RiYL

A lot can happen in six years. It’s the entire lifetime of some prominent bands. John Vanderslice has certainly been through plenty, including the death of a close family member and what might well have been the end of his own music career. In April, however, the musician with return with The Cedars, a sonically complex and emotionally rich new record, inspired by personal upheaval and a recent obsession with contemporary hip-hop. He’s also returned to touring, beginning with last year’s living room tour, which found him playing stripped down versions of his music to intimate audiences. During a stop in New York, Vanderslice sat down to discuss the past few years, the production of a “Protools record recorded to tape” and why he’s ready to leave San Francisco. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Unhappy as a creative director at Nickelodeon during the heady days of Ren and Stimpy, Lu Olkowski left the board room and offices behind to pursue her long time passion for public radio. The major career change found her starting over from scratch in a related, but still completely foreign field. Inspired by shows like This American Life, Olkowski entered the world of public radio as intern, rediscovering the harsh realities of creative pursuits along the way. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear she made the right choice, her work having now appeared on Radiolab, Studio 360 and All Things Considered, to name a few.These days, she is happily exploring the freedom of podcasting, including her work as the host of the CBC series, Love Me. In this wide ranging conversation, we discuss the ups and downs of giving it all up to pursue creative passion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Relentless optimism may well be Michael Franti’s defining characteristic. It’s a rare trait, especially in these days of ideologically-driven, social media-fostered detachment. But for all the positivity of a record like Stay Human Vol. II, Franti and Spearhead never avoid the harsh light of reality. In fact, the album doubles as a soundtrack to the Franti-directed documentary that finds the musician traveling the world, in search of humbling stories. The Oakland-born singer has seen plenty in his own right. In an extremely frank and candid conversation, Franti discusses growing up as an outsider with an adopted family, coping with with parental substance abuse and the darkness of his own depressive moments. In a moment that feels historical dark for many, he’s a testament to the healing power of music and human stories.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prior to Shades, music had never been a full-time pursuit for Vera Sola (Danielle Aykroyd). Splitting time between New York and Los Angeles, voice acting was her primary gig, until things went pear-shaped. Sick family members, the ends of relationships and myriad other issues knocked her flat. But encourage from peers helped instill confidence, first as a touring musician with indie folk singer Elvis Perkins and eventually under her current monitor. A well-received Slayer cover and an EP of Misfits songs followed, filtered through a smoky, folk sound. With 2018’s Shades, however, Sola both figuratively and literally found her sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s never quite clear where the memoir ends and the fairy tale begins in Passing for Human, and for Liana Finck, the distinction is incidental at best. Growing up, her home life was spent in a fantastical house built by her architect mother, provide a warm escape from the sometimes harsh realities of school life. These days, the artist is far more social, with a pool of friends in New York City and a growing army of admires amassed through Instagram comics and then the New Yorker. Her pen and ink work bares the influence of older cartoonists like Jules Feiffer, but the storytelling is uniquely her own. Fresh off the press push for her latest work, Finck sat down with us in Manhattan to discuss the ups and downs of socializing, the genius of Nabokov and the difficulty of telling one’s own story on the page. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Due out in February, Post Earth is only their second full length, but the members of FEELS going way back. A quartet of of Los Angeles natives, the members have been playing together in various iterations for well over a decade. And it shows. All four are crowded around a microphone, sometimes speaking in unison, as they discuss how their Tim Green-produced album became a kind of accidental political record. Better music through osmosis, and the feeling that the world is coming apart at the seams is a hard one to shake these days. It’s a fun conversation about bad Airbnbs, the Los Angeles music scene and playing music for the sheer joy of it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Douglas Rushkoff asks you to chat, you say yes. We’ve spoken to the visionary media theorist a dozen times over the years, and each opportunity always yields fascinating new results. These days, Rushkoff is peddling Team Human. What began as a weekly interview show with a wide range of subjects is now a book — a kind of manifesto for socializing in particularly bleak times. Along with uncanny predictive powers, the author has long been a champion of the transformative potential of technology. But Team Human finds Rushkoff bemoaning the isolating nature of ubiquitous technologies and late-stage capitalism. In all this, however, he remains ever an optimist for mankind’s resilience — too rare a quality in his chosen field. Having finished the book, Rushkoff describes his current crossroads, determining what his career will look like, going forward, and the role he can play in helping more voices be heard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After years of writing about music, Taleen Kali decided to create it. She began performing live sound collages, before heading in a more rock oriented direction with the quartet, TÜLIPS. Last year, the musician released her first solo record, Soul Songs on local Los Angeles label, Lolipop records. She also keeps busy as a yoga teacher and the driving force behind the literary publication Dum Dum Zine. On a recent trip to L.A., we sat down with Kali to discuss the city, self-publishing and the drive to create. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2012, Georgia Webber stopped talking, save for 15 or so minutes a day. The act of vocalizing had simply become too painful. A year later, she began to serialize Dumb, the story of her struggles as a vocal abuser (the official diagnosis). The work follows the young cartoonist as she struggles to adjust to living without speech, concocting methods for communicating with friends and family and otherwise coming to grips with a newfound fact of life. Initially self-published, the book would later be collected by Retrofit Comics and, ultimately, as a single volume by Fantagraphics, which debuted over the summer.  These days, when she does speak, Webber takes a measured approach,  choosing words carefully. In this conversation, the cartoonist discusses the insights her struggles have given her into the ways in which we chose to communicate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You’d think you’d have your fill of a man with four concurrent podcasts. And yet, John Roderick always seems to bring something new to the table. The Long Winters frontman has made a second career of sorts as podcasting’s great indie rock raconteur, cohosting Roderick on the Line, Road Work, Omnibus and Friendly Fire. The medium has proven an ideal fit for an entertainer happy to impart personal stories and knowledge, balancing the personal with the universal. For his third appearance on the podcast, the singer delves deep into stories of sobriety, bipolar disorder, transience and the Long Winters record he’s been putting off for a decade. It’s a rich conversation, that’s both idiosyncratic and deeply relatable for anyone who’s ever had difficulty getting over the creative hump. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.