Since kicking off his career in 2009, multiplatinum pop singer and songwriter Mike Posner quietly became one of the world’s most inescapable and recognizable voices. In 2016, his second full-length album, At Night, Alone, included “I Took A Pill In Ibiza”—which amassed over 1 billion worldwide streams, held #1 on Top 40 for two weeks straight, and made history as “one of Spotify’s Top 10 Most Streamed Songs of All Time.” Last week, he released a book of poetry titled “Teardrops and Balloons.”
Taraka Larson was born on the birthday of Ludwig Van Beethoven in Houston, Texas, homeland of DJ Screw. She is one half of Prince Rama and founder of NASA (Now Age of Spiritual Aesthetics), touring and exhibiting her art internationally alongside her sister and other half of Prince Rama, Nimai Larson. She currently lives in Brooklyn.
Mike Posner is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter whose megahit “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” has been streamed more than a billion times; last week, he released a book of poetry titled Teardrops and Balloons. Taraka Larson fronts the beloved psych-pop group Prince Rama, and is a pop music theorist who has lectured on the subject at New York University and Melbourne College in Australia. We thought it would make for a great conversation to pair this pop scholar with one of pop’s biggest current writers. And it was! In a talk that was part theory discussion, part psychoanalysis, the two discuss where truth is to be found in the inherent artifice of art, the temptation to glorify one’s suffering in one’s work, how you know when you’ve created good art (and when you haven’t), Prince Rama appearing in James Franco’s new Lifetime film, and much more. Check it out. Subscribe now on iTunes or Stitcher to stay in the loop on future Talkhouse Podcasts.
— Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Music Podcast host and producer
Today’s episode was recorded and mixed by Mark Yoshizumi.
