Stereo Embers: The Podcast

“World Of Burning Hate” Jesse Michaels is perhaps best known as the singer of the Berkeley punk band Operation Ivy. Although they were around for just a couple of years, they remain one of the most influential punk bands of all time. After the band’s dissolution, Michaels played in Big Rig, put out two fabulous albums with Common Rider and then formed Classics of Love in 2008. Classics Of Love put...

“True Love Waits” Well, if you love The Coronas, you didn’t have to wait too long for the follow-up to 2017’s Trust The Wire. But because of the global pandemic, you might have to wait a bit to see one of the best live bands on the planet in the flesh. In the meantime, the Dublin outfit’s new long player True Love Waits is one of the most riveting, soul-affirming and rousing albums of 2020. Making...

“A Level Presentation Of A Human Being” That’s how Tyler Glenn describes how after all this time of being in a band he’s finally arrived at a mindset that takes in both criticism and praise. Being level means he’s not dazzled by the positive or felled by the negative. “I don’t feed into the good or bad anymore,” he says. Well, when it comes to Neon Trees, there sure is a lot of good. The Californi...

“It Takes A Lifetime To Be Comfortable With Who You Are” Those are sage words from a rather sagacious fellow named Tommy Emmanuel. One of the greatest guitar players on the planet, Emmanuel talks to Alex about a lifetime of being a professional musician. And when we say lifetime, we really mean it—Emmanuel went pro at the age of 6 and his CV is so packed with accomplishments, it would take a separ...

“West Coast Antidote" A long way away from their native Brisbane, the young Australian outfit Between Kings are now officially based out of Los Angeles. Although COVID -19 has gotten in the way of everything from the release of their new album Young Love to playing live gigs, they are firmly committed to basing out of the West Coast. Now, Young Love was supposed to hit the streets, but the global...

"Reds To Blue And Back Again" John Steinbeck once wrote: "There are as many worlds as there are kinds of days, and as an opal changes its colors and its fire to match the nature of a day, so do I." All those changes of colors? Well, that’s a good way to describe what’s been going on with David Cook lately. The Texas born, Missouri raised Cook’s new single is called "Reds Turn Blue" and it’s a trac...

“Precision, Movement and Vampires” "I am abnormally fond of that precision which creates movement," e.e. cummings once wrote. Well, it’s hard not to think that the famous poet would be abnormally fond of Local Nomad. With a satchel full of songs all written with the kind of poetic precision that brings to mind the deft wordplay of everyone from Paul Simon to Elvis Costello, Local Nomad’s new EP Yo...

“What's The Point Of A Strawberry?” Well, not counting the fact that they lower your blood pressure, are high in fiber, rich in antioxidants and guard you from cancer, strawberries are pretty much useless. In this wildly discursive chat with singer-songwriter Shannon McArdle, the Brooklyn musician talks to Alex about why she’s not into strawberries (or fruit for that matter), why she got on a subw...

“Sheltering In Place Is The New Camping” Well, sort of. Experts say that if you want to test a romantic relationship, go camping. If you come back from your adventure still speaking, you’ve got a good thing going. If not? Well, camping together saved you a lot of time. In the COVID-19 age, it seems that sheltering in place works in the same way camping does, in that it can really test relationship...

"Slithering Through Sleeper Waves” The Canadian singer/songwriter Lou Canon's work is constantly challenging how we think about sounds and shapes and not only that, but the ten track song cycle of her new album Audomatic Body also confronts not only how we think about the human body and the granular curves of micro geography— it also trains its eye on the slithering backs of sea creatures, the geo...

“They’re All In The Pub…" That’s how Katie Malco describes the musicians of her adopted home of Northampton. If you want to find any of them, they’re all hanging out in the pub. “Every last one of them,” she laughs. In this conversation, the Scottish born singer/songwriter talks to Alex about her own time in the pub, opening up for Jenny Lewis and what it was like to get on stage by herself with n...

"Immersion In Music Is What I Love” Well, it really shows. That’s how Steve Dawson describes his relationship with his craft and though he plays guitar and sings, it’s music and instruments of all kinds that really ring his creative bell. Known for his work with Chicago’s roots-soul outfit Dolly Varden, Dawson has been a busy guy since his band’s temporary hiatus. Aside from co-authoring a book, r...

“Ride The Waves As They Present Themselves” In many ways that’s what KatieJane Garside has been doing her whole life. She traveled the world by sea with her parents and sister as a kid and now, all these years later, she’s doing the same thing with a family of her own. Great poetry, great novels and great art has been inspired by the ocean and Garside’s new musical project Liar, Flower can be adde...

“A Walk Across The Rooftops” The romantic notion of a walk across the rooftops might bring to mind a series of percussive steps under the moonlight but for The Blue Nile’s 1984 album of the same name, there’s barely any percussion in sight. Nevertheless, it’s one of Todd Sucherman’s favorite albums of all time and while the fact that a drum-less album might not be an obvious choice, in this interv...

“I Started Listening To All These Dead People” Relax. In the above quote Hamish Anderson isn’t talking about taking directives from those beyond the grave. He’s talking about how when he was a kid he discovered the blues and Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock and his love of the past began informing his personal aesthetic of the present. In this interview the Australian-born blues guitarist talk...

“That's The Way My Bones Creak” That’s how Dylan Hartigan describes the thematic balance of darkness and light in his work. And though that’s a fair appraisal of his creative process, that creak of his produces some of the most sonorous, achingly lovely and deeply stirring music you’ll hear all year. The New Jersey-born singer/songwriter talks to Alex about the early discipline of his child actor...

“Nobody’s Coming Out Of This Fluent In German” It’s a fair point. Salt Ashes thinks it’s important during these Sheltering In Place months to not put pressure on ourselves and feel we have to get more done than we should. Like learning to speak German. Or reading the entire works of Dickens. Creativity is essential, but there’s no need to have unrealistic ideas about what we have to get done. In t...

"Sheltering In Place With Bandits On The Run” So the Bandits on the Run aren’t on the run right now. Like everyone else on the planet, the NYC-based trio is grounded for now but they’re doing it together. The Quaran-team are hanging out in North Carolina working on new songs, making fancy drinks and hosting back porch concerts that are live streaming to their fans all over the world. The rootsy ou...

“Inside The Electric Moment” The electric moment is the one where Joan Wasser steps up to the plate in front of her fellow accomplished collaborators to show them what she’s got. And even after being in the music industry all these years, that moment is still one that she finds terrifying. Exciting, but terrifying. Wasser, who’s better known as Joan As Policewoman also happens to be terrifyingly t...

"Emergency Whiskey” While it might be true that a shot of whiskey might calm the nerves during an emergency, the wiser choice is probably music. As we wade our way through a global pandemic, actor/musician Ed Helms and The Bluegrass Situation have put together a four-episode variety series called The Whiskey Sour Happy Hour. A seamless blend of comedy and music, the show is a heartening reminder t...

“I Was So Sure Of Myself, I Put Myself In Danger” That’s how Phantom Planet frontman Alex Greenwald describes for Alex the downside of a little hubris during the creative process. He’s joking about being in danger, but he’s serious about feeling so self-assured about one’s work that it doesn’t allow creative input in from others. In this conversation, Greenwald talks to Green about silencing the c...

“I Never Want To Leave This Space” That’s exactly what Hockey Dad singer/guitarist Zach Stephenson thought to himself as soon as he started his career in music. Being in the company of fellow musicians, playing live and writing songs with his longtime drummer pal Billy Fleming was the exact life he wanted for himself and since he’s gotten started, he’s never looked back. Sheltering in place in his...

"De-bubbling In London” Look, New Zealand is not a large country—everyone seems to know everyone else (or even dated them). Yumi Zouma singer Christie Simpson decided that the best thing for her to do is escape the bubble of her hometown of Christchurch and head for London. In this conversation Simpson talks about leaving her country behind, creative life amidst the Coronavirus and how an outsider...

"Shake The Disease" When we last spoke to Owen Vyse we were told that by April 4th the Coronavirus would have all but vanished. Well, it didn't. In fact, it hasn't even flexed its full strength yet. In this engaging chat, the former Echo and the Bunnymen guitarist and Starclub frontman talks to Alex about what life is like amidst a global pandemic from where he lives in Thailand. The conversation...

“A Musical Shark Keeps Swimming” The San Diego-born musician Illan Rubin is one of those guys that’s been moving non-stop since he was nine and he’s not slowed down the pace one bit. The youngest performer to ever grace the stage at Woodstock (Rubin was 11!), Illan Rubin is very much like a musical shark—he never stands still. Over the course of his career the powerful and inventive drummer has pl...