About this episode

Johanna Samuels and Madison Cunningham discuss their music, collaborations, and influences in this episode of the Talkhouse Podcast.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of fantastic music makers who also happen to be… women in music. That’s their joke, not mine—you’ll hear. It’s Johanna Samuels and Madison Cunningham. Though she’s from New York, Johanna Samuels’ music has always had West Coast vibes—it makes perfect sense that she now calls Los Angeles home. Her latest album, Sorry, Kid, just came out, and it’s got an interesting backstory: The songs were written years ago but never finished, and there were false starts making them work this time around. But she found a great collaborator in Jonathan Rado—you’ll hear her refer to “Rado” a bunch in this chat—and finally broke through to a stunning set of mellow, downcast songs. You’ll hear the influence of Aimee Mann, Tom Petty, Elliott Smith—if those are your thing, give it a close listen.  The other half of today’s conversation, Madison Cunningham, plays a little bit on Samuels’ record. The two are old friends, and you may have heard Cunningham in a variety of disparate places over the years: She played with Andrew Bird, and the two covered the lone Buckingham-Nicks album together. She’s toured with big names, including Harry Styles. Her…

People in this episode

Host: Talkhouse

Guests: Johanna Samuels, Madison Cunningham

Topics covered

• women in music
• music collaboration
• album release
• songwriting process
• music influences

Keywords

• Johanna Samuels
• Madison Cunningham
• music
• album
• collaboration
• songwriting
• Grammy

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Sorry, Kid, Revealer, Ace, Rare

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