Episodes

On this episode of the podcast, Grace Cummings talks about why her phone has been such a drain on her creativity and why she's making a conscious effort to stay away from it. But sometimes that phone can be pretty useful. For...

Will Taylor and Charlie Martin of Hovvdy take a deep dive into their songwriting processes on the podcast. We delve into, among other things, the nuts and bolts of the revision process and whether distance is important when w...

Evan Lewis and Tom McGreevy of Ducks Ltd seem to be at opposite ends of the creative spectrum when it comes to organization. Lewis likes chaos: "The process should be a disaster," he says. McGreevy, on the other hand, needs ...

Future Islands stops by today to talk about their individual and collective processes, which sometimes involves folding laundry and listening to trains. They've also earned the title of Most Well-Read Band I've Ever Interview...

I had such a good time interviewing Martin Courtney of Real Estate back in 2022 for his solo album that we're doing it again! This time, Real Estate has a great new album out called Daniel on Domino Records. Courtney and I on...

Johnny Marr (The Smiths, The Cribs, Modest Mouse, The The, so many more) is arguably one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of the last 50 years. So don't waste any time reading this intro. Just listen to the po...

Untame the Tiger (Merge Records) is Mary Timony's first solo album in 15 years, and I am in love with it. It's so good, from start to finish. For the uninitiated: Timony's bands have included Helium, Autoclave, Wild Flag, and...

You get two for one in this episode with Eliza McLamb and Sarah Tudzin ! Both are songwriters: McLamb's debut album Going Through It is out now , and Tudzin is the founder and frontperson for Illuminati Hotties . We're here t...

"Writing is a form of contemplation," says Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney on the podcast. And while it's true that the actual act of putting pen to paper involves contemplating, Brownstein and I agree that the writing p...

"When I write songs, I put on a miner's light and try to make it around the next corner." Josh Radnor found fame playing Ted Mosby on "How I Met Your Mother," but he's also a terrific songwriter (and stage actor) with a new a...

I was already a Jaime Wyatt fan before we talked, but our shared affinity for the poet E.E. Cummings made this episode even more fun. I also knew this would be a good convo after reading an Instagram post where Wyatt declare...

"The times when I'm writing the most are when I'm reading a lot," Carl "Buffalo" Nichols says on today's podcast. And wow is this true: you cannot be a writer of any stripe unless you read. Nichols likes to read voices that h...

Duff McKagan's latest solo album Lighthouse is dedicated to Cormac McCarthy, which is no surprise given the importance McKagan places on reading. The Guns N' Roses bassist reads without fail every day, so you get some great ...

Jonny Pierce says that The Drums’ new album Jonny is “a little less practice, a little more mess.” That messiness finally made songwriting enjoyable for him because for a long time, it wasn’t. “I never loved songwriting. I wa...

“I’m allergic to routine. I wake up and follow all my whims and desires. But inspiration strikes every couple of days, and when it does you don’t want to be around me because I have a one track mind,” Clem Creevy of Cherry Gl...

Genesis Owusu is the first songwriter to cite Samuel Beckett’s "Waiting for Godot" and Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" as influences. Owusu stops by the podcast to talk about why he's such a huge fan of Beckett and Kafka, w...

"If you're writing alone, you're still collaborating," Devendra Banhart says on this episode of the podcast. I love that idea: even in solitary writing, you're always running ideas by yourself. Is it the unconscious against t...

“Surprising yourself is the only way to stay inspired,” M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger says in this episode of the podcast. This is the second time I've interviewed Taylor, and here are three things I love about him: He...

Sabrina Teitelbaum (aka Blondshell ) wants more joy in her songs. But that can be a problem because happiness is not a productive state for her songwriting process. "When I'm happy, I don't feel the need to write as much," s...

At some point in my interview with Jerry Harrison, guitarist and keyboardist for Talking Heads , I asked him to respond to a quote by the iconic Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Harrison told me that Ginsberg was a friend. And that ...

Jenny Owen Youngs had me at " Shitty First Drafts ." This is the Anne Lamott essay espousing the idea that the first draft of anything is supposed to be atrocious. Just get it down, dammit. "Almost all good writing begins wit...

ED note: I mispronounced Cosentino’s name in the podcast intro: the first “o” should be long (as in snow ), but I used a short “o” (as in top) . I’m sorry Bethany! If you have plans to meet Bethany Cosentino and she’s late, l...

John McCauley and Ian O’Neil of Deer Tick stop by talk about what makes for an effective songwriting process. In no particular order: laundry rooms, a kitchen, a nice rug, running shoes, recumbent bikes, Raymond Carver, and t...

Academy Award nominee Emile Mosseri stops by the podcast to talk about the challenges that come with writing a solo album when all you’ve known is collaboration (his time in The Dig ) and film & television composing (like his...