NOTHING LASTS FORVER EVEN COLD NOVEMBER RAIN! Part two of our episode with Philly’s finest purveyors of rock’n roll, Mo Lawda & The Humble, is here! In this interview, we split the atom, make a quiche, and get real about healthy work habits for independent musicians.
Walker Lukens
Bonus: Embodied — Making Music From Family Secrets
WAIT, WHAT! WHY? WHO?!
Thats right. Song Confessional was part of a live event with WUNC’s Embodied podcast. This episode features an interview with co-host Walker Lukens, a juicy confession from last years SX Sydney festival, and a song by Blue Cactus.
Confession & Song: Golden Dawn Arkestra — “Orgy”
GOODNESS GRACIOUS GREAT BALLS of FIRE! An episode featuring disco jazz savants, Golden Dawn Arkestra, and their new bop, “Orgy” is here. Inspired by a couples (ahem) *atypical* meet cute, the orgins of “Orgy” will have you giggling and gabbing with friends and enemies alike.
This confession was taken at our permanent booth at The Long Center in Austin, Texas.
Got a story you want to confess and maybe have it turned into a song? Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
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Artist Interview: Babe Club – “WiFi Boyfriend”
TUTTI FRUTTI! BIG BOOTY! Part two of our episode featuring Babeclub and their tender loving thot bop “WiFi Boyfriend” is upon us. In this interview, you’ll learn why & how Corey & Jenna started traveling the country playing pachinko, what the sound of one hand clapping is, & how to get the groove back in your heart.
We highly recommend listening to part one before diving into this interview.
Big thanks to Artsplosure for having us out last fall and allowing us to gather this fantabulous confession.
Got a story you want to confess and maybe have it turned into a song? Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
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Confession & Song: Babe Club – “WiFi Boyfriend”
WOP BOP A LOO BOP A LOP BOM BOM! We have a new song “WiFi Boyfriend” courtesy of Charleston, South Carolina’s finest purveyors of indie pop, Babe Club. “WiFi Boyfriend” hits as sweetly as the confession that inspired it — a teenager just about to meet their internet boyfriend for the first IRL. Get yr ovaltine. Get yr slippers. Get right with God. This episode will have you deep in your teenage feels.
This confession was taken at the Artsplosure Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Got a story you want to confess and maybe have it turned into a song? Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
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Artist Interview: Judy Blank and Dylan Earl – “Mee-Maw”
HEAR YE HEAR YE part two of our episode featuring Judy Blank, Dylan Earl, and their bayou bop “Mee-Maw” is out now!! In this interview, you’ll learn how they discovered electricity, took the Creedence Clearwater Revival song “Born on the Bayou” too seriously, and wrote “Mee-Maw.”
We highly recommend listening to part one first before diving into this.
Big thanks to Red River Revel for having us out last fall and allowing us to gather this fantabulous confession.
Got a story you want to confess and maybe have it turned into a song? Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
Help us out! Rate the show and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.
Confession & Song: Judy Blank and Dylan Earl – “MeeMaw”
HOLY TOLEDO a NeW sOnG and confession! CLAP HANDS! Judy Blank & Dylan Earl turn someone’s Cajun grandma’s life into a new zydeco-tinged bop called “MeeMaw.” It features fiddle and squeeze from Grammy winners Lost Bayou Ramblers. Big thanks to Red River Revel for having us out last year, where we collected this confession.
Got a story you want to confess and maybe have it turned into a song? Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
Help us out! Rate the show and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.
Confession Response #3
GOOD GOLLY! we asked and we received TWENTY FIVE SONG SUBMISSIONS!! In this episode, you’ll hear new songs by Chris Robeson, Con Davison, We Sell Shirts, Brittany Banowsky, and Bu Gee, as well as clips from several more. You can hear all 25 songs on a playlist we made for you to listen to all in one spot.
Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
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Confession Call #3
Do you write songs? If you do, we want you to write a song based on the confession in this episode!! If we love it, it may become the KUTX Song of the Day.
Here’s how it works:
- Listen to the latest episode of the Song Confessional podcast. You’ll hear an anonymous confession that we collected back in March at the KUTX Live at Scholz Garten series.
- Write a song inspired by that confession and record it. Anything from an iPhone memo to a full-on bedroom production, whatever puts you in the zone.
- Submit it to kutx.org/confession by Sunday, May 12th
- Some of the songs will be featured on the May 15th episode of the Song Confessional podcast
Plus the Song Confessional Team will choose their favorite song and give the winner a day in the studio with Walker Lukens to professionally record your song! That song will be featured on the KUTX Song of the Day.
Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
Help us out! Rate the show and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.
Artist Interview: Pigeon John – “Time to Move Out”
HOLY MOLY! WE’RE RE-AIRING OUR INTERVIEW WITH PiGeOn JoHn from last year. We highly recommend checking out our previous episode featuring PJ’s song “Time To Move Out” as well as last year’s episode about “Dibs On Trevor” before diving into this interview.
Got a story you want to confess and maybe have it turned into a song? Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
Help us out! Rate the show and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.
Confession & Song: Pigeon John – “Time to Move Out”
GREAT SCOTT! Pigeon John hath blessed part one of our 3RD EPISODE with a nouveau song called “it’s time to move out”! inspired by one woman’s desire to kick her grown son out of her house, Pigeon John uses ragtime piano, dreamy strings, and percussion loops to turn mama’s infaticidal (ok maybe that’s a stretch) desire into pure pop delight! This confession was taken at the Artsplosure Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Got a story you want to confess and maybe have it turned into a song? Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
Help us out! Rate the show and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.
Artist Interview: Buffalo Hunt – “Anonymous Pleasure”
FEAST YOUR EYE EARS ON PART TWO of our episode featuring Texan songbird actor director person, Buffalo Hunt. We highly recommend listening to the confession and song in PART ONE before Stephanie Hunts recounts how she transformed this raunchy boomer memory into such a sultry modern bop in our interview.
Big thanks to Visit Austin and Brand USA for sending us down to the festival.
Got a story you want to confess and maybe have it turned into a song? Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
Help us out! Rate the show and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.
Confession & Song: Buffalo Hunt – “Anonymous Pleasure”
GOODNESS GRACIOUS THE SECOND SONG OF OUR 3rd PODCAST SZN IS HERE!! “Anonymous Pleasure” was written by Texan songstress, actress, person, and place, Buffalo Hunt AKA Stephanie Hunt, and inspired by the true real life confession of an older Australian woman. Get your bath salts & licorice sticks warmed for this one, y’all. It’s steamy. THIS IS PART ONE OF A TWO PART EPISODE. Clap HANDS!!
Big thanks to Visit Austin and Brand USA for sending us down to the festival.
Got a story you want to confess and maybe have it turned into a song? Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
Help us out! Rate the show and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.
Artist Interview: Wood Belly – “Late Bloomer”
BEHOLD PART TWO of our episode featuring Colorado “new grass” experts, Wood Belly!! We highly recommend listening to the confession and song in PART ONE before Wood Belly singer Brennan Mackey tells us all about his life got flipped, turned upside down and, if you’d like to take a minute to just sit right there, tell you how he became the prince of a band called Wood Belly.
Check out more Wood Belly here: https://www.woodbellymusic.com/
Got a story you want to confess and maybe have it turned into a song? Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
Help us out! Rate the show and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.
Confession & Song: Wood Belly – “Late Bloomer”
Colorado “new grass” aficionados, Wood Belly, turn our confessor’s low key embarrassing first romantic encounter into high key folk pop delight in OUR FIRST EPISODE OF OUR THIRD FULL SEASON. HuZzAH!!! In this here part 1, you’ll hear the song and confession, and Zac talk about meeting his wife. In part 2, you’ll hear Wood Belly member Brennan tell you about the band’s history and what exactly it sounds like when doves cry.
Check out more Wood Belly here: https://www.woodbellymusic.com/
Got a story you want to confess and maybe have it turned into a song? Join the Song Confessional mailing list to stay up to date on all of our latest episode, news, and the whereabouts of our confessional booth: https://songconfessional.com/connect.
Help us out! Rate the show and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.
Caelin: “Will I Ever Love Again”
Love at first sight has ignited countless fairy tales, both modern and classic. But as common as those instantaneous head-over-heels plunges are in day-to-day life, statistically speaking, “happy endings” are a lot less likely. And breakups sure do suck…but that’s why breakup songs go so hard, regardless of your relationship status.
This is where we call in Caelin, an Austin singer-songwriter who categorizes their sound as “dreamy emo country”, which, while accurate, excludes the elements of folk, R&B, indie Americana, and pop we heard on her debut record save me from me that dropped last May. This year, Caelin’s coming hot off some caught feelings…well…more like getting over an intense infatuation. And she’s set to expand on that timeless “loved and lost” outlook over the course of her sophomore EP Strangers In Love, out sometime around late Spring or early Summer.
For Strangers In Love, Caelin enlisted the production talent of KUTX favorite Walker Lukens as well as the Big Apple’s Ben Coleman to help this poignant post-mortem panoply of past memories and soul searching really pop. This morning Caelin released Strangers In Love‘s introduction, “Will I Ever Love Again”, ahead of a show 9PM tonight at Mohawk alongside Madison Baker, Barb, and a DJ set from Vonne. Just in time for the flurry of Valentine’s Day drivel that always floods the first half of February, this Lukens-produced lead single captures the enduring, existential pain of occupied thoughts over the one who got away for a wholly pensive effect…all without sounding pouty or puerile. Between an ethereal arrangement, lyrics that scour emotional scars, and one hell of a vocal performance, “Will I Ever Love Again” might bury you alive in heartbreak. So remember. The magic may be momentary. But the music and its empathic abilities last forever.
The new season of Song Confessional starts Feb 7th!
The new season of the Song Confessional podcast arrives on Feb 7th! Walker Lukens and Zac Catanzaro travel around the world collecting anonymous confessions from everyday people and then give them to songwriters and bands who turn them into new original songs. This season features new songs from artists like Golden Dawn Arkestra, Woodbelly, Buffalo Hunt, Pigeon John, and more !
Kam Franklin: “Byrd And Shepard”
Admirers of modern Texas soul-funk-R&B ought to already be well acquainted with Houston outfit The Suffers. And if you’re hip to that group, you’re also aware that part of what makes them so special is frontwoman Kam Franklin.
This powerhouse can make just about any subject matter sound groovy as hell, so as a performance artist, orator, and activist, it’s no surprise that Kam’s comfortable broaching some tough topics as well. Within her solo saga that really started picking up steam at the turn of the 2020s, Franklin’s recently tackled two notorious United States hate crimes, that of James Byrd, Jr. and Matthew Shepard on her aptly titled latest single “Byrd And Shepard”.
The weight and pain of all-too-real bigotry history doesn’t stop Franklin from soaring on “Byrd And Shepard”, in which a simple percussive pulse and tortured key-and-six-string pairings support Kam’s championing of checking facts and protecting poignant books that policymakers want to ban. Behold Kam Franklin as she joins the star-studded lineup that wraps up KUTX’s 10th Birthday Concert Series with Walker Lukens’ The Last Walt tomorrow night at The Paramount, and give “Byrd And Shepard” a few extra spins not only in the name of preserving our painful-yet-important past, but also because it’s a powerful ballad that could’ve been a Whitney Houston/Tina Turner-Highwaymen collaboration.
Stella and the Very Messed: “Merchandiser”
Lots of longtime local concertgoers are likely to remember Cruiserweight. Now Cruiserweight has shared new music as recently as 2021, but not long before that, a couple of its crew members split off and started something a bit more…messy. We’re talking about Dave Hawkins and Stella Maxwell, co-founders of Austin quintet Stella and the Very Messed.
After testing out a couple of stripped-down demos at the turn of the decade, Stella and the Very Messed got a jump on the impending pandemic in early 2020 with their debut nine-track as a five-piece On Fences. Sure, S.a.t.V.M. retain a lot of the straightforward pop-rock formulas, hook-ready melodies and all, of their predecessor, but Stella et. al are admittedly more risky when it comes to playing around with arrangements and placement of instruments. Even though they kept listeners engaged with a triplet of new tunes in mid-2021 (Marigold), Stella and the Very Messed reckoned with the all-too-real creative obstacle of parenthood last year and ultimately decided to tap the brakes.
Well Stella and the Very Messed are finally back, and apparently pretty keen on making the most of their latest batch. They joined forces with Test Tube Audio producer Kevin Butler as well as Paradise Lunch co-producers Adam Mason and Walker Lukens to elevate a pair of pop originals into the pantheon of 2023 Austin-originating stunners. Catch the full band next Saturday at Sunny’s Backyard for an Oktoberfest release show, get a glimpse into “Crystal Ball” when you can, and make some space in your wardrobe for a T-shirt or two as you cash in with “Merchandiser”. It’s got a deceptively gentle introduction, because once “Merchandiser” hits the 40-second mark, the five-piece fires on all cylinders with ’80s-style synth arpeggios and MIDI percussion, moody electric guitar chords, a serious strut of a bass groove, and, almost goes without saying, the frontwoman’s fierce, refreshingly human vocals.
Katherion: “Roses and Daisies”
Song of the Day is finally back from a much-needed break! And as a token of appreciation for everyone’s patience in the interim, we’ve got some great new picks to catch y’all up on, one of which made an inaugural streaming appearance just last weekend.
We’re talking about Katherine Yuna, also known as Rion Reed, but best recognized by their stage name amalgamation Katherion. This Houston native with growing Austin exposure has been singing their whole life and penning tunes for the past decade, but didn’t unlock and realize their true form as Katherion until a semi-recent, life-changing experience in guided psychoactive therapy.
True to their handle (pronounced “Kath-e-Ryan”), this project provides a healthy balance of masculine and feminine, spiritual and emotional, and sonically speaking…indie and alt-rock. In fact, ahead of their upcoming debut album 33, Katherion teamed up with indie-alt-rock innovator and Song of the Day favorite Walker Lukens to co-produce the record’s lead single, “Roses and Daisies”. So before we’re blessed with the full bouquet of unbridled acceptance on 33 later this Fall, which’ll also include the sophomore single “Thank You” in about a month’s time, bask in the refreshing fragrance of “Roses and Daisies”, whose authentic aromas alternate between vulnerable solo verses and defiant double-tracked choruses. By the time you get across the bridge and into the final hook, you’ll better understand Katherion’s admirable mission of empathy, uplift, and humanity’s mutual bonds, no matter how you identify.