Identified with Nabil Ayers

Hermanos Gutiérrez never planned to be a band. On this episode of Identified, Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez sit down with host Nabil Ayers to trace where their music, and their bond, actually comes from: an older brother who became a father figure, a younger brother who picked up the guitar just to feel close to him, and the day a roommate overheard them playing and said, "you should be a band."

Guests: Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez (Hermanos Gutiérrez)
Host: Nabil Ayers
Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji
Produced by Palm Tree Island

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00:00 How Hermanos Gutiérrez began
01:47 Eight years apart
03:09 The first time they played together
04:06 The name, and the accidental band
06:09 Their mother, their father
09:21 Their grandfather, Luis Alfredo
10:45 Where the music came from
11:51 Belonging to two cultures
13:42 Grief, and "what is family?"
16:57 Passing it on to the next generation

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Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging.

Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search.

Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A brand new and exclusive reissue from the Identified archive, with one of our most fascinating guests, Reggie Watts. 

Reggie Watts joins Nabil Ayers on Identified to trace where he actually comes from — a military childhood from Germany to Great Falls, Montana; the house he grew up in and still owns today; and the "ship of orphans" of friends who became his real family. This is a conversation about chosen family and belonging: being a biracial kid and a self-styled outsider in a very white place, finding his people in the 1980s post-punk scene, why SLC Punk still means so much to him, and the surprisingly honest thing he says about grief — that losing his mother "didn't feel the way you're supposed to feel," and what he's since learned about being an "internal processor."

Guest: Reggie Watts
Host: Nabil Ayers
Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji
Produced by Palm Tree Island.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Photographer and filmmaker, Nabil Elderkin, joins Nabil Ayers on Identified for a conversation about his Iranian-American identity, childhood in Australia and the United States, family history, the Baha’i faith, vulnerability, creativity and belonging. 

Born in Chicago to an Iranian mother and American father, Nabil Elderkin moved to Australia at three and spent his childhood moving repeatedly between Australia and the United States. Nabil talks about adapting to new schools and communities, experiencing loneliness, becoming guarded, and eventually recognising how those childhood experiences impact adult relationships.

Nabil also discusses his Iranian ancestry, his family’s Baha’i background, his mother’s experience of leaving Iran, and his complicated relationship with his American ancestry.

Guest: Nabil Elderkin
Host: Nabil Ayers
Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji
Produced by Palm Tree Island

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Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging.

Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search.

Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, Adam Buxton explores family, identity, childhood, boarding school, fatherhood, parenting, class, and friendship. 

The comedian, writer, broadcaster, and host of The Adam Buxton Podcast reflects on growing up with a Chilean mother and British father, navigating privilege, and how childhood experiences shaped the parent he is today.  

Adam and Nabil talk about his parents’ remarkable love story, his mother’s early loneliness after moving to England, being sent to boarding school at nine years old, discovering lifelong friendships with Joe Cornish and Louis Theroux, and finding a creative community that became his chosen family.

Guest: Adam Buxton
Host: Nabil Ayers
Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji
Produced by Palm Tree Island

Recorded in front of a live audience at Fiction Studios, London.

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00:00 Intro
00:48 His parents’ unlikely love story
05:51 His mother’s lonely first years in London
09:00 Being sent to boarding school at nine
12:12 When friends became family
17:00 Finding his creative community
20:24 Why he should have gone to art school
22:00 Looking back at his family history
26:00 Understanding his father’s choices
30:24 Becoming a parent himself
31:39 What family means to Adam

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Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging.

Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search.

Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going.

Read more about Nabil:
➡️https://www.nabilayers.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Raised in a house with fourteen family members, Daymé Arocena reflects on how music, ancestry, and community shaped the woman she became.

n this episode of Identified, Nabil Ayers sits down with Cuban singer, songwriter, and composer Daymé Arocena for a conversation about family, ancestry, identity, music, and leaving home to pursue impossible dreams.  

Daymé reflects on growing up in Havana in a house shared by fourteen family members, where singing wasn’t entertainment—it was survival. She explains how music became a daily expression of joy, resilience, and healing, long before she imagined becoming a professional musician.  

The conversation explores Cuba’s conservatory system, discovering jazz, embracing her Afro-Cuban identity, and the responsibility she felt carrying her family’s hopes while pursuing a career in music. She also shares how Yoruba spirituality shaped her understanding of success, responsibility, grief, and ancestry.  

From stories about her grandmother—the matriarch who inspired her artistry—to reflections on leaving Cuba, poverty, ambition, and becoming “the wildest dream” of her ancestors, this is an intimate conversation about identity, resilience, and the people who make us who we are.

 

Guest: Daymé Arocena
Host: Nabil Ayers
Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji
Produced by Palm Tree Island

Check out our Podcast:
➡️https://linktr.ee/identifiedpodcast

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00:00 Intro
00:35 Growing up in Havana
02:18 Living with 14 family members
03:30 Why everybody sang
05:45 Discovering music
06:24 Cuba’s conservatory system
08:36 Finding jazz
09:45 Embracing her Afro-Cuban identity
11:12 Family, pressure and responsibility
13:36 The Yoruba idea of carrying your crown
15:30 Realising she grew up poor
20:27 Becoming her ancestors’ wildest dream
20:45 Her grandmother’s legacy
23:00 Spiritual traditions and celebration
25:33 Grief, transformation and water
26:59 What family means to Daymé

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, Florence Shaw of Dry Cleaning explores family, creativity, artistic legacy, collaboration, and identity. Growing up in South London surrounded by generations of artists, Florence reflects on how family shaped her understanding of creativity long before she became the lyricist of Dry Cleaning.  

The conversation explores Florence Shaw’s childhood, her family’s artistic heritage, the Royal College of Art, the Great Bardfield artists, collaboration within Dry Cleaning, creative trust, and the challenges of sharing unfinished work. 

Guest: Florence Shaw of Dry Cleaning
Host: Nabil Ayers
Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji
Produced by Palm Tree Island

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00:00 Intro
00:48 Growing up in South London
02:24 The story of being born at home
05:06 Childhood with her brother
07:00 Growing up in a family of artists
12:10 Knowing her grandmother through her artwork
15:15 Family stories are never simple
18:03 Learning to collaborate in Dry Cleaning
20:30 Why the best work comes from letting go
22:15 Family, grief and artistic legacy
24:15 What family means to Florence

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Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging.

Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search.

Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going.

Read more about Nabil:
➡️https://www.nabilayers.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, Brendan Yates of Turnstile explores family, community, identity, creativity, and the relationships that shaped both his life and his music. From growing up outside Baltimore to forming Turnstile with close friends, Brendan reflects on the people, places, and experiences that helped define his creative journey.  

Brendan discusses discovering music through his older sister, learning from his grandfather’s piano, receiving his first drum kit, and spending years rehearsing in his parents’ basement—a space that eventually became the recording location for Turnstile’s earliest releases. He also shares stories of his father’s unwavering support, driving young bands to shows across the East Coast and helping make a musical life possible.  

 

Guest: Brendan Yates of Turnstile
Host: Nabil Ayers
Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji
Produced by Palm Tree Island

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00:00 Intro
01:00 Exploring his family history
04:20 The older sister who introduced him to music
06:40 His grandfather’s piano and first instruments
08:00 Getting his first drum kit
10:00 The parents who made it all possible
12:20 Recording Turnstile’s first music in the basement
13:00 Touring before Turnstile
14:20 Why bands become families
18:20 Community, grief and growing together
20:50 What family means to Brendan

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Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging.

Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search.

Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From an Army household in Washington, D.C. to New York’s creative community, Meshell Ndegeocello reflects on the people who shaped her life, and the love that expanded her world.

In this episode of Identified, Nabil Ayers sits down with Meshell Ndegeocello for a conversation about family, music, identity, mentorship, and belonging.

Meshell reflects on growing up in a musical household, where her father played tenor saxophone in the U.S. Army Band. She shares memories of learning bass alongside her older brother, playing her first professional gigs as a teenager with her father’s band, and discovering the discipline that would shape her career.

The conversation follows her journey from Washington, D.C. to New York, where mentors, collaborators, and close friends introduced her to new music, new ideas, and entirely new ways of thinking. She reflects on how love, community, and curiosity transformed both her creative life and her understanding of herself.

Guest: Meshell Ndegeocello
Host: Nabil Ayers
Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji
Produced by Palm Tree Island

Recorded Live at Public Records, Brookyn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Identified, Nabil Ayers sits down with Matt Berninger of The National to explore family, creativity, friendship, and the communities that shape us.  

Matt reflects on growing up in Ohio, the artistic influence of his parents, discovering music through his older sister, and the local scenes that first made him believe a creative life was possible. From college bands and design school to moving to New York in the 1990s, he traces the experiences that eventually led to the formation of The National.  

Nabil and Matt explore the unusual family dynamic at the heart of The National, a band built around two sets of brothers and decades-long friendships. Matt discusses collaboration, creative tension, trust, and how maintaining artistic relationships over time often resembles maintaining a family.  

Guest: Matt Berninger
Host: Nabil Ayers
Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji
Produced by: Palm Tree Island

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Check out our Podcast:
➡️https://linktr.ee/identifiedpodcast

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00:00 Growing up in an artistic family
01:40 The creative influence of his parents
02:15 Discovering music through his sister
04:00 Moving to New York in 1996
05:00 The music scene that shaped him
06:00 The radio station that changed everything
08:00 Why he wanted to start a band
10:00 Design school and creative life
11:00 The beginnings of The National
14:00 Being the only non-brother in the band
18:00 Writer first, singer second
19:30 Creative relationships and family
21:00 The National’s parents and children
24:00 Supporting the next generation
27:45 What family means to Matt

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Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging.

Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search.

Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going.

Read more about Nabil:
➡️https://www.nabilayers.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast explores family, Korean identity, mixed-race identity, grief, language, heritage, and belonging. The conversation traces her family’s history, her upbringing in Oregon, and the experiences that shaped her understanding of herself and her place between cultures.  

Michelle recounts discovering a diary written by her mother in 1978, learning Korean as an adult, moving to Korea, and reconnecting with family history through language and memory. She also reflects on growing up mixed-race, finding identity through music, and the journey that led from an unpublished essay about Korean food and grief to the bestselling memoir Crying in H Mart.  

Guest: Michelle Zauner
Host: Nabil Ayers
Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji
Produced by: Palm Tree Island

00:00 Discovering her mother’s diary
01:45 Growing up without a musical family
03:00 The hidden family history of performers
05:15 Finding identity through music
07:00 Growing up mixed-race in Oregon
09:10 Wanting to be a “neutral body”
11:00 Learning Korean later in life
13:10 Moving to Korea and reconnecting with family
15:00 Meeting her 21-year-old mother through a diary
18:00 The origins of Crying in H Mart
21:00 Rejection, success, and changing careers
23:30 Building a family through music
25:00 What family means now

Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging.

Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search.

Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.