Musicians chat about making music, creativity, life, and other good stuff
The Substack Music & Creativity Sessions - post #3
This is my third post sharing the livestream videos of artists and bands who took part in the Substack Music & Creativity Sessions over the past couple of weeks.
The first post was devoted to musical performances and the second post to livestreams that combined chat with ‘play’ (by which I mean playing music and, in some cases, engaging in hijinks).
In today’s post you will find conversations and interviews — five of them between musicians and three of them between a musician and someone involved in a different creative path.
I have to admit that I’m still working through these myself, but wanted to get them out there so you have access to them sooner rather than later. My descriptions of what they discuss is therefore deliberately vague given that I haven’t listened to them all the way through yet.
Again, the musical talent on Substack is stellar, as we see with this group of artists.
As before, I briefly introduce the artists and the session, followed by a link so you can watch the livestream video yourself.
Feel free to download or share this post. It’s meant to encourage readers to discover and follow favorite ‘new’ musicians.
And prepare to have your assumptions and expectations defied, based on what I’ve heard so far. Enjoy!
Musicians chat about being musicians, creativity, and stuff like that — and James also sings
Bethany Cosentino is part of indie rock and power pop duo Best Coast (see their humorous video above), and Kacey Johansing is a solo indie and alternative rock singer-songwriter, formerly with bands Hand Habits and Fruit Bats.
For forty minutes they chatted primarily about being new mothers — Bethany has a baby and Kacey a toddler — and how that has affected their work as musicians and their identity. In particular, they talked about navigating being a mom, still being in recovery from pregnancy, having to surrender to their new role and let go of their previous self, viewing having a child as a creative act in and of itself and not a divergence from creativity, and the need for multi-tasking and not comparing themselves to other moms. Those struggling with parenthood or thinking about it may find this conversation a really relatable and encouraging one.
James Mercer is the founder, vocalist, lead songwriter, and sole remaining original member of indie rock group The Shins, and has also worked on the side in an indie rock band ‘project’ with Danger Mouse called Broken Bells that put out three studio albums. Janet Weiss is considered one of the best rock drummers of all time. She is a member of Quasi and formerly Sleater-Kinney, and has also played with The Jicks, Junior High, The Shadow Mortons, The Go-Betweens, Goldcard, The Furies, Motorgoat, supergroup Wild Flag, Drumgasm, and Slang, and contributed to The Shins’ fourth studio album.
Janet interviews James for about 35 minutes, covering such things as poetry and lyrics, being agog at new bands who are pros right out of the gate, whether melody or lyrics come first, using weirder chords, music creating a dopamine rush, improvising, overdubs vs. recording live, having a studio vs. finding a recording space that doesn’t alienate the neighbors, and the next album being delayed by new ideas. James sings “Fantasy Island” as well as two covers, one from the Platters that his dad played in nightclubs and Jonathan Richman’s “That Summer Feeling” (1983).
Note that there are tech issues here and there.
Kathleen Hanna is the lead singer of punk rock band Bikini Kill and former frontwoman of electropunk band Le Tigre. W. Kamau Bell is a stand-up comedian and host of the CNN series United Shades of America and the live radio show Kamau Right Now.
They hang out and chat about self-care and maintaining gratitude, presence, and joy in these challenging times, e.g., Kathleen going skiing at a mall, editing and the creative process, comedy, and politics.
Rickie Lee Jones is a rock, R&B, and pop musician and singer-songwriter and has eight Grammy Award nominations and two wins as Best New Artist and Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group (with Dr. John). Neko Case is an indie and folk rock, alt country, and Americana musician and songwriter and a member of the indie rock supergroup The New Pornographers.
Neko interviews Rickie Lee for 35 minutes about her perspectives and experiences as an artist. See my summary post with some great quotes from both here.
Phil Elverum is a songwriter and producer who’s the principal member of indie folk and rock band Mount Eerie, collaborating with many other musicians, and also fronted indie rock and folk band The Microphones. David Longstreth is a singer-songwriter and frontman for the indie rock band Dirty Projectors. He has just finished scoring the film The Legend of Ochi. (Read his post about that.)
They have a laid-back chat about music for 45 minutes, talking about such things as the difference between recording a song versus performing it on tour, concepts influencing their lyric writing, unusual percussion, and the space in music and their ideas of filling it with static or a shimmery sound. Phil encouraged people to watch the video of John Cage talking about avant-garde composer Glenn Branca, and mused on what our gods will look like when humans are extinct, probably just energy, and using the electricity in the preamp to turn the signal of silence up into music could be a reification of that.
Note that there is an ongoing feedback problem during the livestream.
Dan Stone, Head of Culture and Music at Substack and writer of Hey Pop, interviews Rick Rubin about his new substack, which Rick intends to be an extension of his book The Creative Act: A Way of Being in terms of offering ways to put the ideas into practice.
Rick co-founded Def Jam Recordings, founded American Recordings, was co-president at Columbia Records, and has produced a ton of artists. He also played in a punk rock band in high school called the Pricks. So he has a lot to say about creativity from having a front-row seat as a creator, collaborator, and observer.
Thao Nguyen is a folk rock, indie folk, and indie pop singer-songwriter and musician who fronted Thao & the Get Down Stay Down. She’s collaborated with other musicians, including Merrill Garbus and Andrew Bird, and is now working on both a book and a Broadway musical. Merrill Garbus is one-half of art pop, worldbeat, and indie pop ‘project’ Tune-yards (with musical and life partner Nate Brenner), plays ukulele and percussion, and with Nate is composing a film score. She was also a member of the band Sister Suvi.
Thao and Merrill have a relaxed fun chat for about 45 minutes about their friendship, being mid-career musicians after twenty years in the business, and juggling the demands of everything — multiple projects, relationships (Merrill and Nate have a son, Leo), and self-care (on tour and at home). Another collaboration is in the works, and here are tunes from the upcoming Tune-yards album — “Limelight” and “Heartbreak.”
Walter Martin is an indie rock musician and songwriter who co-founded rock bands The Walkmen and Jonathan Fire*Eater and also composes music for film, TV, and commercials. Austin Kleon is an author who writes and speaks about the topic of creativity, with bestselling books including Steal Like an Artist.
Walter and Austin chat about music, art, and creativity for an hour. Under the livestream video, Austin explains how their relationship came about and provides a list of topics they discussed with links to what they’ve referenced. He also links to Walter’s solo work and radio show. So rather than repeating his content, click on the link below and check it out for yourself.
These live performance/discussion posts are fantastic! I have them saved to return to whenever I get a spare few minutes. Those windows are few and far between but I I’m working on building a Time Machine. Not to jump to a specific time period but to manufacture time so I have more of it each day!;)
You’ve been a machine cranking out this content Ellen.