Tierney Tough was the second guest ever on Crash and Ride and she has released a new solo EP. Normally the phenomenally talented bassist, vocalist, and keyboardist for the band The Pauses, Tierney was inspired by the isolation and uncertainty of the Pandemic to create a new EP of haunting and powerful tunes, A Farce to Reckon With. In our most recent conversation, we talk about the Pandemic, her new music, and an absolutely infuriating encounter with an obstreperous soundman. You can hear A Farc...
Aug 29, 2021•1 hr 47 min
Episode 88 is Part 2 of my conversation with Jes Skolnik. As I mentioned last week, Jes writes for Bandcamp Daily, the music journalism arm of the Greatest Music Distribution Platform of all time. Besides being an incredibly gifted music journalist, they are also a musician, a trauma survivor, former addict, and a sexual assault survivor. This week we talk about toxic jobs, the journey from freelancer to senior editor, their struggle with drugs and depression, and what they do for self-care! CON...
May 30, 2021•1 hr 32 min
Episode 87 is my interview with Jes Skolnik! Jes writes for Bandcamp Daily, the music journalism arm of the Greatest Music Distribution Platform of all time. Besides being an incredibly gifted music journalist, they are also a musician, a trauma survivor, former addict, and a sexual assault survivor. Together, Jes and I talk about the pandemic, surviving in isolation, overcoming trauma, and how it all relates to playing, loving, and writing about music. CONTENT WARNING: this episode contains fra...
May 22, 2021•1 hr 13 min
photo: Jeff Shipman Adam Klein is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter from Athens, GA, though he currently lives in Atlanta. Adam has released seven albums, but has also traveled the world doing volunteer work and lived in West Africa for several years. In Mali, he had a radio show that was broadcast over a large swath of remote villages at the edge of the Sahara. He also has a budding acting career in the Atlanta film industry and an album on the way this Spring. We talk about growing up Orthod...
Apr 04, 2021•2 hr 39 min
Jolie Holland is an extraordinarily gifted singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist living in Los Angeles, California. She's possessed of an incredible insight and lyricism and she writes gorgeous and vivid songs that have been praised by luminaries such as Tom Waits. She escaped an abusive and toxic upbringing in a devout family of Jehovah's Witnesses and spent many years on the road, only to eventually settle down and create an enormous and stunning body of work. Jolie is currently collabor...
Mar 30, 2021•2 hr 29 min
Eugene Willis is a hip hop artist who performs under the name Black Nerd Ninja. He's a rapper, promoter, IT consultant, father, husband, and also a stroke survivor. He's one of the hardest working men I've ever met, and is a relentlessly positive force for good in the world. We talk about his journey back from his stroke, how he sought to redefine himself in the world after his illness, and how he believes that emotional intelligence might save us all. You can hear his work here: https://blackne...
Feb 04, 2021•1 hr 48 min
Pete Krebs has played guitar in so many influential Portland bands that it's hard to list them all: Hazel, Golden Delicious, The Stolen Sweets, The Portland Playboys, and Thee Catnip Brothers. He started his journey playing in punk bands and now he plays Western Swing at the rodeo every year in Pendleton, Oregon. He's a two-time inductee into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, and he's survived cancer twice. I met Pete for the first time in 1992 when our bands played together in Virginia at a club c...
Jan 18, 2021•2 hr 13 min
Che Arthur is a multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer, and tour manager based out of Chicago, IL. I've known Che for 30 years! I touched base to see how 2020 had gone for him, living alone in a pandemic and experiencing America as a Black man during the unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd and during the latter days of the Trump Administration. Che is an INCREDIBLY prolific musician and you can find links to much of his work here: http://www.chearthur.com/music/ Here is a link to his ...
Jan 10, 2021•1 hr 56 min
Tad Doyle! TAD DOYLE of the band TAD! Before the explosion of bands out of the Pacific Northwest changed the entire face of rock music in the early '90s, TAD was crushing live shows and releasing huge sounding slabs of wax on Subpop records. Years later, Tad would struggle with drugs and depression as the "grunge" thing got mutated and commodified into an MTV-ready PRODUCT. Tad, though, is a survivor, and he is still making music "heavier than God's Balls." I was super-stoked to talk to him and ...
Jan 03, 2021•1 hr 48 min
Travis Talbert is the lead guitar player for the band Frontier Folk Nebraska. He also has a solo project called Mavis Guitar where he plays pedal steel and guitar. He's a gifted and thoughtful player and a softspoken, gentle guy. He's also a man who has survived the death of his son. Tobin Talbert lived 7 months and never left the hospital. Travis and his beautiful wife Heather somehow managed to weather this tragedy and come out the other side stronger, braver, and still in love. This was one o...
Dec 20, 2020•2 hr 33 min
Lindsay Powell is a Brooklyn-based singer and multi-instrumentalist who performs under the name Fielded. Her music defies genre classification and nimbly draws influences from trance, hip-hop, Neo-Soul, and new psychedelia. I have been a fan for many years, and after overcoming some shyness about reaching out to someone so accomplished, I made contact and we did one of my favorite interviews ever. Lindsay was very forthcoming about her struggles with mood issues and her restlessness with a "norm...
Dec 15, 2020•1 hr 38 min
Heather Smith is the multi-instrumentalist and vocalist behind the band Bone and Bell. She's absurdly talented and is an incredibly generous person to interview. We talk about her brief and doomed attempt to become a playwright, her battles with anxiety and depression, her move from Chicago to Portland, and her five year journey of healing from breaking her wrist. You can hear Bone and Bell here: https://boneandbell.bandcamp.com/ You can see the famous ferris wheel video here: https://vimeo.com/...
Dec 06, 2020•2 hr 39 min
Lindsey Charles is the dynamic and powerful singer of the Chicago band The Cell Phones and also one of the creators of Dagger Cast, a podcast "a horror based podcast dedicated to the LGBTQ, Black, LatinX, female experience." She is also a talented illustrator, actress, and a new mother. We talked about all of that and more while sitting on the porch of her new home in Indianapolis, masked and bundled up against the grey autumn chill. The Cell Phones have a new record out that you can check out o...
Dec 01, 2020•1 hr 58 min
photo: Rod Manning Sorry for the delay! This episode is extra long and extra epic! I spoke with Jem Moloney, the incredibly talented drummer from the Australian band Dead. They've collaborated with members of Harvey Milk and the Melvins- a truly crushing, heavy band. Jem is also one half of the label We Empty Rooms Records in AUS, and works for a suicide prevention charity called HALT. They focus on the well-being of working class men and women who do tradeswork. (We really should start somethin...
Nov 18, 2020•3 hr 7 min
photo: Morten Fog There is one globally influential magazine that focuses on Americana and I was fortunate enough to speak with its editor. Hilary Saunders is the human tornado who wrestles No Depression to the presses every quarter, and she is a phenomenal human being. For Episode 75, we had an wide-ranging conversation about her journey to the editorship of No Depression, about life in New York City during these strange times we're living in, and about using guava jelly in hamantaschen. I enjo...
Nov 01, 2020•2 hr 16 min
This is the second half of my interview with the wondrously talented Jodi Shapiro: drone composer, card sharp, photographer, and archivist. She's just an astonishingly talented human being. In the second half, we talk about her experience of being run down by an automobile, how that experience affected her outlook on life, her experiences with meditation, and her undying love of Neil Young. Here is Jodi's photography site: http://samuraiphotog.com/ Also, I mentioned in the intro that I was going...
Oct 25, 2020•2 hr 19 min
Jodi Shapiro is a drone composer, competition poker player, world class photographer, and the best rock and roll tour guide of the Lower East Side of Manhattan that you could ever ask for. She's one of the most accomplished people I've ever met, and yet, surprisingly, she struggles with a sense that her work isn't worthy. We talk about that and so much more in this week's episode of Crash and Ride. This is part 1 and part 2 will be out in just a few days! Here is her photography site: http://sam...
Oct 21, 2020•1 hr 45 min
Lilly Hiatt is an absolutely fantastic singer/songwriter from Nashville, TN. We talked about her early life, how much more she enjoys recording in home studios vs. big commercial facilities, and how quarantine has made a whole bunch of wandering, nomadic musicians appreciate things like new mattresses and headphones. You can hear more of Lilly's music on her website: https://www.lillyhiatt.com/
Oct 11, 2020•1 hr 28 min
Episode 71 is the second half of my interview with Conan Neutron! Conan is a guitar player and singer from Modesto, CA, now living in Milwaukee! He was in the great band Replicator and went on to be in Mt Vicious and the band Victory and Associates. Now he works with a rotating cast of brilliant musicians as Conan Neutron and the Secret Friends! In the second half of our talk we get into the lessons he learned from the breakup of Mt Vicious, the formation of Conan Neutron and the Secret Friends ...
Oct 04, 2020•1 hr 47 min
This week is the first half of my conversation with Conan Neutron! Conan is a guitar player and singer from Modesto, CA, now living in Milwaukee! He was in the great band Replicator and went on to be in Mt Vicious and the band Victory and Associates. Now he works with a rotating cast of brilliant musicians as Conant Neutron and the Secret Friends! He's played with Dale Crover and David Pajo! And more! In part one we talk about growing up in the Central Valley of California, the wild days of pre-...
Sep 27, 2020•2 hr 1 min
J Christopher Arrison is a guitar player, songwriter, singer, writer for Adult Swim, and a friend I have known for 30 years (!!). His band Trinket had one of the most star-crossed record deals of all time, and the story is all here. Even with that bit of bleakness, this is one of the funniest episodes of Crash and Ride ever, and I'm super proud of it. You can see and hear his work for Fish Center on his Bandcamp: https://murderwizard.bandcamp.com/album/fish-cuts-vol-4 If we ever get to go see li...
Sep 20, 2020•2 hr 46 min
This is the second half of my interview with Brad Wood, engineer and producer from Rockford, Illinois, now living in Los Angeles. We talk more about trying to make a living in music these days, MORE about bikes, and we get into the Crash and Ride 10 Questions. If you haven't heard pt 1, check out Episode 67 on the Patreon Page, or just search for Crash and Ride, Episode 67 on your favorite podcast app! You can hear Brad's work here: http://www.bradwoodmusic.com/...
Sep 16, 2020•1 hr 37 min
Brad Wood is an engineer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist from Rockford, Illinois. He was the producer of the groundbreaking Liz Phair 'Exile in Guyville' and went on produce records by Red Red Meat, Veruca Salt, Ben Lee, and dozens of others. We talk about the year on the road where he played drums behind a deeply ambivalent Liz Phair, we talk about the role that anxiety, depression, and mania can play in the life of a musician, we talk about what he perceives his role to be in the studio, ...
Sep 14, 2020•1 hr 48 min
In a good year, Hannah Aldridge is one of the hardest working musicians in the business. She tours constantly, is always writing, recording, and releasing new work. In the past four years, she's spent more time in Europe than any performer I know. She never stops. That is to say, she never stops *in a good year*. 2020 is not a good year. I caught up with Hannah by calling her apartment in Murfreesboro and we talked for HOURS; Two salty workhorse musicians who found themselves unexpectedly sideli...
Sep 10, 2020•2 hr 33 min
For Episode 65 I finally got to talk to David Pajo. David was, of course, the incredibly influential guitar player in the band Slint,. David later went on to play with Will Oldham, The For Carnation, Tortoise, Stereolab, Royal Trux, King Kong, Bush League, Zwan, Peggy Honeywell, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and, most recently, Interpol. Despite his incredibly prolific musical career, he still struggled with depression. In the winter of 2015, he attempted to take his own life. As a survivor he has made it his...
Aug 24, 2020•2 hr 3 min
Edward Burch is a singer/songwriter who lives in St Louis. He was a longtime collaborator of Jay Bennett of Titanic Love Affair and Wilco, right up to the end of Jay's life. They had a long and fruitful creative partnership that weathered years of struggle, depression and frustration, drugs, and thousands of miles of touring. We talk about the record that they made together, The Palace at 4AM, and the documentary that was made about Jay's life. It's an extraordinary story.
Aug 18, 2020•2 hr 11 min
Mary-Eleanor Joyce is a guitar player and drummer who has played in Maximum Busy Muscle, Shitty Candy and the Circus Peanuts, the incredibly influential Athens band Incindiaries, and her new project, Sewer Kitty. She's also a mother and a devoted daughter, which is why I wanted to talk to her: A lot of Gen X musicians have waited late in life to start families, only to find themselves raising young children while balancing caring for aging parents. Her father was in managed care for years before...
Aug 08, 2020•2 hr 22 min
Episode 62 is a very satisfyingly long interview with Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom, The Third Mind, his incredible solo work). Victor and I met when my band opened for Monks of Doom back when the Earth was still cooling, and he impressed me then as an incredibly talented and genuinely insightful guy. We talk about the stress of having success sort of thrust upon you, fighting to have boundaries in an industry whose default model is to chew up artists and spit them int...
Aug 03, 2020•2 hr 46 min
I have been waiting for this interview since the very beginning. I absolutely love the work of Will Johnson, from the very beginning with his band Centro-Matic right up through his most recent solo release 'Wire Mountain,' and the million-and-a-half collaborations and releases in between, Will does absolutely tremendous work. We talk about how he's holding up under quarantine, the years he had in Centro-Matic, the decision to take that band off the road, and the work he's done since. You can che...
Jul 27, 2020•1 hr 22 min
Spencer Thomas is an egregiously talented singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist from Jackson, Mississippi. His new album 'Hangin' Tough' is an 10-song meditation on depression and love. He was formerly the drummer for the band Young Valley and is currently packing up to relocate to Athens, GA. We talked about his new album, his workaholism, battling imposter syndrome, and Betty Lou, the Greatest Dog Ever. photo: Drew McKercher
Jul 19, 2020•1 hr 48 min
