Last fall, singer-songwriter and film score composer Dhani Harrison released a dynamic new solo album called Innerstanding, which gave me the perfect opportunity to finally interview him in depth. "To innerstand is to comprehend from a place of love and detachment, where you’re not forcing yourself or being forced," he explains. "If you come at things from a place of love, then you’ll always end up on the right side of history." 
I’ve known Dhani for nearly twenty years, and I was so glad to have him as a guest on the LSQ podcast, and to ask him about his personal musical evolution. We connected over Zoom late last year, and he shared memories of how he first discovered and explored his musical talents, with encouragement from his dad, George Harrison, how skateboarding with his cousin in LA as a kid sparked his obsession with the Wu-Tang Clan, why, in spite of his abiding love for Jimi Hendrix, he never wanted to be a shredder, why he was so geeked to have Blur's Graham Coxon play (both guitar and saxophone) on Innerstanding, how he started writing film scores back in 2013 with the music for Beautiful Creatures, why he returned to living in the forest in recent years, leading up to the new album, and more. Innerstanding is available on vinyl here.

Dhani Harrison

Joe Talbot, frontman for the ferocious U.K. band Idles, explores his artistic roots -- how his sculptor dad taught him the value of a creative purpose, how his love for hip-hop evolved as he became more politically aware, the inspiration he drew from Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, how the early oughts breakthrough by the Strokes influenced him, what it was like for Idles to find their sound in Bristol's fertile music scene, and how they learned to try new things, with help from producers Nigel Godrich and Kenny Beats, on their excellent new album Tangk.

Idles - Joe Talbot

On the eve of her incredible sophomore solo album, What Now (out February 9th), hear Brittany Howard share the story of her creative journey as a singer, songwriter and performer, explaining how she first discovered her voice and where she still hopes to go with it, how bonding with her friends over music like Black Sabbath and Kings of Leon led into starting her own band, the Alabama Shakes, with some of those same friends, how seeing Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings in concert several years ago infused her with a whole new perspective on her career, and more, in episode 101.

Brittany Howard

Welcome to a super special episode -- not just because it’s the 100th episode, though I've gotta say I’m pretty proud of that, and so grateful to all of the artists who’ve given their time and been open to this conversation, but also because this episode features one of my favorite interviews from the podcast so far. I have been a deep admirer of Future Islands' music, and Samuel T. Herring’s soulfulness and poeticism as a singer and writer, since the band's early albums, and I loved hearing him share so many meaningful facets of his creative journey in this conversation. We talked about the excellent new Future Islands album, People Who Aren't There Anymore, as well as Sam's recent work on his own - the music he’s been releasing as Hemlock Ernst and his recent acting role in the Apple TV series The Changeling, and much more.

Future Islands - Samuel T. Herring

Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney join Jenny for episode 99, to talk about their new album, Little Rope, growing up in the burgeoning Northwest indie scene of the late Eighties and arriving at Olympia, Washington's Evergreen College just in time for the birth of riot grrrl in the early Nineties. They discuss their early days together, how they found their songwriting method, and how it has grown and evolved over the course of three decades and eleven albums. Get a copy of Little Rope here.

Sleater-Kinney

Proof of Life, the excellent fourth studio album by Nashville-based singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun, has been one of my favorite LPs of 2023, and it's been awesome to see Joy's star rise in recent months. It was a true joy - if you'll pardon the pun - to meet Joy over Zoom and get to know more about their creative journey, growing up in Casa Grande, Arizona, as a child of Nigerian immigrants, coming to terms with their queerness against the backdrop of their religious upbringing. Joy talks about discovering artists such as Tracy Chapman and Bob Marley and King Sunny Adé as formative moments, as well as getting their first guitar at age 10 and discovering their ability to bring comfort to themself and others through their songs. Joy is currently finishing a US tour. You can get tickets here.

Joy Oladokun

After years of admiring Jason Isbell's gifts as a songwriter and storyteller, I finally got to ask the alt-country artist about his earliest sparks of creativity, and it was fascinating to hear his memories of sitting on the front porch, singing with members of his extended family during weekly Sunday evening gatherings, and of listening to his Pentecostal preacher grandfather playing guitar, and introducing him to gospel and mountain songs and bluegrass and the blues. "Music was something that was presented to me as something that was directly tied with family," he says. "The way creative pursuits were presented to me, it was something people did because it made them feel better, and because they could control the machines. And they had grown up very poor and didn't have control over much else. I think that combination of lack of options and just a genuine love for the way the arts were presented to me from the beginning culminated in my identifying with it so closely. And then something sort of made me a fool. Something in there somewhere told me to actually pursue this to the ends of the earth if I had to. That's the part I don't exactly understand." Isbell also talks about his love for Hendrix and Pearl Jam, about the lessons he learned from teaching guitar in his early twenties, how his songwriting process has evolved, and more. Jason and his band the 400 Unit are playing shows at Nashville's legendary Ryman Auditorium this week and have additional US dates early next year. Following the awesome new Isbell & The 400 Unit album Weathervanes earlier this year, he recently put out a deluxe, 10th anniversary reissue of 2013's Southeastern. You can get a copy, and tickets for the upcoming date, here. Isbell can also be seen in the new Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon.

Jason Isbell

Alvvays have made some of my favorite indie music of the past decade, and although I’ve interviewed them briefly in the past, I loved going long with Molly Rankin from the band for episode 96. We talked about Alvvays’s awesome latest album, Blue Rev, the origins of “Archie, Marry Me,” which had it's 10th anniversary this year, about how Molly started writing songs as a teenager, inspired by learning the chords to her favorite Oasis tunes, what it was like growing up in a famous musical family (her father was among the members of The Rankins, the acclaimed Celtic folk group), how her songwriting practice began and how it has evolved, about her love of gardening and my love of Columbo, and more.

Alvvays - Molly Rankin

On the eve of Blonde Redhead’s first new album in nine years, their excellent Sit Down For Dinner, the band’s Kazu Makino joins the LSQ podcast for episode 95. She talks about how the experience of making her own solo album a few years ago inspired a new confidence going into this Blonde Redhead album; the influence she took from growing up in a household where classical music was playing at a soft volume at all times; the evolution of her songwriting within the band; how a good performance feels like a trance; and more. Blonde Redhead’s North American tour begins in mid-October. Get tickets here.

Blonde Redhead - Kazu Makino

Episode 94 features an interview with singer, songwriter and producer Andrew Wyatt, whose voice and tunes you probably know from a few different contexts: In addition to being the frontman and lead songwriter for alt-pop band Miike Snow, Wyatt keeps incredibly busy collaborating as a writer and producer with artists like Dua Lipa, Charlie XCX, Caroline Polachek, Lorde, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and many others. The New York native is also a Grammy and Academy award-winning writer of movie music, notably for A Star Is Born, and the chart-topping soundtrack for Barbie, for which he co-wrote key tracks such as “I’m Just Ken.” AND, as if that wasn't enough, Wyatt is currently on the cusp of putting out his first solo album in a decade, Someday It Won’t Feel Like Dying. The album comes out this fall, but a couple of its singles are online here now Wyatt is also a pal of mine, and it was a pleasure to finally do the LSQ podcast with him!

Andrew Wyatt

Fresh off releasing "Two Songs I Wrote in 1993 & Recorded Last Week," legendary Australian singer-songwriter Ben Lee joins me for episode 93 (pure numerological coincidence!) to reflect on key moments of musical discovery -- seeing Nirvana play at Big Day Out, starring in a school musical called Uncle Moishe and his Mitzvah Men, recording fucked-up sounding songs on his Tascam 244, hoping to emulate Appetite for Destruction but coming up with something even cooler, figuring out how to get his demo to a record label, and more recent insights about longevity and staying true to your unique vision. He also discusses his songwriting practice today, prioritizing playfulness, supporting young artists, and more. Ben and his wife, Ione Skye, host an awesome weekly podcast called Weirder Together, and their Weirder Together podcast network presents shows hosted by J. Mascis, Lou Barlow and Jello Biafra, among others. Ben will be on tour in September. Get tickets here.

Ben Lee

"I always said, I felt like, when the five of us are together, the universe does something different," says Albert Hammond Jr, guitarist for The Strokes, of his band's cosmic connection. "From the moment I met them, even before we did anything, all of a sudden the world felt different. I can only explain it like in the Matrix when he sees the numbers, so then it didn't feel that weird when stuff would happen. I didn't know what was gonna happen, but it felt like something was gonna happen." 
I had a blast interviewing Albert for episode 92 of the LSQ podcast. I am a massive fan of The Strokes (like, Top 5 all-time favorite bands kind of thing), and feel lucky to have a long history with them. Albert and I have known each other since the band's early days, when I got to write about them a bunch for Rolling Stone, and it's been awesome to watch his solo career develop alongside his band's. His new solo LP, Melodies On Hiatus, is one of his best -- 19 tracks that explore new facets of his musical personality while still brandishing his signature sound. In this interview, we talk about his childhood influences, an era when he was a rollerskating champion, the beginning of The Strokes, his songwriting process, and hopes for the future such as this one: "I'd love to create with [The Strokes], as I'm older. Because I feel like we're so interesting at different times with each other. So even at 60, I wonder what we would create? What would the band sound like? What would we do? Would our strengths and weaknesses change and how would that make our sound change? It still feels so exciting."

The Strokes - Albert Hammond Jr

The incomparable Jenny Lewis joins me for LSQ #91 and, let me tell you, THIS is one of my all-time favorite episodes. Not only is Lewis an artist whose music I've admired since her days in Rilo Kiley, but over the course of our ~15 years of friendship, I've learned what a hilarious, generous, soulful and inspiring person she is, as well. The release of her excellent new album Joy'All gave us a chance to get together at her place in Los Angeles and dig in on some topics we've never really talked about before, including her parents' old band, Love's Way, her years as a kid actor and how those experiences shaped her approach to her music career, how her love for hip-hop inspired her to start by writing raps, before she wrote melodic songs. We also talk about how her evolution through the Rilo Kiley years, and why it was important to her to forge her own path. Get tickets for her upcoming tour here.

Jenny Lewis

On the occasion of their new 26th studio album, The Girl is Crying In Her Latté, the legendary Los Angeles art-pop duo Sparks (brothers Ron and Russell Mael) join the LSQ podcast to talk about the evolution of their sound; their work with producers such as Giorgio Moroder and Todd Rundgren, and why they value being able to produce their own music nowadays; growing up in LA seeing concerts by British Invasion bands they loved including The Kinks and The Who; getting to witness one of Jimi Hendrix’s first LA concerts; what they’re looking forward to playing during their 2023 tours, and more! 

Sparks

When she started playing guitar at age seven, Sunny War saw herself as the next Slash or Angus Young, a future shredder, certain to be a rock star, and definitely NOT a folk singer. And yet, here we are, it's 2023 and thanks to her excellent latest album, Anarchist Gospel, and a Triple A-radio hit single, "No Reason," she is finally getting well-deserved recognition as one of the most exciting folk singers of her generation. In episode 89 of the LSQ podcast, get to know Sunny's story, and how she went from playing in a punk band called Anus Kings and busking on the Venice Beach boardwalk to performing her ecstatic folk anthem "No Reason" on late night television and embarking on her biggest tour, to date. Get tickets for Sunny War's current tour here.

Sunny War

To celebrate the release of the paperback edition of her beautiful, best-selling memoir, Crying In H Mart, and its accompanying book tour, the author -- celebrated indie singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast -- joins the LSQ podcast for a conversation that explores her early experiences in both writing and music. She also shares that her next book is already in development, as she plans to move to her native Korea for a year, to learn the language and document the experience. And an exciting scoop: She already has new Japanese Breakfast songs in the works and might even debut some of them on tour later this year!

Japanese Breakfast - Michelle Zauner

KP, the singer-songwriter at the helm of Black Belt Eagle Scout, joins the LSQ pod to talk about their beautiful new album, The Land, The Water, The Sky, recorded as KP was transitioning back to living in their homelands in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, in LaConner, Washington. We talk about how KP first got into playing and writing music, learning to play Für Elise by ear on the piano as a child, figuring out that their favorite guitars are the ones that sound the warmest, learning to play drums at Portland's Rock n' Roll Camp for Girls and later teaching at the camp, getting involved in the house show scene, loving post-rock, being inspired by the musical flexibility of the great Buffy Sainte-Marie, and more.

Black Belt Eagle Scout - KP

Ryan Lott and Ian Chang from the experimental trio Son Lux talk about their Academy Award-nominated work on the score and soundtrack for the beautiful, epic film Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is as brilliantly unclassifiable as the movie itself. Their score is nominated for Best Original Score and the end credits tune (a duet between Mitski and David Byrne, who cowrote the tune with Son Lux) is up for Best Music (Original Song) at the upcoming 95th Annual Academy Awards. They also delve into their personal histories with music, from their childhood music lessons and impactful discoveries of artists including Radiohead, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Prince, Miles Davis, Jeff Buckley, Seal and more. And Lott narrates Son Lux's development from a solo project that he began in 2008 as a creative outlet while he was working as a composer for a dance company, to the full-fledged touring band and collaborative unit thanks to the addition in 2014 of Chang and their bandmate Rafiq Bhatia. 

Son Lux

Post-punk pioneer Gina Birch (bassist and founding member of UK band The Raincoats) joins the LSQ podcast on the eve of releasing her first ever solo album, the refreshing and irreverent collection I Play My Bass Loud, produced by Youth and out this week via Third Man. In episode 85, Birch talks about important music memories from her childhood (hearing her brother's Bob Marley records through the bedroom wall, seeing The Slits in concert and realizing that girls could also play in bands, and more), the early days of The Raincoats and how embracing their inexperience and enthusiastically presenting songs that were still "in the process of becoming" was a key part of their approach. We also talk about her work in visual arts, as a music video and short film director, and more recently via large scale paintings like the one you see a portion of on the new album's cover. Get a copy of I Play My Bass Loud and check out Birch's upcoming tour dates here. 

The Raincoats - Gina Birch

For the first episode of Season 6 of the LSQ podcast, I was honored to welcome an artist whose words and music I have admired for nearly thirty years now: the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle. In episode 84, John shares fascinating insight into his early creative inklings, the music he loved as a kid, and how he went from clinging to his Aristocats soundtrack to embracing Elton John and the Bay City Rollers and eventually unlocking a secret passion for heavy metal. He also describes his transition from writing poetry on its own to combining his verses with music, initially singing haunting melodies over the sound of static from his black & white TV, and then developing the boombox recording method he used when he started as the Mountain Goats in the mid-Nineties. And we dish about how he got involved with Rian Johnson's new mystery series, Poker Face. (He wrote the music for it with Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed, and also has a small acting role.) Darnielle and the Mountain Goats' Matt Douglas are currently on tour in the U.S. as a duo. Get dates and tickets here. 

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