This is a special bonus episode for LSQ listeners of a podcast I had an excellent time collaborating on, as producer, with alt-J. Things Will Get Better is a five-episode podcast miniseries that explores the U.K. band's early days, and the making of their incredible, groundbreaking debut album, An Awesome Wave, in honor of its tenth anniversary. Within the series, the band revisit Ash Grove, the old college house where they played their first gig and wrote songs like "Matilda" and "Breezeblocks," as well as other favorite haunts in Leeds; they discover and listen back to long lost demos, including for the song that lends the series its name and fan favorites such as "Portrait" and "Hiroshima"; they catch up with their longtime producer, Charlie Andrew, and their former bandmate, Gwil Sainsbury; and in the episode I'm sharing, I interview the band, LSQ-style, focusing on their childhood encounters with creativity and how their music practices and passions evolved from there. If you like this one, check out the others at anchor.fm/anawesomewave

alt-J

Interviews focus on key moments of discovery, and the songs/artists that have soundtracked the guest's life. Hosted by journalist and radio presenter Jenny Eliscu (@jennylsq), these are laid-back but in-depth discussions about the journey to find their creative voice and process, and how it has evolved over their career. Episodes also occasionally feature clips from Eliscu's extensive archive, which includes 25 years' worth of interview audio.

Music

Music Interviews

On the eve of the release of her beautiful third studio album, Chaos Angel, singer-songwriter and actor Maya Hawke talks about how she arrived at her finest collection yet - a group of songs inspired by the idea of fighting one's own guardian angel. I loved getting to ask Maya about the creative path that led to this album, the music she was into as a kid, how she discovered her own musicality, the way her approach to songwriting and lyric writing has changed, even just in the months since she finished Chaos Angel, and more. 

Maya Hawke

I had the best time getting to know the wonderful Gabriela Quintero of Grammy-winning psychedelic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela for this episode of the LSQ podcast. We recently met over Zoom for a conversation exploring important moments in her personal creative evolution — things like seeing an all-girl Japanese metal band when she was 10; or discovering Metallica thanks to the mixtape her sister’s boyfriend had made, as part of his romance strategy; meeting her bandmate Rodrigo Sánchez at a local culture house where they grew up in Mexico City; how their friendship and mutual love for playing guitar led them to playing together, eventually moving to Zihuatanejo and starting the band; their adventures busking in Ireland at the end of the 90s, and how that helped kickstart their career; and lots of other stuff, including their awesome latest album, In Between Thoughts… A New World. Rodrigo y Gabriela are on tour right now; get tickets here.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Gabriela Quintero

Garage rock prince Ty Segall joins the LSQ podcast on the heels of his awesome fifteenth (!!!) studio album, Three Bells, to talk about the roots of his sound: how he first fell in love with rock and roll thanks to oldies radio (Beatles, Ronettes, Kinks) and a pile of vinyl records gifted by a Laguna Beach neighbor (Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Bowie), doing musical theater in high school, moving to San Francisco in search of like-minded weirdos and finding his community there, and more. We also talk about his quest to always be trying something new, and what sounds and styles he still hopes to explore. Ty and his band are on tour in North America now. Get tickets and details here. 

Ty Segall

Since there was a major influx of new listeners thanks to last week's episode 105 with Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, I wanted to bring back this super fun 2021 interview with VW bassist (Chris) Baio, which we recorded in the lead-up to his solo album Dead Hand Control. This is an abbreviated version of the episode, but you can find the full interview HERE. We talked about Sex and the City, Burnt, Spin Doctors, "Bohemian Rhapsody," Akron/Family, his dad's Columbia House CD collection, seeing Cranberries at Jones Beach Amphitheater, VW's early days at Columbia University, and more. 

LSQ Replay: Vampire Weekend - Baio

Some bands, you love them almost instantly, and that was the deal for me with Vampire Weekend, who I was fortunate to be tipped off to early on, through some mutual friends in NYC. My love for them has only grown with each new album, as VW continue to explore new sonic terrain, including on their brilliant latest LP, Only God Was Above Us, which is out now. In this interview, VW frontman Ezra Koenig — one of my mega-favorite songwriters, and also one of my favorite dudes — talks about his mega favorites. And, somewhat unsurprisingly, we have at least a few in common — The Kinks and Belle and Sebastian, among the ones he talks about here. Ezra also shares how his music tastes were shaped by the 50s and 60s pop hits he loved listening to as a kid, on his local oldies station, and how that shifted into discovering Scott Walker and Neil Young and 90s hip-hop and early aughts Radiohead and a whole eclectic swath of other music, including 21st century faves like M.I.A. and Lana Del Rey. We also discuss the evolution of Vampire Weekend, and how his view of what the band can be continues to expand. 

alt-J

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