Beginnings

On today's episode, I talk to journalist and political writer Doug Henwood. Originally from Teaneck, New Jersey, Doug has been writing publicly about politics since he started his newsletter Left Business Observer, which ran from 1986 until 2013. He's also written for Harper's, The Village Voice, Jacobin and is a contributing editor at The Nation. In addition, Doug has written four books: State of...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Colin Meloy. Originally from Helena, Montana, Colin played in a few bands in high school and college before eventually forming The Decemberists in Portland, Oregon at the turn of the century. They released their first album, Castaways and Cutouts a few years later on Kill Rock Stars, who they continued to work with until eventually signing with Capitol Record...

On today's episode, I talk to musicians Maia Sinaiko and Susanna Thomson, the founders and 2/3 of the Bay Area band Sour Widows. Originally meeting and becoming friends at Camp Winnarainbow in their youth, Maia and Susanna formed Sour Widows in 2017, when they found themselves living near one another for the first time. Eventually they invited drummer Max Edelman to join them in the band, and sinc...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Marina Allen. Originally from New Jersey, Marina's moved back and forth across the country a couple times, and now lives in Los Angeles. She began to write music in earnest her late-teens/early-20s, and her first album Candlepower came out in 2021, followed one year later by Centrifics and her latest Eight Pointed Star was just released last week on Fire Reco...

On today's episode, I talk to writer and director Jim Mickle. Originally from Douglassville, PA, Jim studied film at NYU and then worked his way up in the industry, eventually deciding to make his own film in 2006, Mulberry Street, with frequent collaborator Nick Damici. Each film they made got a little more attention: Stake Land, We Are What We Are and Cold In July, which premiered at Sundance an...

On today's episode, I talk to playwright and TV writer Susan Coyne. Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Susan studied intellectual history before pivoting to acting. She acted in several seasons of the Stratford Festival (which was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespeare Festival) and then became a playwright. In the early aughts, Susan - along with Mark McKinney and Bob Martin, created the br...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Jeff Martin. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, Jeff started playing piano when he was but a mere toddler. In 1992, he formed the band Idaho with his high school friend John Berry, though Berry would leave a few years later, making Idaho primarily Jeff's project. The band first signed to Caroline, who released their first three albums and an EP, but with their...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Vicky Nguyen AKA Vicky Farewell. Originally from Garden Grove, CA in Orange County, Vicky has played piano since she was a child and worked as a music writer and producer for a long time, notably with a writing credit on Anderson .Paak's Grammy winning single "Lockdown" and production credits on Paul McCartney'a album McCartney III. But it wasn't until the pa...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Eric Earley. Originally from Salem, Oregon, Eric and his friends formed the band Garmonbozia in the year 2000. Gamonbozia eventually became Blitzen Trapper, and after self-releasing their first few albums, including their breakthrough Wild Mountain Nation, the band signed to Sub Pop. Over the next four years, the label released three albums to acclaim, and si...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Ben Chasny. Born in Los Angeles, Ben's family moved to rural Northern California when he was young. His recording debut was a heavy, free rock project named Plague Lounge, whose album The Wicker Image, was released conjointly between the New World of Sound and Holy Mountain labels in 1996. Holy Mountain released many of Ben's albums as Six Organs of Admittanc...

On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Chris Black. Originally from Toledo, OH, Chris went to USC, which eventually led to him working in television. He started on the USA adaptation of Weird Science, and since then has worked on some of the best shows of the last three decades including Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Invincible, Mad Men, Severance, and a personal favorite of mine, Sliders. Th...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Peyton Pinkerton. Originally from Pleasantville, New York, Peyton formed New Radiant Storm King in 1990 while at Hampshire College. Over the next two decades, the band released nine albums on labels like Grass, Rainbow Quartz and Darla, and in 2010 played their final show. Peyton has also played and toured with Silver Jews, playing on perhaps their best album...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Niko Kapetan AKA one-half of the band Friko. Originally from Evanston, IL, Niko had been writing songs since he was a teenager and formed Friko with his bandmate Bailey Minzenberger in 2019. After self-releasing a number of singles and EPs, the band signed with ATO Records, and in mid-February, ATO released their debut album Where We've Been, Where We Go from...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Rafael Toral. Born in Lisbon in 1967, Rafael has been intrigued by the potential of sound and the functions of music since he was a teenager. Working with electric guitar and electronics, in the 1990's he pioneered a blend of Ambient and Rock and recorded acclaimed albums like Wave Field or Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance. In 2004, he began the a...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Tracyanne Campbell. Originally from Glasgow, Tracyanne founded Camera Obscura in 1996 with John Henderson and Gavin Dunbar. Their first album, Biggest Bluest Hi Fi, came out half a decade later to acclaim, and since then, they've released four other albums on labels like Elefant and 4AD. On May 3rd, Merge Records will release Camera Obscura's latest album Loo...

On today's episode, I talk to musician and home recording pioneer Linda Smith. While Linda had started playing out in New York in the late 1970s, it was really when she returned home to Baltimore that her artistic life blossomed. Starting in the late 1980s, she began recording what is now known as bedroom pop and releasing her albums on cassette. Through word of mouth and distros like K Records, s...

On today's episode, I talk to seven-times New York Times bestselling author and award-winning comic book writer Dan Abnett. Originally from Maidstone, Dan began working in the editorial department of Marvel UK before starting to write his own comics. Dan's CV is too extensive to cover here, but a highlights reel includes his incredible work for 2000 AD, which includes comics such as Sinister Dexte...

On today's episode, I talk to musician and founder of TeenBeat Records Mark Robinson. Originally from New Jersey, Mark moved to Washington DC as a child, and in high school formed the indie rock group Unrest. From 1985 to about 1994, the band released seven albums, many on Robinson's own TeenBeat Records, as well as Caroline and 4AD. Since then, Mark has played in a number of groups including  Air...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Madeline Link. Originally from Calgary, Madeline Link initially started PACKS as a solo project, but it eventually coalesced into its current four-piece configuration. In 2020, they were signed to Fire Talk Records, and the label has since released all four of their albums and EPs. This includes 2021's Take the Cake, 2023's Crispy Crunchy Nothing and their la...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Andrew Kenny. Originally from Fort Worth, Kenny formed The American Analog Set in 1995 and over the next decade, released six albums on labels like Emperor Jones, Tiger Style and Arts & Crafts, after which the band went on hiatus. In 2009, Kenny released the first of two albums as The Wooden Birds, but since 2011's Two Matchsticks, he has been rather quiet. T...

On today's episode, I talk to writer and director Juel Taylor. Originally from Tuskegee, Alabama, Juel at first wanted to design video games, but in college he shifted his focus to filmmaking. He did different jobs in sound while he was waiting to break through, and in 2018, he co-wrote Creed II. Directing gigs on Boomerang and Twenties followed, as well as co-writing Space Jam: A New Legacy in 20...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Avery Hellman AKA ISMAY. Originally from the Bay Area, Avery grew up surrounded by music - their grandfather founded the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival - but didn't think they would pursue making music professionally until a crisis propelled them in that direction. Their first album Songs of Sonoma Mountain was released in 2020, and their latest album Des...

On today's 14th Anniversary episode, I talk to MacArthur Genius Grant-winning author Jonathan Lethem. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Jonathan at first thought he was going to be a visual artist until some existential realizations about class and art in college in the early 1980s left him disillusioned. He dropped out, hitchhiked to California and started writing while he worked as a clerk in...

On today's episode, I talk to composer and artist Arnold Dreyblatt. Originally from New York City, Arnold is part of the second generation of New York minimal composers, having studied with Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young, and Alvin Lucier. His first album Nodal Excitation was released in 1982, and since then, he's recorded almost a dozen more, including 1995's Animal Magnetism, which was release...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Evan Dando. Attending the CommonWealth School in Boston in the early 1980s, Evan met Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz, and in 1986, they formed The Lemonheads. The band released three great albums on Taang!, but it wasn't until after signing to Atlantic and releasing It's a Shame About Ray in 1992 that the band broke through. While there have been numerous ups and...