LaunchLeft

Join Rain in celebrating River through his music, words and friendships in this special Aleka’s Attic episode featuring conversations with 3 of his closest friends, Flea, Dermot Mulroney & Michael Stipe—all of whom contributed to the recently released single, 𝐴𝐿𝑂𝑁𝐸 𝑈 𝐸𝐿𝑂𝑃𝐸. You’ll get to hear stories of how they came to know River and his music and then through the magic of old press clippings...

Long time friend and left-of-center inspiration Catherine Keener is Rain's special guest this week on LaunchLeft Podcast. With River Phoenix's 50th birthday celebration around the corner, Rain asks Catherine to share memories about her brother and family- the banter between them is comfortable, heartfelt and sometimes silly! A true 'fly on the wall' experience hearing them tease apart a nearly 40...

Local Native’s Kelsey Ayer joins the LaunchLeft conversation with Rain & Summer to discuss music and process. He gives a true sense of the band's long time dedication to each other and how they are able to achieve their special sauce of sound and vision. Don’t miss the quick Q&A with The Angel about her visually stunning video for “Words Like Daggers" (feat Jhelisa) directed by Mark Pellin...

Grammy award winning rapper and producer spends a little time with LaunchLeft on the heels of his debut project “Spectrum”.  This young left-of-center artist is already making his mark in the industry by collaborating with the likes of Ariana Grande and Earthgang.  He shares his unique take the creative process of making music, family and his optimistic perspective on the curre...

Jonah Yano sits down with LaunchLeft to talk about art, music and life as a left-of-center creative born in Japan, residing in Toronto on planet Earth during the time of Covid-19. He talks shop about collaborating with his estranged father through a 20 year old recording. If you haven’t heard Jonah’s soulful and soul-lifting music yet, you should… and you will!  Strap in for Episode 48 o...

Music Producer, drummer, artist and activist are just some of words to describe this enigmatic left-of-center force. Madame Gandhi sits down for a short but pithy conversation about a life in art and how it not only transformed her into a leading female voice in the music industry but created a platform for her to highlight social and political issues. We close the show talking to this week’s laun...

Violin, Viola, Hip Hop and activism - a match made in LaunchLeft heaven! Set in the amber light of Hollywood’s boutique hotel, music studio & dive bar Gold-Diggers, we welcome another group of truly one-of-a-kind, left-of-creatives. We explore Black Violin’s journey from childhood to adulthood through the lens of classical music and uncharted territory. This inspirational discussion covers all...

A week after this conversation was captured at Gold-Diggers in Hollywood, the world went into quarantine. It’s near romantic to hear about life on the road from Phantogram. This street beat, dream-pop duo do not mince words as they unpack their life-long friendship, creative process and the trials and tribulations that have fueled the engine of their creative and activism. They pay it forward and...

Comedy writer and author Bess Kalb joins LaunchLeft for a conversation about her latest, best-selling novel “Nobody Will Tell You This But Me”.  She also gives a vignette of her childhood, her career and what it has been like breaking through as a woman in a male dominated industry. We follow with a Q&A with launched artist Victoria Reed who shares among other things, how the stars a...

Rain and Zach start the conversation on activism in relation to Portugal. The Man advocating for indigenous peoples during their concerts and through their foundation. It centers largely on the topic of personal responsibility and especially for those who identify as white, how to ask ourselves what we can do daily to learn more, humble ourselves and be willing to change deep rooted biases in our...

Songwriter/performer/musician/author and evocative rebel artist Jehnny Beth never stops creating. To her, the artist lives within and must be coaxed into the act of creation through inspiration. She gives a window into her creative process and how it has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Settle in for this intimate and fascinating portrait of one of today’s most ground-breaking artist. See omn...

In early 2020 before Covid-19 found us inside for months and before we hit the streets in protest to mourn the deaths of innocent Black men & women calling out racist cops and to shine a bright light on systemic racism, LaunchLeft sat down with the self identified “Queer Pop” band MUNA at Gold Diggers to talk about their music and activism. They shared about their writing process, Black Lives...

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne goes deep and head on with us into the universality of loss, grief, art and our shared humanity. Wayne says, “If you accept that the world is beautiful but it’s also brutal, what do you do about that? it’s up to us to put some light into it, put some love into it…” This wisdom and more in a conversation that bounces between the exultation of the mundane, painting,...

Join LaunchLeft in a very introspective conversation with Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. How do we as artists adapt to these times? What can we do to inspire while also balancing our own anxieties? What led us to art? Will it comfort and ignite our inspiration? A deep 30 minutes before we showcase the bands highly inventive music video Phenom; a truly emblematic piece for these strange times!...

Icon, rebel, legendary songwriter, artist and forward thinker Lucinda Williams joins the LaunchLeft conversation to discuss her new record, politics, finding her soul mate, and just plain ‘ol caring about people. She opens up about collaboration, songwriting, true love, the magical musical time she grew up in and the importance of music and poetry in her life. We close the episode with a 5 minute...

This week we welcome 1 half of Tenacious D and 100% of the one and only Jack Black. We dig deep into his fascinating and often hilarious mind touching upon his early musical influences and experiences that led him down the creative path. He also discusses the importance of being your authentic self and the things that allowed him to find his “own voice” in music and film. Joining the conversation...

LaunchLeft welcomes Simón Mejía of Bomba Estéreo to talk about the power of nature and music through his travels from Afro-Colombian communities on the Pacific coast of Colombia to indigenous communities in the mountains as part of a new film project, Stand For Trees. Bastian Velasco won the global remix contest for the Stand For Trees teaser soundtrack and we close the show with Simón launching h...

The conversation travels far and wide with actor/director/writer/playwright and friend of LaunchLeft John Cameron Mitchell while he’s quarantining in Palm Desert. Art, theatre, music, sex, film and humanity -- AIDS, MacGayver auditions, drag queens and non-essential oils- it all gets covered in just over 40 minutes! Sob Sister pops in to close the show. Find us at www. LaunchLeft.com or wherever y...

LaunchLeft welcomes Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s as she discusses her ups and downs as a touring musician, sharing the stage with the likes of David Bowie, The Police and The Rolling Stones and what it takes to be a female in a world class rock n’ roll ensemble. Kathy also gives us a vignette of her newly released memoir “All I Ever Wanted” and launches her favorite Toronto-based all girl band T...

Rufus Wainwright: Portrait Launched Artist: Ane Diaz We begin Episode #33 with an honest and topical discussion with Mr. Wainwright, whose been sharing his music freely on social media for some time now. Since quarantine he has redoubled/tripled/quadrupled his efforts with his robe recitals daily! We get 22 glorious minutes with him to discuss the current affairs and how artists are engaging in th...

When LA went into a “stay-at-home” mandate because of Covid-19, she masterfully was able to pivot the release of her newest shoe from her brick and mortar stores to the web in 2 days! She, like other artists are adapting quickly and making the best of a difficult situation. But, what we found most impressive about Melody is who she is on a soul level, her practice, her resilience, her passion, her...

We are here every Tuesday and things keep getting more surreal… So much so that, after this wonderful Linda Perry conversation, we will be connecting with artists from home in an effort to keep us all safe during our creative discussions. This episode is “LaunchLeft BC” (Before Corona) and, it is nice to go back in time with Linda Perry! We love how she spends so much air time talking about her la...

Respect your elders! Ageism be damned! The world has been rocked and we want to acknowledge how intense things have been for all of us and especially scary for those in our elder community. A perfect time to share the wisdom of the beautiful, effervescent and vibrant silver fox that is Ms. Denise Kaufman. Through this discussion, we learned so much that brought comfort and hope to us in regard to...

As luck would have it this conversation was had in the gap between touring and a new record for The Garden. Relaxed and near silly at times the OC twins share about peanut butter, punk rock, fashion by accident and more with Rain and Summer. Do yourselves a favor and catch them on tour/listen to their new single “clench to stay awake” on Spotify. Fletcher and Wyatt are true originals. Find us at&n...

Lisa Roth may have been uncertain of what she wanted to be when she grew up- but, her willingness to show up helped to build her incredible success! The ever humble dancer turned nutritionist turned visionary behind the rockabye baby album franchise shows us how simple people skills can pave the way toward entrepreneurship. She candidly opens up about her journey, her artist family and how it’s im...