Proof of Life, the excellent fourth studio album by Nashville-based singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun, has been one of my favorite LPs of 2023, and it's been awesome to see Joy's star rise in recent months. It was a true joy - if you'll pardon the pun - to meet Joy over Zoom and get to know more about their creative journey, growing up in Casa Grande, Arizona, as a child of Nigerian immigrants, coming to terms with their queerness against the backdrop of their religious upbringing. Joy talks about discovering artists such as Tracy Chapman and Bob Marley and King Sunny Adé as formative moments, as well as getting their first guitar at age 10 and discovering their ability to bring comfort to themself and others through their songs. Joy is currently finishing a US tour. You can get tickets here.

After years of admiring Jason Isbell's gifts as a songwriter and storyteller, I finally got to ask the alt-country artist about his earliest sparks of creativity, and it was fascinating to hear his memories of sitting on the front porch, singing with members of his extended family during weekly Sunday evening gatherings, and of listening to his Pentecostal preacher grandfather playing guitar, and introducing him to gospel and mountain songs and bluegrass and the blues. "Music was something that was presented to me as something that was directly tied with family," he says. "The way creative pursuits were presented to me, it was something people did because it made them feel better, and because they could control the machines. And they had grown up very poor and didn't have control over much else. I think that combination of lack of options and just a genuine love for the way the arts were presented to me from the beginning culminated in my identifying with it so closely. And then something sort of made me a fool. Something in there somewhere told me to actually pursue this to the ends of the earth if I had to. That's the part I don't exactly understand." Isbell also talks about his love for Hendrix and Pearl Jam, about the lessons he learned from teaching guitar in his early twenties, how his songwriting process has evolved, and more. Jason and his band the 400 Unit are playing shows at Nashville's legendary Ryman Auditorium this week and have additional US dates early next year. Following the awesome new Isbell & The 400 Unit album Weathervanes earlier this year, he recently put out a deluxe, 10th anniversary reissue of 2013's Southeastern. You can get a copy, and tickets for the upcoming date, here. Isbell can also be seen in the new Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon.

Alvvays have made some of my favorite indie music of the past decade, and although I’ve interviewed them briefly in the past, I loved going long with Molly Rankin from the band for episode 96. We talked about Alvvays’s awesome latest album, Blue Rev, the origins of “Archie, Marry Me,” which had it's 10th anniversary this year, about how Molly started writing songs as a teenager, inspired by learning the chords to her favorite Oasis tunes, what it was like growing up in a famous musical family (her father was among the members of The Rankins, the acclaimed Celtic folk group), how her songwriting practice began and how it has evolved, about her love of gardening and my love of Columbo, and more.

On the eve of Blonde Redhead’s first new album in nine years, their excellent Sit Down For Dinner, the band’s Kazu Makino joins the LSQ podcast for episode 95. She talks about how the experience of making her own solo album a few years ago inspired a new confidence going into this Blonde Redhead album; the influence she took from growing up in a household where classical music was playing at a soft volume at all times; the evolution of her songwriting within the band; how a good performance feels like a trance; and more. Blonde Redhead’s North American tour begins in mid-October. Get tickets here.

Episode 94 features an interview with singer, songwriter and producer Andrew Wyatt, whose voice and tunes you probably know from a few different contexts: In addition to being the frontman and lead songwriter for alt-pop band Miike Snow, Wyatt keeps incredibly busy collaborating as a writer and producer with artists like Dua Lipa, Charlie XCX, Caroline Polachek, Lorde, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and many others. The New York native is also a Grammy and Academy award-winning writer of movie music, notably for A Star Is Born, and the chart-topping soundtrack for Barbie, for which he co-wrote key tracks such as “I’m Just Ken.” AND, as if that wasn't enough, Wyatt is currently on the cusp of putting out his first solo album in a decade, Someday It Won’t Feel Like Dying. The album comes out this fall, but a couple of its singles are online here now Wyatt is also a pal of mine, and it was a pleasure to finally do the LSQ podcast with him!

Fresh off releasing "Two Songs I Wrote in 1993 & Recorded Last Week," legendary Australian singer-songwriter Ben Lee joins me for episode 93 (pure numerological coincidence!) to reflect on key moments of musical discovery -- seeing Nirvana play at Big Day Out, starring in a school musical called Uncle Moishe and his Mitzvah Men, recording fucked-up sounding songs on his Tascam 244, hoping to emulate Appetite for Destruction but coming up with something even cooler, figuring out how to get his demo to a record label, and more recent insights about longevity and staying true to your unique vision. He also discusses his songwriting practice today, prioritizing playfulness, supporting young artists, and more. Ben and his wife, Ione Skye, host an awesome weekly podcast called Weirder Together, and their Weirder Together podcast network presents shows hosted by J. Mascis, Lou Barlow and Jello Biafra, among others. Ben will be on tour in September. Get tickets here.

"I always said, I felt like, when the five of us are together, the universe does something different," says Albert Hammond Jr, guitarist for The Strokes, of his band's cosmic connection. "From the moment I met them, even before we did anything, all of a sudden the world felt different. I can only explain it like in the Matrix when he sees the numbers, so then it didn't feel that weird when stuff would happen. I didn't know what was gonna happen, but it felt like something was gonna happen." I had a blast interviewing Albert for episode 92 of the LSQ podcast. I am a massive fan of The Strokes (like, Top 5 all-time favorite bands kind of thing), and feel lucky to have a long history with them. Albert and I have known each other since the band's early days, when I got to write about them a bunch for Rolling Stone, and it's been awesome to watch his solo career develop alongside his band's. His new solo LP, Melodies On Hiatus, is one of his best -- 19 tracks that explore new facets of his musical personality while still brandishing his signature sound. In this interview, we talk about his childhood influences, an era when he was a rollerskating champion, the beginning of The Strokes, his songwriting process, and hopes for the future such as this one: "I'd love to create with [The Strokes], as I'm older. Because I feel like we're so interesting at different times with each other. So even at 60, I wonder what we would create? What would the band sound like? What would we do? Would our strengths and weaknesses change and how would that make our sound change? It still feels so exciting."

The incomparable Jenny Lewis joins me for LSQ #91 and, let me tell you, THIS is one of my all-time favorite episodes. Not only is Lewis an artist whose music I've admired since her days in Rilo Kiley, but over the course of our ~15 years of friendship, I've learned what a hilarious, generous, soulful and inspiring person she is, as well. The release of her excellent new album Joy'All gave us a chance to get together at her place in Los Angeles and dig in on some topics we've never really talked about before, including her parents' old band, Love's Way, her years as a kid actor and how those experiences shaped her approach to her music career, how her love for hip-hop inspired her to start by writing raps, before she wrote melodic songs. We also talk about how her evolution through the Rilo Kiley years, and why it was important to her to forge her own path. Get tickets for her upcoming tour here.

On the occasion of their new 26th studio album, The Girl is Crying In Her Latté, the legendary Los Angeles art-pop duo Sparks (brothers Ron and Russell Mael) join the LSQ podcast to talk about the evolution of their sound; their work with producers such as Giorgio Moroder and Todd Rundgren, and why they value being able to produce their own music nowadays; growing up in LA seeing concerts by British Invasion bands they loved including The Kinks and The Who; getting to witness one of Jimi Hendrix’s first LA concerts; what they’re looking forward to playing during their 2023 tours, and more!

When she started playing guitar at age seven, Sunny War saw herself as the next Slash or Angus Young, a future shredder, certain to be a rock star, and definitely NOT a folk singer. And yet, here we are, it's 2023 and thanks to her excellent latest album, Anarchist Gospel, and a Triple A-radio hit single, "No Reason," she is finally getting well-deserved recognition as one of the most exciting folk singers of her generation. In episode 89 of the LSQ podcast, get to know Sunny's story, and how she went from playing in a punk band called Anus Kings and busking on the Venice Beach boardwalk to performing her ecstatic folk anthem "No Reason" on late night television and embarking on her biggest tour, to date. Get tickets for Sunny War's current tour here.

To celebrate the release of the paperback edition of her beautiful, best-selling memoir, Crying In H Mart, and its accompanying book tour, the author -- celebrated indie singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast -- joins the LSQ podcast for a conversation that explores her early experiences in both writing and music. She also shares that her next book is already in development, as she plans to move to her native Korea for a year, to learn the language and document the experience. And an exciting scoop: She already has new Japanese Breakfast songs in the works and might even debut some of them on tour later this year!

KP, the singer-songwriter at the helm of Black Belt Eagle Scout, joins the LSQ pod to talk about their beautiful new album, The Land, The Water, The Sky, recorded as KP was transitioning back to living in their homelands in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, in LaConner, Washington. We talk about how KP first got into playing and writing music, learning to play Für Elise by ear on the piano as a child, figuring out that their favorite guitars are the ones that sound the warmest, learning to play drums at Portland's Rock n' Roll Camp for Girls and later teaching at the camp, getting involved in the house show scene, loving post-rock, being inspired by the musical flexibility of the great Buffy Sainte-Marie, and more.

Ryan Lott and Ian Chang from the experimental trio Son Lux talk about their Academy Award-nominated work on the score and soundtrack for the beautiful, epic film Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is as brilliantly unclassifiable as the movie itself. Their score is nominated for Best Original Score and the end credits tune (a duet between Mitski and David Byrne, who cowrote the tune with Son Lux) is up for Best Music (Original Song) at the upcoming 95th Annual Academy Awards. They also delve into their personal histories with music, from their childhood music lessons and impactful discoveries of artists including Radiohead, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Prince, Miles Davis, Jeff Buckley, Seal and more. And Lott narrates Son Lux's development from a solo project that he began in 2008 as a creative outlet while he was working as a composer for a dance company, to the full-fledged touring band and collaborative unit thanks to the addition in 2014 of Chang and their bandmate Rafiq Bhatia.

Post-punk pioneer Gina Birch (bassist and founding member of UK band The Raincoats) joins the LSQ podcast on the eve of releasing her first ever solo album, the refreshing and irreverent collection I Play My Bass Loud, produced by Youth and out this week via Third Man. In episode 85, Birch talks about important music memories from her childhood (hearing her brother's Bob Marley records through the bedroom wall, seeing The Slits in concert and realizing that girls could also play in bands, and more), the early days of The Raincoats and how embracing their inexperience and enthusiastically presenting songs that were still "in the process of becoming" was a key part of their approach. We also talk about her work in visual arts, as a music video and short film director, and more recently via large scale paintings like the one you see a portion of on the new album's cover. Get a copy of I Play My Bass Loud and check out Birch's upcoming tour dates here.

For the first episode of Season 6 of the LSQ podcast, I was honored to welcome an artist whose words and music I have admired for nearly thirty years now: the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle. In episode 84, John shares fascinating insight into his early creative inklings, the music he loved as a kid, and how he went from clinging to his Aristocats soundtrack to embracing Elton John and the Bay City Rollers and eventually unlocking a secret passion for heavy metal. He also describes his transition from writing poetry on its own to combining his verses with music, initially singing haunting melodies over the sound of static from his black & white TV, and then developing the boombox recording method he used when he started as the Mountain Goats in the mid-Nineties. And we dish about how he got involved with Rian Johnson's new mystery series, Poker Face. (He wrote the music for it with Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed, and also has a small acting role.) Darnielle and the Mountain Goats' Matt Douglas are currently on tour in the U.S. as a duo. Get dates and tickets here.

U.K. artist Kae Tempest, on the first time they ever spit rhymes in public, at age 15: “I remember pushing through the crowd. I remember the tunnel vision. I remember reaching for the mic. I remember, like, the heat, the fever — your whole body beginning to like go into almost like unbearable minute precision-detail slow motion, and then the words. That was 20 years ago. More! And it's the same feeling that I have each time I'm about to approach the mic. It's this, like, deep connection to the word. And I remember the place transformed, people transformed, I transformed. And then from that night, until today, I haven't thought about anything else but rhymes. When you receive that much inspiration from something, and you're able to suddenly give something back, you're able to publish a book or make a record, and you can contribute — you can stand on that line that goes all the way back and your contribution can be felt going forwards. It's the most incredible kind of epiphany moment of achieving balance or things being right. It's my, kind of, life-force, really.” Kae’s latest album, The Line Is A Curve, is a powerful collection of musical vignettes that explore our drive for connection, and it’s one of my favorite LPs of 2022. Kae is on tour in Europe until mid-December and in Australia and New Zealand in early 2023. Get tickets here.

Bartees Strange reflects on important moments during his musical development, including: Learning to sing alongside his opera and gospel singer mother, who brought him to most of her performances as a child, until eventually he was singing alongside her. “There's something magical being a child in an opera Hall, hearing sound without microphones, bouncing off of the wood, bouncing off of the space, and then looking up on stage and seeing like a 5’2” black woman who's your mom just fill it. And it's like, ‘I know not everybody's moms do this.’”Seeing the hardcore band Norma Jean in a church basement when he was in middle school, and realizing that music — especially live music — has the power to make an entire room full of people feel an energetic connection. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is just a music thing. Like, this is just what happens when music works, regardless of a classical space, hardcore space, or like a gospel space, like music can just do this. And I was just like, ‘how do I wield this magical power?’”Moving to New York after a stint working in politics in Washington, D.C., and finding inspiration in the music scene he plugged into there. “I grew up in a very rural area of Oklahoma and dealt with a lot of racism and questions about who I was and who I was allowed to be, and I don’t think I was fully comfortable in my body until I moved to New York City and I started meeting all these artists — like are you familiar with the band L’Rain, Taja Cheek’s band, and Kia and Melanie Charles? These black artists in Brooklyn who I honestly fell in love with and was so inspired by, because I always felt so alone and singular. My whole life, I was the only black kid. And in my musical space, I was often the only black person. And when I was making records, I was often the only black person in the studio, and people didn’t listen to me, they didn’t think I knew what I was talking about. I was struggling with even trusting my gut on knowing if I knew what I was talking about. I had listened to the gaslighting so much that I don’t think I even knew who I was until I saw those artists and I was able to connect with them on a level where I was like, ‘Oh I’m like you. I’m not weird. Actually this is what *we* do.’ And being around them it kind of created the space for me to spread my wings and try some stuff and feel comfortable sharing music with people who understood my experience and where I was coming from, and then once that happened, I was kind of able to lay it all out.”How his goals have evolved between his 2020 debut album, Live Forever, and his recently released sophomore LP, Farm To Table. “Honestly, I wanted to kind of show people it wasn't a fluke, like, I could do it again. And that was also why I put it out so fast. I was like, ‘I’m not letting three years pass before I drop another one. Because I don't want people to think ‘Oh, like, that was cute,’ I want them to be like, ‘Oh, Bartees, this dude is a pretty serious cat. He’s gonna stick around.’”What he has planned for his first major headlining tour in North America, and why you have to see openers Pom Pom Squad, They Hate Change and Spring Silver. The tour is on the road until 12/19/22. Get tickets HERE.

On the heels of their excellent latest LP, LA indie-pop trio MUNA (Katie Gavin, Josette Maskin and Naomi McPherson) call into the LSQ podcast from the road, to talk about their individual experiences falling in love with music as kids, how they came together to form MUNA, and how their approach has evolved over the years. The original ethos remains: “We decided to make music that made us feel good, for sure, but that also had an audience in mind, and that could be useful to an audience,” Katie says.  Adds Josette: “Songs that can be used to dance to or that can be used as a mantra to say to yourself when you’re at a really low place. When we say we had an audience in mind, people who need to hear those things are the audience we’ve always had in mind, and that’s always been a guiding force. MUNA has become for the people, and I think that’s why we’ve been able to do this for so long.”  *** After releasing a single I loved earlier this year called “Blocked,” the Womack Sisters (BG, Zeimani and Kucha) shared their debut EP, Legacy, in early September. When I caught up with them this summer, they had just pushed back the release a bit, so they could add their cover of “A Change Is Gonna Come,” the song made famous by their legendary grandfather, Sam Cooke. We chatted about what it was like growing up on the road with their parents, Womack & Womack, and how they went from roadies to back-up singers to forming their own group. They plan to release a debut LP next year.

This is a special bonus episode for LSQ listeners of a podcast I had an excellent time collaborating on, as producer, with alt-J. Things Will Get Better is a five-episode podcast miniseries that explores the U.K. band's early days, and the making of their incredible, groundbreaking debut album, An Awesome Wave, in honor of its tenth anniversary. Within the series, the band revisit Ash Grove, the old college house where they played their first gig and wrote songs like "Matilda" and "Breezeblocks," as well as other favorite haunts in Leeds; they discover and listen back to long lost demos, including for the song that lends the series its name and fan favorites such as "Portrait" and "Hiroshima"; they catch up with their longtime producer, Charlie Andrew, and their former bandmate, Gwil Sainsbury; and in the episode I'm sharing, I interview the band, LSQ-style, focusing on their childhood encounters with creativity and how their music practices and passions evolved from there. If you like this one, check out the others at anchor.fm/anawesomewave

"As young, upcoming artists, we aim to be the examples we saw, but as you grow in your artistry, you realize that example was only there to show you you could do it. Now it's time for you to take that example and interpret it into who you are. So, the less I tried to be like Lauryn [Hill], the more I could be Sampa. And the more I could see what I love, the stories I love to tell, the music I grew up on and love sharing, and the more I could solidify myself as an artist," says the Zambia-born Botswana-raised poet and rapper Sampa The Great, reflecting on her creative path, in episode 79 of LSQ. "And so that journey has continued and grown within the past six years, and I think it's taken a really beautiful turn in relocating back home. Because now the context isn't me trying to represent different groups of people in a country I wasn't raised in, to bring people something different than what's shown on the mainstream. You're bringing African artists to the mainstream in a country like Australia, that's huge work, and I know it was a huge weight for me, even though we broke a lot of walls. I realize it took a huge toll on me and it was a huge weight, that, when I relocated back home [to Zambia], that full-circle moment of being in a place where the dream actually started forced me to go back to the mindset of the kid who dreamt it, and how happy I was to express the music and share music, in general, without the opinions or weight of anything else, and really forced me to take a look into representing Sampa for a change, versus everybody else. I mean, everybody else didn't even ask me to represent them, if we're being honest. And just taking a chance to look at who I am outside of my music, my own happiness, and making sure that I actually love what I do. And those all are important ingredients to the world of self-discovery, and just being transparent with myself, and aiming to be my freest self are some of the thought processes that went into As Above, So Below." Sampa The Great's awesome new sophomore studio album, As Above, So Below, is out now. Tickets to her upcoming European headlining tour are available HERE.