Talkhouse Podcast

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of incredible young songwriter-performers whose music isn’t super similar, but who both embrace a sort of ultra-modern mish-mash of styles: Dorian Electra and Claud. Claud was the first performer signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ new label, Saddest Factory, after spending some time in a duo called Toast. Claud’s debut album, Super Monster, is most often described as “bedroom pop”—that term is brought up in this chat—but that’s only a small part of it. There are hints of all kinds of sounds here, from vaguely Latin-esque to pop-punkish on the delightful “That’s Mr. Bitch to You.”Dorian Electra has been at it a bit longer than Claud, having made a splash around ten years ago with playful, politically charged songs about money and gender fluidity, among many other things. Electra was featured on the Charli XCX track “Femmebot” a few years back, and in 2020 released their second album, My Agenda, which features everyone from Pussy Riot to Village People.Electra and Claud have a great conversation, tackling everything from the importance of Spotify playlists—which played a role in each of their success—to college to the complicated commercialization of Pride Month. Enjoy.This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

Liz Phair crashed into the indie-rock world in a huge way in the early ‘90s with her instant classic album Exile In Guyville, and she was already the talk of the town—in this case Chicago—before she had even performed publicly. It was an auspicious start to a fascinating career that went from indie-world stardom to Lilith Fair to composing for films and TV to a consciously pop-leaning album to a fantastic memoir called Horror Stories. And it comes full circle, sort of, with her new album Soberish, which she created with the help of producer Brad Wood, with whom she worked on her early albums, including Exile. Zella Day took a very different path in her music life, starting out very young—at age 15—trying to write songs and make it in Nashville. That led to a revelation that she’d rather perform herself, and eventually a record deal and 2015’s pop-centric album Kicker. She played Coachella and other huge festivals, but wasn’t fully satisfied with where she was artistically, as you’ll hear in this chat. After relocating to L.A., she fell in with a slightly more serious crowd, included pals like Lana Del Rey and Weyes Blood, and her music shifted a bit. She’s currently working on an album with producer Jay Joyce, and recently released a song with Natalie Mering of Weyes Blood called “Holocene.”Phair and Day hit it off right away in this conversation, diving right into a conversation about restarting their careers post-COVID—Phair’s dad is a retired infectious diseases expert, which gave her some unique insight—as well as the challenges of not giving too much of yourself during an album’s promotional cycle. They also tackle the meaning of the word “sober-ish,” which is pretty great. Enjoy.Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Liz Phair and Zella Day for chatting. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

This week on the Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a special treat for the drummers and drum geeks out there: a conversation between Morgan Simpson of Black Midi and Bill Bruford of, as he says in their chat, about 101 bands. That number for Bruford isn’t too far from reality. Over a 40+ year career, he played with some incredible names in the world of progressive music, most notably Yes and King Crimson, but also his own projects, including Earthworks. He’s an astoundingly versatile and musical drummer, and we were delighted to hear that he’s still got his ear to the ground all these years later, as a fan of the relatively young band Black Midi.You can hear it in Morgan Simpson’s voice that he’s both pleased and excited to make Bruford’s acquaintance as part of the podcast—and it’s actually the first episode we’ve recorded in quite some time where the participants are in the same room with each other! Simpson pays Bruford the ultimate drummer compliment when he says that he can recognize his playing within a couple of seconds, and Bruford isn’t shy about his love for Black Midi. He even compares them—rightfully so—to King Crimson.Bruford himself actually retired from performing about 10 years ago, while Black Midi is just getting started. The band released their second album, Cavalcade, in May, and it’s a massively eclectic, fantastic collection of songs—a little more focused than their first, perhaps, but no less rangy and striking. They’ll hit the road for a huge tour this fall, kicking off with a slot at Pitchfork Fest in Chicago. Bruford and Simpson have a lot of fun, as you’ll hear, talking about other drummers—Phil Collins, Billy Cobham, etc—as well as the similarities in their own playing. If you’ve never realized that a snare drum could sound like you’re quote “being slapped around the head with a wet kipper,” then this conversation is for you. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks so much to Bill Bruford and Morgan Simpson for chatting. If you like what you heard, follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting service, and all available social channels. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by the Range.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, former REM frontman Michael Stipe talks with veteran indie director Jim McKay about the production company they’ve run together since the late 1980s, C-Hundred Film Corp, and the amazing work that has come out of it. In a fascinating conversation, the two best friends not only walk us through the history of the company – its humble beginnings in Athens, GA, to creating PSAs with KRS-One and Natalie Merchant, and Michael making the *original* Orange is the New Black at the Sundance Film Festival back in the ’90s – but also touch on their latest projects (McKay’s new film, and the photography book which Stipe just published) and how the pandemic has affected them, both creatively and personally. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, director Edgar Wright chats with musicians Ron and Russell Mael of the beloved cult band Sparks, who are the subject of Wright’s deeply enjoyable new documentary, The Sparks Brothers. In a wide-ranging conversation, the friends and collaborators veer from gripping discussions about food to in-depth explorations of the Mael brothers’ longstanding love of their other creative passion, cinema, which finally resulted in Leos Carax directing their film Annette – which opens the Cannes Film Festival next month! They also discuss record-store hijinks, the genesis of past projects, compare notes on trailers, and much, much more. A veritable smorgasbord of an episode, it’s a real pleasure to listen to three people who so obviously relish each others company. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range.

Meghan Trainor burst into the public consciousness with her 2014 hit “All About That Bass,” which was accompanied by a triple-platinum album and loads of subsequent success. Two more albums followed, as did judging roles on the British version of The Voice, and perhaps more important to this conversation, a singing competition called The Four, where she was on a panel with Sean Combs and DJ Khaled. That show is where Trainor first encountered the spectacular singing voice of VINCINT, who wowed her and the other judges with his incredible stylistic range, culminating in a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” that was all around the internet a couple of years ago. VINCINT has since released a bunch of songs, and he’s finally ready to drop a proper debut album: There Will Be Tears is packed with what sound like future hits, and includes guest spots from Tegan and Sara, Parson James, Qveen Herby, and more.You’ll be hearing a ton more from VINCINT this month and year: He’s going to be on the Today Show, as you’ll hear in the chat, and he’s headlining HBO Max’s Pride programming. Trainor is awfully busy herself, having recorded and released a holiday album during quarantine and, in bigger news, signed a huge cross-platform deal with NBCUniversal that will include a comedy series at NBC. But she was so psyched about VINCINT’s album that she made some time to chat about it with him, and about their favorite songwriters, mutual acquaintances, and advice on dealing with stardom. Enjoy.This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by The Range.

Today’s Talkhouse podcast started with a little bit of serendipity in the form of album release dates: Both of our guests, Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast and producer/musician/former Vampire Weekend guy Rostam, have excellent records coming out on June 4. They’re also fans of each other’s work, so we figured it made plenty of sense to put them together.Zauner’s album, her third under the Japanese Breakfast name, is called Jubilee, and as you’ll hear in this conversation, it took a deliberate turn toward slightly happier themes than her first two. It comes hot on the heels of Zauner’s first book, a heartbreaking memoir called Crying In H Mart, that deals with her mother’s death—also a theme in her early music—and food, lots of food. It’s a really touching read, and an ideal companion to her musical catalog, which grew in really compelling ways with Jubilee.Rostam is best known as a founding member of Vampire Weekend, and even though he officially left the band a few years ago, he still contributes some songwriting and production work. He’s kept plenty busy otherwise, producing records and writing songs with an incredible array of other artists, from Hamilton Leithauser to HAIM to Clairo. His first proper solo album is the gentle, string-filled, fantastic Half-Light, which came out in 2017, and now he’s releasing Changephobia, which as you’ll hear ditches the string section and brings in a sax, among other things.These two jump right into a conversation that flits around from silly to deep: On one hand, they talk about childhood loves of chess and fencing and the importance of song five on an album. On the other, Zauner gets rightfully annoyed at interview questions she gets that other people don’t, and Rostam talks about being Persian in a band that was sometimes pegged as particularly white. It’s a funny, smart chat. Enjoy.This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme was composed and performed by The Range.

Chris Gethard is a comedian whose stories are often so serious and touching that they make people cry, and Jeff Rosenstock writes and sings heartfelt songs that are also witty and funny enough to make you laugh. So it’s no wonder that these two are friends and comrades in arms: From practically the moment they met, they could tell they were on the same page.Gethard has had a boundary-defying career that I’ll try and fail to quickly encapsulate here. He’s been a stand-up comedian, but perhaps more importantly the host of a public access show bearing his name that eventually ran for three seasons on a couple of different cable networks and was, to put it bluntly, kind of insane. He spun his stand-up into an off-Broadway show about depression, alcoholism, and suicide called Career Suicide, which later became an HBO special produced by Judd Apatow. Somewhere in there, he started several podcasts, the most popular of which is Beautiful/Anonymous, wherein he spends an hour with an anonymous stranger telling him their deepest secrets. I have yet to mention his books, his other podcasts, his appearances in movies and TV shows like Broad City and The Office, and more. The occasion for this conversation is the release of Gethard’s newest thing, called Half My Life, which is sort of a hybrid tour documentary and stand-up special that he recorded at ten venues around the country, including one with an audience of live alligators. It’s available on demand starting June 1.Jeff Rosenstock has been making music in various guises and with lots of people since the late 1990s, when he was in a ska-punk band called the Arrogant Sons of Bitches. He went on to greater renown in Bomb the Music Industry before launching a pretty incredible solo career, in which he combines super thoughtful, personal and political lyrics with catchy, genre-blending sounds. So maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise when, earlier this year, he released a song-for-song reworking of his 2020 album No Dream called Ska Dream, on which he re-recorded every track… but ska. He roped in amazing guests, too—from Angelo Moore of Fishbone to members of PUP and Deafheaven. In this conversation, Gethard and Rosenstock are, unsurprisingly, both funny and serious. They’ve got doubts about whether audiences will be there when they return from lockdown, but they’ve also got a relentless desire to create art and to do the right thing. It’s refreshing, and I hope you enjoy it.This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse theme was written and performed by The Range.

Blake Mills has the kind of resume that might make the average person feel really lazy. Not only is he an active musician, but also a Grammy-winning producer (for Alabama Shakes’ 2015 album Sound and Color), a collaborator to the stars—including the likes of Fiona Apple and Bob Dylan—and most recently, one of the guys in charge of the legendary Sound City studio in L.A. Mills’ newest musical project is a collaboration with legendary bassist Pino Palladino called Notes With Attachments. Just prior to that, it was the Pitchfork Best New Music designee Mutable Set, from 2020.Nick Sanborn is half of Sylvan Esso, along with Amelia Meath. The duo recorded their third and latest album, the excellent Free Love, while they were constructing a brand new studio, called Betty’s, on their farm in North Carolina. The album came out in September of last year, which obviously meant touring was off the table, but Sanborn got plenty busy with production work, including helping to create the most recent Flock of Dimes record with recent Talkhouse guest Jenn Wasner. Since the album’s release, Nick and Amelia have kept busy, releasing videos, a killer remix of their song “Numb,” and a live album called WITH. And now they’ve rescheduled a big tour for this fall, kicking off at Bonaroo, where they’ll host the Super Jam. Check out sylvanesso.com for tour dates.Sanborn and Blake get right into it in this conversation, covering the intimate relationships that make for good records, the joy and trepidation about returning to public stages, and even how weird it is to do the Talkhouse Podcast. Enjoy.This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse Podcast theme is composed and performed by the Range.

This week, we revisit a chat from last year, featuring Mac DeMarco and Dayglow's Sloan Struble. The second Dayglow album, Harmony House, comes out May 21. Check it out! ------------------- On this week’s show, a young gun picks a veteran’s brain. A youngish veteran, admittedly — Mac DeMarco’s only 30, but compared to 21 year old Spotify-wunderkind Sloan Struble, aka Dayglow, he’s already spent a lifetime in the music industry trenches.The two take in a lot in this conversation. We hear Mac’s origin story, and get a nice overview of his career. We get insight into what it’s like finding fast fame online in 2020, and the two dissect the term “DIY” and the changing definition of “indie.”Check it out, and subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.  —Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producerThis week’s talk was originally produced by Mark Yoshizumi and Elia Einhorn. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse Podcast theme song was composed and performed by The Range.