Curious Goldfish Podcast

Too young as a teenager, too old at 30. Ella Hooper is in her calling-it-out era.

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Ella Hooper broke through as a teenager fronting the Australian rock band Killing Heidi, got written off as "kindy rock," and years later heard a radio station suggest she'd aged out of their format. Her fourth solo album, Overnight Success, was made in Nashville and treated like a debut. She split the songs between an East Nashville band and an A-list room, and re-recorded some at double the cost when the polished takes stopped sounding like her. She's fully independent, no manager and no label, and she talks openly about the years that shredded her script, including losing both parents within two weeks during Victoria's lockdowns. How do you keep your own flavor when the best players in town are waiting on your direction?

🎵 Ella Hooper's latest: Overnight Success (2026)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open
1:00 Meet Ella Hooper
3:10 Singing inside a Masked Singer costume
5:20 Commuting from Australia to Nashville
6:50 Why the album is called Overnight Success
7:50 Kindy rock to heritage artist: age bias in music
9:15 Would a man have gotten the radio add?
11:20 A fourth solo record that feels like a debut
13:50 Tall poppy syndrome vs. "Yeah, girl, you go for it"
15:00 Losing both parents in two weeks
19:30 Writing "Die Happy"
20:30 Two Nashville bands and re-recording the record
23:40 "Too masculine": fixing "Bad Word"
26:15 Visas and first US shows
27:30 Dating, Australian men, and lost romance
30:40 60 Seconds of Curiosity

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 fans and artists told us about streaming, AI, and where the money in music actually goes. Get the State of Music survey summary free: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/state-of-music-summary-signup

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode. The moments that didn't make the clips, what I'm learning running this show, and one curiosity prompt every issue: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

ABOUT CURIOUS GOLDFISH
A music podcast about more than music. Inspired by Ted Lasso. I talk with singer-songwriters and bands in Americana, folk, roots, and country about the lives behind the songs: resilience, faith, marriage, the business of music, and what keeps an artist going. Every episode ends with the same question about curiosity, and no two answers are alike.

New episodes every other week.

🌐 www.curiousgoldfish.com 🎧 Spotify | Apple Podcasts 📸 @curiousgoldfishpodcast

Fined £10,000 for busking, then cast on Ted Lasso. He still busks to see if strangers stop.

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Cam Cole started on a London street with an acoustic guitar and no amplifier, trying to work out how the other buskers stopped hundreds of strangers. He built a one-man band instead, kept playing through a £10,000 council fine, and ended up playing himself on Ted Lasso. His fourth album, Lost in Creation, changes how he records and what he writes about, from the COVID years to songs that exist purely for the vibe. He talks about refusing to play the industry game, the night he walked into a sold-out room and lost the thrill of winning a crowd over, and the working guys who make up his fan base. Once the crowd is already yours, where do you go to earn it again?

🎵 Cam Cole's latest: Lost in Creation (2026)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open: "Lost in creation"
0:42 Meet Cam Cole
2:12 What's different about Lost in Creation
4:45 Dean Street, Abbey Road, and keeping it raw
7:03 Writing "You Shall Be Saved" and scatting the blues
10:16 The title track and losing yourself in songwriting
13:26 Busking unannounced to stop 150 strangers
16:38 The physical toll of a one-man band
18:11 Busking in Nashville and Clarksdale
20:19 Never playing the music industry game
22:56 Staying not too famous, and the first sold-out show
25:48 New Age Collective and rave culture
30:26 Who his superfans are
32:52 Ted Lasso: playing himself
38:12 The £10,000 busking fine
39:08 60 Seconds of Curiosity

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 fans and artists told us about streaming, AI, and where the money in music actually goes. Get the State of Music survey summary free: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/state-of-music-summary-signup

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode. The moments that didn't make the clips, what I'm learning running this show, and one curiosity prompt every issue: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

ABOUT CURIOUS GOLDFISH
A music podcast about more than music. Inspired by Ted Lasso. I talk with singer-songwriters and bands in Americana, folk, roots, and country about the lives behind the songs: resilience, faith, marriage, the business of music, and what keeps an artist going. Every episode ends with the same question about curiosity, and no two answers are alike.

New episodes every other week.

🌐 www.curiousgoldfish.com 🎧 Spotify | Apple Podcasts 📸 @curiousgoldfishpodcast

Millions of strangers decided who Brendan Abernathy was in 30 seconds. He kept writing.

Get the stories behind the episodes: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

Brendan Abernathy went to the University of Georgia for free on the pre-med track, won a state championship in baseball, and named his album The Kid Who Got It All Wrong. In 2025, a TikTok of him singing "Married in a Year" turned into a meme, and a hard summer followed. At the 30A Songwriters Festival he talks about faith, the psalm a guy at a party told him to read, six projects recorded outdoors in national parks, and a big league friend who wouldn't change his swing. He closes with a song he wrote that week. What would you make if you stopped making it for everyone?

🎵 Brendan's latest: The Kid Who Got It All Wrong (2025)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open
0:45 Welcome to Curious Goldfish
1:20 Meet Brendan Abernathy
2:35 Back at the 30A Songwriters Festival
4:20 The Kid Who Got It All Wrong
7:40 Pre-med at Georgia and the grass on the other side
11:35 Faith and a hard summer
13:20 Psalm 13 and the Psalm 69 story
14:45 Church music, U2, and Jason's road with faith
20:00 Rosalía's Lux and the lives of the saints
22:05 The fan who walked up an hour earlier
23:30 A song about human trafficking and a big league swing
25:15 Six projects recorded in national parks
27:55 Making music for people like him
31:25 60 Seconds of Curiosity
35:20 Live Performance: "Unnamed Song"

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 fans and artists told us about streaming, AI, and where the money in music goes. Get the State of Music survey summary free: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/state-of-music-summary-signup

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode. The moments that didn't make the clips, what I'm learning running this show, and one curiosity prompt every issue: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

ABOUT CURIOUS GOLDFISH
A music podcast about more than music. Inspired by Ted Lasso. I talk with singer-songwriters and bands in Americana, folk, roots, and country about the lives behind the songs: resilience, faith, marriage, the business of music, and what keeps an artist going. Every episode ends with the same question about curiosity, and no two answers are alike.

New episodes every other week.

🌐 www.curiousgoldfish.com 🎧 Spotify | Apple Podcasts 📸 @curiousgoldfishpodcast

A pocket full of empathy: an Australian songwriter on understanding people you completely disagree with.

Get the stories behind the episodes: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

Nigel Wearne grew up on a 750-acre farm in Victoria, Australia, and figured the best cover band in Warrnambool was as far as music would take him. Now he plays MerleFest, Telluride, and the 30A Songwriters Festival, where we sat down. We talk about Above the Bit, the album he and Luke Watt wrote from true stories of Australian mutiny and civil disobedience, the full-band and solo versions of The Reckoning, and the 200 hours it took to build the guitar he plays at the end. He calls his sound Americana noir, built on minor keys and jazz chords. Why does a schoolteacher by trade write songs that refuse to tell you what to think?

🎵 Nigel Wearne's latest: The Reckoning (2025)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open
0:52 Welcome to Curious Goldfish
1:55 Back at the 30A Songwriters Festival
2:48 From Folk Alliance to American festival stages
4:44 Australian artists worth hearing
5:49 Above the Bit: true stories of Australian mutiny
9:00 The WWII mutiny in Townsville
9:29 Walyer and "some tales don't heal unless they've been told"
10:26 Snakes, kangaroos, and Australian wildlife
11:48 The beard and the persona
12:31 The Reckoning, full band vs. solo
14:31 Touring the US with Nashville players
15:05 Defining Americana noir
17:02 Songs that leave room for the listener
18:40 Building his own guitars
21:25 Australian timbers and tone
24:04 How COVID and a sixties Gretsch shaped The Reckoning
25:05 Making records you can play live
26:56 60 Seconds of Curiosity
29:18 What's next: David Lynch meets spaghetti western
30:10 Live Performance: "The Reckoning"

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 fans and artists told us about streaming, AI, and where the money in music actually goes. Get the State of Music survey summary free: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/state-of-music-summary-signup

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode. The moments that didn't make the clips, what I'm learning running this show, and one curiosity prompt every issue: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

ABOUT CURIOUS GOLDFISH
A music podcast about more than music. Inspired by Ted Lasso. I talk with singer-songwriters and bands in Americana, folk, roots, and country about the lives behind the songs: resilience, faith, marriage, the business of music, and what keeps an artist going. Every episode ends with the same question about curiosity, and no two answers are alike.

New episodes every other week.

🌐 curiousgoldfish.com 🎧 Spotify | Apple Podcasts 📸 @curiousgoldfishpodcast

He signed with a hip-hop label at 15. His debut was built on his dad's folk records.

Get the stories behind the episodes: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

Ryman signed with a hip-hop indie label at 15, a high schooler saying yes to whatever he was told. At 22, he writes for Concord and just released Growing Pains, a debut built on the singer-songwriter and folk records he was raised on. We talk about the publishing deal his dad turned down to raise a family, cutting "Up in the Air" live with a couple of mics and iPhones and no click track, a dark idea he almost didn't bring to a co-write with Lacey Kate Booth, and "Undo," his song about writing without picking things apart. How do you keep writing for yourself once people start watching?

🎵 Ryman's latest: Growing Pains (2026)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Driven past the Ryman Auditorium the day he was born
0:56 Intro
2:11 Fans singing unreleased songs at the release show
3:20 Growing Pains and selling the childhood home
5:00 Signed to a hip-hop label at 15
6:43 Dad's harmonica and the publishing deal he turned down
8:15 Writing for Concord
9:21 First shows with a five-piece band
10:17 Recording "Up in the Air" with no click track
11:17 An introvert on festival stages
12:35 Tiny print on the festival poster
13:40 Growing up with the name Ryman
15:09 Writing for himself, not the algorithm
18:04 His first cut, with Lacey Kate Booth and Ben West
20:40 60 Seconds of Curiosity
23:09 Closing

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 fans and artists told us about streaming, AI, and where the money in music goes. Get the State of Music survey summary free: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/state-of-music-summary-signup

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode. The moments that didn't make the clips, what I'm learning running this show, and one curiosity prompt every issue: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

ABOUT CURIOUS GOLDFISH
A music podcast about more than music. Inspired by Ted Lasso. I talk with singer-songwriters and bands in Americana, folk, roots, and country about the lives behind the songs: resilience, faith, marriage, the business of music, and what keeps an artist going. Every episode ends with the same question about curiosity, and no two answers are alike.

New episodes every other week.

🌐 curiousgoldfish.com 🎧 Spotify | Apple Podcasts 📸 @curiousgoldfishpodcast

Lyal Strickland sold most of his cattle herd to make his first album in about ten years.

Get the stories behind the episodes: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

Lyal Strickland's family has farmed the Ozarks since 1838. He inherited the farm at 22 with about nine grand and no fences, built the herd from 33 cattle to about 300, and has now sold it down to 40 to fund Shooter of Truth. We talk about a truck that leaked exhaust into the cab, a film degree he picked over philosophy, and why he stopped writing honestly after marriage and kids. Lyal also talks openly about living with depression, including a morning he hadn't described in an interview before, and what got him back to playing music. What would you sell to make the thing you believe in?

🎵 Lyal Strickland's latest: Shooter of Truth (2026)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Passed out at the wheel feeding hay
2:27 Buffalo, Missouri: Mayberry with a twang
5:50 Farming Dallas County since 1838
6:56 Selling the herd to go back to music
10:08 Inheriting a farm with no fences
14:12 A film degree and a philosophy minor
16:14 Kept out of the corral to protect his hands
20:05 Shooter of Truth
22:27 A very hard year and living with depression
26:58 Writing honestly again
30:43 Talking about mental health from the stage
33:42 How he's doing now
36:11 The Sunday New York Times and a mom in Memphis radio
39:38 60 Seconds of Curiosity
44:43 Closing

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 fans and artists told us about streaming, AI, and where the money in music goes. Get the State of Music survey summary free: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/state-of-music-summary-signup

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode. The moments that didn't make the clips, what I'm learning running this show, and one curiosity prompt every issue: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

ABOUT CURIOUS GOLDFISH
A music podcast about more than music. Inspired by Ted Lasso. I talk with singer-songwriters and bands in Americana, folk, roots, and country about the lives behind the songs: resilience, faith, marriage, the business of music, and what keeps an artist going. Every episode ends with the same question about curiosity, and no two answers are alike.

New episodes every other week.

If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, US).

🌐 curiousgoldfish.com 🎧 Spotify | Apple Podcasts 📸 @curiousgoldfishpodcast

Michael Rudd went 30 years without writing a song. Then came four albums in three years.

Get the stories behind the episodes -> https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

Michael Rudd was principal of a K-8 school at Acoma Pueblo and hadn't written a song in more than 30 years. Then the songs started coming back. The day after he finished recording an album, a biopsy led to a stage four prostate cancer diagnosis, and he has been writing through treatment ever since. His new album, Midnight at Dawn, is about the dark thoughts that are still there when you wake up, and he calls it the last gasp of his dark songs. We talk about 20 years of unpublished novels, a question about his own mental health that nobody had asked him before, and why he left the Northeast for the New Mexico desert. What do you write when you don't know how much time you have?

🎵 Michael Rudd's latest: Midnight at Dawn (2026)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 The first song after the diagnosis
1:00 Welcome to Curious Goldfish
2:18 Midnight at Dawn and Grammy season feedback
4:33 A school principal who stopped writing songs for 30 years
8:32 Twenty years of novels and the self-mythologizing
11:19 Running a school at Acoma Pueblo
19:03 How Midnight at Dawn sounds different
23:13 Why "Midnight at Dawn"
24:29 Mental health and the songs
28:14 Why New Mexico: solitude and Thomas Merton
33:08 Stage four cancer and writing through treatment
38:54 Why he can't tour yet
40:25 60 Seconds of Curiosity
43:29 Writing "The Train Is Coming"
46:09 Closing

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 fans and artists told us about streaming, AI, and where the money in music goes. Get the State of Music survey summary free -> https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/state-of-music-summary-signup

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode. The moments that didn't make the clips, what I'm learning running this show, and one curiosity prompt every issue -> https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

ABOUT CURIOUS GOLDFISH
A music podcast about more than music. Inspired by Ted Lasso. I talk with singer-songwriters and bands in Americana, folk, roots, and country about the lives behind the songs: resilience, faith, marriage, the business of music, and what keeps an artist going. Every episode ends with the same question about curiosity, and no two answers are alike.

New episodes every other week.

🌐 curiousgoldfish.com 🎧 Spotify | Apple Podcasts 📸 @curiousgoldfishpodcast

Sub Pop dropped her. That loss is exactly what made her new album possible.

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Shannon Lay says the day Sub Pop passed on her record felt like the rug getting pulled out. It also became the reason Past the Veil exists, and the first album she is releasing on her own label. She and Jason get into the punk band she left, the pottery wheel in her garage, and the coffee shop playlist that quietly pushed one of her songs past 68 million streams. Ten years and several records in, she still calls herself a beginner. So what does she think a long career is actually supposed to look like?

🎵 Shannon Lay's latest: Past the Veil (2026)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open: getting dropped saved the album
0:51 Welcome to Curious Goldfish
2:19 Past the Veil and its most surprising feedback
3:30 Punk to folk, and the record that feels most like her
4:39 Touring with Alela Diane
6:03 Ceramics, mugs, and hacking the system
7:31 What pottery taught her about mistakes
9:20 The vintage shop, Feels, and Sub Pop
10:21 Getting dropped and starting her own label
14:05 Direct fan relationships and social media
16:56 Leaving the band, COVID, and starting over
17:51 "I'm at the very beginning"
19:53 Recording 15 and 68 million streams
21:34 How playlisting changed
23:25 60 Seconds of Curiosity

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 fans and artists told us about streaming, AI, and where the money in music actually goes. Get the State of Music survey summary free → curiousgoldfish.com/state-of-music-summary-signup

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode. The moments that didn't make the clips, what I'm learning running this show, and one curiosity prompt every issue → curiousgoldfish.com

ABOUT CURIOUS GOLDFISH
A music podcast about more than music. Inspired by Ted Lasso. I talk with singer-songwriters and bands in Americana, folk, roots, and country about the lives behind the songs: resilience, faith, marriage, the business of music, and what keeps an artist going. Every episode ends with the same question about curiosity, and no two answers are alike.

New episodes every other week.

🌐 curiousgoldfish.com 🎧 Spotify | Apple Podcasts 📸 @curiousgoldfishpodcast

What's in the Muscle Shoals water? A New York soul singer went to find out.

Get the stories behind the episodes -> https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

Days before releasing Forever Muscle Shoals, Chrissi Poland called in from the town itself, handing copies to the musicians who played on the originals. She's a New York soul singer who walked into FAME in 2022, couldn't stop crying, and knew she had to record there. She and Jason English trace where the Muscle Shoals sound comes from, why she finally stopped trying to fit a genre, and what it took to make an album of other people's songs. The conversation closes with Jason's curiosity question, and one thread runs under all of it: what makes one bend in a river produce that much music?

🎵 Chrissi Poland's latest: Forever Muscle Shoals (2026)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 A Final Visit to Muscle Shoals
2:00 From Massachusetts to New York to the Shoals
4:00 Choosing the Songs
7:00 Is It in the Water?
10:50 The Voices She's Shared a Stage With
13:17 Finding Craig Alvin and Noble Steed
15:48 Artistic Dysmorphia
16:15 Leaving the Lane Behind
18:35 How These Songs Shaped Her Writing
21:40 The Business of Covering Dylan and the Stones
26:00 A Three-Part Muscle Shoals Series
29:38 Motherhood and the Road
33:45 Curiosity Over Certainty
37:00 60 Seconds of Curiosity

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 fans and artists told us about streaming, AI, and where the money in music actually goes. Get the State of Music survey summary free -> https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/state-of-music-summary-signup

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode. The moments that didn't make the clips, what I'm learning running this show, and one curiosity prompt every issue -> https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

ABOUT CURIOUS GOLDFISH
A music podcast about more than music. Inspired by Ted Lasso. I talk with singer-songwriters and bands in Americana, folk, roots, and country about the lives behind the songs: resilience, faith, marriage, the business of music, and what keeps an artist going. Every episode ends with the same question about curiosity, and no two answers are alike.

New episodes every other week.

🌐 curiousgoldfish.com 🎧 Spotify | Apple Podcasts 📸 @curiousgoldfishpodcast

He can't hear the crowd, and he calls every song he writes a love song.

Get the stories behind the episodes → https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

Chris Pierce lost most of his hearing at fifteen and built a life in music anyway, down to the night his hearing aid quit in the middle of Newport Folk. The Los Angeles soul and blues songwriter joins Jason to talk about his new album, Songs for the Heavy Hearted, recorded live in the studio in one or two takes. He gets into the people behind the songs, from the farmworkers in Madonna of the San Joaquin to a sixteen-year-old named Kalief Browder, and why he tells fans that every song he writes, even the political ones, is a love song. He also stays after shows to talk with the people who came in ready to argue. What does he think we owe each other?

🎵 Chris Pierce's latest: Songs for the Heavy Hearted (2026)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open: the hearing aid that quit at Newport Folk
2:28 Eight albums, or nine?
3:43 Recorded live in two takes: Songs for the Heavy Hearted
5:39 Grief, anger, and shared humanity
9:00 Madonna of the San Joaquin and Kalief Browder
11:25 "Scrubbing your floor, picking your fruit"
13:58 "Brother, they're all love songs"
17:40 The conversations he has at the merch table
21:16 Turning fifty and the call from Neil Young
27:28 Going deaf at fifteen, and the scholarship he kept secret
32:00 The full Newport story, and listening with his heart
37:27 No setlists, and leading with your heart
41:10 60 Seconds of Curiosity
44:09 Music, connection, and scripture

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 fans and artists told us about streaming, AI, and where the money in music actually goes. Get the State of Music survey summary free → https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/state-of-music-summary-signup

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode. The moments that didn't make the clips, what I'm learning running this show, and one curiosity prompt every issue → https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup

ABOUT CURIOUS GOLDFISH
A music podcast about more than music. Inspired by Ted Lasso. I talk with singer-songwriters and bands in Americana, folk, roots, and country about the lives behind the songs: resilience, faith, marriage, the business of music, and what keeps an artist going. Every episode ends with the same question about curiosity, and no two answers are alike.

New episodes every other week.

🌐 curiousgoldfish.com 🎧 Spotify | Apple Podcasts 📸 @curiousgoldfishpodcast