RiYL

I first met Shunsuke Aoki on a trip to Tokyo last year. The roboticist’s work fascinated me. From its brain-controlled cat ears and a robotic pillow with a tail that wags as you pet it, to more serious devices for older family members, Aoki’s Yukai Engineer has created some utterly fascinating products. On a recent trip to New York, Aoki and I sat down at Brooklyn cafe to discuss Aoki and Yukai’s goal of spreading joy through robotics.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2015 Carriers became Lauren Weinstein’s most critically acclaimed work to date. The five-part webcomic series found the cartoonist winning widespread recognition and a number of awards, including The The Society of Illustrators’ Gold Medal.  Weinstein’s work has never shied away from the personal, but motherhood has found her examining her own life even more intently than earlier work. The series explores the anxiety and fear of discovering that both she and her husband are carriers of the gene that causes cystic fibrosis. After the birth of her second child, the artist says she’s ready to finish a long awaited (15 years and counting) book about her own teenage years — one that may finally arrive as her own oldest child becomes a teenager herself. Weinstein also works at the School of Visual Arts, teaching both teenagers and continuing education students. In another life, she was also the lead singer of New York-based art rock collective, Flaming Fire. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The band calls it “dog.” It’s an ever present quest to get heavier, and with each subsequent record, Health’s members demand more of it. Other groups that have been doing this for nearly 15 years might have slowed down or mellowed out, but for Health, there’s always a need for more dog. These days, John Famiglietti finds himself spending more time behind a computer screen than an electric bass. In fact, the instrument is missing on all but one track on the group’s latest, Vol. 4: Slaves of Fear. It’s a byproduct of a band willing — and even eager — to continue adapting. There was a six year hiatus and a change of record labels before the previous album. An shortly after its release, longtime guitarist/synth player Jupiter Keyes left the group.But Famiglietti and the rest of the band still have plenty left to say and lots more dog left in it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beulah hit like a tidal wave, marking a swift end to John Paul White’s music hiatus. It was a well-deserved break after the dissolution of the Grammy Award winning duo, the Civil Wars, but real life could only key the music at bay for so long. With his latest album due out this week, White reflects on Beulah as kind of an anomaly, an album that came almost effortlessly. The Hurting Kind, on the other hand, finds the musician drawing on his roots, for an old school sound that borrows heavily from the 60s Nashville scene. It’s big and celebratory, the product of collaborations with the era’s songwriters, like Whisperin' Bill Anderson and Bobby Braddock. Fresh off a performance at Carnegie Hall, White joins us to discuss the writing process, battling imposter syndrome and working Taylor Swift. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A lifelong Oklahoman, Ryan Lindsey is a happy Tulsa resident, these days. Half of Broncho resides in the Sooner State’s second largest city. The other two are a two hour drive away in Norman, the college town where the band got its start. It’s a Tulsa warehouse, however, that the band truly calls home. Before Broncho moved in, the spot was used to manufacturer hot tubs, and left some nasty chemicals in the air after it closed up shop. These days, the spot serves as a practice space/studio/venue/sound stage for the group’s various creative pursuits. And both Tulsa and the indie rock community at large are better for it. After nine years, the band has developed into a force to be reckoned with, releasing Bad Behavior, one of 2018’s best indie records.Lindsey sat down before a soundcheck to discuss staying in Tulsa, the life cycle of a band and how to embrace the political without alienated half your audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A few minutes into our conversation, Hannibal Buress injects mid-question, “How is it my first interview in Nigeria is with a white dude?” busting up mid-way through. The whole scene’s admittedly odd. We’re seated across from each other in my Lagos hotel room. My wheeled suitcase is flipped upside down on the coffee table, with my recording setup gingerly placed on top. The comedian hasn’t slept that night and I’ve been up for about three minutes. Buress is in great spirits, however, having flown to Nigeria to check out the sub-saharan African startup scene. It’s his first trip to the country, and appears to be having the time of his life. Slightly groggy on both sides of the mic, it’s a fun conversation nonetheless, about comedy, community and that notorious Lagos traffic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Penguins arrived late last year, it was the latest in a long line of projects from a seemingly restless artist. The Fantagraphics book found Nick Thorburn taking the plunge into comics for the first time, amid a long career as a critically acclaimed indie musician. His first published work is a remarkably adept one, showcasing a keen knowledge of the subtle art of wordless story telling. It’s an examination of the human existence through the seeming tragedy of flightless birds. For Thorburn, it’s also an opportunity to indulge in a new creative pursuit after a laundry list of beloved bands, including Islands, the Unicorns, Mister Heavenly and Human Highway (along with composing the music for Serial), as he wonders aloud whether there’s a continued place for him in the cutthroat music industry. I met up with the artist on a crowded Los Angeles street one sunny Southern California day to discuss his work in a new medium and what his creative future might hold.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A move to Los Angeles may have mellowed Matthew Murphy out a bit. The warm weather and sunshine has tends to have the effect on people, and the results have certainly begun to manifest themselves on The Wombats’ fourth album. But as the title Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, clearly indicates, for all the talk of slowing down, the biting sarcasm that has come to define the Liverpool group’s output is still clearly in tact.  Murph certainly won’t go so far as calling himself “happy,” but at the very least, he appears to be doing a valiant job keeping those demons at bay.  The frontman joins us to talk about the trio’s 15 year journey and the importance of playing well with others. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2014, Drawn & Quarterly published Over Easy. It was a story that had been percolating for decades in cartoonist Mimi Pond’s mind, but life, family and the daunting task of actually sitting down to write it got in the way. By the time the cartoonist was ready to pitch the story, the publisher insisted on breaking it up into two volumes. In 2017, the second part, The Customer is Always Wrong, arrived, wrapping up the tale of her time as a waitress in her 20s. These days, Pond is in the midst of researching a new book, having been liberated by the act of actually getting a massive two-volume graphic memoir into the world. This time, however, she’s sought inspiration outside of herself, in spite of her own fascinating history that involves writing the pilot episode of The Simpsons, penning a best-selling book on Valley Girls and writing for the 80s children’s classic Pee-Wee’s Playhouse alongside her puppeteer husband Wayne White. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a career spanning four decades, screenwriter Ed Solomon has worked on some of Hollywoods biggest titles, from X-Men to Charlie’s Angels. But it’s his film, co-written with longtime collaborator Chris Matheson, that may well be his most iconic. 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure remains one of the most wholly original major studio films in recent memory. The 1991 sequel, cowritten by Solomon and Matheson, wasn’t nearly the smash success of its predecessor, but the darker film has gone on to develop a cult of its own in the intervening years. After being batted around for decades, a third film, Bill & Ted Face the Music, finds the writers teaming up once again, as Alex Winters and Keanu Reeves return to reprise their titular roles. In a wide ranging conversation about collaboration, inspiration and working within the studio system, Solomon reflects on his sustained career and why the time was right for a return of his best loved creations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.