songwriting.
Read MoreSinger-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman on a life in songs, processing grief and loss through music (and making music through grief), the stories behind many of her hit songs, and her philosophy of creativity and craft, including what it means to “write from the center of your truth,” channeling humanity’s “collective wisdom” and what it means to have “investment without attachment” in songwriting.
Read MoreSinger Samara Joy on her “fast but authentic” success, where she came from, how she got here, and where she thinks she might be going next. And - she does it all while sitting on the curb in the parking lot behind her hotel in Palm Springs, California.
Read MoreProducer Daniel Lanois on his early development in Canada and how it influenced his work, his ongoing creative relationship with Brian Eno, why he likes to travel for work, his attraction to melancholy, projects with U2, Peter Gabriel, Brian Blade, Brian Eno, Rick James (yes, Rick James), Neil Young, Terence Malick, when to use the word “we”, the importance of silence, reconnecting with innocence, his production technique of turning “garnishing into a devotion” and why “contemporary work has more to do with vision” than with technology.
Read MoreSinger songwriter Michelle Willis on how she thinks about her music and her career, how working extensively with David Crosby has affected her, how collaborating with Becca Stevens, Mike League, Louis Cato have informed her journey, what the process of working with producer Fab Dupont was like, her childhood in Canada, her songwriting process, imposter syndrome, getting the right “blend”, the job of the songwriter, reading poetry, and whether or not it’s okay to be comfortable.
Read MoreVocalist Lauren Henderson on growing up one of the few people of color in a small New England town, playing varsity Field hockey, deciding to become a jazz singer, discovering her latin roots, managing her mental health, what she learned in business school, working with Sullivan Fortner, how to book a tour, embracing imperfection, and managing her online identity.
Read MoreKeyboardist/singer/producer Jake Sherman on his love of the hammond organ and Weird Al Yankovic, surrealist comedy, finding his lane, learning to sing, what he learned from Dr. Lonnie Smith, why LA is too sunny, making friends with social media, and why he keeps saying ladies’ names in his songs.
Read MoreTrumpet player and singer Benny Benack III on “the relentless commitment of playing trumpet”, the value of stagecraft, jam session etiquette, keeping old songs fresh, why he’s sometimes accused of being “too entertaining”, how come he takes his trumpet on dates, and what he calls “the elephant in the room.”
Read MoreGrammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist producer/composer Tyler Duncan on “just how rich the world sounds”, how producing a project is like “being the surrogate parent” of the music, and how when it comes to making pop music, “You can’t mold yourself to a moving target.” Plus, more Vulfpeck origin stories.
Read MoreMartin Sexton on his new release (2020 Vision), his origin story, the musical journey that he’s been on now for over 30 years, the tension between art and mortgage payments, how "people connect to honesty", The American Dream, and how songs, like produce, grow naturally, as he says it, “out of shit.”
Read MoreMike Errico on his personal story, as well as his new book, Music, Lyrics, and Life: A Field Guide for the Advancing Songwriter. In our talk we considered such questions as “what is a song?”, what is means to make something non trivial and undeniable, the important distinction between how things act versus what they are, the fallacy of Art, the search for timelessness, what is melodic math, and what do Ani DiFranco, The Beatles, Billie Eilish, or McDonalds have to do with any of it.
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Madison McFerrin calls herself a soul singer because she sings the music of the soul. She says “I originally thought I was just going to be an artist who showed up… but if you don’t adjust now you’re going to fall behind. The music industry is changing more rapidly than pretty much any other industry.”
Singer songwriter hairdresser amateur photographer schtick enthusiast Monica Martin talks about discovering her musical talent in her late teens, what it means to be “Wisconsin sober”, the complex and delicate dynamics of her first band Phox, her mental health struggles, why it’s so expensive to be poor, the many ways that she has had to integrate in her life, staying in bed all day, the influence of Fiona Apple and Billie Holiday on her music, working with James Blake, Vulfpeck, Scary Pockets and how being a hairdresser is similar to being a therapist (but much less well paid).
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Singer Antwaun Stanley on walking the line between spiritual and secular music, managing the responsibility to his fans and his own desire to explore, how he sees his career as “one giant experiment” and “a constant process of discovery”, his new EP Ascension, and his experiences singing in Vulfpeck.
For the third year in a row, I talked to my dad, musician/producer/journalist/philosopher Ben Sidran in honor of his birthday. This time he’s turning 78, and we consider the “buddhist roots of jazz”, joy and pain, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, the final recordings of Lester Young’s, saxophonist Willis Jackson’s 1978 album Bar Wars, drummer Nate Smith’s latest record, how you know when you’re old, and the Baal Shem Tov.
Read MoreSinger-composer Michael Mayo on managing his relationship with social media, which he describes as finding the “balance between staying sane and being seen”, the subtle space between practice and performance, live looping, bi erasure, the “syllables discussion” in jazz singing, generational trauma, his new record Bones, discernment, and living a life authentically without labels.
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