Talkhouse Podcast

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of fantastic musicians who’ve been intimately involved with each other’s lives and work for the past decade and a half: Cate Le Bon and Huw Evans.Le Bon and Evans each have their own incredible discographies that wouldn’t have been the same without the other: They’re not in a band together, but each has been a key component of the other’s work over the years, starting when they were young and romantically involved. Though they’re no longer in a relationship, they’re still a huge part of each other’s lives. And as you’ll hear in this conversation, they like to give each other shit—to the point where while recording I wasn’t sure if there was some real hostility happening. (There wasn't.)Evans records under the name H. Hawkline, and this week he’ll release his fifth album, Milk For Flowers. It’s his most personal and intense yet, though strong emotions remain shrouded in what he once called “strange pop.” Hawkline first found a bit of fame in his and Le Bon’s native Wales as a TV presenter, but found his musical voice with a unique blend of classic-sounding songwriting flecked with psychedelic and folk influences. He’s worked with Tim Presley of White Fence a bunch; as you’ll hear, Presley even played a pivotal non-musical role in the creation of Milk For Flowers. Le Bon produced it, helping to shepherd some intense feelings onto tape. Here’s the title track.Evans was there right at the start of Le Bon’s career, as you’ll hear in this chat: They were living together, and he convinced her to start playing her otherworldly songs outside of their house. He even had to come up with her stage name in order to create a flyer: What may or may not have been a reference to Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon stuck. The two eventually moved to Los Angeles together and continued making music: Le Bon has amassed an unforgettable discography—you know immediately when you hear her music. (Jeff Tweedy once said he could always tell when it was Le Bon playing guitar, which sounds like a compliment to me.) Le Bon’s latest album is last year’s Pompeii, a grand, height-of-the-pandemic record that feels like an amazing high-wire act, with saxophone, clarinet, and synthesizers all complementing her voice, guitar, and bass. And it’s a matter of some debate, as you’ll hear, whether Evans contributed any bass as well. Check out “Remembering Me” from Pompeii.In addition to giving each other grief about song titles and bass parts, the two talk about their history together, about how Le Bon narrowly avoided recording a song that sounded like Jane’s Addiction, their different writing styles, and about how the story of Le Bon’s first gig was like “a shit indie film.” Enjoy.Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Huw Evans and Cate Le Bon for letting us in on their chat. If you liked what you heard, please followTalkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and be sure to check out all the other podcasts in our network, including Jokermen, Craig Finn’s That’s How I Remember It, and more. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse episode, we’ve got a couple of old friends who’ve made some great music both together and separately, and who record under interesting names: Chaz Bear and Hannah van Loon.Those aren’t even the interesting names I was talking about. Chaz Bear is better known as Toro Y Moi, a pioneer in the chillwave genre who started releasing records about a dozen years ago. But that microgenre never quite captured what Toro Y Moi is all about, because nothing really can. Chaz Bear loves to jump around sonically, dipping his toes into indie rock, hip-hop, and even some jazzy influences. He’s got enough excess energy that Toro Y Moi isn’t even his only musical outlet, and he also moonlights as a graphic designer. This spring and summer he’ll open shows for Caroline Polachek, and he’s also part of the new ReSet touring festival that’s hitting bit cities this year. Oh, and he’s still got time to collaborate with today’s other guest.Hannah van Loon has been making music as Tanukichan since 2016 or so, and Chaz Bear has been involved in quite a lot of it. In addition to releasing it via his own imprint, Company, Bear has produced quite a bit of van Loon’s music and collaborated with her on it, including the brand new Gizmo, which is out March 3. It’s a slightly more uplifting experience than her lovely but kinda dark debut, 2018’s Sundays. Her publicist describes one song on the new record, “Don’t Give Up,” as nu-metal meets Cocteau Twins, which is sort of simultaneously wrong and exactly right. Check out a different song, ”Take Care,” right here.Van Loon and Bear are both a little bit introverted, as you’ll hear, but they chat a bit about her woodworking, his studio, and… TikTok. They talk a bunch about TikTok—whether it’s a force for good or evil, what kinds of weird corners you can find on it, and how it’s actually a really great tool for learning about new music. Enjoy.Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Chaz Bear and Hannah van Loon for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great written content we’ve got at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! 

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of women who came up together during one of the most exciting musical eras ever, and who’ve got the stories to prove it: Gina Birch and Vivien Goldman.Birch started the Raincoats with friends from a London art college in 1977, stepping right into the burgeoning punk scene with records that were notoriously challenging in a scene not known for being particularly welcoming to women to begin with. The Raincoats were never poppy enough to flirt with the mainstream, but thanks to Kurt Cobain, the band had a bit of a resurrection in the mid-1990s. At Cobain’s behest, Nirvana’s American label re-released the Raincoats catalog, complete with liner notes by Cobain, and the band subsequently made its first album in over a decade. They were even set to tour with Nirvana in Europe, but Cobain’s death scuppered that plan. But Birch didn’t slow down; she set out on a filmmaking career while still pursuing music; she even made music videos for the likes of New Order and The Libertines. Later this year, Birch’s paintings will accompany a hardbound volume of Sharon Van Etten’s lyrics. Just recently, Jack White’s Third Man Records came calling, and it reignited Birch’s musical endeavors: This week marks the release of her first proper solo album, called I Play My Bass Loud. Check out the title track right here.Vivien Goldman is known more as a writer than as a musician, but she’s done both of those things and much, much more. She worked in PR for Bob Marley and the Wailers way back when—and she lives part of the time in Jamaica nowadays, which is where she Zoomed in from. At the height of the punk boom, she released an influential single called “Launderette” before transitioning more into writer and journalist mode: She was the editor of influential UK music paper Sounds and co-wrote the Massive Attack song “Sly.” She was also roommates with Chrissie Hynde and, more important to this conversation, Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records, which is how she got to know Gina Birch. These days, Goldman has been teaching about the history of punk at NYU, and she dove back into music last year, releasing an album called Next is Now. I’ve only scratched the surface, too: Check out viviengoldman.com for a more complete picture.In this conversation, Birch and Goldman chat about the old days and the newer days, how roles and respect for women have changed over the decades, and about the famous musician and producer, Youth, who encouraged them both—and produced both of their new records. Enjoy.Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Gina Birch and Vivien Goldman for this fantastic chat. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all we’ve got on offer at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of pioneering musical searchers who came together for a Grammy-nominated record last year: Angélique Kidjo and Ibrahim Maalouf.Now, trying to encapsulate Kidjo’s career into the little space I have here is an even more daunting task than usual—and we’ve had some really accomplished people on this podcast. Born in West Africa, Kidjo has ably explored various musics over the past 40 years or so, winning fans with an incredible range of styles and interests. She’s played on Lilith Fair, won Grammys, been a muse for Philip Glass, started a foundation to empower girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa, collaborated with everyone from Carlos Santana to Ezra Koenig to Dr. John to Josh Groban to Kronos Quartet—and that list goes on and on. The only real constant in her career—besides a sort of deep, inexplicable beauty—is a restlessness. Kidjo is always looking for the next thing to spark her interest, which led to a recent Grammy-nominated collaboration with today’s other guest, Ibrahim Maalouf.Maalouf is a French-Lebanese trumpeter who shares a musical outlook with Kidjo—both care deeply about always pushing the boundaries of what they do, and never repeating themselves. To that end, they collaborated on last year’s Queen of Sheba, which takes the oft-told Biblical story to new places. KIdjo wrote the lyrics in the Yoruba language, and Maalouf’s music builds a bridge between the sounds of the Middle East and Africa. Since that record came out, Maalouf has already released another, Capacity to Love, on which he examines American sounds—specifically hip-hop—gathering guests like Eric the Architect from Flatbush Zombies and Pos from De La Soul. Also, strangely, Sharon Stone.In this lovely and enlightening conversation, Kidjo and Maalouf trade stories about their inspiration behind making music, and each shares some really profound advice they got as children. Kidjo speaks about the recent loss of her mother, and what that’s meant to her spiritually—and how it might affect her next album, which sounds like it will be deeply personal. Enjoy.Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Angélique Kidjo and Ibrahim Maalouf for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff we’ve got going at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a couple of old friends who’ve both been trying new things lately: Hannibal Buress and Kristian Mercado. Hannibal Buress just celebrated his 40th birthday, which means he’s spent more than half his life making people laugh for a living. He started out doing stand-up in his hometown of Chicago, winning audiences small and then eventually very large by telling pointed jokes with a sort of super laid-back style. He briefly wrote for Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, and you’ve almost certainly seen him on The Eric Andre Show or Broad City, or maybe one of his many stand-up specials. In the past few years, though, Buress has turned his attention to music, releasing a bunch of hip-hop tracks under the name Eshu Tune. Though rumors of his retirement from comedy seem to be exaggerated—he talks about that here—he is taking music seriously. Or maybe seriously isn’t exactly the right word, but it’s his focus. Check out the Eshu Tune song “Knee Brace” right here. The other side of this chat, Kristian Mercado, is best known as a filmmaker; he’s made music videos and directed stand-up specials for Michael Che, Taylor Tomlinson, and Ilana Glazer—and of course Hannibal Buress, with whom he worked on the weird and wonderful Miami Nights. Mercado is about to take the biggest jump a director can: He just directed his first feature film, called If You Were The Last, which will have its world premiere at this year’s South By Southwest festival in Austin. I haven’t seen it, but it stars Anthony Mackie and it’s a sci-fi love story, so I’m in. Mercado has also started dabbling in stand-up comedy, inspired by the many comics he’s worked with over the years, including, of course Hannibal. These two chat about how they work, and Buress drops the news that he’s working on a feature-length script of his own—Mercado can’t wait to see it. Buress also quizzes Mercado on the most important people on a film set, and Mercado talks about the joys of experiencing the Sundance Film Festival under the influence of psychedelics. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Hannibal Buress and Kris Mercado for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff we’ve got going at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve put together the drummers from two of the UK’s biggest bands in recent memory: Dave Rowntree and Philip Selway.Rowntree came to fame with Blur, one of the original Britpop bands of the early 1990s. I probably don’t need to give you much biography on Blur, but in the band’s couple of long hiatuses, Rowntree has lived about a dozen lives. He’s been an amateur pilot, a professional lawyer, an elected politician, and a social activist. On the music front, he found yet another career creating soundtracks for TV and film, starting with the Bros documentary After the Screaming Stops. Blur is back together for some massive shows in 2023, but during the pandemic Rowntree got together—virtually, of course—with producer Leo Abrahams to make his proper solo album. Freed from the constraints of both his bandmates and showrunners, Rowntree did his own thing, and the result is Radio Songs, a delightful 10-song album that flirts with Britpop here and there, but flirts with other interesting sounds as well. Here’s “London Bridge.”Philip Selway is best known as the drummer for another huge British band, Radiohead, with whom he’s been making music since 1985. Though he always had the itch to write his own songs, it wasn’t until 2010 that Selway actually took the leap and released his first solo album, the gentle Familial. In between Radiohead duties, he’s found the time to release another one—the more sonically expansive Weatherhouse in 2014—and work on some soundtracks as well. Selway is now gearing up for the release of his third and most ambitious album yet: Strange Dance comes out toward the end of February, and it features a bunch of Selway’s musical friends on a very cinematic-yet-personal-sounding set songs. You can preorder various formats here; in the meantime, check out “Check for Signs of Life." In this conversation, these two drummers sound immediately chummy, though they were only passing acquaintances beforehand. They talk about stepping away from bigger bands to do your own thing, including the process of finding your own voice. “What if it’s rubbish?” laughs Rowntree at the top of the chat, proving that even the biggest stars can have doubts. Enjoy.Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Dave Rowntree and Philip Selway for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all we’ve got to offer at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of multi-hyphenates who have recently joined music-world forces: Justin Tranter and Jake Wesley Rogers.Tranter first found music-biz fame with the band Semi-Precious Weapons, which had a decade-long run starting in 2004, and whose biggest claim to fame—besides their music itself—was opening for Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball tour. But Tranter pivoted after Semi-Precious Weapons split up, and started writing songs for and with other artists—but not just any artists. Tranter has written for and/or with Justin Bieber, Imagine Dragons, Selena Gomez, Gwen Stefani, and many, many more—chances are good you’ve heard a Justin Tranter composition on the radio, even if you didn’t know it. Tranter has also written a bunch of songs for the upcoming Grease prequel series, Rise of the Pink Ladies, and seven songs on the brand-new album by the massive Italian band Måneskin. Tranter has also been an incredible activist in the LGBTQ+ community and beyond, and their next move is becoming, as you’ll hear in this chat, a mogul. That’s where the other half of today’s Talkhouse Podcast comes into the picture: Jake Wesley Rogers recently signed on with Tranter’s new record label, Facet, and the two have plans to conquer the world together—I wouldn’t bet against them. Rogers is from a younger generation, having grown up with the instant gratification of social media. He even appeared on America’s Got Talent at 15, and started writing songs even earlier than that. But Rogers really finds his voice with a couple of recent EPs, Pluto and Love. Tranter and Rogers also recently co-wrote a song called “Hindsight,” which plays over the end credits of Bros, the first gay rom-com ever released by a major studio—they talk about that here a bit as well. Check out that song below.In this conversation, Tranter and Rogers talk about their daily processes, including The Artists' Way, they talk about great pop songs, great middle school teachers, destroying the patriarchy, and the dangers and joys of social media. Enjoy.Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Justin Tranter and Jake Wesley Rogers for chatting. If you like what you heard, please check out all the goodness on Talkhouse.com and subscribe to our weekly e-mail newsletter. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, our guests begin as strangers and end their conversation as family: It’s Pamela Adlon chatting with Tegan and Sara Quin.Adlon has had an incredible career over the past 40 or so years; no matter what your pop culture diet, she has probably sneaked into your consciousness one way or another. Maybe you have vague memories of her character on The Facts of Life from the early ‘80s, or perhaps her roles on Californication and Louie in more recent years. Adlon has also had an incredible shadow career doing voices in animated shows, where she’s best known as Bobby Hill on King of the Hill. But perhaps the culmination of all that fantastic work is Better Things, the show that Adlon created, executive-produced, starred in, and let’s face it, gave birth to. Better Things just concluded its fifth and final season, and it stuck the landing so well. It’s one of those shows that hits that rare mixture of funny and true—and it definitely struck a nerve with the other half of today’s Talkhouse talk: Tegan and Sara.Tegan and Sara started making music as teenagers, and given that they’re twin sisters, it’s no wonder that they were immediately in sync with each other. The duo were sort of flung into the big time immediately, being signed to Neil Young’s record label and opening for him when they were basically still kids. But some sage advice that you’ll hear about in this chat helped Tegan and Sara navigate what’s become a fruitful and varied career: They’ve made a ton of great music, stuck their heads into the mainstream here and there, and kept their vision intact. They’ve also written a memoir called High School, which was recently adapted into an Amazon TV show. They’re unabashed with their love and respect for Better Things, which may have seeped into their own show. Their latest album is called Crybaby, the memoir and TV show are both called High School, and they’ve got a new graphic memoir called Junior High coming out later this year. Check out “Yellow” from Crybaby.In this delightful conversation, Tegan and Sara gush a little bit about Better Things and Adlon in general, and in turn Adlon offers to join their family. They talk about their various creative endeavors, the niceness of Neil Young, Sara’s recent parenthood, the “hairy edge” that Better Things walked, and lots more. Enjoy.Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Pamela Adlon, Tegan Quin, and Sara Quin for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff on our website and our podcast network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

For our first brand new Talkhouse episode of 2023, we’ve got a short but great chat with three guys from the rollicking Australian rock scene: Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Jack “Cool Breeze” Crowther, and Elliot “Dr. Love Wisdom” O’Reilly.Yes, they have excellent names, and so do their bands. Kenny-Smith is part of the super-prolific King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, which since coming together in Melbourne in 2010 has released an incredible 23 albums—three of those in October of 2022 alone. The band has built up a manic following along the way, building up a whole universe—people call it the Gizzverse—of characters and sounds that range from extended rock jams to jazz to microtonal exploration. If you’re not already familiar, there’s no perfect place to start, though last year’s Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, and Lava is accessible in its own way. In addition to non-stop touring and recording with King Gizz, Kenny-Smith also leads another band, The Murlocs, which put out their sixth album, Rapscallion, just last year as well. To borrow a funny line from Pitchfork, being a King Gizzard fan can feel like a full-time job, but seems like a fun one to me. Check out “Iron Lung” from that album I mentioned above with the really long name.The other two gents in this conversation, Jack Crowther and Elliot O’Reilly, are part of Babe Rainbow, another hardworking Australian band. Though not quite as busy as King Gizzard, Babe Rainbow has managed to release five full lengths in just the last five or so years as well—including one produced by a member of King Gizzard. Theirs is a slightly more focused take on psychedelic rock—no less spacey but a bit more structured. Here’s “Inner Space” from their latest album, The Organic Band.In this conversation, these three friendly guys talk about recent flooding in Australia that involved some cat rescuing, as well as fashion, having babies, surfing, and lots more. Enjoy.Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Jack Crowther, and Elliot O’Reilly for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out Talkhouse.com for tons of great written pieces and other podcasts in our network. This episode was recorded and produced by Keenan Kush, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!This episode was recorded live at Desert Daze 2022. Special thanks to Desert Daze and to Dad Grass for making this episode possible. 

Happy Holidays. While we're on break, we'd love to share with you a recent addition to the Talkhouse Podcast Network, Noble Champions with Santigold.This episode originally aired on Nov. 7, 2022, and is titled "Questlove, Angela Yee and Tunde Adebimpe." Subscribe to Noble Champions with Santigold. In this episode, Santi rallies her longtime friends Questlove, Angela Yee, and Tunde Adebimpe, who are fellow artists, industry insiders, and cultural critics, to try to tackle the question, 'What exactly is Black Music?'. They discuss complex issues like what happens when you step out of the genre box - specifically when Black artists are making music that’s left outside the 'Black Music' box, who built the box, and what’s the bigger impact of caging in or boxing out music and the artists that make it? All this while geeking out about some of their favorite seminal recording artists like Bad Brains, Nina Simone, Fela Kuti, The Last Poets and more.