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Talkhouse

Jolie Holland is a bandleader and multi-instrumentalist who lives out of suitcases. She writes non-fiction and music, and she makes a very mean heart tartare. Her band is based out of New York City. You can follow her on <a href="http://twitter.com/JolieHolland" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jolieholland" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, and her website is <a href="http://www.joliehollandmusic.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.

Jolie Holland

Music

How Do You Know You’ve Been Slimed?

You Tell Me is the project of Peter Brewis and Sarah Hayes. As one half of Field Music, Brewis has been honing the craft of pop songwriting for almost fifteen years, whilst Hayes has been exploring contemporary folk in her solo work, and the world of indie-pop via her band Admiral Fallow. Their debut self-titled album, the last to be recorded at the old Field Music recording HQ, was released in January 2019 on Memphis Industries.
(Photo Credit: Matt Jacob)

You Tell Me

“Get Confident, Stupid!”: In Conversation with You Tell Me

With a career that encompasses five Grammys, numerous chart successes and personal and professional accolades, as well as collaborations with some of the world’s most prominent artists, Michael McDonald remains an enduring force in popular music. Hailing from St. Louis, McDonald arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, honing his talents as a studio musician before becoming an integral part of Steely Dan. In the mid-’70s McDonald was invited to join the Doobie Brothers as the band redefined their sound with McDonald serving as singer, keyboardist and songwriter on such Top 40 singles as “Takin’ It To The Streets,” “It Keeps You Runnin’,” “Minute By Minute” and “What A Fool Believes.”
Throughout the ’80s and ’90s McDonald’s solo career took off with a string of hits including “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near),” “Sweet Freedom,” “On My Own” (with Patti LaBelle) and the Grammy-winning James Ingram duet “Yah Mo B There,” plus he co-wrote the Van Halen hit “I’ll Wait.” McDonald has performed with a who’s-who of critically acclaimed artists across a number of genres, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Vince Gill, and Grizzly Bear.
(Photo Credit: Timothy White)

Michael McDonald

Michael McDonald is Ready to Dismantle America’s Authoritarian Regime

Singer/Songwriter Mark Kozelek has released albums as Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon, and under his own name, as well as collaborations with Justin Broadrick (Godflesh) and drummer Jim White (Dirty Three). His latest, I Also Want To Die In New Orleans comes out digitally March 1 and on CD April 12 on Caldo Verde Records.

Mark Kozelek

Mark Kozelek and Director Josh Boone Discuss the New Sun Kil Moon Album

Izzy True (they/them pronouns) is a musician and artist living in Chicago, IL.
(Photo Credit: Andi Carbaugh)

Izzy True

SXSW Season Can Be a Weird and Sad Time

Years before he hit the road as one half of the Americana duo HONEYHONEY, Ben Jaffe 
kickstarted his career as a solo artist. He was a young Massachusetts native living in Los 
Angeles, rolling his sharp songwriting, multi-instrumental chops and vocals into songs that were 
honest and experimental. A decade later, Jaffe returns to that career with Oh, Wild Ocean of 
Love, his first full-length release as a solo artist.
Jaffe continues to broaden his career beyond the confines of the recording studio 
and the stage. He composed, recorded, and produced the lm score for Joy Joy Nails, a short 
film that screened at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, building on a resume in TV and Film that 
includes work on the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants and various other shows and films.

Benjamin Jaffe

A Tale of Two Ben Jaffes

It was one of the music industry’s stranger stories: a young girl who’d grown up in a household where music was banned, her burgeoning interest confined to stolen moments at the practice room piano and a single dance music CD stashed in her desk at school. Phildel Ng lived for the bulk of her childhood under the rule of an abusive, strict Islamist stepfather, from whom she only escaped in a separation that lost her the rest of her family too. From the experience came her 2013 album, The Disappearance Of The Girl, a dark and breathtakingly intimate suite of songs exploring the gothic fantasies that sustained her through an unhappy time. Though written in a vacuum, Phildel’s intense piano and electronica music quickly spread to millions, sound-tracking ads for Apple, Expedia and Marks &amp; Spencer; she was an inspiration to Mariah Huehner, author of True Blood, and her songs featured in the live shows of fashion designer Henrietta Ludgate.
At the time of her debut, Phildel was trying to bring the man who had abused her to justice: she took her story to the police, but there was no prosecution — her mother and sister closed ranks, and though the case remains open, there wasn’t enough evidence to make an arrest. She had to make the devastating decision to cut herself off from her family entirely. Wave Your Flags is the story of that fracture and the self-repair that followed – a strong, sparse album of powerful songs re-enacting cycles of loss and renewal. The fairy tales are over. In a post-#Metoo era, Wave Your Flags is a work about the importance of speaking up and finding your way in the world &#8211; regardless of whether or not you are believed.
Phildel now lives in Brighton with her partner and identical twin boys.

Phildel

Phildel on Recovering from Trauma Through Her Art

Musical maverick Mark de Clive-Lowe seems an impossibility at first sight — juggling piano, synths, live sampling and beat making all on-the-fly, brought to life with a casual ease that’s mind-boggling. The Japanese-New Zealander was raised primarily in New Zealand where he learned piano from a young age developing an avid passion for jazz through his father’s record collection. In high school, he fell in love with Native Tongues hip hop and early UK jungle — laying the foundation for what was to come next
During his hugely formative decade at the epicenter of London’s underground music scene, MdCL helped evolve broken beat alongside some of the UK’s most forward-thinking trailblazers, establishing himself as a new voice in progressive electronic music. Since 2008, MdCL has called Los Angeles, California home where his acclaimed club night CHURCH has taken his signature sound of technology and beat-infused jazz mash-up from coast to coast and around the globe.
He has performed with Harvey Mason, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Dwight Trible and Jean Grae; remixed Shirley Horn, Hiatus Kaiyote, Mantombi Matotiyana and Jerry Goldsmith; and recorded as producer and collaborator with artists all over the planet. Having contributed to over 300 releases, to call MdCL prolific is something of an understatement.

Mark de Clive-Lowe

Mark de Clive-Lowe Talks Digging Into His Biracial Identity and His New Album Heritage

Kiri Oliver is a writer and musician from Brooklyn, NY. She wears bright colors and sings about her feelings in the folk-pop-punk band Early Riser. She was a music booker for The Chris Gethard Show from its public access days through its run on truTV. Follow her on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/kirioliver" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://twitter.com/kirioliver">here</a>.

Kiri Oliver

How Songwriting Saved Kiri Oliver from the Curse of Perfectionism

Murray A. Lightburn, the longtime frontman of Montreal’s acclaimed The Dears, returns with his deeply personal new solo album, Once Upon A Time In Montreal, available digitally, along with a vinyl edition available online and in stores via Dangerbird Records.

Murray A. Lightburn

Murray A. Lightburn’s Guide to Songwriting

Shamir is Shamir and remains Shamir through and through, no matter what the universe puts him through. You may know the singularly named artist (think—Madonna or Cher) from his 2015 debut hit record Rachet, beloved by NPR listeners and club kids alike. After quickly rising to underground fame with his Northtown EP in 2014, the DIY pop star made a sonic splash with Rachet’s lead single “On The Regular,” a poppy banger that had extensive commercial usage. But how to follow all that up? Shamir, who came from the dusty dunes of Las Vegas, to Brooklyn’s Silent Barn, to the Philly indie scene (and all over the world in between), wanted to go back to what had inspired him from the beginning. Outsider music, country &amp; punk. Raw and vulnerable tunes, stripped down to their emotional core. 2017’s Revelations explored a new avenue of guitar driven hooky indie rock and was widely critically praised in the US and overseas.
Shamir’s most recent releases, the brilliant Room 7” on Father/Daughter, and his self-released limited edition album, Resolution, are pinnacles in the catalog of the increasingly fascinating artist’s career. Room and its b-side Caballero celebrate Shamir’s love of country music, while Resolution is a deeply introspective look into the fabric of society and the artists’ own mind.  With these two releases he has refined his craft exponentially and done so in less than six months from the release of Revelations.

Shamir Bailey

Ratchet TV: Abducted in Plain Sight

Laura Stevenson is a songwriter living in New York. Her newest album, Late Great, is out now on Really Records.
(Photo Credit: Rachel Brennecke)

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