Nat and Alex Wolff had me at Sam Shepard. The playwright/writer/actor was one of my dissertation topics and the brothers acted in his plays, so we agreed early on that he's one of our favorite writers.  (After you listen, please read Shepard's Pulitzer Prize winning play Buried Child.) 

I’ve interviewed other actors who are also songwriters, and as you’ll hear, all channel their stage experience when they write songs. The Wolff brothers call these elements “artistic nutrients”: all the things we ingest that help us hone our craft. 

As an aside, this could’ve been the most fun I’ve had on a podcast. And in a first, we were somehow able to connect Watergate to the songwriting process. 

Nat and Alex Wolff's self-titled album is out now.