Whenever Sophie Allison (aka Soccer Mommy) puts something out, I know I'll like it. Her new album Evergreen is no exception. We take a deep dive into her songwriting process on this episode.
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Unfortunately, I stopped recording before Conor Deegan (Deego) and I started reading poetry to each other. But that should give you a sense of how deep I went into the creative process with the Fontaines D.C. bassist.
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Hello Mary on the pod today! Stella Wave, Helena Straight, and Mikaela Oppenheimer released their debut album in 2020, when Wave was 19 and Oppenheimer and Straight were 16. The band talks about their writing processes behind their new album Emita Ox.
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Jacob Slater's band Wunderhorseis why you should always get to the show early to see the support act, as I found out in 2022.
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It’s always fun to interview two songwriters who have a history together! Before his solo career, Kishi Bashi was a member of Kevin Barnes’ band of Montreal
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Magdalena Bay finds inspiration in everything around them, visually and sonically—even the act of Swiffering and the sound of hybrid cars.
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"I'm always writing and always creating. I relate to the world by writing," Eva Hendricks of Charly Bliss says. Even the act of hanging laundry is a rich source of inspiration.
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Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura has a superpower: she's able to write entire songs in her head before putting them to paper.
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Matthew Koma of Winnetka Bowling League stops by the podcast to talk about how writing a song is like solving a crossword puzzle, why he doesn't like to dig through discarded melodic and lyrical ideas for new songs, and how he gets inspired by being among the stores.
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Ashton Irwin, drummer for 5 Seconds of Summer, often writes songs out of necessity. While he likes to journal, Irwin finds songwriting a much more effective vehicle for maintaining his mental health.
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Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing believes that discipline is a necessary part of the songwriting process. “I believe in discipline and the idea of working every day. I like to look back at the end of the day with a sense of accomplishment.”
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The circle is complete. I’ve had recent interviews with Anais Mitchell (together with Charlotte Cornfield) and with Eric D. Johnson, but now that we’ve added Josh Kaufman, this is a full-on Bonny Light Horseman episode. Listening to them talk for even a few seconds makes one thing immediately clear: the songwriting is great because the chemistry among them is so powerful.
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Eric Earley from Blitzen Trapper is a voracious reader who just finished his self-proclaimed "Time of the Tomes," in which he read nothing but, well, tomes. (The longer, the better. Infinite Jest? Please. Kid's stuff).
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Deerlady is Mali Obomsawin and Magdalena Abrego, and their debut album Greatest Hits is my favorite album of the year, and this is also one of my favorite interviews because we had so much fun.
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Aaron Lee Tasjan has a pretty simple writing process: he gets up around 8am, has a glass of water, and pets his cat. Then he writes. But not every day. "I only write when my body tells me to, when I can go off yesterday's fumes.”
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Jane Penny (co-founder of TOPS) stops by the podcast to talk about how Barry White has influenced her songwriting; why she has to write her lyrics in cursive; and why when you see her in the audience at a show and she's looking at her phone, she's actually deeply engaged in the creative process. She promises!
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