Remaining a romantically revolutionary voice among his peers and contemporaries for nearly two decades, Durham, North Carolina-based singer, songwriter, and producer MC Taylor (Hiss Golden Messenger) returns to the sonic surface with his latest effort, "I'm People", which he says is "An intensely human record." Written and recorded throughout Bolinas, the North Carolina Piedmont, and a Santa Fe motel room, with the harmonious help from some of his longtime friends and creative collaborators, Sam Beam, Bruce Hornsby, Marcus King, Sara Watkins, Eric D. Johnson, Amy Helm, and members of Dawes, Taylor effortlessly exposes a liberating light to help guid listeners to a much safer soundscape where endless wars, polluted politics, and chaos cease to exist if only for a moment.

For this episode of The Self Portrait Gospel Podcast, we had the wonderful oppurtunity to sit down the veteran songwriter and producer to talk about the album, the Grateful Dead (of course), skateboarding, Jack Johnson, and the intimate influence of music and its harmonious healing properties. "I'm People" is a brilliant collection of songs that push against the body like a whispering wind in an open field during a spirtual storm somewhere near the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area in Hillsborough. This will be an album people call on during the inevitable hardships of life to recieve peace and ultimate understanding.

Maybe you've seen his vidoes while doom scrolling on your phone at two a.m. in search of elementary enlightenment or a break from the gravitational gloom of the world and its lunatic leaders. The universal use of his entire body through the meditational medium of the acoustic guitar, jaw harp, harmonica, nose flute, and vocals radically radiates the revolutionary reaction of the avant-garde in all its esoteric essence. Darcy Spidle, commonly known as Chik White, is a melodic moniker adopted by the Nova Scotia-based musician and performer for his work in films such as, (Lowlife, Tin Can, The Sinner) and music over the last twenty years. He is a force of great poetic power, improvisational intimacy, and elemental energy.

Having first come onto the punk scene in Halifax, White toured and performed with several bands and projects, which critically connected him with his love for improve and the sometimes romantic reality of not only challenging his audience and listeners but himself within the experimental ecosystem he's created around his art. With the release of his latest effort, "Face Across the Door" on the Italian-based label Music a la Coque, as well as a spring tour to follow, White brings his melodic messages to the mortal masses in hopes of connecting, inspiring, entertaining, and distracting various audiences, even if just for a moment, from the chaos of the world, with lyrical laughter and humble harmonies.

Frank Hurricane is much more that just a songwriter or spiritual soothsayer; he's a psychedelic pirate manning the ancient waters under the splintered sun's biblical breast. Like some cosmic character from J.M. Barrier's 1904 masterpiece "Peter Pan", Hurricane's artistic approach to life and his work are rare these days, as everything has been melted down into this galactic goop for social media, and the poisonous pull that is has on our senses and judgement of people, places, and things.

While we're making sure our posts are boosted and targeting our direct audience, you can find Hurricane riding shotgun on some of the most epic roller coasters across America as we take a much-needed spiritual journey with the musician and the colorfully capticating universe of atmospheric adrenaline he has created for an audience that he calls "Shrymps". His latest effort, "Southern Shrymp (In the Big City), which is set for release later this month on the Half Moon Bay, CA-based label Nudie Records, tells a tale of a young man on a quest in search of holy harmonies, exquisite experiences, and the songbook for spiritual survival in a world filled with chaos, and endless existentialism.

Both prolific, and poetic, Seattle, Washington-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and all-around spiritual splendor Chris Ballew has been writing and rapidly recording music for over thirty years like no one's business. As the frontman and bassist for the alternative rock band The Presidents Of The United States Of America, Ballew started his career busking in the busy streets of Boston in the late 1980s alongside Phil Franklin as the duo Egg, before relocating to LA, where he met and befriended a young Beck. Eventually moving back to the Emerald City, Ballew quickly formed the Presidents with Dave Dederer and Jason Finn, and by the time their iconic-self titled album was released in 1995, the group had become multi-platinum artists, and the rest is history!

His disography is impeccable, intimate, full of laughter, and just what we need during these radically dark times. These days, you can find Ballew writing and recording music nonstop under his own name and the children's music project, Caspar Babypants, which has brought a great deal of peace and comfort into homes around the world for young parents and their bubbly babies. We need people like Ballew, and so do you!

Rutili's Califone has been around for nearly 30 years, if you can believe that. Rutili can't, and we talk about that for a mortal moment. Still, there were bigger topics on our minds, like ICE, the Trump administration, the pulverizing politics running rampant in our country, the confusing violence that seems to continue painting the numbing narrative of the "American Dream", and of course, the Grateful Dead. Rutili's music is both magical and intimately intense, as we find several concepts for coping, expressing, and exploring how music truly heals all wounds. As 2026 continues to roll out, Rutili prepares with Califone and Ugly Casanova for the Ice Cream Floats boat tour from Miami to Puerto Plata and the Dominican Republic this weekend, a short spring tour in April, and much more!

After relocating to the Bay Area in the late 1990s to pursue a vibrant vision of becoming a professional skateboarder, life had other plans for future artist, illustrator, and psychedelic painter Joe Robert (LSD Worldpeace). To properly pivot in the throes of reality, one has to put one foot in front of the other, and Roberts did just that. Later, studying at SFAI, he eventually began releasing books and zines such as accalimed titles "LSD Worldpeace", We Ate The Acid (61)A3HT3TA3," and 2021's "Clowns of Hyperspace", and has had several works featured in galleries like Slow Culture in LA and Marlborough Gallery in New York.

After a long break since the holidays, we sat down with Robert for an epic conversation about life's mysteries, creative chaos, youth, skateboarding, conspiracy theories, aliens, goverment mind control, world peace and his children, who have become his greatest inspiration. Roberts' work is influential, iconic and a radical reaction to the world and its cryptically comical side, while simultaneously allowing viewers to experience the spiritual secrets of the universe up close.

For the final episode of The Self Portrait Gospel Podcast of 2025, we had the great pleasure of sitting down with multi-instrumentalist, activist, composer, and multimedia artist Micah Nelson (Particle Kid) to discuss the future of music streaming services like Spotify and the revolutionary reclaiming of musicians'/artists' intellectual property through a newly developed, creator-owned music and social media ecosystem powered by human intelligence called The Flow, which was developed, and founded by Mike Hanuschik. Join us for a mind-blowing conversation that takes several unexpected turns into the depths of creative culture, industry, and the fight for sonic survival. This multi-part episode will continue to explore the controversy and complexity of how these elements have destroyed the essence of not only a musician's living through their craft, but also a war that is sweeping the plaet as we speak.

There are some folks you feel like you've known forever, and perhaps you have in some other life than the one you're currently occupying. Westerlund is one of those people. A sonic soul that shifts in and out of an atmospheric array of outfits and poetic projects, his presence is equal to his artistic output. Positive, curious, and above all, genuine. On this episode of The Self Portrait Gospel Podcast, we sit down with the Research Triangle-based producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and percussionist to talk about his unique connection to sound, working with several artists like Califone, Nathaniel Russel, Jake Xerxes Fusell, Bon Iver, and Sylvan Esso, writting, and recording his most recent effort "Curiosities from the Shift", and much more.

While conjouring those familiar relams of romanticism found within the captivating caves of Leonard Cohen, Eduardo Bort, and Donovan, Sao Paulo, Braizil-bases multi-instrumentalist Sergio Victor Sayeg, known professionally as Sessa, has sincerely brought to the sonic surface a mesmerizing meditation on life, lover, fatherhood, and cultural connection with his latest effort, "Pequena Vertigem de Amor (Lil' Love Vertigo)." A brilliant body of work that effortlessly flows from one end of the galaxy to the echoing canals of the listeners' eager ears who patiently wait for its humbling vibrations, Sessa takes us on a journey that is one for the books.

It's been almost a year since we last spoke to Nastanovich, and what a year it's been, to say the least. From touring to moving to Maco, GA, to an official docufiction about the band called "Pavements", and everything else in between, the group's lyrical legacy and existential existence have only grown over the decades, and we're here for every second of it. Nastanovich is one of those critical characters in the sonic story who takes you out on the harmonious horizon for the views, while simultaneously educating you on the elements along the way. Having been a member of Pavement for over three decades, Nastanovich has navigated all the visceral valleys and mountains of madness that bands experience, and lives to tell the tale.

Now one of the most celebrated and influential acts of their generation, Pavement is an iconic institution for indie artists everywhere. Join us on this episode of The Self Portrait Gospel Podcast as we traverse through the shadows of the past, present, and future to carefully collect the melodic memories and spellbinding efforts of one of the best to do it. Oh yeah, we also talk about plastic surgery, corporate corruption, building appliances, Chris Rock, and much more.