James Fauntleroy is one of the most prolific pop songwriters of the past 15-plus years. Some of his most prized placements include writing songs for Beyonc, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars. Hes also contributed background vocals to songs by Travis Scott, Jay-Z and his longtime friend, the late Nipsey Hustle. Similar to his music industry idol and mentor Babyface, James Fauntleroy is also an artist in his own right. While his songs have lived on streaming platforms over the past decade,...
Jan 30, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep 96•Transcript available on Metacast The Baltimore-based synth-pop band Future Islands was first thrust into the national spotlight in 2014 after making their TV debut on The Late Show With David Letterman . The bands unassuming frontman Samuel T. Herring danced ecstatically around the stage seething with emotion. The performance quickly went viral, making it one of Letterman s most memorable live appearances of all time. At the time of their big break, Future Islands had already released three albums and been touring relentlessly ...
Jan 23, 2024•55 min•Ep 95•Transcript available on Metacast Sleater-Kinney has long been a safe space for band members Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker. What started as a group born out of the feminist punk riot grrrl scene in Olympia, Washington in the early 90s, has grown into a life-affirming artistic endeavor. In late 2022, tragedy struck when Carries mother and stepfather were killed in a car accident overseas. In the months after, Carrie found a respite from her immense grief by playing the guitar for hours on end, and writing new music. Sleater-...
Jan 16, 2024•51 min•Ep 94•Transcript available on Metacast 2023 has been a helluva year for singer/songwriter Noah Kahan. Just three years ago he started uploading snippets of his indie-folk songs to TikTok while waiting out the pandemic at his dads house in rural Vermont. Those songs quickly caught fire across social media and eventually turned into Noahs most recent album, Stick Season . After releasing collaborations with Kacey Musgraves, Hozier, and Post Malone, Noah has amassed 4 billion streams globally. Its no surprise that last month he was nomi...
Dec 26, 2023•54 min•Ep 93•Transcript available on Metacast Ludwig Gransson is one of the most accomplished and distinctive film composers of the 21st century. In 2020, after working on the movie Tenet together, acclaimed director Christopher Nolan hired Gransson to score what has become one of the biggest movies of 2023: Oppenheimer . Ludwig, who emigrated to Los Angeles from his native Sweden in 2007, has racked up dozens of writing, producing and scoring credits. He started out working in TV and he eventually started scoring films with his old college...
Dec 19, 2023•52 min•Ep 92•Transcript available on Metacast Janelle Mone has had a lot to smile about this year. After a run of successful albums over the last decade, in June she released her fourth album, The Age of Pleasure . The album was just nominated for two Grammys including Album of the Year. This project is importantit signaled a big tone shift for Janelle whose past albums have centered in part around a recurring character named Cyndi Mayweather, an android who represents societys new other. Esthetically Janelle has always been buttoned up. Fo...
Dec 12, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep 91•Transcript available on Metacast Corinne Bailey Rae is an English singer/songwriter whose career started with a bang. In 2006 her debut album topped UK charts and was certified triple platinum with the help of her first hit single, Put Your Records On. A slew of awards and other best new artist distinctions followed. As she released subsequent albums, Corinne aspired to stretch herself as an artist beyond neo-soul pop-music success. In September, Corinne Bailey Rae released her excellent, genre-hopping fourth album, Black Rainb...
Dec 05, 2023•49 min•Ep 90•Transcript available on Metacast David Paich is a prolific musician and songwriter whos perhaps most well known for writing and co-producing Toto's classic song, Africa. Before David co-founded Toto with drummer Jeff Porcaro in 1977, he was an innovative keyboardist and session player. David honed his chops early growing up in L.A. where he worked under the tutelage of his father Marty Paichan esteemed composer who worked with artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and Mel Torm. While in college at USC David started playing ...
Nov 28, 2023•55 min•Ep 89•Transcript available on Metacast As a founding member of the iconic all-girl band The Bangles, Susanna Hoffs is perhaps most associated with 80s hits like Manic Monday, Eternal Flame, and Walk Like An Egyptian. After releasing three platinum-selling albums, in 1989 The Bangles broke up. Two years later, Susanna started to release solo material before reuniting with The Bangles at the end of the 90s. Over the years Susanna has continued to release music and act in movies. She even appeared in all three Austin Powers films as par...
Nov 21, 2023•51 min•Ep 88•Transcript available on Metacast Marty Stuart has dedicated his life to playing and preserving old country music. During his 40-plus years as a solo artist, Marty has released more than 20 albums and racked up numerous honors, including five Grammys, and an induction into the Country Music Hall Of Fame. Marty started his career at the age of 12 playing mandolin in a gospel band. By 21, hed joined Johnny Cashs touring band, and eventually became a solo artist who combined classic rockabilly sounds with bluegrass and cosmic count...
Nov 14, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Ep 87•Transcript available on Metacast Lol Tolhurst, drummer and co-founder of The Cure, first met lead singer Robert Smith when they were just five years-old. Together with their other Catholic school friend Michael Dempsey, they would go on to make dark, brooding music that reflected the isolation they felt as the only punks living in their small English town. As The Cures sound developed in the 1980s, they released a string of three albums that Lol now defines as the bands goth period. Today well hear Lol talk in detail about maki...
Nov 07, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep 86•Transcript available on Metacast The lead singer and keyboardist for Devo, Mark Mothersbaugh, is an avant-garde, new wave pioneer. Although critics sometimes classify Devo as a joke band, the Akron, Ohio art-punks ethos was created in response to a very serious eventthe 1970 shooting at their college, Kent State. Following the incident, the band took on the name Devo, short for what they felt was organized societys de-evolution. Throughout the 70s and 80s Devo helped lay the groundwork for DIY, anti-establishment bands by relea...
Oct 31, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep 85•Transcript available on Metacast Laufeys fast rise to fame is a pandemic success story. During lockdown, the 24-year-old multi-instrumentalist built a substantial following on social media where she was known as jazz girl. Since then the Icelandic-Chinese singer/songwriter has released two studio albums that blend classical, pop and jazz. The first single from her most recent release, Bewitched , has been streamed over 20 million times globally since its release a couple months back. Raised in Iceland, Laufey started playing ce...
Oct 24, 2023•52 min•Ep 84•Transcript available on Metacast Hermanos Gutirrez may be an instrumental guitar band, but they have zero interest in shredding. Instead the Swiss-Ecuadorian brothers, Estevan and Alejandro Gutirrez, take a minimalist approach to playing. They create hypnotic, sweeping compositions inspired by classical Latin guitar and film scores from old Spaghetti Westerns. In 2022, after releasing three albums independently, Hermanos Gutirrez signed to Easy Eye Sound, a label owned and operated by Dan Auerbach, guitarist and vocalist of The...
Oct 17, 2023•56 min•Ep 83•Transcript available on Metacast Pete Townshend, the legendary guitarist and songwriter for The Who, is one of the most decorated rock stars alive. Hes been inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, received Kennedy Center Honors, and lifetime-achievement awards from both the Brit Awards and the Grammys. Pete's iconic power chord-guitar style and early use of synthesizers established him as a musical innovator in the '60s and '70s. After a string of chart-topping singles in the early '60s, Pete set to work writing the first-e...
Oct 10, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep 82•Transcript available on Metacast Today we are sharing a very special project we've been working on at Pushkin, a new podcast with the one and only, Sir Paul McCartney. The shows called McCartney: A Life in Lyrics and it's full of insightful conversations between Paul McCartney and his friend, the Irish poet Paul Muldoon. Together they taped years of conversations digging into Pauls lyrics and songwriting process. And because its impossible to separate the art from the man, a lot of McCartney's personal life gets revealed along ...
Oct 04, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amanda Shires is a Texas-born singer/songwriter who got her start at 15 when she joined Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys on fiddle. After starting her solo career in 2005, Shires continued to play with a number of other bands including her husband Jason Isbell's band, the 400 Unit. In 2019, she started the all-female country supergroup The Highwomen, which includes Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Maren Morris. After the 2022 release of Amanda Shires seventh solo album, Take It Like A Man , s...
Sep 26, 2023•47 min•Ep 81•Transcript available on Metacast Today we are sharing an episode of one of our favorite shows on the Pushkin network, Talk Easy , hosted by Sam Fragoso. In this episode Sam talks to the renowned Swedish music producer and composer, Ludwig Gransson. Ludwig is a Grammy and Academy award winning producer and composer who scored Ryan Cooglers Black Panther , The Mandalorian , and most recently he scored Christopher Nolan's epic, Oppenheimer . Hes also produced records and wrote songs for HAIM, Rihanna, Adele, and Childish Gambino. ...
Sep 19, 2023•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast DJ Drama is one of the most iconic mixtape DJs of all time. His legendary Gangsta Grillz tapes helped propel artists like T.I. and Young Jeezy to stardom. His classic Dedication series reinvigorated Lil Waynes career in the early and mid-2000s. By 2007, the underground mixtape market was booming. But in January of that year DJ Drama and his longtime business partner Don Cannon were arrested by federal agents and charged with bootlegging and racketeering. The much publicized raid only boosted DJ ...
Sep 12, 2023•57 min•Ep 80•Transcript available on Metacast Johnny Marr is an acclaimed British guitarist whos played with a ton of bands including, most famously, The Smiths. Marr started playing guitar as a young teenager growing up in Manchester. When he turned 15 he dropped out of school and moved to London to join the band Sister Ray. A couple years later he would help form The Smiths with Morrissey, Mike Joyce, and Marrs friend and bassist, Andy Rourke. After The Smiths broke up in 1987, Marr went on to collaborate with an array of different musici...
Sep 05, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep 79•Transcript available on Metacast Today we are sharing an episode from one of our favorite podcasts, Norah Jones is Playing Along. Norah is a multi-grammy winning artist who loves to collaborate with other musicians, so she started a podcast to do just that. Today's episode features the legendary Mavis Staples. Youll hear stories from her time as a member of the iconic Staples Singers. We will also hear Mavis and Norah play a gospel classic, as well as pay homage to Maviss father, Pops Staples, along with a few other surprises. ...
Aug 29, 2023•2 hr 32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Since his major-label debut in 2011, James Blake's haunting vocals and brilliantly edited, collage-style tracks have helped usher in a new sound in popular music. James has both produced and contributed vocals to a ton of artists including Travis Scott, Jay-Z, and Spanish megastar, Rosalia. He even earned a Grammy for best rap performance alongside Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock and Future on the song Kings Dead from the Black Panther soundtrack. This month James is releasing his sixth solo album, whi...
Aug 22, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast Of all the groundbreaking musicians to come out of the 60s, few were as engaged socially and politically as Joan Baez. A lifelong proponent of non-violent activism, Joan marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and has continued to advocate for non-violent, civil disobedience ever since. With the release of her debut album in 1960, Joan Baez became the preeminent female folkie. With just her exquisite soprano and her guitar, she reworked classic American folk songs and eventually wrote songs that...
Aug 15, 2023•52 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast In honor of Robbie Robertsons passing, were replaying an old episode of Broken Record featuring Robbie in conversation with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam. When Robbie Robertson turned a house perched above a Malibu beach into a home studio in the 1970's, he had no idea it'd remain a refuge for artists decades later. In this episode, Robbie returns to Shangri Lanow the home of our own Rick Rubinto discuss creating the studio, helping Bob Dylan go electric with The Band, writing "...
Aug 09, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we're sharing an episode from another Pushkin podcast we love called The Last Archive. The fourth season of The Last Archive just dropped and it's full of truly unexpected stories and big ideas. The episode you will hear today, "Player Piano," is an audio biography of one of the most famous composers of the 20th century who most people have never heard of: Raymond Scott. He wrote tons of hits in the '30s and since then his music has been sampled by Lizzo, J. Dilla and the Gorillaz. Aside f...
Aug 08, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Santigold is an artist who exists at the cross-section of punk, dub, new wave and indie pop. Long frustrated with attempts like these to classify her style, Santi has always been a proud outlier among the restrictive categories used to divide music. Santis anti-establishment bent was in part a reaction to working as an A&R for Epic Records black music department. Frustrated with what they categorized as urban music in the early aughts, Santi left her job, went home to Philly, and started a p...
Aug 01, 2023•54 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast Albert Hammond Jr. first rose to prominence as the lead guitarist of The Strokesa band at the forefront of New York Citys indie rock renaissance in the early aughts. In 2007 Albert Hammond Jr. launched his solo career, putting his songwriting and abilities as a frontman to the test. Hes now released five albums, including, Melodies On Hiatus, which came out just a couple months ago. Its a double album that he co-wrote with Canadian singer Simon Wilcox, and features collaborations with GoldLink a...
Jul 25, 2023•56 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast Paul Simon is one of the greatest living songwriters. Since debuting with Art Garfunkel in 1957, Paul Simon has written countless songs quintessential to the American psyche. This year, at 81 years old, hes released the latest addition to his beloved catalog, Seven Psalms , to an outpouring of critical acclaim. In 2021, Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam released the audiobook, Miracle And Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon. Its an intimate look into Simons songwriting alongside never-before-...
Jul 18, 2023•52 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast Over the course of his 35-year career, Damon Albarn has reached international fame with two very different bands.In 1988, Damon created the rock band Blur with three friends in his native London. Blur started out as what Damon calls a classic art school band. They quickly moved to the forefront of the 90s Britpop explosion along with their formal rivals, Oasis. After a series of successful albums with Blur, Damon started Gorillaz in 1998 with cartoonist Jamie Hewlett. Dubbed as the worlds first ...
Jul 11, 2023•43 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast In September, Ben Gibbard, the founder of Death Cab For Cutie, will set out on a nationwide tour to celebrate the two very different albums that have come to define his career. Both albums came out in 2003. The first was called Give Up , and it was a collaboration with his friend and producer Jimmy Tamborello. Theyd made it while Gibbard was taking a break from the relentless cycle of touring and releasing music with Death Cab. They called their new band The Postal Service. Give Up steadily buil...
Jul 04, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast 
