A Deeper Listen

Rufus Wainwright was scheduled to release a new album on April 24th, but because of COVID-19, that album release has been moved to July. Part of the reason for the delay is that physical copies of the album couldn’t be pushed out in time. “All the hard copies, the vinyl and the CDs are all locked up in a warehouse,” Wainwright says. He also talks about his recent “Robe Recitals,” or “Quarantunes," where he performs songs from his repertoire for fans online daily, and how he fuses pop, classical, opera and musical theater into his music.

Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Library of Congress is launching a tool this summer that will make its massive audio collection of free to use and reuse works available to DJs, hip hop artists, and others to sample in their music for free. The project is called "Citizen DJ." It’s led by the Library of Congress’ “innovator in residence,” Brian Foo. Foo talks about how the project works and the music he’s already been able to make from the library’s archive.

Attorney Damien Riehl and coder Noah Rubin explain how they are creating algorithms to document every melody that can exist and putting those melodies into the public domain to minimize copyright infringement cases and give more freedom to artists.

Explore Citizen DJ's online tool

Learn about the copyright and melodies project

Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Damien Jurado released his 19th (!) album today, titled 'What’s New, Tomboy?' Jurado talks about his songwriting process. He describes songwriting as reading stories from a teleprompter– they just show up in front of him without him fully knowing what they're about. “I just answer the call of the songs that show up in my life,” Jurado says.

Jurado also discusses how his struggles with addiction have led him to remove smartphones, computers and technology from his life, and how he prefers making money by being a prolific songwriter, rather than spending his time touring on the road.

Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seattle-based band, Deep Sea Diver has been getting creative with their weekly live stream performances on Instagram Live. Each week they give fans a “stem”—a drum beat or guitar riff to play with and create a song out of. The best songs get featured in Deep Sea Diver’s entertaining live stream sessions. Deep Sea Diver even used their own stems from the project to create their single, “Stop Pretending.”

We also hear from a Seattle Opera tenor who is spending his weekday evenings singing opera arias to his neighbors from his front lawn.

Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard talks about his Live from Home concert series he’s been doing since mid March and why it was important for his performances to be benefit shows that give back to local Seattle-area organizations and charities.

Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Laura Marling has been releasing albums since she was 18. Now at the age of 30, she has released her seventh studio album, 'Song For Our Daughter.' Despite the title of the record, Marling admits she isn’t a mother herself. 

“The title, ‘Song for our Daughter,’ was clearly a figurative consideration about what it would be like to raise a daughter given the experience of being a woman that I’ve had and what culture is going through at the moment, this kind of shift in empathetic relationships,” Marling explains. 

She also talks about releasing her album early due to COVID-19, her guitar tutorials on Instagram, what she’s learned about trauma while pursuing a Master’s degree in psychoanalysis and the women’s stories she tells in the record.

Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.