PIERRE PRESSURE PODCAST

2024 is here and this is a very special episode #30 of Pierre Pressure Podcast . This is a re-broadcast of an interview Pierre did with Gordon Gano , lead singer and guitarist of the Violent Femmes , along with then-drummer Brian Viglione (drummer of Dresden Dolls, Nine Inch Nails, World Inferno Friendship Society) on East Village Radio , hosted by Michael Messenie , AKA the Coach, on his Two For...

Dan Reeder is an American musician and visual artist born in Louisiana and raised in California. Since 1987, Reeder has lived full-time in Nurnberg, Germany. He releases albums under his own name on John Prine 's label, Oh Boy Records . Reeder writes some of the most honest, hilarious, heart-wrenchingly beautiful songs you'll ever hear. His music has been called “outsider folk,” but whatever the m...

In this episode, I talk with Kurt Wagner , founder and singer songwriter behind the band Lamchop ,  which make some of the most gorgeously orchestrated indie-pop you’ll ever hear, wrapped around Kurt Wagner’s complex and  exquisite lyrics.  Wagner lives in Nashville with his wife Mary Mancini, who ran Lucy's Records in nashville before becoming the chair of the Tennesse Democratic Party. We had a...

After a much-needed hiatus, Pierre Pressure is back with an extremely special episode. Pierre talks with the one and only Jedi Master of Punk Rock, Mike Watt. Watt started his bass playing career in the legendary punk band the Minutemen in 1980 in San Pedro with his childhood friends D. Boon and George Hurley. That band is cited across the board as a lightning rod influence on the punk and indie s...

Eleni Mandell is an LA-based singer-songwriter who has been making some of the best music you'll ever hope to hear since her first album, Wishbone , came out in 1996. She's an astoundingly prolific artist with a huge discography, and she's collaborated with such heavy hitters as Nels Cline (Wilco), DJ Bonebrake (X), Joey Waronker (Beck), and Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes), putting out one great album...

Episode 25 of Pierre Pressure Podcast features very special guest Tony Scalzo from the band Fastball . Tony is a talented and prolific songwriter who wrote a string of hits for his platinum-selling band Fastball in the late 90s. He grew up in Orange County, California and moved to Austin, Texas where he still lives today. We have a lively chat about growing up behind the Orange Curtain in the 80s,...

After a three month hiatus due to Covid 19, Pierre Pressure Podcast is back! For the new season, Pierre focuses on the tradition of protest music, and how it can inspire us to speak up, stand up, and sing out about what we think needs to change in our fractured society.  Pierre Pressure Podcast is extremely honored to have special guest Bill Frisell on this first reboot episode #24. Bill Frisell i...

Part 2 of Pierre's Pandemic Podcast features two guests from Episode 22 and some new guests discussing life during the coronavirus lockdown. Pierre checks in on the phone with two people who had Covid 19 and recovered, a doctor and a nurse practitioner working with patients in New York City,  two musicians, a public defender, and someone living in Carriacou, a remote island in the Carribean. Don't...

A very unusual Pierre Pressure Podcast. In this episode, Pierre called his friends in New York, California, and Florida to see how they are getting by during this world-wide quarantine. These guests range in age, gender, profession, and location, from musicians to prisoner advocates to BnB owners to school lunch administrators, they have all been deeply affected by the corona virus. I asked them a...

Chris Wells is the founder of The Secret City, and he is a high priest of art. He's been known to tower over people in platform shoes, he leads a congregation of art worshippers, his performances make people feel high, and he was raised in the high desert of California. In this episode we discuss what it means to create transcendental, communal gatherings outside the umbrella of "church."  We talk...

Composer-producer-frontman-wizard JG Thirlwell has been making astonishing, orchestral, bombastic music for decades. Born in Australia, he teamed up with Nick Cave and the Birthday Party, then joined Prag VEC, and soon formed his enduring solo project Foetus. Operating under plethora of pseudonyms and monikers meant to confuse, shock, and awe, Thirlwell continues to churn out an astounding amount...

Musician and visual artist Rick Froberg can't help it, he f*&#ing loves rock and roll. Throughout his career he has fronted loud, uncompromising, aggressive, totally original and influential bands like Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, and Hot Snakes with his partner in crime John Reis as well as Obits, last of the Juanitas, and others. He continues to record and perform all over the world. Rick cre...

For this very special episode, we reach way back into the vault and present an interview Pierre did with The Breeders in 1992! We unearthed this cassette recording of an interview with all four members of this massively popular and influential mainstay of 90's alt-rock, the Breeders. Pierre called them from San Diego and interviewed them on the phone in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, in advance o...

Phil Manley is a west-coast based rock musician and producer. He runs El Studio in San Fransisco, and he handles the guitar, keyboards, bass, and vocals in bands Trans Am, Life Coach, Terry Gross, and Oneida among others. His band Trans Am spearheaded the Electroclash movement in the 90's and continues to melt faces around the world. We had very pleasant chit chat in his studio about recording ver...

Episode sweet sixteen features Los Angeles-based activists, musicians, filmmakers, and educators Lisa Marr and Paolo Davanzo . They run a non-profit called the Echo Park Film Center, and they travel the world spreading their vison of inclusiveness, tolerance, creativity and artistic freedom through the medium of cinema. We spoke about both of their musical and artistic trajectories beginning in Ca...

Stew is a singer, musician, composer, playwright, and a powerhouse in the world of music and theater. For years he fronted the band Stew and the Negro Problem. He then went on to create and star in a play called Passing Strange which started off-Broadway and then went on to have a successful run on Broadway, where it garnered multiple Tonys and other awards, and was eventually turned into a featur...

This episode features woodwind whiz, composer, arranger, and performer Ken Thomson. Ken plays all kinds of clarinets and saxophones (and anything else that sounds like an angry swan) in many amazing projects including but not limited to: Bang on a Can Orchestra, Gutbucket, Asphalt Orchestra, SlowFast, and Ken Thomson Sextet. I've had the pleasure of sharing stages and recording sessions over the y...

Lucky number 13 is my good friend Dorit Chrysler, a theremin wizard from Austria. She came to New York in the 90's and was the singer-guitarist for the scorching art-rock band Halcion. She subsequently went on tho become one of the world's premiere theremin experts. She performs at festivals and concert venues around the world on a regular basis, and she was the co-founder of the New York Theremin...

This episode's guest is my good friend and musical collaborator Christian Gibbs. Also known as C. Gibbs, he's a ridiculously talented singer, songwriter, guitarist who's been crushing it for decades. His numerous band and solo projects include Morning Glories, C. Gibbs Review, Lucinda Black Bear, He Arrived by Helicopter, and others. He had a stint on the Broadway show Passing Strange and continue...

This episode is all about hip hop. Paul Womack, AKA Willie Green, is a New York-based hip hop producer specializing in "art-rap." He produces extremely imaginative, groundbreaking beats for hip hop and pop artists who are not afraid to break the rules and sound completely different. Operating out of his studio in Brooklyn, he works with a roster of super creative and outspoken artists like Quelle...

This episode's guest, Timo Ellis, is an all around musical powerhouse. He plays drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, and sings, and currently fronts the synth-metal band Netherlands. His musical bio spans an impressive and varied list of projects including Yoko Ono, Cibo Matto, Sean Lennon, Joan as Policewoman, and many more. We talked about the "sinister, earth-killing, imperialist, genocidal juggerna...

Guest Dawn Landes is talented multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and producer living in Nashville. We talk about climbing trees with Will Oldham, her touring with Sufjan Stevens, recording with Nashville A-listers, and why bow-hunters are more macho. She performs her original song "Keep on Moving." Opening music: "Merchandise" by Fugazi, performed by Pierre de Gaillande with James Fletcher,...

A very special double episode with Fa Ventilato and Roman Elsener, two Swiss-born, New York-based musicians who have been close friends since their youth and have very different approaches to life and music. We spoke about micropolitics, CD scratching, pillow drumming, hand grenades, the Swiss national anthem backwardt, and much much more. The Ramen and Pho Orchestra performed Roman's original son...

The guest on this episode of PIERRE PRESSURE PODCAST is Paul Brill, an award-winning composer, musician, songwriter and producer. We spoke in his Brooklyn studio about the possible outcomes for the midterms, shredding your way to success, serving Bernie coffee, and a whole lot more. He performed a solo acoustic version of his song "Lay Down Your Weary Head." Background audio by Envelope, Malayalam...

Guest Mira Cook is a singer, pianist, composer, and dancer who performs regularly in NYC as a solo artist, building her songs live using vocal and instrumental loops. She also travels the world as a dancer and teacher with Battery Dance. We talked about her musical journey starting in Austin and how she fell into music by way of dance, how to stay positive in these confusing times, and upcoming al...