Stereo Embers: The Podcast

“Bach Is My Torah" The Philadelphia-born Eric Bazilian's dad was a psychiatrist but it was his concert pianist mother who likely influenced him to start playing the piano at age 5. Four years later he was playing guitar and seven years later at the age of 16 he had his first band, Evil Seed. While getting a B.S. in Physics at the University of Pennsylvania, Bazilian and his college pal Rob Hyman formed a band called Baby Grand and after that band called it a day with two albums under their belts, Bazilian and Hyman formed the Hooters. Over the course of their winning career, the Hooters put out six albums, had a handful of top 40 hits with songs like "Day By Day” and "And We Danced," they opened Live Aid in Philadelphia, the Amnesty International Concert at Giants Stadium in ’86 and the Roger Waters The Wall Concert in Berlin in 1990. Bazilian not only produced Joan Osborne’s Grammy Nominated Relish album, he wrote "One Of Us," which is one of the most memorable songs of the last 50 years. It was covered by "everyone from Prince to Seal and it was used as the theme song for the TV show "Joan of Arcadia," for which Bazilian won an ASCAP Film and Television Music Award. Over the course of his career he’s written and co written songs for and with a crazy list of talent. Here’s a partial list: Patty Smyth, Bon Jovi, BIf Naked, Ronnie Spector, Matt Nathanson, and Robbie Williams. In 2000 Bazilian was inducted into the Philadelphia Walk of Fame on the Avenue of the Arts and his new solo album Bazilian is a life-affirming blast of rootsy pop stomp that’s energizing, soulful and positively infectious. The Hooters are an ongoing proposition and they’re massively popular in Germany and Scandinavia, playing sell-out shows to adoring fans. In this chat, Bazilian talks to Alex about life in Sweden, why Bach is his Torah, and saying no to Bob Dylan... www.ericbazilian.com www.hootersmusic.com www.alexgreenonline.com www.bombshellradio.com

"Mercy Rising" The California born singer/songwriter Maia Sharp wrote her first song at 5, so it’s no surprise that over the years her compositions have been recorded by—and by the way this is going to be a murderers row of talent, so get ready—Bonnie Rait, Keb Mo, Cher, Art Garfunkel, Paul Carrack and Trisha Yearwood. More Maia Sharp resume items: and mind you, this is a partial list: she’s toured all over the U.S. and the UK, she’s appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered, CBS Early Morning and the Today Show, she’s an adjunct professor at NYU’s Summer Songwriter workshop and she’s been writing for Songwriting with Soldiers where active duty service members team up with songwriters who help them turn their stories into songs. Sharp has put out nearly ten solo albums and her newest is Mercy Rising. Filled with poeticism, wisdom, and observational grace, Mercy Rising is a moving collection that’s a perfect balance of elegance and intensity. In this conversation Maia talks about recovering from COVID, the power of Bonnie Raitt and what it was like to step into a songwriting castle with Jane Siberry and Jules Shear and get down to business. Oh, and we have a super psychic moment about Louise Goffin….listen for it! www.maisharp.com https://www.maiasharp.com/shop https://www.instagram.com/maiasharpmusic/ www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenonline.com

“Nothing’s Ever Lost" Eleventh Dream Day have never stopped being great. Since their self-titled 1987 EP, over the course of 13 albums the band have retained the same scruffy splendor that has always made them one of the most riveting acts around. I always told my friends they sounded like a cross between X and R.E.M. but that was an oversimplification on my part. That might have even been a bit lazy. The fact is, Eleventh Dream Day have a lot in common with the bands I mentioned, but they’re so much more than that. They’re an arresting blend of muscle and heart and even when the songs jangle they still sting. The vulnerable numbers have frayed, poetic finesse and the faster ones rip away with ragged and battered beauty. Singer Rick Rizzo, to borrow an expression from Saul Bellow, is an open wound of a man and drummer/singer Janet Bean is a revelation—she’s sonorous and sorrowful, but she also blazes through each number with conviction and heart. Bean you might recognize from being one of the co founders of Freakwater and bassist Doug McCombs plays in Tortoise, but when they come together as Eleventh Dream Day, the sound is distinct, stirring and always energizing. The band’s new album is called Since Grazed and it’s a startling collection of thrilling indie rock bliss. Jagged, gripping, moving and deeply inspiring, the album shows that Eleventh Dream Day remain as vital as ever. In this chat with Rick Rizzo and Janet Bean, we talk about life on a major label, the Meat Puppets’ RV and why it’s always a good idea to listen to the Fall... Order Since Grazed: https://eleventhdreamday.com http://www.comedyminusone.com http://www.facebook.com/comedyminusone http://www.twitter.com/comedyminusone

"A Good Feelin’ To Know" The Ohio-born Richie Furay has a resume' that’s kind of staggering. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee was not only a co-founder of Buffalo Springfield, he was also a co-founder of Poco and he was in the Au Go Go Singers, the Souther Hillman Furay band and he fronts the Richie Furay band as well. Although Buffalo Springfield wasn’t around that long, the band reformed in 2010 and Furay found himself playing everywhere from the Bridge School Benefit to Bonnaroo. A singer whose phrasing is as graceful as they come and a guitar player who is both thoughtful and dynamic, Furay is not only one of the greats, he’s one of the main architects of the country rock sound that later influenced bands I grew up listening to like Green on Red or Uncle Tupelo. Furay was set to retire from the road in 2020 but the pandemic thwarted those plans, so his farewell tour had to be put off. Dates are being rescheduled, but in the meantime, the singer songwriter has just put out a double live album called 50th Anniversary Return To The Troubadour, a riveting set of classics that showcases Furay’s depth as a musician. That depth can also be seen in the upcoming Cameron Crowe narrated Richie Furay documentary Through It All: The Life and Influence of Richie Furay.

“Kicking Against Convention” Classical music is ruled by composers that are thought of as deities. Composers like Bach, Mozart and Beethoven are the undisputed masters of the genre and they nobody can argue with their compositions being the blueprints for the foundation of classical music. But for the Korean-born JooWan Kim, studying the masters at the Berklee School Of Music made him…a bit rebellious. Kicking against the rote conventions of classical composition, Kim found himself drawn towards hip-hop and the dynamism and energy made him wonder if grafting hip-hop with classical was possible. Turns out it was. Teaming up with his college pal Christopher Nicholas, Kim founded Ensemble Mik Nawooj, an invigorating and vibrant musical collective that’s got everything: flute, clarinet, drums, bass, a lyric soprano and an MC. Using an inventive technique called Method Sampling, as the basis for the architecture of each composition, Ensemble Mik Nawooj are one of the most original outfits out there. In this conversation with Kim and MC Sandman, the two talk to Alex about protest music, the value of studying music in higher education and how coming from two different worlds ended up forming one of the most creative working situations in modern music. The band’s new album Death Become Life is out now. https://miknawooj.bandcamp.com/album/death-become-life-2 http://www.ensemblemiknawooj.com/shop http://www.alexgreenonline.com http://www.bombshellradio.com Twitter: @emberseditor INST: @emberspodcast

“The Night Economy” Over the course of their brilliant career, which got started around 1999, Stars have put out nine winning and magical albums including Set Yourself on Fire and the Polaris-Prize nominated efforts In Our Bedroom After The War and The Five Ghosts. Their last full-length effort was 2017’s There Is No Love In Fluorescent Light, and I know that was four years ago, but don’t worry—new music is coming. Stars play a ravishing blend of jangly chamber pop, breezy new wave and melancholic indie rock. They fall somewhere between Prefab Sprout and Broken Social Scene and their songs are thoughtful, quirky, moving, inspiring and wrenching in all the right ways. They can evoke the bittersweet memories of the past and they can conjure the hope and optimism of the future. They’ve played Coachella and the WAYHOME festival in Toronto and their music has appeared in "Gossip Girl," "One Tree Hill," "The Vampire Diaries,” “Skins" and "Warehouse 13." The British-born Torquil Campbell is a musician, an actor on stage and film, a playwright and the host of a weekly podcast called The Soft Bulletin. Aside from his work in Stars, Campbell also put out albums with Memphis and he has a a solo project under the name Dead Child Star. In this conversation, which happens to take place on Campbell’s birthday, a lot of ground is covered: the resuscitation of the night economy, staying afloat financially as an artist during COVID, a mutual love of The Chills and why buying an album is still one of the best deals around.

“Lost And Found" One summer in the early '90s I drove around with only one cassette in my car and that was Born to Quit by the Smoking Popes. Led by the Illinois-born Josh Caterer and his brothers Eli and Matt, the band were nothing short of a revelation. Josh’s lilting vocals has all the elegance of Sinatra and the finesse of Morrissey, but it also had muscle. The songs? Good god—I mean, the album only clocks in at 28 minutes but the songs were so timeless and unique, you could cycle through it 50 times and repeat listens never chipped away at the brilliance of the tracks, it only reinforced that you were listening to a stone cold classic. The Popes tore it up—they toured with Green Day, Jawbreaker and Morrissey, had a bit of a hit with "Need You Around,” had their songs appear in movies like “Clueless" and "Tommy Boy" and found Morrissey himself declaring that he absolutely loved the band. Over the course of their career the Popes have put out seven albums, played massive gigs, like Riot Fest in 2016 and though they’ve broken up, gone on hiatus and reformed, they remain one of the most enduring outfits out there. As for Josh, you’ll hear a lot about him in this interview, but Josh has founded other bands like Duvall and the Jackson Mud Band over the years and his new album The Hideout Sessions is a live gig that was recorded in Chicago in October of 2020. Raw, powerful, intimate, and rousing, The Hideout Sessions finds Caterer pushing his voice in ways he never has before—he’s always been a great singer, but the evolution of his voice is on full display here—there’s a new layer of intensity and fragility that makes this live document incredibly moving. In this conversation we talk about the faulty Spotify model, the ‘90s, Jawbreaker, having COVID and why being found brings real understanding to being lost.

“The Cup Of Youth” If Kip Berman’s name sounds familiar to you, that’s for good reason. He fronted the beloved indie rock outfit The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart from 2007 to 20018. The NY-based band played all over the world, put out four perfect albums, culminating in 2017’s The Echoes Of Pleasure and they called it a day a year later. Berman moved to Princeton, New Jersey, started a family and started a new band as well. Dubbed The Natvral, Berman’s new musical project finds him swinging with freewheeling abandon and grinding poetic grace. Falling somewhere between Blood On The Tracks and Ezra Furman’s Day Of The Dog, his debut album Tethers is one of the year’s very best. Filled with rootsy snarl and howling bliss, Tethers is nothing short of a revelation. In this chat, Berman talks to Alex about discovering Fairport Convention, worrying about his kids in the age of COVID and the recent death of DJ Sophie. They also talk about our relationship to the past, their mutual love of Roddy Frame and why it took moving to New Jersey to start listening to British folk rock. https://thenatvral.bandcamp.com/album/tethers

“Consideration Of Rhythm" The Calgary-born Clea Anaïs is about to take flight in two ways. First, her solo career is blooming with the release of two new singles from her upcoming album and it won’t be long before her music is soaring through headphones across the world. It also won’t be long before she’s soaring across the world in a plane—not sure what you did during COVID, but Clea got her pilot’s license. The cello-playing Anaïs' name might sound familiar because she was the co-founder of the beloved Canadian outfit Raleigh who won alternative album of the year in 2018 at the YYC Music Awards. Over the years Clea has shared the stage with Unknown Mortal Orchestra and City and Color and she’s done session work for Astral Swans, Woodpigeon and 100 Mile House. Her solo work is a stirring blend of swirling indie rock and dreamy, sonorous pop that’s filled with wisdom, grace and resolve. Her voice is hypnotic and arresting and her textured arrangements are as ravishing as they are riveting. In this interview we talk about being raised by multi-ethnic parents, having a house full of sisters and how to respond when things get dark….

"From Georgia To New York" Nainnoh has been a model of adapting ever since she left her home in Georgia and moved to New York. Not the Georgia where its unlawful to have a glass of water when you’re standing in line to vote—the other Georgia. The one located at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia and bounded to the west by the Black Sea. Nainnoh will explain the rigors of such a move at a young age—so I’ll leave that to her. But what I will tell you is that she started music lessons at 7, getting her start on the piano, and by 11 she was crafting her own compositions. Influenced as much by the folk music of her homeland as she was by Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell, Nainnoh’s work captures a cosmological intellectualism wherein she contemplates the mysteries of the universe through the complex lenses of physics and astrology. Yeah, her work is pretty deep—both in lyrical scope and instrumentation. Her self-titled debut album is a riveting and mesmeric blend of undulating rhythms, lush pop textures, dreamy psychedelia and heartfelt poetry, The songs are both nostalgic and forward thinking and it’s some of the most unforgettable music you’ll ever hear. In this conversation we talk about the disorienting reality of coming to a new country at a young age, perfectionism, having parents who supported her creative freedom and a childhood of playing chess...