Talkhouse Podcast

Stephin Merritt is one of the most brilliant songwriters of our time. Through his projects The Magnetic Fields, The Gothic Archies, Future Bible Heroes, and The 6ths, he’s deconstructed and reimagined the art of the song. Stephin’s lyrics are wonderfully dark and witty, often gender-bending, sometimes intellectual, occasionally utterly heartbreaking. His melodies are addictive enough to be illegal...

This week on the Talkhouse Podcast, we’re celebrating artists who take music in unexpected and brilliant new directions. Tuesday’s show saw Tierra Whack and Nnamdi Ogbonnaya in conversation; today, we bring you a fantastic deep dive between Avey Tare of Animal Collective and Ishmael “Ish” Butler, aka Palaceer Lazaro in Shabazz Palaces, fka Butterfly of Digable Planets. Ish and Avey are massive fan...

Duuudes! Those of you who follow us on Insta may know that Mark The Producer and I just got back from our first festival of 2019. As we glamped and recorded some of the best musicians in the world in convo for upcoming Talkhouse episodes, it occurred to me that full-on festival season is almost upon us. That means, of course, that this summer, Talkhouse will be returning to Pitchfork Music Festiva...

For today’s episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we sat down backstage at Desert Daze with Grasshopper of Mercury Rev and A Place To Bury Strangers’s Lia Braswell. The two are big fans of each others’ live sets, and were psyched to meet and chop it up. Their conversation takes in a lot: artistic community, DIY culture, the years of work it takes to succeed, and the restorative power of seeing live mu...

This week, we here at Talkhouse celebrate two monumental things: first off, this is the Talkhouse Podcast's 250th episode (holy shit, how did that happen?!?!? Thank you, listeners!) The second thing we're celebrating officially this week, and unofficially every other day of the year: mothers and maternal figures! For today’s show, we took a deep dive through the past five years of the podcast to s...

“All night, I been drinking all night, I been drinking all night, I been drinking, ay ay” sang Knox Fortune on the hook of Chance The Rapper’s mega-hit single "All Night." For this podcast, Knox and his old buddy comedian Brandon Wardell (Yeah But Still) switched it up and did a little day drinking. The guys sat down late last year to chop it up on the Talkhouse Podcast backstage at Life Is Beauti...

Hot on the heels of Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)'s incredible new LP Lux Prima and Sam Spiegel (N.A.S.A.)'s new single "Perfect," the two old friends and collaborators sat down for a deep dive on the Talkhouse Podcast.  Buckle up for stories of working with everyone from Ol' Dirty Bastard to David Byrne to Danger Mouse; collab-ing with your literal family — Sam's brother is Spike Jonze — and your fig...

The brilliant composer and two-time Talkhouse Podcast guest William Basinski recently dropped me an intriguing email. He wrote of a “very talented young friend, a fine guitarist from Amarillo” who has “a great story.” If Billy recommends an artist, I look into them; the more I learned about this guitarist from Amarillo, TX — Hayden Pedigo — the more fascinated I became. A born and raised Amarilloa...

Both Kate Nash and Cherry Glazerr’s Clem Creevy have talent, smarts, and attitude to burn; they've each also got incredible, recently-released music. To celebrate their new bops, the two friends sat down to chop it up at Clem’s home in LA. We hear about the truly unique story behind Kate’s new single "Trash" and the Maharaja musical she’s been writing; the curious empowerment Clem finds in singing...

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we feature a conversation between two of the most distinctive and original voices in American cinema: Harmony Korine and Caveh Zahedi. The two got together in New York City in advance of the release of Korine’s new movie, The Beach Bum, a wild Florida-set fantasia about cosmic poet Moondog, starring Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg, Jonah...

To mark the sad passing of the brilliant Agnès Varda, we are revisiting an old episode of the Talkhouse Podcast in which documentary cinematographer and Cameraperson director Kirsten Johnson sat down with the legendary French New Wave auteur when she was in town in 2017 for a gallery exhibit of her art at Blum & Poe and a French Institute film series. In a wonderfully thoughtful and engaged conver...

Earlier this month, Talkhouse headed down to the legendary insanity that is SXSW in Austin, TX for bands, breakfast tacos, more bands, and — of course — podcasts! We were honored to be asked for the second consecutive year to curate a live Talkhouse Podcast recording on the official SXSW Podcast Stage, where we paired two of indie rock’s prolific singer/songwriters releasing exciting new music thi...

We here at the Talkhouse Podcast were psyched when Chicago-based indie festival Tomorrow Never Knows asked us to curate a live taping as part of their January 2019 lineup. So, we paired Andy Hull (Manchester Orchestra) and Mike Kinsella (American Football, Owen) for an exclusive conversation and acoustic performance. Thanks to all of you Midwest listeners who braved the winter chill to pack out Sl...

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we mark the imminent return of Veep for its seventh and final season with a conversation between two of the show's cast members, Timothy Simons and Brian Huskey. Simons and Huskey – who play manchild Jonah Ryan and pesky political reporter Leon West, respectively – have a hilarious and wide-ranging talk that takes in everything from the perils (and o...

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, friends and fellow actor-writer-directors James Roday and Karen Gillan sit down for a chat at The Grant, James' bar-to-be in Los Angeles' Eagle Rock neighborhood. Roday and Gillan, best known as Shawn from Psych and Nebula from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, respectively, got together to discuss Roday's second feature as writer-director, the slowburn...

When we paired them for a Talkhouse Podcast at the fantastic Life Is Beautiful Fest, Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn and SNL writer Anna Drezen got on, as they say in the talk, like a house on fire. A week after meeting, Sylvan Esso were posting pics backstage from SNL! In this chat, the trio do cover some artistic topics: the similarities and differences in the professional lives of b...

This week, we're revisiting a unique talk recorded at last year's On Air Fest. On Air is a rad festival devoted to audio storytelling and the creative possibilities of sound. The festival returns later this month in Brooklyn. You can find more info about speakers and how to attend at onairfest.com Today's episode, a collaboration with The Players' Tribune, was recorded earlier this month in front...

Happiest of Valentines Days to ya, listeners! To celebrate the duality of this love-filled and oh-so-fraught time, the Talkhouse Podcast asked five of our favorite artist couples to answer two questions: What’s the best thing about being in a two-artist relationship? And, what’s the worst?? Answering both Cupid’s and our calls are: — Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee) and Kevin Morby;  — Maliibu Miit...

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, we get to listen in on two friends and recent collaborators in conversation: actor Jon Cryer (of Two and a Half Men fame) and musician Ben Lee. The pair, who teamed up on the musical B is for Beer, which Lee adapted with Tom Robbins from the iconic novelist’s book of the same name – and then roped in Cryer to both direct and play the role of the Beer...

We're re-airing this talk with the news that Jlin and William Basinski are reconnecting for an upcoming Talkhouse Podcast happening live on Pitchfork Radio at Midwinter. Jlin and William Basinski are two of today's most fascinating and gifted composers. Basinski works with decaying analogue tape loops to create ambient soundscapes, while Jlin constructs brilliant, stuttering reimaginings of footwo...

Hardcore porn, boring mega-fans, and ANOHNI dropping allegorical knowledge are just the start of this incredibly thoughtful and open conversation between John Grant and Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters, Kinky Boots). The two are huge fans of each other’s work, and were both nervous and excited at the opportunity to sit down and chop it up. Their talk also covers how they’ve each faced, and overcome, t...

Today's episode is an action-packed double-header! First up, we've got post-punk heavy-hitters Matt Flegel (singer and bassist of Preoccupations) and Joe Casey (Protomartyr frontman and new entrant into the Talkhouse Podcast Three Timers Club). The recent tour mates discuss their new 7" split Telemetry At Howe Bridge, intra-band fighting, how sports nerds and music nerds can be the same kind of in...

Today’s show is dedicated to the OG electronic music heads! Synthpop wizard Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yaz, Erasure) sat down with U.K. rave gods Paul and Phil Hartnoll of Orbital for a catch-up amidst the drool-worthy vintage synthesizer collection at Hook & Fade Studios here in Brooklyn. The old friends take us on a trip back through the dance scenes they were immersed in throughout the '80s an...

To celebrate Mexican Summer’s ten year anniversary, we paired two of the fantastic record label’s most fascinating artists: Ariel Pink and Cate Le Bon. Backstage at A Decade Deeper: Mexican Summer’s 10 Year Anniversary party at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works arts space, Cate and Ariel—fans of each other’s work who'd never met irl—sat down for a talk before their sets. The two really hit it off, and thei...

Tbh, we didn’t mean to make our last episode before Christmas one that explores two fantastic singer-songwriters’ experiences growing up in very religious Christian homes and the effect it’s had on their art, but here we are — and it’s a damn fine talk! David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) and Sarah Beth Tomberlin (Tomberlin) are big fans of each other’s music, and jumped at the chance to meet via a Talkh...