Treefort Series: Jo Passed, Dan English, VERTTIGO

About this episode

The episode features interviews with Dan English, Jo Passed, and VERTTIGO discussing the challenges of making music during political turmoil.

There is a banner plane making loops over downtown Boise, as we showed up to record this episode. It says USA LOVES TRUMP. Below it, Treefort music festival is happening. This is the first of four episodes Absent Sounds made at the fest in March 2026 — a docuseries built from ten artist interviews done over five days in Idaho. Each episode weaves between voices, asking some version of the same question: what is your music trying to answer right now? Episode one: we're sitting with Dan English, Jo Passed, and VERTTIGO. Together we move through the moral weight of crossing the border to make music during political collapse, the eight years it took Jo Passed to come back to releasing, the fifteen years it took VERTTIGO to become the band they are now, and the particular shame and relief of making something anyway. Is any of this enough? Is showing up enough? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Weajue Mombo

Guests: Dan English, Jo Passed, VERTTIGO

Topics covered

• music
• political commentary
• artist interviews
• creative process
• cultural reflection

Keywords

• Treefort music festival
• Dan English
• Jo Passed
• VERTTIGO
• music interviews
• political collapse
• creative process

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Boise

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• Tōth Interview · May 11, 2026 · 1h 18m
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