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Talkhouse

Music

Talkhouse Weekend Playlist: Jaga Jazzist’s Lars Horntveth Outlines the “Songs I Wish I Wrote”

Late at night, as the world felt upside down in quarantine and when a hush fell over the house after his kids went to bed, Donovan Woods got to work on his latest album, Without People. In a makeshift recording studio at his Toronto home, the acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter tracked his vocals and guitar alone and then emailed files to producer James Bunton. As Woods’ new songs took shape, backing musicians sketched out their own parts in isolation from their respective homes.For an album made so piecemeal,  Without People (out November 6 on Woods’ Meant Well label) is alive with intimacy and connection at a surreal time when we’re all in desperate need of both. So much of its allure and power is rooted in how Woods connects with his collaborators.
(Photo Credit: Maya Fuhr)

Donovan Woods

Three Great Things: Donovan Woods

It’s a Beautiful Day and I Love You carries harmonic and emotional heft in the vein of Patty Griffin’s Flaming Red or Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark. There’s an open-heartedness in the Nashville-based Jillette Johnson’s songs, the kind of deeply experienced inner peace that results from a journey through vulnerability, pain, and struggle to gratitude, forgiveness, and, ultimately, acceptance. “I was in control,” Johnson sings on the album’s opening track, but “that was many moons ago.” Johnson’s a rare gem in Nashville, having written the entirety of It’s a Beautiful Day and I Love You alone, running contrary to the common Music City practice of co-writing. She did, however, find herself drawn to the city’s creative adage of “three chords and the truth” — though in Johnson’s case, it’s more like a dozen chords, especially on the harmonically elegant title track.
(Photo Credit: Betsy Johnson)

Jillette Johnson

Three Great Things: Jillette Johnson

Love is everyday magic. That’s the impression you get listening to Water, the new album by Chicago trio Dehd. Love rises up into the atmosphere like steam off a summer sidewalk and makes you wild. Love breaks your heart and you consider yourself lucky for it. Like water itself, it surrounds us, it supports us; it’s what we’re made of. It takes the shape of its container.
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That’s something Jason Balla, Emily Kempf, and Eric McGrady discovered quickly after forming Dehd in 2014. Balla and Kempf are both veterans of Chicago’s increasingly fruitful DIY scene (Balla with Ne-Hi and Earring, Kempf with Vail and formerly with Lala Lala). When they joined forces with first-time drummer Eric McGrady, they discovered they shared a strange and inexplicable chemistry. The music they make — hazy and reverb-drenched, a scuzzy and hyped-up take on surf rock that could only come from the Third Coast — came so intuitively, it made all three feel like they were stewards of something bigger than themselves, even while that very thing is unmistakably drawn from their own personalities.
Water finds Dehd’s three members united as they push themselves beyond their natural limits and end up in places they wouldn’t have imagined. Balla’s production incorporates flubbed notes and dropped beats, and it emphasizes he and Kempf’s occasionally strained voices. It’s all animated by the red-lining feel-good spirit of the Velvet Underground’s Loaded and the breezy melodicism of C86-era indie rock, with a dash of the Cramps’ spooky-hop bop courtesy of McGrady’s locomotive drumming.
Which makes Water feel like a different kind of record: It’s at once a mature and grounded look at adult relationships, and a raucous celebration of friendship, and a cracked piece of purely musical bliss. It’s a clear-eyed look at the wild nature of everyday life that’s been spun up in sugary sweet melodies and scratched-crystal sounds.
(Photo Credit: Alexa Viscius)
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Dehd

Your favorite musicians, filmmakers, and other creative minds one-on-one. No moderator, no script, no typical questions. The Talkhouse Podcast offers unique insights into creative work from all genres and generations. <a href="https://pod.link/Talkhouse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Subscribe now</a>, and explore more illuminating shows on the <a href="https://talkhouse.com/category/podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Talkhouse Podcast Network.</a>

Talkhouse Podcast

Tegan and Sara Talk with Dehd on the Talkhouse Podcast

Film

We’re Taking the Day Off To Vote: Here’s Why Voting Is Important, In the Words of Talkhouse Contributors

John Colpitts, aka Kid Millions is a drummer, composer, drum teacher and writer based in Queens, NY. He is best known for his work in the experimental rock band Oneida and his percussion group Man Forever. His latest album with Oneida, <a href="https://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com/products/expensive-air" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Expensive Air</a>, is out now on Joyful Noise.

John Colpitts

How Do You Cultivate Productivity and Creativity?

Talkhouse Weekend Playlist: An Introduction to ’70s Jazz-Funk from Surprise Chef

Raye Zaragoza is a New York City-born, Los Angeles-based folk singer-songwriter. Woman in Color, her sophomore album, is out now on Rebel River Records, her own independent label. The album delivers powerful missives about embracing one’s own identity and discovering the power behind it, all across brisk, emotive, compelling folk melodies. Once deemed “one of the most politically relevant artists in her genre” by Paste Magazine, Zaragoza now offers an intimate exploration of coming into her own, in a country where for many, simply existing is political.
For Woman In Color, Zaragoza enlisted Grammy-nominated producer Tucker Martine (Neko Case, My Morning Jacket, First Aid Kit, The Decemberists, Modest Mouse, Sufjan Stevens). In just 10, 10-hour days in Portland, the pair stretched Raye’s prolific songwriting into life-size experiences, adding lush layers of instrumentation with notable guest players including Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), Laura Veirs, Dylan Day (Jenny Lewis), Andrew Borger (Norah Jones), and Kyleen King (Brandi Carlile).
(Photo Credit: Cultivate Consulting)

Raye Zaragoza

Raye Zaragoza and Lizzie No Talk the Difference Between Tokenization and Inclusion

William Tyler is a composer and guitarist based in Los Angeles-via-Nashville. His new album <a href="http://smarturl.it/goeswest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Goes West</a> was released by Merge in January 2019, and features contributions from Meg Duffy, Brad Cook, and Bill Frisell, among others. 
(Photo Credit: Chantal Anderson)

William Tyler

The New Necessary

Reggie Watts is an internationally renowned vocalist/beatboxer/musician/ 
comedian/improviser. A wildly popular live performer, Reggie will headline New York’s Town Hall on June 18.  He returns as one-man bandleader/musical cohort on season 3 of IFC&#8217;s Comedy Bang! Bang! premiering May 8, and his popular Reggie Makes Music series has paired him with Aziz Ansari, Andy Samberg and Elizabeth Banks for impromptu music videos. Reggie is a founder of JASH.com  with Michael Cera, Sarah Silverman and Tim &amp; Eric. Many of his videos have gone viral.

Reggie Watts

Podcast

Reggie Watts Talks with Chino Moreno (Deftones) on the Talkhouse Podcast

Jason Gudasz is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has received positive reviews from Vulture and been featured on Amazon Prime. He has worked in features and TV for some time. His short film PLACE was an official selection for the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and was included in IndieWire’s “10 Must-See Short Films in Park City.” He lives in Echo Park, Los Angeles with no pets and a healthy relationship with anxiety. 
Durham, North Carolina-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist <a href="https://gml.space/v3.2/lt/0ec14835161e11eb8b23a77d0f48fcc3/am9zaEB0aGV0YWxraG91c2UuY29tfHxodHRwczovL3d3dy5za3lsYXJndWRhc3ouY29tLw">Skylar Gudasz</a>&#8216;s 2020 album, Cinema, was released to rave acclaim in Pitchfork, MOJO, NPR&#8217;s All Songs Considered, Billboard, and Uncut. Gudasz has shared stages with the likes of Ray Davies, Cat Power and Sharon Van Etten as part of the Big Star’s Third tribute concerts, opened for Television &amp; toured from the US with Teenage Fanclub to Europe with the Mountain Goats, and appeared as a background vocalist on albums by Superchunk &amp; Hiss Golden Messenger, making her TV debut with the latter on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Jason and Skylar Gudasz

Get Spooked with Skylar and Jason Gudasz

Nick Pagan is a &#8220;New Wop&#8221; artist from LA. His debut EP MAN (or, Microdose) is out November 20, 2020.