Matters

The year was 2002, 22 years into his career when I first got to speak to the one-time Hüsker Dü and Sugar lead singer and equally successful solo artist, Bob Mould. 

Over that year and the next, Bob delivered no less than three albums. I caught up with him just after the release of the first of the three, Modulate.  

* Disclaimer: Due to the poor sound quality on this one, it's intended for the die-hard fans, if only due to a buzz on the line I simply don't have the tech to remedy, and for that, I apologise.   

Nonetheless, I loved the interview and thought it only right to share it with those of you who can listen past the buzz and enjoy this rich, humble and engaging artist at a critical stage of his music career.

Tried & True: The Best of Suzanne Vega is a greatest hits album by the American singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega. The album was first released on 28 September 1998 and includes two songs ("Book & a Cover" and "Rosemary") that were not available on her earlier studio albums.

1996’s Different Class took its toll on the band, almost splitting Pulp for good. Mental health and physical strain came to a head with the band fractured.

Fast forward two years, Pulp restored as a now five-piece, reinvigorated and ready the band embraces it all again. Describing themselves as a rugged bunch of misfits, drummer Nick Banks retells tales from the last album’s close and the road to This is Hardcore, their 1998 return. In that same year, Pulp headlined The Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival along with the Britpop “big four”, along with Suede, Blur and Oasis.

Bring It On was the debut album by English indie rock band Gomez, released in April 1998 by Hut Records. Recording sessions for the album began in late 1997, during which time Gomez also toured the United Kingdom with Embrace.  I spoke to the band and the very start of their rather stellar journey into the world of popularity. The first single, "78 Stone Wobble", was released in March 1998, while "Get Myself Arrested" and "Whippin' Piccadilly" were later released as singles.

Circa 2001, I finally got to chat to one of my childhood idols, Ian McCullough - he being the much lauded and rewarded lead singer of Echo & The Bunnymen. What a gentleman.

A self-proclaimed narcissist, I still can't decide, having listened back to this 2007 interview, whether I like Ben Harper as much as I do his extraordinary music. #podcast #music #interview #inspiration #storytelling #lifeline #benharpermusic

Throwing Muses did not form to be famous, they got together to make the music they wanted. 

I had the honour of speaking to the late band’s lead singer and respected solo artist at the time of the release of her second solo album, Strange Angels.   

The year was 1998, late February, when the two of us first connected. What followed in our 20 minutes together was her speaking of a fundamentally enlightening time for her as an act of one.  

She labelled Strange Angels a very positive and sweet record, filled with a lot of respect for happiness. “We should all be trying for joy”, she said. Truer words, in these troubled times, could not be more apt.  

Kristen grew up listening to underground music. “I fell in love with music, not to be successful, I couldn’t make the shift to a more commercial reality,” she recalled. Few fans, but each more passionate and less fickle than the pop populous.  A 4AD veteran, she celebrated the labels mantra, music matters. A label with fans, before picking an artist to favour.  

She rightly pointed out, then, what is so true today – Generations will not hear their sound because Top 40 radio and overall streaming is so bad. Throwing Muses, and Kristen in her solo right, we're all about the experimental, paving a further path and an active feeding ground that keeps underground music alive and thriving to this day.  

Kristin has never aimed to trick her audience. Her motivation is personal, free of expectation. She’s not intentionally obscure. “I just like music,” she said on the day.  #Hips&Makers #Michaelstipe, #hips&makers #strangeangels #4AD

In the world of thrash metal influence, it doesn’t get bigger than Metallica. On October 15, 1999, I had the privilege of interviewing the band’s bassist, and my namesake, Jason Curtis Newsted.  

On September 27, 1986, during the European leg of the Damage, Inc. Tour, Metallica's bassist Cliff Burton tragically died as a result of a road accident. Following Burton's death, the band began the arduous task of finding his replacement.  

After auditioning more than 50 possible replacements, Jason got the gig that same year and went on to play with the band until January 2001.  In his tenure, Jason contributed playing and writing parts to no less than 11 Metallica albums, including …And Justice for All, Load and Reload.   I got to him on the eve of Metallica’s highly anticipated S&M release. 

The band, along with a 90-piece symphonic orchestra, under the baton of the extraordinarily gifted Michael Kamen, delivered the goods. A mammoth undertaking that delivered a colossal soundscape, captured over two nights, all of which Jason labelled, “magnificent!”. 

 #michaelkamen #s&m #jasonnewsted #jasoncurtisnewsted #metallica #algreene #benharper #chemicalbrothers

Chatting to the lead singer of Australia’s Midnight Oil, Peter Garrett, was a personal highlight for me, if only because we [unbeknownst to him] shared a certain level of empathy and awareness of, and with, the world around us.  

In this unedited interview, you’ll get to hear a pivotal voice unpack the perpetual creative struggle real creatives grapple with, regardless of their station.

In May 2020, Rolling Stone magazine crowned Britney Spears’ 1999 breakout smash hit, “…Baby One More Time”, as the greatest debut single of all time.   

I spoke to her in February of that year, at the very beginning of her career in music, when the sky was limit and the stars seemed perfectly aligned. What followed is well documented as anything but a fairy-tale, where Britney sadly remains imprisoned by her fame and fortune to this day.  Everything she said in this interview turned upside down, and so many of the people she counted on put her in shackles and leached off her dream.  

#Britney #Britneyspears #babyonemoretime #jive #maxmartin #freebritney