Music Life

Are you happy working alone? Does location affect your music? What happens after the album is done? This is what Icelandic composer, producer and king of the ambient Ólafur Arnalds will be asking the group in this episode of Music Life. He’s just released his new record Some Kind of Peace, has scored for film and TV, and has carried the Icelandic sound further around the world than it’s been before.

St. Vincent is an artist, songwriter and producer from Texas, now based in LA. After playing with the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, she formed her own band in 2006. She’s since released six albums including Love This Giant, a collaboration with David Byrne, and she completely shreds on the guitar. Vagabon is a Cameroonian-American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and producer described as an “indie rock game changer”. She started uploading tracks to Bandcamp in 2014 before releasing her debut album Infinite Worlds in 2017. And finally, David Byrne is one of the planet’s most engaging and prolific creators. He formed new wave band Talking Heads after dropping out of art school and they became one of the most influential bands of the twentieth century. Recently he has been working with Spike Lee on a film version of his Broadway show American Utopia, which has been described as ‘The Best Live Show of All Time’. Ahmed Gallab, also known as Sinkane is a Sudanese-American musician and singer based in New York, who blends Funk, Jazz, Dance, and Pop. His latest album ‘Dépaysé’ is about self-discovery as an immigrant in the USA.

This week Music Life gets crazy about pop with host Becky Hill, who asks MNEK, Ella Eyre and Frances all about their signature styles, if there's a formula for writing the perfect hit, and when songs don’t turn out as expected.

Becky was a finalist on the first series of The Voice UK, and has since gone on to achieve global Pop stardom, working with the likes of Rudimental, MNEK, Little Simz, Jonas Blue, Jax Jones, Sigala and many more. An album is finally expected next year.

Kranium is a singer and songwriter who blends dancehall and reggae. Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and raised in Jamaica, Queens, New York, he’s worked with the likes of Ty Dolla $ign, Burna Boy, Mahalia and Ed Sheeran. He chats to Masego and Alicai Harley about working quickly in airports, what their best choruses are, how they use the sounds of what came before, and what it’s like working with the industry’s biggest names.

An unbelievable line up this week sees Tune-Yards' Merrill Garbus ask Danielle and Este from Haim, Black Pumas' Eric Burton and Bardo Martinez of Chicano Batman if they consider the audience when writing, the ways in which their creative process has adapted from when they started out, and how they use the music of the past in their work.

Sonic Youth founder Thurston Moore is joined by Brix Smith, Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))) and Rachel Aggs to discuss staying creative in lockdown, connecting to their audiences, and the link between politics and their work.

Thurston Moore is a songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, and founded the band Sonic Youth. Joining him is Stephen O'Malley, a guitarist, producer, composer, label boss, and visual artist from Seattle, Washington, best known for his work in the doom metal group Sunn O))). The band has been described as creating “titanic drone metal” and their latest release was last year’s Pyroclasts. Brix Smith is a songwriter and guitarist best known for her work with post-punk band The Fall. She went on to form Adult Net and more recently Brix & The Extricated; she’s now recording her first solo album. And Rachel Aggs is a multi-instrumentalist originally from London and based in Glasgow. She sings, plays the guitar and is best known for her distinctive guitar work in Sacred Paws, Shopping, and Trash Kit. She’s also recently released her first solo album, Visitations 0202.

Bebel Gilberto welcomes Martha Wainwright, Sam Amidon and Martin Hayes to talk about the influence of their musical families, their most memorable live shows, why improvising is so essential, and walking the creative tightrope between doing something new and following traditions.

Brazilian singer and songwriter Bebel Gilberto is the daughter of Bossa Nova star Joao Gilberto and singer Miucha. Martha Wainwright is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter born in New York City to musicians Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, and her brother is Rufus Wainwright. She released her debut record in 2005, and has since released a further six albums. Sam Amidon is a folk artist from Vermont, USA, who plays guitar, fiddle, and banjo. He followed in the footsteps of his folk musician parents, who would play Irish and Appalachian folk music for him. And Martin Hayes, a traditional Irish fiddle player, and founder of the Irish-American group The Gloaming. He grew up in County Clare, where his father PJ Hayes was a respected fiddle player. He won six All-Ireland Fiddle competitions before moving to Chicago, and has played for President Obama at the White House.

If you don’t know Paul Epworth’s name, you’ll certainly know his music, as he’s produced for the likes of Adele, Florence and the Machine and Rihanna. He asks 100 gecs, Arlo Parks and Dave Okumu about working with analogue equipment in a digital world, studio disasters, ideas that evaporate as they take too long to capture, and the difference between making your own music as opposed to making it for other people.

Songwriter, keyboardist, percussionist and Dirty Projector Felicia Douglass chats to Sly5thAve, Leon Michels, and Tiana Major9 about their desires to become musicians, skills and hobbies they’ve acquired during quarantine that have fed into their work, and how they start a new piece of music.

Singer and cellist Kelsey Lu is joined by Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Lotic, and Fatima Al Qadiri to discuss how their ancestral backgrounds influence the stories they tell, the use of nature as a metaphor, and if they ever feel alone being an artist.