Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Buffy Sainte-Marie tells Rick Rubin there's a reason she isn’t a household name in the U.S. A pioneering artist in the Greenwich Village folk scene, she could've been Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell or Paul Simon. But in the early days of Vietnam when Buffy was singing protest songs about the casualties of war, she was blacklisted by the U.S. government. Her music was barely played on radio. But she still managed to find an audience with her classic songs, like Universal Soldier, which have been covered by Elvis Presley, Barbara Streisand, Courtney Love, Morrissey. She was the first Native woman to win an Academy Award. And even had a controversial stint on Sesame Street, teaching Big Bird about breastfeeding.

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Rick Rubin talk to Don was about his early days in Detroit, his time in Was Not Was and his wide ranging career producing defining-albums for the B-52's, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. He also talks about how he became the president of legendary Jazz label Blue Note Records. Plus he explains how he messed up an audition to be in Dead and Co. with Bob Weir and John Mayer.

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Flying Lotus is one of those producers who creates an entire aesthetic world with the music he makes. Over the past 13 years he’s released four solo albums, and produced tracks for a ton of artists including Kendrick Lamar, Thom Yorke, and Thundercat. In this episode FlyLo talks to Rick Rubin about visiting his great aunt Alice Coltrane’s ashram, his peak creative hours, and why he directed a horror movie despite being scared to death by the Thriller video as a kid.

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Into the Zone is a podcast about opposites, and how borders are never as clear as we think. Country? Rap? Lil Nas X’s chart-topping “Old Town Road” revived a long debate about borders and boundaries in American popular music. To sort out this strange history, Hari heads down to the foothills of Virginia, where a legendary collection of blues records holds the key to understanding the insidious separation of “black” vs. “white” culture.

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Brandi Carlile came by Shangri La last year to talk to Rick Rubin with Tanya Tucker about the album they made together, While I'm Livin'. After Tanya left, Brandi stayed behind to talk about her love of Joni Mitchell's music, how she was present for a star studded jam that led to Joni singing for the first time since her stroke, and also about the beginning of her career, when Rick helped to discover her. Plus, Brandi plays an intimate version of her song "The Mother" for Rick.

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Our episode with Justin Townes Earle was scheduled to run next month. But after we heard about Earle's passing over the weekend, we decided to put it out sooner. It's a deeply sad conversation in some places. Especially given his passing. However, it's also incredibly soulful, funny and searching. And the performances, culled from Earle's last release, The Saint of Lost Causes, are brilliant. Bruce Headlam takes the reigns this episode for what's turned out to be a fitting tribute to one of the great, dynamic young performers and songwriters that's now gone way too soon. Rest in peace, Justin Townes Earle [1982-2020].

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This week’s Fresh Find, Vagabon, is a self taught, Cameroonian-born musician whose haunting voice and genre defying style has won over critics at both The New Yorker and Pitchfork. In this episode she talks about emigrating from West Africa to Harlem as a teenager, sneaking out of her parent’s house to play D.I.Y. punk shows in Brooklyn, and how bouts of writer’s block can cause her to dream of writing code instead of new music.

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***Run the Jewels are raw and so is the language in this episode***

Killer Mike and El-P return to Broken Record to discuss the creation of their fourth album, RTJ4, and the tumultuous world it was released into. Rick Rubin, who was present during some of the album's recording sessions at Shangri La, digs into the record's production and themes with the duo, calling the message and tone of the album "almost prophetic." They also discuss working with Pharrell and Zack de la Rocha and why they had to make a major change to a song after the album was already mastered.

You can hear an extended cut of today's episode by subscribing to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/brokenrecordpodcast. We'll be off the next two weeks but will be posting two interviews to our YouTube channel while away.

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Broken Record is bringing you a Fresh Find this week. We discovered Berhana after a key placement in Donald Glover’s show Atlanta. In this episode, Berhana talks about growing up in the real Atlanta, being first generation American born to Ethiopian parents, recording his newest album in Tokyo and how he started earning enough on music to make a living before he ever played a show.

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A tornado raged through Margo Price's home-base of Nashville right as she was preparing to release her third album in March. A month later Margo’s husband and longtime collaborator, Jeremy Ivey, tested positive for coronavirus. While taking care of her sick husband and two young kids, Margo decided to push back the release of her new album. Now, "That's How Rumors Get Started" is finally out. Margo's written her way through personal devastation before and does so on the new album too. Although it also owes a debt to the more care-free music the Stones, Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac. Margo tells Bruce Headlam, in this episode, about how playing an open mic at a Best Western hotel made her a better songwriter, she also talks about hocking her wedding ring to record her first album, and how spending a weekend in jail was all the inspiration she needed to re-focus her career. Then we check in with her uncle, Nashville songwriter, Bobby Fischer.

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You can also check out past episodes here: https://brokenrecordpodcast.com/

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