

Stereo Embers: The Podcast
Alex Green Online
Hosted by Alex Green, Stereo Embers: The Podcast is a weekly podcast airing exclusively on Bombshell Radio (www.bombshellradio.com) that features interviews with musicians, authors, artists and actors talking about the current creative moment in their lives.
A professor at St. Mary's College of California, Alex is the Editor-In-Chief of Stereo Embers Magazine (www.stereoembersmagazine.com), the author of five books and has served as a Speaker/Moderator for LitQuake, Yahoo!, The Bay Area Book Festival, A Great Good Place For Books, Green Apple Books, and The St. Mary's College Of California MFA Reading Series.
Stereo Embers The Podcast Theme: Brennan Hester
Follow Stereo Embers The Podcast on Social Media:
Instagram: @emberspodcast
Twitter: @emberseditor
SUBSCRIBE FREE on Apple Music:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stereo-embers-the-podcast/id1338543929?mt=2
Visit Alex Green: www.alexgreenonline.com
A professor at St. Mary's College of California, Alex is the Editor-In-Chief of Stereo Embers Magazine (www.stereoembersmagazine.com), the author of five books and has served as a Speaker/Moderator for LitQuake, Yahoo!, The Bay Area Book Festival, A Great Good Place For Books, Green Apple Books, and The St. Mary's College Of California MFA Reading Series.
Stereo Embers The Podcast Theme: Brennan Hester
Follow Stereo Embers The Podcast on Social Media:
Instagram: @emberspodcast
Twitter: @emberseditor
SUBSCRIBE FREE on Apple Music:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stereo-embers-the-podcast/id1338543929?mt=2
Visit Alex Green: www.alexgreenonline.com
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 10, 2024 • 1h 16min
Stereo Embers The Podcast 0365: Holly Palmer
"A Family Album"
The California-born and Washington-raised Holly Palmer has had quite a career. Signed to Reprise in the mid-nineties, Palmer garnered well-deserved critical-acclaim and toured with the likes of Paula Cole, k.d. Lang and Shawn Colvin. David Bowie asked her to sing background vocals on his Hours album and then he asked her to join his 1999 world tour as a singer/percussionist. Some career highlights: she joined Gnarls Barkley on their World Tour, recorded a duet with Michael Buble', sang background and played acoustic guitar on Idina Menzel's I Stand Tour, wrote the theme to the television show Mob City, and formed the musical duo Bubbles and Cheesecake with Ailee Willis who wrote September and Boogie Wonderland with Earth, Wind & Fire. She's worked with Jellyfish's Roger Manning Jr, Dr. Dre, Don Was and Dave Navarro--how's that for range? She can do anything. Holly Palmer has put out five perfect solo albums including her 1996 self-titled debut, 2007's Songs For Tuesday and 2017's A Family Album. A graduate of the Berkelee College Of Music Palmer has since gone on to explore the nuances of voice and music composition. Her phrasing, her timing and her beautiful timbre make her one of the greats. She's a mom, a wife, an artist and a student all at once and she just keeps crushing it.
www.hollypalmerlife.com
www.stereoembersmagazine.com
www.embersarts.com
www.bombshellradio.com
www.alexgreenbooks.com
Twitter: @emberseditor
IG: @emberspodcast
Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

Jan 3, 2024 • 42min
Stereo Embers The Podcast 0364: Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order)
"Movement"
There’s nothing about Peter Hook that I can tell you you don’t already know, so let’s just do a refresher run through his musical CV. In the late '70s Hook formed Joy Division with childhood pal Bernard Sumner after the two friends saw the Sex Pistols play in Manchester. The band only put out two albums and one of those albums, the legendary Closer was put out two months after the band had ceased to b,e due to the suicide of singer Ian Curtis on the eve of Joy Division’s debut US/Canada tour.
Rechristened New Order and consisting of the remaining members of Joy Division plus keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, New Order blended jittery post-punk rhythms with dance music. The result? Well, you know the result. They were one of the biggest bands of the '80s, spawning hits like True Faith, The Perfect Kiss, Subculture and Blue Monday, which was the biggest selling 12-inch of all time. It might still be. New Order dominated the '80s, but the '90s weren’t too shabby—they had a #1 UK hit with World In Motion in 1990 and they had their biggest US hit with “Regret” in 1993. They kept crushing it, putting out Get Ready in 2001 and collaborating with Billy Corgan and Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream. They were given the Godlike Genius award at the 2005 NME awards and got nominated for a Grammy in 2006 for Guilt Is a Useless Emotion. Then things got a bit sour, with Hook leaving the band in 2007 and forming his own outfit Peter Hook and the Light, a band that featured his son Jack and much to his fans delight, revisited the Joy Division and New Order songbooks. Over the course of his career Hook has worked with The Stone Roses, and Perry Farrell, he toured with the Durutti Column, put out albums with Revenge and Monaco and wrote one of the best music books ever: Substance; Inside New Order. This is a partial list, btw. Almost a partial partial list because when it comes to Peter Hook, there’s a lot of ground to cover. But these are the basics. Do a deeper dive after you hear the show—the guy is a titan. As for his split with New Order and his boyhood pal Bernard, we don’t have time to go over the legal end of that dissolution, so let’s just say this. If you’re hoping for a reunion you’re wasting your good hope energy. Not going to happen. As a bassist, he plays with an authoritative blend of prowl and sting and not only is he one of the all time greats, he also happens to be a nice guy. This chat covers his fractured friendship with Sumner, why the New Order/Joy Division songbooks appeal to fans across generations and what Hooky has learned from his old material.
www.peterhookandthelight.live
www.bombshellradio.com
www.embersarts.com
www.stereoembersmagazine.com
www.alexgreenbooks.com
Stereo Embers The Podcast
Twitter: @emberseditor
Instagram: @emberspodcast
Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

Dec 27, 2023 • 1h 21min
Stereo Embers The Podcast 0363: Mike Peters (The Alarm)
“Forwards”
For more than 40 years the Welsh band the Alarm have been one of the most consistent acts on the planet, playing songs with conviction, heart and belief. With almost 20 studio albums under their belts, along with a discography that includes live albums, box sets and EPs, The Alarm are one of those bands where you pretty much want everything they put out. From albums like Declaration to Strength to their brand new one Forwards, The Alarm are a completist’s band. Speaking of Forwards, it’s a remarkable record—singer/songwriter Mike Peters has never sounded better, his voice alive with muscle and belief. The Welsh band have had a remarkable career that’s filled with endless highlights-- they toured with U2 and Bob Dylan, played at Queen’s Live at Wembley concert in 1986, been on IRS’s the Cutting Edge and American Bandstand, had hit singles all over the world even cracking the Billboard Top 50 here in the States, and wrote a song that became the official Welsh anthem
for Euro 2020. This is a band that’s all about community, support and they remain as vital as ever.
www.thealarm.com
www.bombshellradio.com
www.stereoembersmagazine.com
www.alexgreenonline.com
www.embersarts.com
Stereo Embers:
Twitter: @emberseditor
IG: @emberspodcast
Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

Dec 20, 2023 • 1h 3min
Stereo Embers The Podcast 0362: Jim Fairchild (Modest Mouse, Grandaddy, Small Isles)
"Everything On Memory"
The Fresno-born, Modesto-raised Jim Fairchild got his start on guitar as a teenager and in the mid-nineties became the lead guitar player for the indie rock outfit Grandaddy. That would be enough to make a resume’ shimmer, but Fairchild was just getting started. He was the touring guitar player for Giant Sand, he worked with everyone from Hawaii to Dappled Cities and he took over for Johnny Marr in Modest Mouse in 2009 and played lead guitar for them until 2021. Fairchild fronted the band All Smiles, he was selected to lead a project at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2010 and started a new project called Grace Meridian in 2020. But that’s not all—Fairchild currently is the Director of A&R for Dangerbird Records and he’s scoring films like the documentary Common Ground and Bee The Change, which is narrated by Ellie Goulding. And we haven’t even talked about Small Isles yet. Their new EP Everything On Memory has been described by Fairchild as, "written as the imagined score to a Christopher Nolan-directed movie I dreamt about in which Donald and Steven Glover wrote a script in response to Modest Mouse's "Third Planet”. To my ears, Small Isles’ new release is a moody blend of spellbinding cinemascapes, arching crescendos, soaring distant melodies and futuristic percussion, all of which adds up to one of the most spellbinding releases of the year. Fairchild recently scored the documentary film Common Ground (Donald Glover, Laura Dern, Woody Harrelson, Rosario Dawson, Ian Somerhalder) which won the Tribeca Film Festival “Human/Nature” award. He is currently working on the follow up, Bee The Change narrated by Ellie Goulding, which will premiere at COP 28 (United Nations Climate Change Conference).
Small Isles on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/smallislespicturemusic
Bandcamp: https://smallislesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-valley-the-mountains-the-sea
www.stereoembersmagazine.com
www.embersarts.com
www.alexgreenbooks.com
www.bombshellradio.com
Twitter: @emberseditor
IG: @emberspodcast
Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

Dec 13, 2023 • 1h 41min
Stereo Embers The Podcast 0361: Jimme O'Neill (The Silencers, Finger Printz)
"Silent Highway"
Formed out of the ashes of the post-punk outfit Finger Printz, the Silencers' core was comprised of two members of that band--guitarist Cha Burns and singer Jimme O'Neill. The Silencers quickly signed to RCA and hit the ground running, putting out three brilliant albums in under five years. They toured with Squeeze, The Pretenders, The Alarm and at one point, when opening for Simple Minds at Wembley, they played in front of 80,000 people. And they crushed it. O'Neill is one of those frontmen you can't take your eyes off--he's a dynamic performer who's loaded with energy and charisma, making every second of a Silencers gig a thrilling experience. The Silencers have put out nearly fifteen albums, including A Letter From St. Paul, A Blues For Buddah, A Night Of Electric Silence and their latest effort Silent Highway, which marks their first album in fifteen years. And they haven't lost a step--O'Neill remains one of the most thoughtful songwriters around and Silent Highway is a thrilling return to form. Although Burns passed away in 2007, O'Neill is carrying the torch proudly along with a crack band that includes two of his kids, Aura and James O'Neill. This is an expurgated history of a brilliant band, but Jimme will fill in the gaps and then some--he's got some amazing stories and profound insights. This guy is the real deal.
www.thesilencersmusic.com
www.stereoembersmagazine.com
www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com)
www.embersarts.com (http://www.embersarts.com)
www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.c)
Twitter: @emberseditor
IG: @emberspodcast
Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com (mailto:editor@stereoembersmagazine.com)

Dec 6, 2023 • 1h 13min
Stereo Embers The Podcast 0360: Rain Phoenix and Kirk Hellie (Escape Artist Lovers)
"Follow The Leader"
So, Rain Phoenix first was on my radar back in 1991 when she and her brother River had a band called Aleka's Attic. They had a marvelous song called Across The Way on this compilation Tame Yourself, which also featured The Pretenders, Michael Stipe, the Indigo Girls and K.D. Lang. The Texas-born Phoenix acted in TV shows like Family Ties and Amazing Stories and in movies like Even Cowgirls Get The Blues and Hitch. She fronted Papercranes, who put out three really great albums and she was in the Galactic Country band Venus and the Moon with Chris Stills. She also put out a really stunning solo album called River, which was named after her late brother, in 2019. A native of Southern California, Kirk Hellie is like a music archeologist because he knows how to dig sounds out of the deepest of grounds. A lover and studier of Avant Garde music, was in bands like Hellie Siblings, Death Loop Detonator and Pink Noise Test. Hellie played with Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, and toured with The Cramps and Iggy Pop.Together, Phoenix and Hellie are Escape Artist Lovers, who play a dizzying blend of sonorous and scruffy indie rock that sounds something like Beth Orton fronting the Jesus and Mary Chain. The interplay between these two musicians is pure magic and the songs, whether they're stripped back or coated in layers of fuzz and groove, are delicious slices of melodic bliss.
https://escapeartistlovers.bandcamp.com/
www.launchleft.com
www.bombshellradio.com
www.embersarts.com
www.stereoembersmagazine.com
www.alexgreenbooks.com
Twitter: @emberseditor
IG: @emberspodcast
Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

Nov 29, 2023 • 1h 12min
Stereo Embers The Podcast 0359: Lara Somogyi
"Breathwork"
The Hawaii-born, New York raised and London Royal Academy of Music-educated Lara Somogyi is one of the most gifted harpists on the planet. A traditionalist and a modernist, Somogyi is an inventive instrumentalist who isn't afraid of exploring new creative possibilities for her instrument. As a composer, Somogyi has experimented with blending electronica and pedal effects and the results have yielded the boldest and most dynamic sonic leaps in the history of the harp. She has single-handedly recontextualized an instrument whose last great leap forward was probably during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, when its popularity led it to evolve into different iterations. Somogyi has emerged in recent years as the most in-demand session harpist around--she's not only recorded for movies like The Lion King and Coming To America 2 and television shows like Bridgerton and Little Fires Everywhere, she's played with John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, Ariana Grande, Josh Groban and Rufus Wainwright. Awarded as an honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) for her contributions to her field, her latest effort is an expanded edition of her exclamation mark album. That's right, it's just a single blast of punctuation, which is perfect, because it's a very singular album. Redolent with thrilling textures and virtuoso playing, ! is a stirring blend of sweeping soundscapes, moving crescendos and poetic subtlety. It's just gorgeous work. Lara is a thoughtful and fascinating musical practitioner, and she also happens to be an incredibly nice person.
www.larasomogyi.com
www.bombshellradio.com
www.embersarts.com
www.stereoembersmagazine.com
www.alexgreenbooks.com
Twitter: @emberseditor
IG: @emberspodcast
Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

Nov 22, 2023 • 49min
Stereo Embers The Podcast 0358: Thanksgiving Special With Justin Jeffrie (98 Degrees)
"Thanksgiving Day Special"
There's a lot of things I miss about being a kid--somebody else driving, somebody else making dinner, not having to pay bills, not having to shave or get gas or pay rent--I was just going mention one or two things, but apparently I'm not pleased about being an adult.
The reason why I brought this up is because the one thing I really miss about being a kid are the holiday TV specials that mark time.
From The Grinch That Stole Christmas to It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, those specials helped keep me grounded as a kid. They made the calendar kind of stop and forced me to realize where I was and who I was with.They felt like something tangible. I wish I could do something like that for you here on the podcast and the closest I can come is my chat with Justin of 98 degrees. To me, it feels Thanksgiving-ish. At first it's sort of a talking points interview, but then something happens and it just kind of takes off and it takes off in a way that has to do with actually caring about other people. I'm not going to say too much more, but I will say this. This is our Thanksgiving special and I'm very proud of it. I'm thankful for this chat with Justin, I'm thankful he opened up and I'm thankful you get to hear it. And THANK YOU, for continuing to support this podcast.
www.98degrees.com
www.bombshellradio.com
www.embersarts.com
www.stereoembersmagaine.com
www.alexgreenbooks.com
Twitter: @emberseditor
IG: @emberspodcast
Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

Nov 15, 2023 • 54min
Stereo Embers The Podcast 0357: Jess Klein
"When We Rise"
Over the course of her career, the New York born Jess Klein has put out nearly fifteen perfect albums. From her Rykodisc debut Draw Them Near in 2000 to other winning entries like 2006's City Garden and 2014's Learning Faith, Klein has demonstrated she's a singer/songwriter of tremendous strength and heart. Blessed with a natural penchant to write hook-filled songs with burning emotional center and big scruffy hearts, her new album When We Rise is another winning entry in her brilliant discography. Redolent with hope, resolve and stability in a world that doesn't stop shaking, When We Rise is a rousing call to arms--from the defiant "You're Never Gonna Break Me" to the stirring "Safe Harbor," this album is a blast of sonic comfort that's fiery, affecting and reviving.
www.jessklein.com
www.bombshellradio.com
www.stereoembersmagazine.com
www.embersarts.com
www.alexgreenbooks.com
Stereo Embers
Twitter: @emberseditor
IG: @emberspodcast
Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

Nov 8, 2023 • 1h 1min
Stereo Embers The Podcast 0356: Joey Alexander
"Continuance"
Don't feel bad if Joey Alexander's resume' makes you feel inferior about your childhood achievements. We all feel that way. The Indonesian born pianist taught himself to play at age 6 and was flawlessly covering Thelonious Monk before he was in 1st grade. Because of the paucity of jazz opportunities at home, Alexander sat in with the top jazz players in Bali and Jakarta. At 8 he played for Herbie Hancock, at 9 he won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Master Jam Fest in Odessa and by 10 his family had moved to New York City so Alexander could have more playing opportunities. After catching the attention of Wynton Marsalis, Alexander made his U.S. debut at Marsalis' annual gala playing Monk's Round Midnight and the next day, nothing was the same. Hailed as a genius by the New York Times and Downbeat Magazine, from there Alexander's career took off. He's played for ex Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, snagged a Grammy nomination, put out six perfect albums,
including his new one Continuance, played shows all over the world from Copenhagen to Montreal to the Apollo Theatre in Harlem,
and he was nominated as Music Scholar by the T. Washington Scholars Program. Bear in mind, this is just a partial list. At 20,
Alexander is now more than just a prodigy--he's a bandleader. And Continuance is a perfect example of his maturity as a player.
Filled with arrangements that are windswept, jaunty and achingly precise, Alexander's talent is one of those rare and expansive things. He's commanding, he's elegant and he's got the kind of rhythmic finesse that comes from the Cosmos, so it's no surprise that Continuance rolls with majesty and grace.
www.joeyalexandermusic.net
www.bombshellradio.com
www.stereoembersmagazine.com
www.embersarts.com
www.alexgreenbooks.com
Twitter: @emberseditor
IG: @emberspodcast
Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com