Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Zeena Parkins, composer, improviser, and one of the most singular forces in experimental music.

Zeena has spent four decades dismantling what the harp can do: through electronics, object preparations, and a series of custom electric instruments she built herself, she's turned a concert hall fixture into something alive and unpredictable.

Her collaborators range from Björk to John Zorn to Pauline Oliveros. Last year, she released two records paying tribute to her years teaching at Mills College before its closure: Modesty of the Magic Thing and Lament of the Maker. And she's performing this spring at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville. She's also a Guggenheim Fellow and a three-time Bessie Award winner for her work composing for dance.

We cover all of it: her instruments, her process, and what it means to make music at the edge of what's possible.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Zeena Parkins' album Lament of the Maker)

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• Visit Zeena Parkins at zeenaparkins.com and follow her on Instagram and Bandcamp
• Purchase Lament for the Maker (Relative Pitch Records, 2025) from Bandcamp or Qobuz, and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Purchase Modesty of the Magic Thing (Tzadik, 2025) from Qobuz or Squidco, and listen on your streaming platform of choice

• William Winant — percussionist and longtime collaborator; Parkins discusses finding Lou Harrison instruments in his studio and performing Modesty of the Magic Thing with him
• Fred Frith — guitarist and composer; Parkins replaced him at Mills and performed with him in Skeleton Crew
• Laetitia Sonami — sound artist and Mills colleague; composed "She is a Butcher in My Dreams" for Lament for the Maker
• James Fei — composer and Mills colleague; composed "In Such Circumstances of Miscalculations" for Lament for the Maker
• Jennifer Monson — choreographer; one of Parkins's most significant long-term dance collaborators
• Chris Cutler — drummer; encountered Parkins in Europe and brought her into News from Babel
• Nayland Blake — artist who curated the San Francisco gallery show where Parkins gave her first solo concert

• Skeleton Crew — experimental rock trio with Fred Frith and Tom Cora
• News from Babel — group with Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper, and Dagmar Krause; Parkins discusses joining after meeting Cutler in Europe
• Table of the Elements — American experimental music label; released Parkins's first solo record
• Roulette Intermedium — Brooklyn venue where Parkins and Winant perform Modesty of the Magic Thing just before Big Ears

• Jay DeFeo — Bay Area visual artist whose work, particularly The Rose and the Seven Pillars of Voice series, inspired Modesty of the Magic Thing
• The Rose at the Whitney Museum — DeFeo's monumental painting, now in the Whitney's permanent collection
• Lou Harrison — American composer whose handmade instruments, bequeathed to William Winant, are central to Modesty of the Magic Thing
• Daphne Oram — British electronic music pioneer who worked at the BBC; Parkins mentions her as inspiration for an upcoming electric harp record

• Big Ears Festival — Knoxville, Tennessee; March 26–29, 2026; Parkins performs Modesty of the Magic Thing with William Winant
• Other Minds Festival — San Francisco; site of the West Coast premiere of Modesty of the Magic Thing

—

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Michael Graves, a five-time Grammy-winning mastering engineer and the founder of Osiris Studio in Los Angeles.

Michael's work is restoration as archaeology—pulling performances off deteriorating tapes, damaged acetates, and obsolete formats, then deciding how much intervention is too much. He's done this for recordings by Hank Williams, Aretha Franklin, Stax songwriters, and field recordings from Cambodia, Sudan, and Mississippi. His most recent Grammy came in 2024 for Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos.

The deeper question his work raises is curatorial: where does restoration end and revisionism begin? What gets rescued, and what stays buried?

—

Dig Deeper

• Michael Graves and Osiris Studio:

• Visit Michael Graves at osirisstudio.com and follow Osiris Studio on Instagram
• Michael Graves — Osiris Studio: About
• Michael Graves (sound engineer) — Wikipedia

• Key Projects Discussed:

• Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos — 7-CD box set on Craft Recordings (2023), Grammy Award for Best Historical Album (2024)
• Blondie: Against the Odds: 1974–1982 — box set via Numero Group and UMe (2022)
• Chris Bell: I Am the Cosmos — definitive reissue on Omnivore Recordings (2017)
• Chris Bell: The Complete Chris Bell — 6-LP box set, Omnivore Recordings (2017)

• Labels:

• Omnivore Recordings
• Numero Group
• Dust-to-Digital
• Analog Africa
• Craft Recordings
• Rhino Records

• Artists and People Referenced:

• Chris Bell — Big Star co-founder; I Am the Cosmos recorded in the mid-1970s
• Big Star — Memphis power pop band co-founded by Chris Bell and Alex Chilton
• Geoff Emerick — engineer and producer; produced and recorded Chris Bell's post-Big Star sessions
• Eddie Floyd — Stax recording artist and songwriter; known for "Knock on Wood"
• Johnny Mercer — American lyricist, songwriter, and Capitol Records co-founder; his archive is held at Georgia State University
• Leonard Cohen — Canadian singer-songwriter; Graves worked on his personal archive

• Institutional Archives and Collections:

• Johnny Mercer Collection — Georgia State University
• Alan Lomax and George Pullen Jackson Collection of Sacred Harp Music (1942) — Library of Congress
• Sacred Harp singing — Wikipedia
• Stax Records — Wikipedia
• Stax Museum of American Soul Music

• Professional Organizations:

• The Recording Academy
• Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC)
• Audio Engineering Society (AES)
• The Dust-to-Digital Foundation (Graves is a board member and technical advisor)

• Other References:

• Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi) — audiophile reissue label referenced in the source tape discussion
• The Sacred Harp Publishing Company
• Grammy Award for Best Historical Album

—

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. 

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Today we’re putting The Tonearm's needle on musician and composer Erik Hall.

Based in Michigan, Erik Hall has spent the last five years doing something that sounds simple but definitely is not: recording landmark works of contemporary classical music entirely on his own.

Erik’s 2020 solo reconstruction of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians won the Libera Award for Best Classical Record. Reich wrote to tell him he'd reinvented the piece. A 2023 interpretation of Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato followed, and now Hall has completed the trilogy. Solo Three came out in January on Western Vinyl, and it takes on works by Glenn Branca, Charlemagne Palestine, Laurie Spiegel, and Reich again—every note performed and recorded by Hall himself, no loops, no sequencers.

Erik is here to walk us through the project and the thinking behind it. Enjoy.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Erik Hall’s Solo Three) 

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• Visit Erik Hall at erikhall.net and follow him on Instagram, Bluesky, and Facebook.
• Purchase Erik Hall’s album Solo Three from Western Vinyl, Bandcamp , or Qobuz, and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Listen to and purchase Music for 18 Musicians (Steve Reich) — Erik Hall's first volume — on Bandcamp
• Listen to and purchase Canto Ostinato (Simeon ten Holt) — Erik Hall's second volume — on Bandcamp
• Erik Hall's catalog at Western Vinyl

• Steve Reich — composer of Music for a Large Ensemble and Music for 18 Musicians
• Steve Reich — "Music for a Large Ensemble"
• Steve Reich — Octet / Music for a Large Ensemble / Violin Phase 
• Glenn Branca — composer of "The Temple of Venus Pt. 1"
• Charlemagne Palestine — composer of "Strumming Music"
• Strumming Music (original 1974 Shandar recording)
• Laurie Spiegel — composer of "A Folk Study"
• The Expanding Universe on Bandcamp — the album containing "A Folk Study"
• Bandcamp Daily — Laurie Spiegel feature — background on Spiegel's influence, relevant to Hall's treatment of her work

• Simeon ten Holt — Dutch composer of Canto Ostinato, subject of Hall's second volume
• The Minimalist Composer Who Keeps Getting Left Out — article on Simeon ten Holt, minimalism, and Erik Hall’s solo recording 

• Steve Reich — "Come Out" (1966) — early tape piece Hall encountered in his university musicology course
• Steve Reich — Music for 18 Musicians — the composition that set Hall's course

• Aaron Lowell Denton — designer of all three trilogy album covers; follow on Instagram
• Natalie Bergman — artist with whom Hall toured as drummer around the time of Solo Three's completion
• Brian Deck — producer and engineer at Narwhal Studio, Chicago; mixed Music for 18 Musicians with Hall
• Warren Defever — mastering engineer at Third Man Mastering, Detroit; mastered all three volumes

---

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com(https://www.podcast.thetonearm.com) 

---

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. 

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice. 

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.comfor bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn. 

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

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Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Toronto saxophonist Patrick Smith.

Patrick has become a key player in the city's creative music scene. His new album, Words Underlined, came out in December on Lit Soc Records. It's the first release from the new label started by Sellers & Newell, a Toronto bookstore that moonlights as a music venue. Patrick recorded there with guitarist Dan Pitt and drummer Lowell Whitty. The trio plays without a bass, and the album alternates between composed pieces and full improvisations.

A few episodes back, we featured a talk with Noah Franche-Nolan, who also collaborated with Dan Pitt. A link to that, and my November 2024 conversation with Dan, are both in the show notes.

Patrick's here to talk about making music in the trio format, the Toronto scene, and why a bookstore was the right place to record.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from the album Words Underlined by The Patrick Smith Words Trio)

–

Artist and Album:

• Visit Patrick Smith at patricksmithsax.com and follow him on Instagram and Facebook
• Purchase The Patrick Smith Words Trio's Words Underlined from Lit Soc Records, Bandcamp, or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Listen to Patrick's fusion project Pangea: Rebirth on Bandcamp

Sellers & Newell and Lit Soc Records:

• Sellers & Newel Secondhand Books — Toronto's beloved College Street bookstore and performance space
• Lit Soc Records on Bandcamp
• Why this Toronto bookstore is starting its own record label — Toronto Today, November 2025
• Toronto bookstore is moonlighting as an underground live music venue — BlogTO, September 2021

The Musicians:

• Dan Pitt — guitarist and composer, Toronto
• Between the Lines of Dan Pitt's 'Horizontal Depths' - The Tonearm, November 2024
• Lowell Whitty — drummer and founding member of the Heavyweights Brass Band

Mentors and Influences:

• Mark Shim — saxophonist; Patrick's primary teacher in New York
• Mark Shim at Manhattan School of Music
• Dave Young — Order of Canada recipient; Oscar Peterson's longtime bassist, now based in Toronto
• David Liebman — saxophonist, educator, and major post-Coltrane voice
• Developing a Personal Saxophone Sound by David Liebman — available via J.W. Pepper
• Jeff Coffin — saxophonist; source of the Sonny Rollins quote relayed in the episode

Musical References:

• Paul Motian — the drummer whose bassless trio recordings were the direct inspiration for this project
• Paul Motian Trio — It Should've Happened a Long Time Ago (ECM, 1985) — with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano
• Paul Motian Trio — Time and Time Again (ECM, 2007) — with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano
• Johnny Cash — My Mother's Hymn Book — the stripped-down solo Cash record Patrick cites as a model for songwriting
• Sonny Rollins — saxophone icon; his advice about creativity as resistance runs through the episode
• From Sacred Space to Silent Film — Noah Franche-Nolan Serves the Music - The Tonearm, February 2026 - Noah also collaborates with guitarist Dan Pitt

–

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

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Today, we’re putting The Tonearm's needle on Stephen Vitiello.

Stephen is an electronic musician and media artist. His sound installations are in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Whitney, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon. He's worked with Pauline Oliveros, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Joan Jonas. By day, he teaches Kinetic Imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Stephen’s latest project is Trinity, a collaborative album with Lawrence English, who you heard on last week's show. Each of Trinity's five tracks brings in a different third musician: Brendan Canty from Fugazi, Chris Abrahams from The Necks, Marina Rosenfeld, Aki Onda, and the late Steve Roden. The album came out last November.

Stephen shares how this project came together, what it's like to work with each of these artists, and how he's built a career turning everyday sounds into sonic experiences.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Lawrence English & Stephen Vitiello’s album Trinity)

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• Visit Stephen Vitiello at stephenvitiello.com and follow him on Soundcloud, Instagram, and Bandcamp
• Purchase Lawrence English & Stephen Vitiello’s Trinity from American Dreams, Bandcamp, or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Previous collaborations: Acute Inbetweens (2011) and Fable (2014) with Lawrence English
• Stephen Vitiello & Brendan Canty: Second (with Hahn Rowe)

• Lawrence English and Room40 Records
• Brendan Canty - drummer (Fugazi, The Messthetics)
• Chris Abrahams - pianist (The Necks)
• Marina Rosenfeld - turntablist and composer
• Aki Onda - electronic musician and sound artist
• Steve Roden - late sound artist and visual artist

• World Trade Center Artist Residency - Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
• World Trade Center Recordings: Winds After Hurricane Floyd (1999)
• Bright and Dusty Things - album featuring WTC recordings
• Stephen Vitiello: Listening With Intent - documentary by ABC-TV Australia

• VCU Kinetic Imaging - Virginia Commonwealth University
• Kinetic Imaging Graduate Program at VCU

• Nam June Paik - video art pioneer
• Pauline Oliveros - composer and accordionist
• Ryuichi Sakamoto - composer and musician
• Fred Frith - guitarist and composer
• Ikue Mori - drummer and electronic musician (DNA)
• Maryanne Amacher - sound artist and composer
• R. Murray Schafer - composer and writer on acoustic ecology
• Robin Rimbaud (Scanner) - electronic musician
• Colin Newman - Wire guitarist and vocalist
• Taylor Deupree - 12k Records founder

• The Kitchen - New York performance space
• Electronic Arts Intermix - video art distributor
• Anthology Film Archives - New York cinema
• MASS MoCA - Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
• The High Line - New York elevated park
• Whitney Museum of American Art - 2002 Biennial
• Museum of Modern Art - Soundings exhibition (2013)

• Fugazi - influential post-hardcore band
• DNA - no wave band
• The Clash
• No Wave movement - late 1970s NYC

• Fluxus movement - experimental art movement
• John Cage and prepared piano
• Ambisonic audio - spatial sound format
• Dolby Atmos - immersive audio format

• Steve Roden and Stephen Vitiello conversation in Bomb magazine
• The Collaborative Recent History of Stephen Vitiello - Fluid Radio interview

-

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

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Australian composer Lawrence English has spent over two decades treating sound as something that occupies your body, not just your ears. Putting The Tonearm's needle on Lawrence English means entering a sonic world where you're never quite sure what you're hearing or where it's coming from, and if you are a listener like our host, that will suit you just fine.

Lawrence’s recent album Trinity pairs him with Stephen Vitiello and guests like Brendan Canty from Fugazi and Chris Abrahams from The Necks. Each track builds what English calls "impossible trios," turning geographic and other constraints into creative fuel.

Lawrence is here to discuss collaboration, the art of curation, and what it means to make meaningful work in an age drowning in content.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Lawrence English & Stephen Vitiello's album Trinity)

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• Visit Lawrence English at lawrenceenglish.com and follow him on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, and Bandcamp
• Purchase Lawrence English & Stephen Vitiello's Trinity from American Dreams, Bandcamp, or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Learn more about Room40, Lawrence English's label celebrating its 25th anniversary

• Chris Abrahams (The Necks) - pianist
• Stephen Vitiello - sound artist and composer
• Aki Onda - multidisciplinary artist
• Marina Rosenfeld - turntablist and composer
• Brendan Canty (Fugazi, The Messthetics) - drummer
• The late Steve Roden - artist and lowercase musician

• Peter Szendy - 'Listen: A History of Our Ears'
• Neil Postman - 'Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business'
• Lauren Berlant - Cruel Optimism theory
• Mark Fisher - cultural theorist

• Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) - abandoned coal mining island off Nagasaki
• Hashima Island history - most densely populated place in history
• Japanese Metabolist architecture - architectural movement English researched
• Art Gallery of New South Wales - collected English's bell work

• The Necks - Chris Abrahams' improvisational jazz trio
• Tenniscoats - Japanese duo Saya and Takashi Ueno

• Relational listening - English's PhD theory on reconciling psychological and technological audition
• Acid nostalgia - English's working concept on how contemporary nostalgia corrodes the past
• Natsukashii - Japanese concept of longing for a time/place you were never part of
• Tsundoku - Japanese word for collecting books you don't read
• Ma - Japanese concept of the space between elements

• Lawrence English - 'Cruel Optimism' (Room40)
• Lawrence English - 'Wilderness of Mirrors' (Room40, 2014)
• Chris Abrahams - 'Thrown' (Room40)
• Chris Abrahams - 'Appearance' (Room40, 2020)

–

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on pianist and composer Noah Franche-Nolan.

Noah's latest album, Rose-Anna, is named after his Acadian great-grandmother, a church organist from Grand Falls, New Brunswick. The Acadians are French-speaking people with deep roots in Canada's Maritime provinces. The Acadians were expelled from their land by the British in the late 1700s and many of them migrated south to Louisiana where they became known by their more famous name, the Cajuns. Noah’s family connection runs deep through the record and he even plays organ on two tracks, honoring the woman who sparked his musical heritage.

The album pairs him with bassist Jodi Proznick and drummer Nicholas Bracewell in a trio that displays deftness with groove-driven chops, tender hymns and free exploration. The music conjures thoughts of home, family, and what gets passed down through generations.

Noah's also one half of Arid Landscapes, an ambient electroacoustic project with guitarist Dan Pitt, that takes a totally different approach—live looping, processing, and soundscapes that feel vast and open. My November 2024 talk with Dan for The Tonearm is linked in the show notes.

Noah and I talk about both projects, his work as a church music director in Vancouver, and what it means to make music that honors the past while pushing into new territory.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Noah Franche-Nolan's album Rose-Anna)

–

Dig Deeper

• Artist and Albums:

• Visit Noah Franche-Nolan at noahfranche-nolanmusic.com and follow him on Instagram
• Purchase Noah Franche-Nolan's Rose-Anna from Bandcamp or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Noah Franche-Nolan on All About Jazz
• Vancouver Guardian profile

• Arid Landscapes (duo with Dan Pitt):

• Arid Landscapes released September 2025, available on Bandcamp
• Dan Pitt — official site
• Dan Pitt on Bandcamp
• Between the Lines of Dan Pitt's 'Horizontal Depths' (The Tonearm)

• Collaborators and Ensembles:

• Jodi Proznick — bassist, Noah Franche-Nolan Trio
• Nicholas Bracewell — drummer, Noah Franche-Nolan Trio
• Raagaverse — JUNO-nominated Indo-jazz fusion quartet led by Shruti Ramani
• Shruti Ramani — vocalist and bandleader, Raagaverse
• Jaya (Raagaverse debut album) on Bandcamp
• Nick Fraser — Toronto drummer and University of Toronto faculty; Noah's former teacher

• Recording Labels:

• Cellar Music Group — Vancouver label founded by Cory Weeds; 2023 Grammy Award winner
• Cory Weeds — Cellar Music Group founder and artistic director
• Frankie's Jazz Club — Vancouver jazz venue run by Cory Weeds (Rose-Anna release show venue)

• Film Scoring:

• Häxan (1922) — Swedish-Danish silent horror essay film directed by Benjamin Christensen
• The Cinematheque — Vancouver independent film institute that commissioned Noah's live score for Häxan

• Educational Institutions:

• Vancouver Community College (VCC) — where Noah teaches jazz piano
• VSO School of Music — Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's school; Noah teaches in Jazz and Classical Theory/Composition
• University of Toronto, Faculty of Music — where Noah and Dan Pitt studied jazz

• Venues and Spaces:

• The Tranzac — Toronto's not-for-profit community arts venue; central to the city's improvised music scene
• Brentwood Presbyterian Church — Burnaby; where Noah serves as coordinator of musicking and where Arid Landscapes was partly recorded

–

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we’re putting The Tonearm's needle on author and behavioral scientist Michael Hallsworth.

Michel has spent the last two decades applying behavioral science to real-world problems at the Behavioural Insights Team. He's held positions at Princeton, Columbia, Imperial College London, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael's new book, The Hypocrisy Trap, takes on something we all recognize instantly but rarely understand: why we're so quick to spot hypocrisy in others yet are blind to it in ourselves. He shows how our hunt for inconsistency has become a weapon in politics and daily life, one that actually breeds more of what it tries to eliminate. The book reveals why some hypocrisy might be unavoidable in functioning democracies, and how our relentless attacks on it can backfire in dangerous ways.

We talk about double standards, the psychology behind moral accusations, and why the most authentic-seeming politicians might be the most deceptive. Michael explains how we can tell the difference between hypocrisy that harms society and the everyday compromises that allow us to function together.

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• Visit Michael Hallsworth at michaelhallsworth.com
• Purchase Michael Hallsworth's The Hypocrisy Trap: How Changing What We Criticize Can Improve Our Lives from MIT Press, Penguin Random House, Bookshop, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon
• Michael Hallsworth and Elspeth Kirkman's Behavioral Insights from MIT Press
• Connect with Michael Hallsworth on LinkedIn
• Behavioral Scientist column by Michael Hallsworth

• The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) - World-leading organization applying behavioral science in support of social purpose goals
• Dr. Michael Hallsworth at BIT
• Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences Program at University of Pennsylvania
• Imperial College London
• Columbia University
• Princeton University

• Behavioral economics and public policy - Michael Hallsworth's Google Scholar profile
• Nature Human Behaviour - Journal featuring Hallsworth's research
• Journal of Public Economics
• The Lancet

• Hannah Arendt's On Revolution - Analysis of the French and American Revolutions
• Hannah Arendt on hypocrisy and the Reign of Terror - "Robespierre's war upon hypocrisy transformed the 'despotism of liberty' into the Reign of Terror"
• The French Revolution Reign of Terror - Historical context
• Maximilien Robespierre - Key figure in the French Revolution

• Boris Johnson's COVID-19 party scandal - The "Partygate" scandal discussed in the episode
• Brexit and UK politics

• "Our Hypocrisy Blind Spot" by Michael Hallsworth - Essay in Behavioral Scientist
• "The Future of Behavioral Insights Demands Human-Centered Design" - Hallsworth and Kirkman on behavioral science
• Hannah Arendt quotes on hypocrisy - "What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one"

-

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're putting The Tonearm's needle on John Mlynczak, President and CEO of the National Association of Music Merchants.

NAMM is the trade association for the music, sound, and event industries. Basically, NAMM represents the companies that make the tools your favorite music artists use to create their work.

John has spent years at Hal Leonard and PreSonus Audio, where music education meets technology. He built curricula, managed platforms, and taught teachers how to use tech in their classrooms.

Now he runs an organization that's rethinking what a trade show means when the music industry has gone digital. NAMM just celebrated its 125th anniversary, but John isn't interested in nostalgia. He's asking harder questions about how people discover instruments, how they learn to play them, and why gathering in person still matters when you can order anything online. The NAMM Show draws tens of thousands of people to Anaheim every January (this January 20 - 24, to be exact), and the numbers behind those crowds tell a story about content, influence, and how musicians connect with gear today.

We talk about John’s shift from teaching in Louisiana to shaping industry strategy, why music advocacy needs to be offensive rather than defensive, and what happens when trade shows have to prove their value in real time.

–

• Visit NAMM at namm.org and follow on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn
• John Mlynczak's NAMM Profile
• The NAMM Show 2026 - January 23-25, Anaheim, California
• NAMM Show Registration and App Information

• Virginia Commonwealth University - Bachelor of Music Education
• Louisiana State University - Master's degrees in Music Performance and Education Leadership
• Hal Leonard - Music publishing and education
• PreSonus Audio - Audio technology and recording equipment
• Noteflight - Online music notation software

• Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME)
• Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA)
• NAMM Foundation
• SupportMusic Coalition
• NAfME (National Association for Music Education)

• GarageBand - Apple's music creation software
• Cubase - Digital audio workstation
• Essential Elements Interactive - Music education platform

• She Rocks Awards - Celebrating women in music
• Parnelli Awards - Honoring live event professionals
• NAMM U - Educational programming and resources

• MetWinds - John's current performance ensemble

• Alexander Arutiunian Trumpet Concerto - The piece John performed as a cocky freshman

• NAMM Industry Insights - Music products industry data
• Trade Show Executive - Conference John mentioned attending

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• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Patricia Brennan, a vibraphonist and composer who grew up in Veracruz, Mexico, playing salsa with her dad while listening to Hendrix and Zeppelin with her mom. She studied classical percussion at the Curtis Institute, performed with Yo-Yo Ma and the Philadelphia Orchestra, then found her voice and career in jazz and improvisation.

Patricia’s latest album, Of The Near And Far, takes constellations from the summer sky and turns them into music. She superimposes the circle of fifths over star patterns to generate pitches, then turns them into compositions that reflect a voice as unique as the compositional approach. 

Patricia’s ten-piece ensemble features a jazz quintet, a string quartet, and an electronic musician, all conducted by Eli Greenhoe. 

Hot on the heels of her 2024 release, Breaking Stretch, which won Album of the Year and Vibraphonist of the Year in the DownBeat Critics Poll, Patricia's here to talk about finding symmetry between the cosmos and composition, why she carries a telescope wherever she goes, and how ancient myths and modern astronomy shape her work.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Patricia Brennan's album Of The Near And Far)

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• Visit Patricia Brennan at patriciabrennanvibes.com and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
• Purchase Patricia Brennan's Of The Near And Far from Pyroclastic Records, Bandcamp, or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Patricia Brennan's acclaimed 2024 album Breaking Stretch on Pyroclastic Records

• Curtis Institute of Music – Philadelphia conservatory where Patricia studied classical percussion
• Youth Orchestra of the Americas – Continental ensemble Patricia joined at age seventeen

• Sylvie Courvoisier, pianist
• Miles Okazaki, guitarist
• Kim Cass, bassist
• John Hollenbeck, drummer and composer
• Kyle Armbrust, violist
• Arktureye (Noel Brennan) – Electronic musician and Patricia's duo partner in MOCH
• Eli Greenhoe, conductor

• Keiko Abe – Japanese marimbist who transformed the instrument
• Radiohead – In Rainbows
• Erik Satie – "Gnossienne No. 1"
• Glenn Gould performing Bach
• Philip Glass – String Quartets
• György Ligeti – Atmosphères
• Grachan Moncur III – Evolution featuring Bobby Hutcherson
• Kid Koala – Canadian turntablist
• Eighth Blackbird – Contemporary chamber music ensemble
• Fania All-Stars – Legendary salsa supergroup

• Tōru Takemitsu – Japanese composer
• Iannis Xenakis – Greek-French composer
• Karlheinz Stockhausen – German composer
• Edgard Varèse – French-American composer
• John Cage – American experimental composer
• Steve Reich – American minimalist composer
• David Lang – Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Bang on a Can co-founder

• Andromeda Galaxy (M31) – Nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way
• Circle of fifths – Music theory concept used in Patricia's compositional system
• Constellation guide – Reference for the star patterns inspiring the album
• NASA's Sounds of Space – Astronomical recordings translated into audio

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• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. • Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice. • Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn. • Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.