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October 17, 2019

This Song: FINNEAS

This Song

By: Elizabeth McQueen

Singer, songwriter and producer Finneas O’Connell not only writes and produces music with his sister Billie Eilish, but also makes his own music under the name FINNEAS. He just released a solo EP called Blood Harmony. Listen as he explains why he loved “Holy S**t” by Father John Misty from the moment he heard it and how the song helped understand that when it comes to songwriting, nothing has to be off the table.

“My general rule with songs — it’s the rule I follow with Billie, it’s the rule I follow with every other artist I collaborate with —  is like, write about the stuff that you’re uncomfortable writing about, write songs that you’d be scared to put out, because you wouldn’t want the person who it’s about to hear it…and then put it the f*ck out.”

📸 Michael Minasi

Check out FINNEAS’ Tour Dates

Watch “Holy Shit” performed live on KEXP

Listen to FINNEAS’ new EP “Blood Harmony”

Billie Elilish talked to NPR Music’s Stephen Thompson at ACLfest. Listen to that interview here

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song

October 10, 2019

This Song: Carrie Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney

This Song

By: Elizabeth McQueen

Sleater-Kinney’s 9th album “The Center Won’t Hold” came out in August.  The album, which was produced by St. Vincent, finds the band exploring lots of new sonic territory.  Listen as Carrie Brownstein explains how “Stay” by Rihanna inspired her to write the last track on the new record,”Broken.”  Plus, you can hear why she doesn’t think of this album as a sonic departure for the band, but instead sees it as a product of the band’s expanded musical vocabulary.

Check out Sleater-Kinney’s Tour Dates

Buy and/or Listen to “The Center Won’t Hold”

Check out St. Vincent’s This Song episode where she talks about her love of Disney music and her record Masseduction

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song

August 29, 2019

This Song: Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend

This Song

By: Elizabeth McQueen

Ezra Koenig, lead singer and songwriter for the band Vampire Weekend, explains why he recently became obsessed with  “I Don’t Think Much About Her No More” by country singer and songwriter Mickey Newbury.  He loved it so much that he even included a cover of the song as a bonus track for the Japanese release of the band’s latest record Father of the Bride.  Listen as he describes why he finds that song so compelling and explores what it was like to apply country music’s direct approach to songwriting to some of the the songs on Father of the Bride.

Listen to this episode of This Song

📸 Monika Mogi

Get your own copy of the Japanese release of Father of the Bride

Get your copy of the US release of Father of the Bride

Listen to Father of the Bride on Apple Music or  Spotify

Check out Vampire Weekend’s Tour Dates

Learn more about Mickey Newbury

Listen to more Mickey Newbury

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song

June 26, 2019

This Song: Krissy Teegerstrom on “Mojo Pin” by Jeff Buckley

This Song

By: Elizabeth McQueen

On the last episode of This Song until the fall, Krissy Teegerstrom, a self-made artist, creative consultant, podcaster, and designer at Featherweight Studio talks about how listening to “Mojo Pin” by Jeff Buckley transported her to a place beyond the real and showed her how to follow her creative intuition. Jeff Buckley’s performance style confirmed the idea of creation as a form of devotion and self-expression, something that Krissy, at first, felt like she couldn’t relate to. Inspired by her own roundabout journey to an artistic life, she started a podcast about overcoming obstacles creativity. That podcast, fittingly titled Beyond + Back, has accumulated ten episodes in its first season, talking to artists like Aimee Mann and Billy Joe Armstrong. The second season will be released on  Saturday, June 29th.

Recorded at the Tiny Texas Podcasting Festival this conversation with Krissy Teegerstrom is an inspiring look into creativity, the arbitrary obstacles we use to limit ourselves, and what opening yourself up to the unknown can do for your art.

KUTX Intern, Claire Hardwick

📸  Todd V. Wolfson

Listen to this episode of This Song

Subscribe via the Podcasts App, iTunes or Stitcher to get the new episodes of This Song delivered to you as soon as they come out.

Listen to and Subscribe to Beyond + Back

 

June 18, 2019

Black Pumas’ Eric Burton on “(Sittin’ On)The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding

This Song

By: Elizabeth McQueen

Black Pumas, the new musical project by California native Eric Burton and Grammy Award winning producer and guitarist Adrian Quesada has been taking the Austin music scene by storm- even winning Best New Austin Band and Best New Song for “Black Moon Rising” at the 2019 Austin Music Awards, all before they’ve even released their debut album.

On this episode of This Song, Eric Burton, the lead singer of Black Pumas,  talks about what he learned about honesty and connection from Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” and how he went from busking on the Santa Monica Pier to fronting a band in Austin, Texas. His generosity and gratefulness for the art he creates are palpable in this interview, which was recorded live in front of an audience of aspiring teenage podcasters at the 2019 ISAS Arts Festival.

Stream the Black Pumas debut record right now at Relix.

Black Pumas debut album comes out this Friday 6/21 on ATO Records and you can catch their release show at Antone’s the same night.

-KUTX Intern, Claire Hardwick

Listen to this episode of This Song

📸 Gabriel C. Pérez

Check out The Black Pumas’ new self titled record on iTunes

Listen to Adrian Quesada’s This Song interview

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song

 

 

June 12, 2019

This Song: Tiarra Girls on “Just a Girl” by No Doubt

This Song

By: Elizabeth McQueen

Austin based sisters Tori, Tiffany and Sofia Baltierra have been playing as the Tiarra Girls since they were in elementary and middle school. Listen as they describe how seeing the video for No Doubt’s “Just a Girl” influenced them all stylistically and helped them find their voices as young women in music. They also tell the story of the genesis of their song “Leave it to the People” and trace how that song’s release has helped them see their music as a way to empower their community and advocate for the change they want to see in the world.

Tiarra Girls will be playing Chingona Fest on June 22nd at Hops and Grains Brewing along with Tribes and Bidi Bidi Banda. Get Tickets to Chingona Fest here.

📸 Juan Figueroa for KUTX

Listen to this episode of This Song

Get more information on the Leander Arts Festival

Check out the Tiarra Girls Studio 1A Session

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song

 

 

June 5, 2019

This Song: Rhett Miller (rerun)

This Song

By: Elizabeth McQueen

Musician, writer, and frontman for Old 97’s Rhett Miller launched his own podcast “Wheel’s Off With Rhett Miller” earlier this year.  In it, he talks to artists about what it’s really like to live a creative life.

In this 2017 episode, he describes how hearing the Jewish Lesbian Folk singer Phranc perform ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” changed his life and showed him the power of musical connection.

Listen to this episode of This Song

Check out “Wheel’s Off with Rhett Miller”

Listen to John Prine describe why “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” changed his life.

 

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song

June 5, 2019

This Song: Strand of Oaks on “Lazarus” by David Bowie

This Song

By: Elizabeth McQueen

“This is the sound that quasars make when they’re being born or the resonant frequency of the big bang.”

Timothy Showalter, who leads the folk-rock band Strand of Oaks, chronicles his journey through depression on the band’s new record, Eraserland. Listen as he describes how hearing David Bowie’s “Lazarus” at the end of the recording process helped him see how powerful documenting dark times could be. Then hear how the process of making Eraserland helped bring Showalter to the other side of his own dark times. “(The record) exists in this wonderful place where it did start in a pretty dark place personally, but where it ended up turned out to be the brightest most love filled moment.”

Listen to this episode of This Song

Listen to Strand of Oaks new album Eraserland

Check out Strand of Oaks Tour Dates

Check out Strand of Oaks Studio 1A Session

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song