My Favorite Album with Jeremy Dylan

Today reformed drummer and comedic genius Fred Armisen (Portlandia, SNL, Documentary Now) joins me to discuss the dreamy magic of El Perro Del Mar 's 2008 album From the Valley to the Stars . We talk about how the album became part of his routine at Saturday Night Live, why it inspired him to go out and buy a Hofner bass, how the songs fade in and fade out (and we speculate on the history of fade...

Today I'm joined by singer-songwriter Tia Gostelow , on the eve of her new album release, to wax rhapsodic about the 2013 debut LP by friend of the show Melody Pool , 'The Hurting Scene'. We unpack Melody's wielding of emotional restraint to create tension, her unaffected skill as a vocalist, her literate lyrics, the emotional impact of songs like 'Henry', Tia's history covering Melody's songs and...

On another format-busting episode of MFA, hosts of  Light the Fuse  podcast Drew Taylor and Charles Hood return to the show to bash out the eternal rivalry in spy movie world - James Bond vs Mission Impossible. Using the enduring James Bond movie formula - from gun barrels to gadgets, leading ladies to leering bad guys, we compare and contrast the two franchises and see where they differ, and more...

Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and one of the best drummers of her generation Stella Mozgawa joins me for a look at the legendary Brian Eno 's final 70s pop masterpiece (before his turn into ambient music)  Before and After Science . We delve into the most interesting man in rock's creative process, how he used the studio as his instrument and enlisted collaborators from Robert Fripp...

Longtime friend of the show and one of my favorite people in the world to talk music with, writer/director/showrunner Brian Koppelman (Billions, Rounders, Ocean's 13) joins me to talk about Lou Reed 's mid-career classic 'New York' album. We talk about how Lou got sober and political simultaneously, the powerful simplicity of the music and the carefully crafter lyrics that Reed agonised over, Bria...

Today a friend of the show becomes a subject of it, as emerging singer-songwriter Essie Holt joins me to rave on Megan Washington 's 2010 debut album 'I Believe You Liar'. We talk about the benefits of discovering artists at live shows, Meg's iconic ARIAs performance of 'Sunday Best', the will in song form 'Underground' and whether it holds legal legitimacy, songwriting as therapy, being the victi...

Today, author and broadcaster Stuart Coupe joins me to discuss his new Paul Kelly biography and some of the lesser known tales from Paul's life and career. We talk about Paul's early years, why he struggled to be part of a band, the albums that Paul doesn't want you to hear and why he's made them unavailable, why Paul is Australia's answer to Elvis Costello , what it's like to write a book about s...

Beatles nerds rejoice again, as synth queen Seja Vogel joins me to delve into the album that brought Paul McCartney back to the toppermost of the poppermost in 1973, 'Band on the Run'. We talk about Paul's uneven solo trajectory after the Beatles breakup, the volatile story of how the album was made in Lagos (band members quitting, stolen demo tapes, Fela Kuti, etc), Paul's drumming, the use of sy...

Legendary Australian filmmaker Bruce Beresford (Tender Mercies, Breaker Morant) joins me to discuss five songs that have influenced and inspired him from throughout his life and career, plus we talk about the process of shaping the music for his classic film  Tender Mercies , the challenges of licensing songs for movies, how he approaches working with screenplays and writers as a director and the...

Today, Tony-nominated musician and actor Sarah Stiles (Tootsie, Billions, Avenue Q) joins me on the release day of her new EP 'You Can Ukulele With Me' to celebrate the wonderful world of Cyndi Lauper . We delve into loving the album as a kid, her intense emotional reaction to seeing Cyndi sing 'Time After Time' in person, the real feminist themes of 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun', Cyndi's incredible...

Today we're bringing you the first in a new regular feature on the podcast. Once a month, I'll be joined by a guest from music, movies, politics, literature or more, but not to discuss their favorite album. These will be compelling conversations about their favorite film, or book, or maybe even important world events. Today, friend of the show, Emmy-winning writer/director Jeff Greenstein (Friends...

Today I'm joined by composer David Hirschfelder (Australia, Strictly Ballroom, Sliding Doors) to take the show's first cautious steps into the world of jazz fusion, with Weather Report's 1977 classic 'Heavy Weather'. After a brief discussion of David's majestic 80s mullet, we dive into all of it - fusing electronic sounds and rock attitude into celebrations of trad jazz, the surprising hit status...

Long time friend of the show and queen of the sadcore bangers Emma Swift returns to mark release day for new album 'Blonde on the Tracks', which features her beautiful interpretations of songs from across Bob Dylan 's vast songbook. We delve into how the project came to be, how each song was chosen, the different challenges in recording obscure and well known Dylan songs, why 'I Contain Multitudes...

Guitar icon Joe Satriani joins me to dive into Jimi Hendrix 's magnum opus 'Electric Ladyland'. Starting with discovering Hendrix through his older sisters back in the late 60s, Joe opens up about what makes the album so special and how its influence has loomed over him for more than fifty years. We discuss how music of the era reflected social upheaval, the progression and maturation of Hendrix's...

Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist wunderkind Sarah Jarosz joins me to talk about Shawn Colvin 's classic 'A Few Small Repairs' album, from discovering it as a prepubescent growing up in Texas to falling in love with the album on a whole new level during an I'm With Her tour a few years ago. We dig into the way the Texas singer-songwriter scene loomed over Sarah as a...

Note: This interview was recorded before the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests. This week, TV legend Shawn Ryan (creator of  The Shield, SWAT, Timeless  and more) takes me back in time 30 years to talk about the debut album by The Beautiful South 'Welcome to the Beautiful South'. Shawn talks about discovering music in the pre-internet age, the lineage of the Beautiful South in cult...

Jasmine Rae caps off her release week by joining me to discuss  Taking the Long Way , the 2006 album that saw The Chicks rising from the ashes of controversy and persecution to create one of their best records. We dig into the album's backstory, frontwoman Natalie Maines taking a leading role in the band's songwriting for the first time, parallels to their new album 'Gaslighter', the rock'n'roll c...

Writer/director Peter Howitt (Sliding Doors, Johnny English, Dangerous Parking) joins me for a good old fashioned Beatles deep dive. We talk about Abbey Road,  discovering the records as they came out, why the fascination has endured for over 50 years, Lennon and McCartney 's own 'sliding doors' moment, George Harrison 's post-Beatles songwriting trajectory, the Giles Martin remixes, what John Len...

Today, country hitmaker Cassadee Pope joins me to talk about the Queen, Shania Twain , and her classic 1995 album 'The Woman In Me'. We talk about the influence that Shania had on the genre and on successive generation of female country stars, her strength and vulnerability (and why those qualities aren't in opposition), what Shania taught Cassadee, their in person encounter and her fantasies of t...

Singer/songwriter and country hitmaker Jimmie Allen joins me to talk about  Learn to Live , the 2008 album that launched Darius Rucker from Hootie and the Blowfish frontman into country superstar. Jimmie talks about sneaking on to Darius's tour bus when he first moved to Nashville, what it meant to see black artists achieving success in genres outside RnB and hip-hop, the advice Darius gave him, a...

The great Katie Noonan returns to the show to talk about the classic self-titled debut album by Crowded House . We talk about the band's origins out of the dissolution of Split Enz , the band's hit ratio across their four original albums, the classic organ solo on  Don't Dream It's Over  and how Katie reinterpreted the song on her new album, being in bands with siblings, how to deicide if, when an...

Comedy legend David Cross (Mr Show, Arrested Development) joins me for a rollicking conversation that starts with cult alternative rockers Firehose 's 'Live Totem Pole' record and winds around through David's early years in California and his experiences in LA rock clubs, the relationships between alt rock and alt comedy, the bands he has seen the most live over the years, his favorite Australian...

Today I'm joined by the delightful and amazing Emma Watkins aka Emma Wiggle, to talk about her friends the East Pointers and their most recent album 'Yours to Break'. How does Australia's most iconic family entertainment unit intersect with a Canadian progressive folk outfit? Find out as Emma takes me through the story of the Newfoundland family musical tradition and how it birthed the East Pointe...

As a writer and director, Thomas Schnauz has been responsible for some of the most legendary TV of the last 30 years, from The X Files to Breaking Back to Better Call Saul, and he's been sneaking Pink Floyd references into all of them. Thomas joins me to finally talk about 'The Wall' (we've only been going for 7 years and not a single Floyd record in that time), Syd Barrett , the Roger Waters spit...