A Deeper Listen

Following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Seattle has seen night after night of protests and KEXP DJs have responded by playing music by Black artists—music with a message. One of those DJs is Larry Mizell, Jr., host of Friday night’s "Street Sounds." He reflects on yet another death in the Black community, discusses the power of music to spread a message and shares t...

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Joy Division frontman, Ian Curtis. In just two years, Joy Division recorded three albums worth of material and performed 120 shows. Curtis tragically died by suicide at the age of 23, the night before Joy Division's U.S. tour, leaving behind a wife and a child. Curtis had struggled with epilepsy and depression. KEXP DJ Kevin Cole says Joy Divis...

Seattle Filmmaker, Lynn Shelton died May 16th at the age of 54 from a previously undiagnosed blood disorder. Her breakout movie, 'Humpday' won an award at Sundance Film Festival. She also directed for TV on the shows 'Mad Men,' 'New Girl' and 'Fresh Off the Boat' among others. Even after national acclaim, Shelton stayed in Seattle. Tomo Nakayama is a Seattle musician who appeared in Shelton’...

Moses Sumney is out with the second part of his album, ‘græ.' Sumney, a Ghanaian American, was born in Southern California but spent portions of his childhood in Ghana. He spent the early half of his career in Los Angeles before moving to quiet solitude in Asheville, North Carolina. With different experiences and lives lived across the world, he is not a product of any of these places,...

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down released their fifth full length album, ‘Temple,' on May 15th. Frontwoman Thao Nguyen talks about how her latest album is about coming out to her Vietnamese family and processing her family’s story of war. “It’s about the idea of existing as my full self and that full self is also acknowledging my heritage and who I come from and my culture...

Allen Stone is a soul singer and an actual son of a preacher. He started his music career in Seattle, but now with a wife and child in tow, he’s re-located to eastern Washington. His latest record, 'Building Balance,' was written in his family cabin in his tiny, one-stoplight hometown of Chewelah. KEXP caught up with Stone to talk about his karaoke music tour, having to cancel his album tour...

Seattle’s 30-year-old Re-bar venue announced on May 9th that it will permanently close its location on Howell street in Seattle. The plans are to reopen in the fall of 2021 at a new space in South Seattle, where it’s more affordable. Re-bar owner, Dane Garfield Wilson says Re-bar has been at risk of closure because his building has been for sale for months. He’s also been having...

Seattle’s Parisalexa is out with her first full-length album, '2 REAL.' She’s in her early 20s and is already cowriting songs for other artists in LA and has appeared in NBC’s songwriter show, ‘Songland.' Parisalexa reflects on the lessons she’s learned from the music industry, talks about staying genuine in her songwriting and on social media and about the representa...

Rufus Wainwright was scheduled to release a new album on April 24th, but because of COVID-19, that album release has been moved to July. Part of the reason for the delay is that physical copies of the album couldn’t be pushed out in time. “All the hard copies, the vinyl and the CDs are all locked up in a warehouse,” Wainwright says. He also talks about his recent “Robe Reci...

The Library of Congress is launching a tool this summer that will make its massive audio collection of free to use and reuse works available to DJs, hip hop artists, and others to sample in their music for free. The project is called "Citizen DJ." It’s led by the Library of Congress’ “innovator in residence,” Brian Foo. Foo talks about how the project works and the music he...

Damien Jurado released his 19th (!) album today, titled 'What’s New, Tomboy?' Jurado talks about his songwriting process. He describes songwriting as reading stories from a teleprompter– they just show up in front of him without him fully knowing what they're about. “I just answer the call of the songs that show up in my life,” Jurado says. Jurado also discusses how hi...

Seattle-based band, Deep Sea Diver has been getting creative with their weekly live stream performances on Instagram Live. Each week they give fans a “stem”—a drum beat or guitar riff to play with and create a song out of. The best songs get featured in Deep Sea Diver’s entertaining live stream sessions. Deep Sea Diver even used their own stems from the project to create th...

Laura Marling has been releasing albums since she was 18. Now at the age of 30, she has released her seventh studio album, 'Song For Our Daughter.' Despite the title of the record, Marling admits she isn’t a mother herself.  “The title, ‘Song for our Daughter,’ was clearly a figurative consideration about what it would be like to raise a daughter given the experie...

Lido Pimienta is a Toronto-based, Colombian-born musician who won Canada’s biggest music prize, the Polaris Prize, in 2017. Her latest album, ‘Miss Colombia,' combines cumbia, reggaeton and latin folk with orchestral production and electronic beats.  In this interview, Lido talks about the inspiration for the album, from pageant culture’s racist and nationalist undertones to...

Radiohead guitarist, Ed O’Brien talks about his first solo album, EARTH. It was inspired by global travel, music festivals, spirituality, and the words of Walt Whitman and Carl Sagan. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ishmael Butler of the Seattle hip hop duo, Shabazz Palaces takes us on a cosmic journey through his new record, 'The Don of Diamond Dreams.' Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee discusses how her struggle with addiction and codependency influenced her latest record, 'Saint Cloud.' Crutchfield has been sober for two years now, and although sobriety presented new challenges to her songwriting process, the result is her truest and most hopeful record to date. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...

Thundercat’s latest album, 'It Is What It Is,' touches on the loss of rapper and producer Mac Miller who died from a drug overdose in 2018. The album also showcases Thundercat’s profound sense of humor, an underrated feature throughout much of his music. Thundercat discusses the new record and how music and humor can be healing in times of adversity. Read the full interview on KEXP.org...

As part of our Northwest Classics series, KEXP DJ Marco Collins talks with music journalist Charles R. Cross about the legacy of The Postal Service and how the group’s method of producing music remotely is relevant during COVID-19. We also hear Ben Gibbard’s new track, "Life in Quarantine." Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informatio...

Many Seattle-area venues say they can only muster 8-9 weeks of being closed amid coronavirus until they have to shut down permanently. Washington State’s governor has extended shelter in place orders until at least May 4, which will put local venues at about the eight week mark. Even if venues can open on May 4, they won’t have performances ready. Venues often have to book performances...

M. Ward has just released a new album called 'Migration Stories.' He talks about his family's personal story of migration and the other migration stories he's been told or read about along the way that inspired the new record.  Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since the coronavirus pandemic hit, musicians have cancelled their tours and venues have closed indefinitely. This episode explores how musicians and artists are taking their craft online to reach their audience. We report on how Twitch, a platform most known for streaming video games, has become a place for musicians to monetize their livestream performances. Musician Hollis Wong-Wear talks about...

We explore the stories of three musicians who work day jobs to supplement their work as artists. First is Lesli Wood, who fronts the band Skates! As a lawyer by day, she used to have to hide her tattoos and neon hair in court in order to be taken seriously. Then, we meet Mark Arm of the iconic Seattle grunge band, Mudhoney. His day job is stuffing records and managing the warehouse for the record...

Bikini Kill talks about their role in the feminist punk rock, Riot Grrrl movement in the 90s and how some of their songs are still relevant today. Yuuki Matthews of The Shins talks about the side project he’s released called Teardrops. He created the project with the late Richard Swift. Richard Swift was a solo artist, producer and played with The Shins and Black Keys. He died in 2018 from c...

On March 11, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee announced a prohibition on events of more than 250 people and added criteria for events smaller than 250. The owners of Seattle music venues The Royal Room and The Crocodile discuss how this will impact their business and the music scene. Local writer Ijeoma Oluo talks about starting a Go Fund Me campaign to support artists struggling with cancella...