Welcome to our first episode of 2024 with Shannon Lay!

Shannon is a solo musician based in Los Angeles, who's released four solo albums, as well as a collection of covers that came out last year. And on that covers album is a version of Angeles (by Elliott Smith), which you can hear at the very end of this episode.

Before that though, we have the full interview with Shannon, where she discusses Figure 8, listening to albums from start to finish and the lyrical mastery in her favourite song pick.

Hope you enjoy it!

My Favourite Elliott Smith Song is produced by Rob Comba and Elizabeth Withstandley. Find us on social media @myfavesmithsong.

myfavouriteelliottsmithsong.com

Joining us for our last episode of the year is musician, Margaret Glaspy.

Margaret, who is based in New York City, released her latest album - Echo the Diamond - in August this year. The record is Margaret's third full-length album, and follows on from 2020's Devotion and 2016's Emotions and Math.

Margaret says Elliott Smith has been a big influence across her career, so in this episode we dive deeper into that, how she defines the Elliott 'vibe' and why her favourite song pick means so much to her.

My Favourite Elliott Smith Song is produced by Rob Comba and Elizabeth Withstandley. Find us on social media @myfavesmithsong.

myfavouriteelliottsmithsong.com

Our guest today is John Vanderslice.

John is a musician, producer and the owner of the legendary Tiny Telephone studio, which initially began in the Mission district of San Francisco. Bands who've recorded at Tiny Telephone with John include the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, Okkervil River, the Mountain Goats, St. Vincent and many, many more.

Embarking on his musical odyssey as a singer/songwriter, John  has left an indelible mark with the release of 17 albums since 2000. Recently, he underwent a significant evolution by immersing himself in the vibrant realm of electronic music. Notably, he continues to manage Tiny Telephone Oakland.

In this interview, he tells us about how Larry Crane introduced him to Elliott Smith, his experience of seeing him live and we also talk about John's changing relationship with narrative in music.

Photo by Maria Brand

My Favourite Elliott Smith Song is produced by Rob Comba and Elizabeth Withstandley. Find us on social media @myfavesmithsong.

myfavouriteelliottsmithsong.com

Our guest today is Kimbra.

Kimbra is a musician originally from New Zealand but is now based in New York City. You may have first heard of her when she sang on the track Somebody That I Used To Know in 2011 alongside Gotye, who wrote the single. The pair went on to win two Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

These two Grammy wins are part of a huge career, which includes signing with Warner Bros, multiple collaborations, an appearance on a Sims computer game soundtrack and a total of four albums, with her most recent, A Reckoning, coming out earlier this year.

 

Before releasing this record, Kimbra made the decision to break away from her major label recording contract and work independently.

In this interview, we talk about the reasons behind that decision, the parallels between her career and Elliott Smith's, and, of course, we cover her favourite song choice too.

My Favourite Elliott Smith Song is produced by Rob Comba and Elizabeth Withstandley. Find us on social media @myfavesmithsong.

myfavouriteelliottsmithsong.com

Our first guest of the new season is author, Paul Rees.

Paul has had a great career as a music writer. He's held senior positions at magazines such as Q and Kerrang, he's written several books including a best-seller on the life of Robert Plant, and most recently, penned a biography of Elliott Smith titled, Shooting Star.

In this interview we discuss that book, how Paul decided to write about Elliott, the many stories he learnt along the way, and we also discuss his pick for his favourite song too.

At the end of the episode, we also mention this brilliant Elliott Smith tribute from Adam Walton on BBC Wales and this unreleased interview from the year 2000 (courtesy of Mark Benton).

Thank you for listening!

My Favourite Elliott Smith Song is produced by Rob Comba and Elizabeth Withstandley. Find us on social media @myfavesmithsong.

Our guest for our final episode of this season is Lauren McCarthy. 

Lauren is the Executive Editor of Nylon, a publication that covers fashion, entertainment and music. Through her work, Lauren has the enviable opportunity of interviewing some of the most exciting artists working today - people like Phoebe Bridgers, Beabadoobee and Snail Mail.  

One interesting thing Lauren has noticed through her work is the enduring influence on these younger musicians of Elliott Smith. So, for this final episode of the season, we look to the future. We ask why it is that Elliott still lives on so strongly in the minds of this new generation of artists, as well as of course talking about Lauren’s favourite song pick too. 

Thanks for all your support over the course of this season!

Extra things to look at / listen to: 

My Favourite Elliott Smith Song is produced by Rob Comba and Elizabeth Withstandley. Find us on social media @myfavesmithsong.

Our guest today is Julia Shapiro.

Julia is a musician who is perhaps best known as the lead singer and guitarist in the band Chastity Belt, which formed in Washington state in 2010. Chastity Belt have released four studio albums, including, most recently, 2019's self-titled record. Julia's work isn't just limited to that band, though, she's also part of the group Childbirth and has released solo records too. 

A key theme throughout her work, Julia says, is her Elliott Smith influence, which we, of course, discuss in this interview. We also talk about her views on Elliott's songwriting style and why she's never stopped listening to his music. 

Hope you enjoy the episode!

My Favourite Elliott Smith Song is produced by Rob Comba and Elizabeth Withstandley. Find us on social media @myfavesmithsong.

Our guest today is Elise Okusami.

Elise is a New York City based guitarist and vocalists who performs under the name Oceanator. As Oceanator, Elise has released three albums so far, including, most recently Nothing’s Ever Fine, which came out earlier on this year.

Elise has covered a couple of Elliott Smith songs during her career, including and the Biggest Lie, which we’re discussing today in this episode. As you might be able to guess from that, Elise is a big Elliott Smith fan. In fact she’s such a big fan that she even wrote a university thesis on him. 

It was really lovely talking to Elise for this episode, so I very much hope you enjoy listening to it.

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My Favourite Elliott Smith Song is produced by Rob Comba and Elizabeth Withstandley. Find us on social media @myfavesmithsong.

Joining us for episode nine is musician Aaron Powell. 

Aaron is based in Newfoundland, Canada and plays under the name Fog Lake. He’s been recording music for the last 10 years or so and his work has been referred to - quite interestingly - as ‘harrowing nostalgia’. Aaron’s released several albums to date, including 2021's Tragedy Reel, which reflects on his upbringing in rural Canada. 

Aaron is a self-confessed major Elliott Smith fan. He’s got a lot of Elliott knowledge and thoughts on his music that he kindly shares with us during this chat. Hope you enjoy listening.

My Favourite Elliott Smith Song is produced by Rob Comba and Elizabeth Withstandley. Find us on social media @myfavesmithsong.

Our guest for episode eight of season five is Nilüfer Yanya. 

Nilüfer is a musician from London. Nilüfer's first ever release came back in 2016 when she put out her debut EP Small Crimes/Keep on Calling and, since then, she's released two full-length albums: 2019's Miss Universe, which was then followed up by Painless earlier on this year - a record that's well worth checking out if you haven't heard it already. 

We recorded this chat with Nilufer over the summer. In it, we talk through her favourite song pick, the importance of having your own interpretation of music, and we also go a bit deep on the nature of fame. We hope you enjoy it!

Extra things to look at / listen to: 

My Favourite Elliott Smith Song is produced by Rob Comba and Elizabeth Withstandley. Find us on social media @myfavesmithsong.