Talkhouse Podcast

Hey Talkhouse listeners, it's Josh Modell. Instead of a new episode this week, we're resurfacing a great one from a few years back between Blondshell and Maya Hawke. Blondshell, aka Sabrina Teitelbaum, released a new song recently and she's about to hit the road for a big tour. Maya Hawke is an actor who just signed on to star in the upcoming Netflix show The God of the Woods and she makes great records as well. Check it out! —Josh Modell, Host of the Talkhouse Podcast On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got two performers who’ve got friends in common, and became fast friends themselves while recording this chat: Maya Hawke and Sabrina Teitelbaum. Maya Hawke is best known for her day job as an actor, most visibly in a little show called Stranger Things, and she was also in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the new Wes Anderson movie, Asteroid City. But as you’ll hear in this chat, she might be most excited by a side path as a singer and songwriter. Hawke has released two understated but fantastic albums so far, and she’s basically finished another. The vibe is sort of indie-folk, sort of floating and ambient but lyrically really engaging. She’s worked with some cool folks to realize her musical vision, including Christian Lee Hutson, who’s the “Christian” referenced in this conversation, just so you know. ⁠Check out⁠ a “Sweet Tooth” from Hawke’s 2022 album Moss right here. Sabrina Teitelbaum just released her debut album under the name Blondshell, and it’s one of the best of 2023 so far. She describes it in this conversation as an emergency album—meaning a bunch of songs that she felt almost desperate to write, record, and unleash on the world. It’s direct and angry in spots, but also darkly funny and completely unafraid. She’s toured with the likes of Horsegirl and Porridge Radio, which might give some indication of what you’re in for. Or I could just play you Blondshell’s opus, “Salad,” right here. ⁠Check it out⁠. These two have a fantastic conversation, and just in case it’s not clear from the context, they’re both good friends with the singer Samia, and each has contributed to a Samia covers series called Honey Reimagained. Blondshell did a song called “Charm You,” which is available now. Elsewhere in this chat, they talk about Hawke’s playing “body air guitar,” the weird emotional hit you get when a tour is finished, and the difficulties of stage banter. Enjoy. 0:00 Intro 3:20: Start of Conversation 3:21: On mutual friends and covering songs 4:58: On “perceived vulnerability” and perspectives in their songwriting 9:08: On sad songs, music you can play for friends, and “Olympus” 10:57: On the writing and jazz experiences that inspired Maya’s music 12:48: On the physicality of performing, feeling the music, and performance art 14:41: On playing live, post-tour loneliness, and active vs. passive time 20:06: On maintaining friendships 21:17: On Maya’s latest record 22:54: On onstage banter, scripting shows, and keeping shows fresh 25:53: On finishing a record and learning from the experience 27:43: On music serving as a snapshot of an artists’ life 28:26: On promoting music creatively and authentically, and social media 33:19: On the songwriting process, and tv show narratives’ influences on our experiences 38:40: On being inspired by friendships 42:13: On Maya titling her album “Moss” 43:40: On writing about past pain, and trying to balance it with joy Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Sabrina Teiltelbaum and Maya Hawke for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at ⁠Talkhouse.com⁠. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! Find more illuminating podcasts on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠⁠. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ to read essays, reviews, and more. Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠.

For this week's episode, we're going to skip the typical Talkhouse format and give you something that I think you're going to love just as much, about a band called The Fiery Furnaces. I bet a lot of you remember, but if you don't, The Fiery Furnaces are siblings, Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger from Oak Park, Illinois, not far from Chicago. Together they put out seven of the scrambliest, catchiest rock albums of the 2000s, and then they kind of disappeared. We got contacted by a longtime radio journalist and producer of the show Snap Judgment, John Fecile, who wanted to talk to Matt and Eleanor. It turns out he had spoken to them over a decade ago, and as he'll explain, there was a very specific reason he wanted to talk to them again. Upcoming live shows for The Fiery Furnaces Find more illuminating podcasts on the ⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠. Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ to read essays, reviews, and more. Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve paired up two songwriters who love to wander musically but whose recordings are tough to mistake for anyone else’s. It’s Luke Temple and Will Westerman. Temple has been making incredible records at a pretty solid clip since around 2005, first making a real splash as part of a trio called Here We Go Magic, whose four-album catalog is legendary in certain circles. But Temple has also recorded fantastic records under his own name, under the alias Art Feynman, and, more recently, with Luke Temple and the Cascading Moms. That name is a little funny, kind of like his music—there’s humor but also a little bit of menace hiding underneath sounds that sometimes flirt with ‘70s soft-rock in the best ways. Check out “Echo Park Donut,” which is out this month on the new Cascading Moms record, Hungry Animal. The other half of today’s chat, Will Westerman, invited Temple to play on his 2023 album An Inbuilt Fault, and as you’ll hear they sound eager to meet and perhaps work together again. Westerman has been releasing music under his last name since 2020, crafting subtly mellow records that reveal something more intense when you listen to his lyrics. The third and latest Westerman album, A Jackal’s Wedding, came out last fall, and it’s another evolution in his sound—it’s been compared to mellow greats like Talk Talk, Tindersticks, and Nick Drake, so if those names mean anything to you—and they should—give it a shot. Check out “Mosquito” from A Jackal’s Wedding right here. This conversation between Temple and Westerman may have been the furthest geographically we’ve ever recorded: Temple was at home in Los Angeles and Westerman at home in Milan, where he recently moved after spending several years in Greece. These two talk about being recently married, about growing as artists and perhaps tricking yourself in the process, and about the very different places they now live. Enjoy. 0:00 – Intro 2:35 – Start of the chat 4:35 – On Los Angeles and gentrification in Echo Park 9:39 – Westerman on Milan, Greece, and learning new languages 13:20 – On Luke Temple's new album, Hungry Animal 19:50 – On tricking yourself to keep the creative process fresh 20:57 – On art and "the capitalist need to innovate" 24:50 – Comparing the musical heritage between the US and UK 28:25 – On the spirit of Jazz and Hip-Hop 30:38 – How technology caused the death of regionalism Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Will Westerman and Luke Temple for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please check out both of their great new records, and please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by The Range. See you next time! Find more illuminating podcasts on the ⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠. Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ to read essays, reviews, and more. Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠.