Beezy Listening

This may have been the most difficult interview I’ve ever had to edit, which is a direct result of the fact that it was one of the easiest interviews I’ve ever conducted with a total stranger. I did my best to whittle down our five hour conversation, but there was no way this episode wasn’t going to be a two-parter.

In part one, I chat with the mayor about his mother’s work with the National Organization for Women, his early political experience in college, his work as a trial lawyer, how Trump’s election inspired him to run for office, and how he came to run for mayor. We also talk about “The Lawn Incident”. We go off on a tangent or two about national issues, but most of that will be in part 2, which will be out next Thursday.

I took the weekend off, and so no new musical guest this week. Instead, I've put together this mix tape of all the musicians featured so far on the show.

 Check back tomorrow for part one of my interview with Michael Brennan, mayor of University Heights.

Tracks:

This week I’ve got another guest that I met while I was living in New York City, Molly Ruth.  We talk about how growing up in NYC shaped her and the state of the city, the meaning behind some of her song lyrics, and her time at Standing Rock.

In a pinch I’ve described Molly as a cross between Patsy Cline, Bob Dylan, and Joan Jett, but that isn’t nearly as accurate as the bio on her website:

“Every song is a blood-sacrifice. Sometimes she howls to the animal kingdom, sometimes sermonizes in a spirit language, sometimes she is wailing a bitter, jealous country ballad that leaves your heart ragged and your soul purified. “

I’ve been a huge fan of Molly’s since the first time I saw her perform nearly 10 years ago, and am very excited to have the opportunity to introduce her music to my audience. So much so that I’m gonna change things up this episode and lead right in with a song. 

Check out Molly Ruth on Spotify

Today’s guest is Robinson Treacher, a singer-songwriter with a heart and voice of gold that I met nearly 10 years ago at a family-owned cafe in Queens called Waltz Astoria.

We talk about Robinson’s formative experiences with music, his creative process, the spiritual undertones of his lyrics, and his newfound love of house shows. This is one of the first guests I’ve had on the podcast that spent time in the open mic scene of NYC during my formative years, so we take a stroll down memory lane discussing some of the spots that were our most and least favorite to play.

You can find all of Robinson’s music and upcoming tour dates at RobinsonTreacher.com.

More songs and stories from Xe La. We don't have the budget for one of those fancy "Previously on BZ Listening" intros, unfortunately, so you'll have to go back and listen to part one to see what you missed!

Over dinner I explained to my sons how I prepare for an interview on my podcast, that it's almost all figuring out good questions.

While I recorded an interview with a remote guest in my office they did this. They're really excited about it, so maybe consider this a pilot episode...

My guest today is Alexander Alvarez, aka XE La SOL. Alex is a man who has a very pure and complicated relationship with music and the world, and one of the most beautiful hearts and minds I’ve had the privileged to watch unfold on this show.

You can listen to the episode and find links to Xela’s projects at http://bzdug.com/podcast/xela

One of the questions I ask every guest is “What is your measure of success?”

It was after talking with Xela, that I realized my own answer, which is that I’ve already succeeded because I have chosen to make music and support others who do.

That’s the sort of truth that bubbled up in my brain after four hours chatting with today’s guest.  So I’ve decided to break his interview up into two parts. Today is part one, and next Monday come back for part two.

You can find links to Xela’s projects at http://bzdug.com/podcast/xela

In part two of my interview with Michael McFarland, we chat about the history of McFarland Manor.

McFarland Manor is a Cleveland house venue in the Gordon Square District, organized by Michael McFarland, Cassie Bishop & Mikey Silas. The Manor hosts monthly concerts, generally on the last Friday or Saturday of each month.

McFarland Manor on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/McFarlandManor

This week my guest is indie-rocker and musical architect, Michael McFarland. We ended up covering a lot of ground, so I had to break this interview up into two parts. Today’s episode covers Michael’s childhood being homeschooled by his two exceptionally brilliant parents, what it was like gigging as a teenage musician (I even got him to recall his most cringe-inducing lyric from those days), his creative process, how he’s managing to achieve a middle class career in music, and his new conceptual sci-fi music project “Hello Headrush”.

The second part of the interview will drop tomorrow, where we discuss the origin of McFarland Manor, the Cleveland house show Michael co-produces with former guest Mikey Silas and future guest Cassie Bishop.

For any of you in the area, the next McFarland Manor show is coming up this Saturday April 27th. 

http://michaelmcfarlandmusic.com/

On today’s episode, Madeline Finn and I talk about her early start in music, the lessons she learned as an American Idol contestant, and how she plans to move forward as a musician using Patreon to sustain herself and leveraging that commitment to fans to fuel her creativity. This one runs pretty long, closing in on the 90 minute mark, but I promise you I cut everything that I could. In any case, I blame Madeline, she was such a fun guest. No joke, I could have interviewed her all night. 

https://www.madelinefinnofficial.com

https://www.facebook.com/madelinefinnofficial/

https://www.facebook.com/thewhiskeyhollow/