Stereo Embers: The Podcast

“The Night Economy” Over the course of their brilliant career, which got started around 1999, Stars have put out nine winning and magical albums including Set Yourself on Fire and the Polaris-Prize nominated efforts In Our Bedroom After The War and The Five Ghosts. Their last full-length effort was 2017’s There Is No Love In Fluorescent Light, and I know that was four years ago, but don’t worry—new music is coming. Stars play a ravishing blend of jangly chamber pop, breezy new wave and melancholic indie rock. They fall somewhere between Prefab Sprout and Broken Social Scene and their songs are thoughtful, quirky, moving, inspiring and wrenching in all the right ways. They can evoke the bittersweet memories of the past and they can conjure the hope and optimism of the future. They’ve played Coachella and the WAYHOME festival in Toronto and their music has appeared in "Gossip Girl," "One Tree Hill," "The Vampire Diaries,” “Skins" and "Warehouse 13." The British-born Torquil Campbell is a musician, an actor on stage and film, a playwright and the host of a weekly podcast called The Soft Bulletin. Aside from his work in Stars, Campbell also put out albums with Memphis and he has a a solo project under the name Dead Child Star. In this conversation, which happens to take place on Campbell’s birthday, a lot of ground is covered: the resuscitation of the night economy, staying afloat financially as an artist during COVID, a mutual love of The Chills and why buying an album is still one of the best deals around.

“Lost And Found" One summer in the early '90s I drove around with only one cassette in my car and that was Born to Quit by the Smoking Popes. Led by the Illinois-born Josh Caterer and his brothers Eli and Matt, the band were nothing short of a revelation. Josh’s lilting vocals has all the elegance of Sinatra and the finesse of Morrissey, but it also had muscle. The songs? Good god—I mean, the album only clocks in at 28 minutes but the songs were so timeless and unique, you could cycle through it 50 times and repeat listens never chipped away at the brilliance of the tracks, it only reinforced that you were listening to a stone cold classic. The Popes tore it up—they toured with Green Day, Jawbreaker and Morrissey, had a bit of a hit with "Need You Around,” had their songs appear in movies like “Clueless" and "Tommy Boy" and found Morrissey himself declaring that he absolutely loved the band. Over the course of their career the Popes have put out seven albums, played massive gigs, like Riot Fest in 2016 and though they’ve broken up, gone on hiatus and reformed, they remain one of the most enduring outfits out there. As for Josh, you’ll hear a lot about him in this interview, but Josh has founded other bands like Duvall and the Jackson Mud Band over the years and his new album The Hideout Sessions is a live gig that was recorded in Chicago in October of 2020. Raw, powerful, intimate, and rousing, The Hideout Sessions finds Caterer pushing his voice in ways he never has before—he’s always been a great singer, but the evolution of his voice is on full display here—there’s a new layer of intensity and fragility that makes this live document incredibly moving. In this conversation we talk about the faulty Spotify model, the ‘90s, Jawbreaker, having COVID and why being found brings real understanding to being lost.

“The Cup Of Youth” If Kip Berman’s name sounds familiar to you, that’s for good reason. He fronted the beloved indie rock outfit The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart from 2007 to 20018. The NY-based band played all over the world, put out four perfect albums, culminating in 2017’s The Echoes Of Pleasure and they called it a day a year later. Berman moved to Princeton, New Jersey, started a family and started a new band as well. Dubbed The Natvral, Berman’s new musical project finds him swinging with freewheeling abandon and grinding poetic grace. Falling somewhere between Blood On The Tracks and Ezra Furman’s Day Of The Dog, his debut album Tethers is one of the year’s very best. Filled with rootsy snarl and howling bliss, Tethers is nothing short of a revelation. In this chat, Berman talks to Alex about discovering Fairport Convention, worrying about his kids in the age of COVID and the recent death of DJ Sophie. They also talk about our relationship to the past, their mutual love of Roddy Frame and why it took moving to New Jersey to start listening to British folk rock. https://thenatvral.bandcamp.com/album/tethers

“Consideration Of Rhythm" The Calgary-born Clea Anaïs is about to take flight in two ways. First, her solo career is blooming with the release of two new singles from her upcoming album and it won’t be long before her music is soaring through headphones across the world. It also won’t be long before she’s soaring across the world in a plane—not sure what you did during COVID, but Clea got her pilot’s license. The cello-playing Anaïs' name might sound familiar because she was the co-founder of the beloved Canadian outfit Raleigh who won alternative album of the year in 2018 at the YYC Music Awards. Over the years Clea has shared the stage with Unknown Mortal Orchestra and City and Color and she’s done session work for Astral Swans, Woodpigeon and 100 Mile House. Her solo work is a stirring blend of swirling indie rock and dreamy, sonorous pop that’s filled with wisdom, grace and resolve. Her voice is hypnotic and arresting and her textured arrangements are as ravishing as they are riveting. In this interview we talk about being raised by multi-ethnic parents, having a house full of sisters and how to respond when things get dark….

"From Georgia To New York" Nainnoh has been a model of adapting ever since she left her home in Georgia and moved to New York. Not the Georgia where its unlawful to have a glass of water when you’re standing in line to vote—the other Georgia. The one located at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia and bounded to the west by the Black Sea. Nainnoh will explain the rigors of such a move at a young age—so I’ll leave that to her. But what I will tell you is that she started music lessons at 7, getting her start on the piano, and by 11 she was crafting her own compositions. Influenced as much by the folk music of her homeland as she was by Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell, Nainnoh’s work captures a cosmological intellectualism wherein she contemplates the mysteries of the universe through the complex lenses of physics and astrology. Yeah, her work is pretty deep—both in lyrical scope and instrumentation. Her self-titled debut album is a riveting and mesmeric blend of undulating rhythms, lush pop textures, dreamy psychedelia and heartfelt poetry, The songs are both nostalgic and forward thinking and it’s some of the most unforgettable music you’ll ever hear. In this conversation we talk about the disorienting reality of coming to a new country at a young age, perfectionism, having parents who supported her creative freedom and a childhood of playing chess...

“Teenage Wasted American Kids” So, Modern Love Child’s Jonny Shane was on our show in October of 2019 just as his band’s debut album MLC hit shelves. And then a few months later, the pandemic hit and everything ground to a standstill. But the east coast-born Shane was undeterred by the tumult of 2020—the guy is everywhere. He was in L.A., he was in Costa Rica and now he’s in Florida. With his winning personality Shane is one of those guys who fits in wherever he is. And his music should fit in just fine on any of your playlists. Modern Love Child’s music is a perfect blend of catchy new wave and soaring pop—and Shane is not only a great songwriter, he’s a great writer, too. His lyrics are observational and vulnerable and clever, but his real gift is throwing in unexpected phrases and lines that you’ll never see coming. This guy’s got it all: Pop smarts, lyrical smarts and melodic smarts punctuate every Modern Love Child track and as a far as I’m concerned, Shane is one of the most refreshingly innovative and engaging lyricists we have. In this conversation we talk about surfing, backgammon, Ben Kweller, his new single “Teenage Wasted American Kids" and bringing on the future.

"La, La, La, La" Yes, he was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey, but there’s always been a California feel to Alex Bleeker. The bassist for the beloved indie rock outfit Real Estate, Bleeker has also fronted Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, an outfit that plays a countryfied mash up of roots rock and psychedelia. That California feel I’m talking about can be traced to Bleeker’s love of the Grateful Dead. We talk about that in this interview, so I’ll let him explain, but Bleeker’s music has a timeless quality that makes it hard to place chronologically. This is a good problem to have, because one can never be pigeonholed or stuck in an era--they can float freely out of time. Speaking of floating freely, Bleeker’s first solo album does just that. A stirring and blissful collection of gentle jangles, catchy, '60s-tinged pop and ethereal melodies, Heaven On The Faultline is one of the most beautifully crafted albums you’ll hear all year. Or any year. In this chat we talk about The Dead, being jittery around germs and admitting there are classic albums we haven't heard yet

“Pop The Placebo” The Greenwich Village-born Elizabeth Ziman started playing the piano at a young age. How young? Well, she penned her first song at age 6, so she got going pretty fast. A start like that makes her scholarship to study classical composition at the Berklee College of Music and her nabbing an ASCAP Leiber and Stoller scholarship not a very big surprise. So her scholastic plan was hatched and she was ready to go, But like they always say, the best plans are born from the plans that don’t happen. And you can’t plan for that. You just go with it. And Ziman did just that—her plan to focus on scoring films was upended by Patti Austin tapping her for an Ella Fitzgerald tour that found Ziman on the road for almost two years. She got back to Berkelee and as her collegiate career was ending, she put together Elizabeth and the Catapult. From there, things stated to move fast. The band put out an EP in 2006, signed with Verve in 2008 and put out their first record Taller Children in 2009. In the past 15 years, the Brooklyn band has put out five albums, collaborated with Ben Folds, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, opened for Sara Bareilles at Madison Square Garden and nabbed an Independent Music Award. That fifth album is Sincerely, E, a nimble and poetic effort written and recorded during the past year under quarantine and if you found yourself making series of pandemic pivots since March of 2020, Sincerely E is the soundtrack of those pivots. A heartbreaking, soulful and comforting effort, it finds Ziman playing with poise, finesse, wisdom and grace. From the spry pop of “Thirsty" to the thoughtful and aching "Pop The Placebo," it’s stark, dark, and ultimately thrilling. In this chat, Elizabeth and Alex talk about rabbits, Michael Keaton, technical dependence, binge watching, reading weird reviews and getting better at saying No….. Order Sincerely, E: https://store.compassrecords.com/products/sincerely-e

“The Comfort Of Discomfort” You’re about to learn a great deal about Chad Lawson in our conversation, so before we begin, I’ll give you a few essentials. The classically trained pianist first had the inclination he wanted to be behind the keys after watching Sha Na Na on TV when he was 5. Lawson went to Berklee College of Music where he declared himself a jazz performance major, but while there he became an in-demand studio musician so he dropped out, not seeing much point in staying in school. He later formed the Chad Lawson trio, toured as part of Julio Iglesias' band, hit number one on the Billboard Classical albums chart, composed for the podcasts Lore, Unobscured and Cabinet of Curiosities, signed a deal with Decca Records, and launched his own podcast called Calm It Down. Inspired by everyone from Keith Jarret to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Benmont Tench, Lawson plays with fluidity, finesse and grace. He’s a dextrous and thoughtful player who’s innovative, creative and intuitive. And he never does the same thing twice. You probably think that’s the kind of thing a podcast host says, but it’s not. I mean it is, but it’s not in this case. Consider this: Lawson put out a jazz reinterpretation of the Wizard of Oz, released an album of covers including tracks by Soundgarden and the Police, reinterpreted Chopin with a violinist and a cellist and his newest track is a take on a number by Billie Eilish. You can’t pin this guy down.And given his marital arts background, I’m guessing you REALLY can’t pin him down. This is a revealing chat and one I think you’re going to find has some pretty amazing life lessons. Yeah, I know—another podcast host thing to say but trust me: it’s true.

“The Journey Isn’t Finished Yet" Steve Hackett is indeed one of the true musical masters. The London born guitarist got his start in two short lived bands—Canterbury Glass and Quiet World, but his tenure in Genesis is what catapulted him into the spotlight. Hackett played on six of the legendary bands’ albums, including Nursery Cryme and Selling England By The Pound. He left Genesis in 1977 and from there, Hackett put out a series of adventurous, innovative and dazzling solo albums, including Spectral Mornings and Bay Of Kings. Hackett’s influence is vast and just to give you an idea of who his playing inspired—Queen’s Brian May Rush’s Alex Lifeson and Eddie Van Halen have all name-checked Hackett as a massive influence. As for his playing, getting into the technical brilliance of his revelatory use of two handed tapping and sweep picking might be the subject of its own podcast. The fact is, Steve Hackett plays with dexterity, depth and finesse--his precision is almost supernatural and his command of his instrument is peerless. He’s a big fan of Bach and would probably think we're overdoing it by saying he’s like Bach, but he is. He’s a master, he’s an innovator and he’s one of the great composers not only of our time, but of any time. Bach-like, for sure. His new album Under a Mediterranean sky is an all acoustic affair and it’s a straight up stunner— elegant, lush and utterly riveting. In this conversation Hackett talks to Alex about the brilliance of Jimi Hendrix, his admiration of Mark Knopfler and how working with Peter Gabriel affected his playing. He also talks about what area he feels least comfortable in as a guitar player, how rehearsal and performance differ and why it’s important to take chances.