That's How I Remember It

Hanif Abdurraqib is my guest on this episode of That's How I Remember It. Hanif is the author of two poetry collections and three non-fiction books, all of which have garnered critical acclaim and awards. We spoke a lot about his most recent book 2021’s A Little Devil in America as well as touring as an author, discovering MTV, dancing in school, "Don’t Stop Believing," geographic memory, and much...

Bill Hader is my guest on this episode of That's How I Remember It. Bill is an incredibly talented actor, writer, director. Barry, the show that Bill created and stars in, has just entered its fourth and final season, so we talked a lot about that. But we also spoke of Frank Zappa, late night movies, memorizing lines, being a PA on films, playing the same character for 4 seasons, the initial idea...

Eric D. Johnson is my guest on the newest episode of That's How I Remember It. Eric is the singer, songwriter and principal of the band The Fruit Bats, and also a member of modern folk supergroup Bonny Light Horseman. The Fruit Bats are releasing their 10th studio album this week titled A River Running To Your Heart. We talked about that as well as the first Boston album, writing songs as therapy,...

Karly Hartzman is my guest on this episode of That's How I Remember It. Karly is the singer and songwriter of the great band Wednesday, who are releasing their fantastic album Rat Saw God this week. We talked about this record, her interesting way of pulling details into songs, building monuments, being Southern, race car drivers, How To With John Wilson, and much much more. Huge thanks to Karly f...

Laura Stevenson is my guest on this week’s That's How I Remember It. Laura is a wildly talented songwriter and singer. I’ve been lucky enough to do a few tours with her. This year, she’s celebrating the 10 year anniversary of her album Wheel, and will be touring this spring. We talked about the making of that record and who she was at that time, but also: her memory of physical spaces, regretting...

Alejandro Escovedo is my guest on this week’s That's How I Remember It. As a massive fan, I was very excited to have Alejandro come on and talk about his own memories and how they show up in his songs and stories. We spoke about Mott The Hoople, early punk rock, wanting to be a filmmaker, John Huston, how different producers influenced him, Townes Van Zandt, his imminent memoir, and so much more....

Scott Z. Burns is my guest on this episode of That's How I Remember It. Scott is a talented writer/director/producer of films such as Contagion, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Report, The Informant, and more. He’s also a close friend of mine. We talked about his new Apple TV show Extrapolations as well as how he names characters, humpback whales, cleaning otters after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Contag...

Kevin Morby is my guest on this episode of That's How I Remember It, which is a replay of the first ever live version of this podcast. It was recorded during the 2023 On Air Festival at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn. Kevin and I spoke about his last record This is a Photograph, writing the record in Memphis, Jeff Buckley, his Sonic Youth superstition, Diane Lane, details he remembers about individua...

This week’s That's How I Remember It is a flash episode featuring me and me only. We’re taking a break from guests for a week, so I just wanted to get you caught up on everything I’ve been doing lately and have coming up: live podcasts, the new Hold Steady record “The Price of Progress” and upcoming shows for The Hold Steady and myself solo. We’ll be back with some great guests soon, so please lis...

Amanda Shires is my guest on this week’s That's How I Remember It. Amanda is an incredible songwriter and musician. She’s an accomplished solo artist, a member of The Highwomen, and has played fiddle with The Texas Playboys, Billy Joe Shaver, Justin Townes Earle, The 400 Unit, and much more. Amanda’s incredible last record Take It Like a Man was one of the best of 2022. Here we talk about details...

Ben Gibbard is my guest on this episode of That's How I Remember It. Ben is the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service, and has written an absolute ton of great songs since DCFC formed in 1997. Most recently, the band released Asphalt Meadows, another great record and also announced a joint Death Cab/Postal Service tour for fall 2023. We had a great talk about van touring before...

Eric Bachmann is my guest this week on That’s How I Remember It. Eric is the lead singer of classic indie rock band Archers of Loaf and has also made music as Crooked Fingers, as well as under his own name. Recently, Archers of Loaf put out the great Reason in Decline, 24 years after the release of their last record. I distinctly remember my first time hearing Archers of Loaf, as well as the first...

Welcome back for season two of That’s How I Remember It. I’m thrilled to kick off this season with a conversation with the incredible George Saunders. George has written some of my favorite recent fiction, and his 2022 book Liberation Day is a fascinating story collection that we get into deeply here. We talk about Johnny Tremain, humor in stories, drawing on memories of old jobs, late stage capit...

Katy Kirby will be joining myself and The Uptown Controllers on tour starting next week so I caught up with her on this special flash episode of That’s How I Remember It. Katy was in the parking lot of the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach CA when she dialed in, so there’s a little ambient noise, but that’s life on the road. And perhaps it added to our discussion about learning to sing harmonies, qu...

Today I fly out to start the Uptown Controllers tour this weekend in Odense, Denmark. To celebrate, we’re releasing this flash episode where I have a small chat with Scott Lavene, who will be supporting on most of the dates. Scott is a brilliant songwriter who released one of my favorite records in recent memory, “Milk City Sweethearts”. We talked about the record and the upcoming tour. Check out...

Adam Duritz is my guest on this week’s That’s How I Remember It and I am quite psyched about it. Adam is obviously the singer and songwriter of platinum selling band Counting Crows, and has been making thoughtful and great music for decades now. I met Adam when Counting Crows took THS on tour in Europe/UK in 2009 and was so excited he agreed to do this. We talked about how the details matter so mu...

Maggie Smith is my guest on this week’s That’s How I Remember It. Maggie is the author of four full length poetry collections, the most recent being Goldenrod from 2021. She also wrote Keep Moving, an essay collection about loss, creativity, and change. Maggie is the author of "Good Bones," a poem that went viral in 2016 and reached a massive audience across the globe; the last line of that poem “...

Tom Perrotta is my guest on this week’s That's How I Remember It. Tom is a fantastic author of at least eight novels, many of which have been made into films and TV series. This includes Election, Little Children, Mrs. Fletcher, and The Leftovers. On this episode we talk about his decision to revisit the Election character Tracy Flick in his new novel Tracy Flick Can’t Win, and his approach. We al...

That’s How I Remember It is taking a break from hosting guests this week as we gear up for the final few episodes of Season 1. Instead, we are featuring this "Flash Episode," where I talk about the upcoming tour I’m doing with The Uptown Controllers in UK/Europe and North America. Listen up to hear some thoughts on all the dates, the support, the band, and the origin of the band name. Check out cr...

Emily Haines is my guest on this week’s That's How I Remember It. Emily is the lead singer and a songwriter in Canadian rock band Metric who have a 20 year career and recently released their powerful new record Formentera. She’s also released solo music as Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton. We talked about writing love songs to friends, searching for a past version of NYC, working out your problems...

Allison Moorer is my guest on this week’s That’s How I Remember It, and it’s a great one. Allison is a wildly accomplished singer, songwriter, producer, and author. Beginning her recording career in 1997, she has released 10 albums. In 2019, she published her first memoir, Blood, about her early years and family. Earlier this year, she released her second book, I Dream He Talks to Me, as well as a...

John Darnielle is my guest on this week’s That’s How I Remember It. John has been making brilliant music as The Mountain Goats since 1991. Originally a solo lo-fi bedroom project, TMG has grown into a lush rock & roll juggernaut. John has also written four great novels, the most recent being Devil House, which we talked about here. We also talked about activated charcoal, local crime obsession, co...

Nick Lowe is my guest on this week's That’s How I Remember It. I am thrilled to have one of the all-time great rock & roll songwriters and performers on the show. We talked about the lasting power of “Peace, Love & Understanding,” the way Brinsley Schwarz’s letdown at the Fillmore East may have eventually led to punk rock, touring with Thin Lizzy, “The Bloke” that visits him with songwriting ideas...

My guest on this week's That's How I Remember It is Edward “Eddy” Kitsis, who has had a fantastic career as a writer and producer of TV and film. Alongside his partner Adam Horowitz, he has written for television shows like Lost, Popular, Felicity, and more. Eddy and Adam also created and produced Once Upon a Time, which ran for seven successful seasons on ABC, and wrote the screenplay for Tron: L...

Fred Armisen is this week’s guest on That’s How I Remember It. Fred has accomplished a ton in comedy, TV, and film as a cast member of SNL and creator of shows like Portlandia, Los Espookys, and more. But the story seems to start back when he was the drummer in the band Trenchmouth. We talked here about touring in the '90s, and how that banked a world of memories that he mined to help create his a...