Music Life

Brìghde Chaimbeul, Rhodri Davies, Sam Amidon and Linda Buckley discuss the roles of tradition and place in music, and what they might think about when performing.Brìghde Chaimbeul is a Gaelic musician, composer and bagpipe player. Her music stems from traditional Gaelic material, particularly sourced from archival recordings, of songs, stories and music from the Highlands and islands of Scotland. It also explores wider musical influences, such as a variety of global piping traditions from eastern Europe, Cape Breton and Ireland. She has collaborated with artists including Ross Ainslie, Gruff Rhys, Martin Green, Carlos Nunez and Allan MacDonald. Last year she released the album Carry Them With Us in collaboration with Colin Stetson, weaving together textural drones, trance atmospheres and instrumental folk traditions.Rhodri Davies is a Welsh musician who plays harp, electric harp and live electronics, as well as building harp installations. He started playing the harp at the age of 7 and is classically trained on the orchestral pedal harp; he also plays a range of different harps, modifying their sounds with different techniques and pushing the boundaries of how the instrument can sound. He’s released seven solo albums and regularly works with groups such as Hen Ogledd, Cranc, the Sealed Knot and Common Objects. Sam Amidon is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Vermont. He plays the fiddle, guitar and banjo, and is a member of the Icelandic music collective/record label Bedroom Community. He has released a string of acclaimed albums, ranging in theme from interpretations of traditional Irish fiddle pieces to old-time melodies and tales from traditional American folk history. His collaborators include classical composer Nico Muhly, experimental composer/producer Ben Frost, composer/violinist Eyvind Kang, guitar legend Bill Frisell and veteran jazz drummer Milford Graves.Linda Buckley is an Irish composer and musician who creates electronic and acoustic music working across many disciplines, most notably film, and drone and dark ambient music. She’s worked in many collaborative contexts, including scoring films such as Nothing Compares by Kathryn Ferguson and To The Moon by Tadhg O’Sullivan. Recent collaborators include Liam Byrne and Crash Ensemble, Gudrun Gut and Andrew Zolinsky.

Caterina Barbieri, Kali Malone, Moritz Von Oswald and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe discuss the role limitations play in the creative process, and whether they can be a source for creativity, if working with limitations helps sharpen one’s aesthetics and define one’s unique artistic voice, and whether human imagination needs limits to become limitless.Caterina Barbieri is a composer and modular synth artist whose sound draws from electronic, experimental and dance music. Her work is informed by an education in classical guitar and electro-acoustic composition at the Conservatory of Bologna, as well as the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and its famed centre for sound art, Elektronmusikstudion. She has spent a decade since her debut release, Vertical, breaking the rigid structures of electronic music and exploring how sound can induce both metaphysical and psycho-physical responses. Her most recent project, Myuthafoo, further investigates her interest in time, space, memory and emotion, and the links between them.Kali Malone is a composer and organist based in Stockholm. Her compositions are rich with harmonic texture through synthetic and acoustic instrumentation. In 2016 she co-founded the record label and concert series XKatedral, together with Maria W Horn, in Stockholm. Over the last few years she has released the critically acclaimed albums The Sacrificial Code, Living Torch, and Does Spring Hide Its Joy featuring Stephen O’Malley & Lucy Railton.Moritz Von Oswald is a dub techno pioneer producer and percussionist hailing from Berlin. He is the co-founder of production duo and record label Basic Channel. Prior to becoming one of the leading figures in electronic music in the 1990s, he played in one of the last incarnations of Palais Schaumburg. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has worked with many legendary artists including Juan Atkins, Thomas Fehlmann, Carl Craig and Tony Allen. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe is a Brooklyn-based artist, curator, composer and multi-instrumentalist. In 1997, he joined the band 90 Day Men before releasing solo projects under the moniker Lichens from 2004. He has collaborated on projects or provided sound in a featured artist capacity for such films as End of Summer, Sicario, Arrival, Last and First Men with Johann Johannsson and It Comes at Night with Brian McOmber. More recently, Robert has scored Il colpo del cane for Fulvio Risuleo, Candyman for Nia DaCosta, The Color of Care for Yance Ford and Master for Mariama Diallo.

Ane Brun, Linden Jay and Sylvan Esso's Amelia Meath discuss collaboration, navigating between genres and lyrical inspirations.Ane Brun is a musician hailing from Norway but based in Sweden, who also runs the label Balloon Ranger. Her music is rooted in folk pop and she's released 11 studio albums; her most recent is Portrayals, which came out last year. It is a collection of covers, including a previously unheard version of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s Blue Moon, to celebrate 20 years since her debut album Spending Time with Morgan.Linden Jay is a Grammy-nominated musician and producer from London. In addition to releasing music as a soloist, he is one half of the band FARR, a transatlantic duo described as a crossover between soul and alternative pop. As a producer and songwriter, he has also worked with artists including Stormzy, Sampha, Kelis and Loyle Carner. Amelia Meath is a Grammy-nominated musician and dancer based in North Carolina. She sings in the electronic pop band Sylvan Esso and alt-folk group Mountain Man, and has collaborated with the likes of Real Estate and John Cale.Audio for this episode was updated on 27th March 2024.

Bill Ryder-Jones, Anna Calvi and Poppy Hankin discuss the first piece of music that really affected them, how their writing has changed as they’ve grown older, and how much they’re willing to give people control over their music.Bill Ryder-Jones is from West Kirby, Merseyside. He co-founded the Coral, playing as their lead guitarist from 1996 until 2008. Since then he’s pursued a solo career, writing his own albums and film scores, as well as producing and playing on records for other artists including the Last Shadow Puppets, Graham Coxon, Paloma Faith, the Wytches and Hooton Tennis Club. He’s recently released his fifth solo album Iechyd Da (which translates as "good health" in Welsh). Singer-songwriter and composer Anna Calvi is known for her operatic singing voice and virtuosic guitar skills. She’s the only solo artist to have received three consecutive Mercury Prize nominations, going on to become a judge for the awards, and her other work includes everything from scoring seasons five and six of the acclaimed TV series Peaky Blinders to a stage production of the opera The Sandman. Vocalist and guitarist Poppy Hankin leads London-based indie-rock trio Girl Ray. Their sound has taken them on a journey from C-86 style indie-rock to uplifting pop music; their third album Prestige, released last year, sees them reclaim disco music as a celebration of sexuality and outsider culture.

Dot Allison, Andy Bell, Bishi and Charlotte Kemp Muhl discuss AI in music, the importance of music in education and finding your own creative voice.Dot Allison is a singer-songwriter and composer whose work has included film and TV scores such as Black Death, Triangle, The Devil’s Double and Henry: Mind of a Tyrant. She began her career in Edinburgh in the early 90s with the band Dove/One Dove, before releasing her debut solo album Afterglow a decade later. She has since worked with artists including Massive Attack, Kevin Shields, Hal David, Paul Weller, Pete Doherty and Darren Emerson. In 2023 she released Consciousology, an album that provides an imagined voice of a conscious universe expressed through music. Andy Bell is a musician, producer and DJ hailing from Cardiff. He started his career in Oxford in 1988 as one of two vocalists and guitarists of the band Ride, helping pioneer the genre of shoegaze. He went to play in Oasis and Hurricane #1. His production work includes projects with The Kynd and the Swedish band Weeping Willows. In 2023, he joined the supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos along with Shaun Ryder, Zak Starkey and Bez. He also worked with Dot Allison on her album Consciousology last year. Bishi is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, multimedia performer, producer, composer and DJ. Born in London with Bengali heritage, she has been trained in both Hindustani and Western classical styles and studied the sitar under Gaurav Mazumdar, a senior disciple of Ravi Shankar. She has released three albums independently on her own label Gryphon Records. Her third album, Let My Country Awake, released in 2021, is a musical setting of a work by Bengali poet and social reformer Rabindranath Tagore. She is the artistic director and co-founder of WITCiH (‘The Women in Technology Creative Industries Hub’), a platform increasing the visibility of women at the intersection of music, creative technology and STEM. Charlotte Kemp Muhl is a singer-songwriter, writer, model, actress, director, Chimera label co-founder and multi-instrumentalist. She formed the band The Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger in 2008 with her partner Sean Ono Lennon, best known for their 2014 album Midnight Sun. In 2009 she co-founded the label Chimera with Lennon and Yuka Honda. She later formed the group UNI and The Urchins in 2017 alongside Jack James Busa and David Strange, releasing last year the project Simulations.

Laura Misch, Suzanne Ciani, Madame Gandhi and Sian O'Gorman talk about their music practices, how they’re entwined with nature and technology, the natural muses which inspire their creative process, and imagining futures in which music can have a reciprocal relationship with the environment it is played within. Laura Misch is a multidisciplinary artist and producer from London. She is a singer, songwriter and saxophonist, who also makes audio and video collages. She primarily has a loop-based saxophone practice, and her debut EP Playground was released in 2017. Since then, she has also become interested in including natural surroundings in recordings. In 2021, she composed an immersive outdoor installation in Epping Forest in the UK, eventually soundtracking large-scale tree projections mapped onto buildings in London. Her debut album Sample The Sky came out on October 13th, and it’s an ode to care, connection and listening to the natural world. Producer, drummer, artist and activist Madame Gandhi's career has included collaborations with MIA, Kehlani, and Thievery Corporation, and she’s also featured on the BBC's 100 Women list. Her activism includes combating menstrual stigma people face around the world, and she’s a Harvard graduate to boot.Suzanne Ciani is a musician, sound designer, composer, and record label executive who has made incredible electronic music and sound effects for films and TV. She’s worked with quadrophonic sound, and has been pioneering electronic music since the 1970s. Sian O’Gorman is part of the self-managed collective NYX,a collaborative drone choir and otherworldly electric chorus, re-embodying live electronics and vocal techniques. NYX will be recording their debut album later this year.

Chromeo, La Roux and Empress of discuss longevity in the music world, the future of music media and the shifting notions of taste and trends.David “Dave 1” Macklovitch and Patrick “P-Thugg” Gemayel make up electro-funk duo Chromeo. The pair met in the mid-1990s at college in Montreal, bonding over a love of hip-hop and vintage funk. After hearing records like Daft Punk’s Discovery, they formed Chromeo in 2002, releasing their debut, She’s in Control, in 2004. Their music combines funk grooves and pop hooks with analogue synth melodies, and they have just released their new album Adult Contemporary: a meditation on modern, mature relationships. La Roux is a bona-fide alt-pop star and Grammy Award-winning singer, whose debut album from 2009 dominated charts around the world with an unforgettable falsetto and unmistakable vintage sound. She came back in 2020 after 5 years with her third album Supervision, and recently collaborated with Chromeo on a new rework of her hit single Bulletproof. Empress Of is a singer and musical artist who creates introspective, self-empowering electro pop. She grew up on the music of Latin America and debuted with anonymous demos on YouTube in 2012. She’s developed into an artist whose creativity knows no bounds, from the quirky and eclectic to the straight-up danceable. She will release her fourth album, For Your Consideration, on March 22nd through Major Arcana.

Joel Shadbolt, Dallas Tamaira, Anna Coddington and Allen Stone talk about how environments shape their sound, staying healthy and sane on the road, and the 70s soul sound.A lifelong musician from the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, Joel Shadbolt studied music at polytechnic before joining L.A.B. as the singer and guitarist in 2016. Their distinct blend of reggae, rock, funk and soul has established them as one of the premier acts in New Zealand. L.A.B's sixth album, L.A.B VI will be out 23 February 2024.Dallas Tamaira is a singer and musician born in Christchurch, raised in Kaikōura and now based in Wellington, New Zealand. He’s occasionally known by the alias Joe Dukie, but is best known as the vocalist for the internationally renowned urban pasifika and dub group Fat Freddy's Drop, which he co-founded in 1999. He’s just dropped his new solo EP, Levels.Anna Coddington is a multi-award winning songwriter, singer and producer from Raglan, New Zealand, currently living in Auckland, who has released four critically acclaimed albums to date. She also has an MA in linguistics, is currently studying for a law degree, and is a 2nd dan black belt in kyokushin karate.Allen Stone is an American soul and R&B singer and musician, based in Spokane, Washington. He is a pastor’s son who grew up on gospel music, and by the time he was 11, he’d picked up a guitar and written his first song. He has released five albums to date.

Ana Carla Maza, Lucas Santtana and Eliane Correa discuss the music of Cuba, women as producers and composers in Cuban music, and their creative process.Cuban composer, cellist and singer Ana Carla Maza grew up in the Afro-Cuban Guanabacoa district of Havana, Cuba, in the early years of the Buena Vista Social Club revival. She moved to Paris to train at the Conservatoire, and the city became the beginning of her solo and touring career. Although she’s a classically trained cellist, she’s always incorporated her Havana roots in her work, and her latest album Caribe is a reconnection to those roots, inspired by Afro-Cuban descarga jams of the 1950s. Lucas Santtana is a singer, composer and producer from Salvador, Brazil. He recreates the Brazilian guitar tradition, mixing up sounds from the 1950s, like João Gilberto and Dorival Caymmi, with mashups, samples and his own creations. Eliane Correa is a pianist, MD and composer based between London and Havana. She was the bandleader of the Cuban fusion project Wara, and has also worked with Eli & La Evolución, En El Aire Project and The World of Hans Zimmer. Her unique sound equally reflects her Latin heritage and London musical melting pot experience.

Composers Zubin Kanga, Jasmin Kent Rodgman, Laura Bowler and Neil Luck discuss the role of technology in their work, how their collaborators have influenced them and the technology they’d love to try.Australian-born pianist, composer and technologist Zubin Kanga moved to London in 2007, where he attended the Royal Academy of Music. Through his work he seeks to explore and redefine what it means to be a performer through interactions with new technologies, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, biosensors and more. He’s worked with some of the world’s leading composers including Steve Reich, Shiva Feshareki and Alexander Schubert and has premiered more than 130 works across the world.Artist and composer Jasmin Kent Rodgman brings together contemporary classical, electronics and sound art to create powerful soundscapes and musical identities. She works across a variety of different art forms, including dance, word film and VR, and explores otherness, memory and narrative in her music.Composer, vocalist and artistic director Laura Bowler specialises in theatre, multi-disciplinary work and opera. She’s been commissioned by orchestras and ensembles across the globe and as a soloist has performed and premiered works internationally. She’s also a vocalist in contemporary music ensemble Ensemble Lydenskab in Aarhus, Denmark. Neil Luck's music explores the interaction between live human performance and multimedia. His work takes a range of forms, from music-theatre to concert works and radio, and last year he collaborated with Mimi Doulton on an EP titled Five English Folk Songs, a piece of work that explores traditional singing techniques that have been lost and buried.

George Evelyn - AKA Nightmares on Wax - Corinne Bailey Rae, Theo Croker and James Lavelle discuss their creative relationship with music, the presence of social issues in music, and the pros and cons of the digital age.Musician, record producer and DJ George Evelyn, aka Nightmares on Wax was born in the city of Leeds, UK, and is now based in Ibiza. In his youth, he was greatly inspired by the likes of Quincy Jones and Curtis Mayfield, before discovering hip hop. He originally formed Nightmares on Wax in 1988 as a group project alongside John Halnon, with Kevin Harper joining later, but after one album it became solely his project. He debuted on Warp Records with A Word of Science in 1991, and has since released eight studio albums, various mixes and DJed countless gigs across the globe.Jazz trumpeter, composer and producer Theo Croker is known for his adventurous playing and determination to expand the horizons of jazz. He took up the trumpet around age 11 after being inspired by his grandfather, the legendary Doc Cheatham, and has released seven studio albums. Acclaimed singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae shot to fame in 2006 with her self-titled UK number one debut album. She’s known for her soul-rooted indie sound and has collaborated with everyone from Mary J Blige and Al Green to Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.Electronic musician, DJ and label owner James Lavelle is best known for his work under the Unkle moniker. He started the band in 1992, and in the same year founded the influential trip hop label Mo’ Wax. As Unkle, he’s released eight full length studio albums, most recently Rōnin II.

Galya Bisengalieva, Robert Ames, Actress and Claire M Singer discuss how instruments can affect composition, collaboration, and the relationship between music and its visual identity.Born into a musical family in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Kazakh-British musician Galya Bisengalieva won a music scholarship to study music in London, where she now lives. A classically trained violinist, composer and electronic musician, she released her debut solo EP in 2018, and debut album Aralkum in 2020. Her collaborators include Steve Reich, Laurie Spiegel, Sigur Rós, the National, Terry Riley and Thom Yorke, and she currently leads the London Contemporary Orchestra. She recently released her second album, Polygon.British conductor, composer, arranger and violist Robert Ames is the co-founder and artistic director of the London Contemporary Orchestra. His collaborators include Frank Ocean, Imogen Heap, Belle and Sebastian, Vivienne Westwood, DJ Shadow, Anna Meredith, Radiohead and Foals. His debut album, Change Ringing, came out in 2021.Innovative British electronic musician Actress released his debut single in 2004, and his debut album, Hazyville, followed in 2008. He recently released his seventh studio album, LXXXVIII, which he regards as the culmination of his career to date. Claire M Singer is a composer and performer of acoustic and electronic music, film and installations, known for her experimental approach to the organ. Her work draws inspiration from the dramatic landscape of her native Scotland. She released her debut album in 2016, and recently put out her fourth album, Saor.

Arthur Jeffes of Penguin Café, Johnny Borrell, Douglas Dare and Judi Jackson discuss taking your own music seriously when starting out, selling out, and whether it’s OK to re-hash your previous work.Musician, composer and band leader Arthur Jeffes formed Penguin Cafe in 2009, bringing together a talented and disparate group of musicians initially to perform his father Simon Jeffes’ legacy of world renowned Penguin Cafe Orchestra music, 12 years after his untimely death in 1997. Since then, they have continued to perform the music of Penguin Cafe Orchestra alongside their own compositions, and have released five albums to date. The most recent, Rain Before Seven…, came out in the summer.Douglas Dare's piano-led music creates an elegant minimalist sound. He released his debut album Whelm in 2014, which was made on a battered grand piano, then followed it up in 2016 with Aforger. In 2020, he released his third album, Milkteeth.British musician Johnny Borrell is best known as the frontman of the band Razorlight. The band have gone through several line-up changes, with him the sole permanent member. In between the band's activities, he released a solo album in 2013, and currently has a new project called Jealous Nostril.Singer Judi Jackson grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, playing piano and singing in the church choir. After moving to London, she released her debut EP, and in 2020 won vocalist of the year at the Jazz FM awards. Last year she released her full-length debut album, Grace. Her live show includes her own interpretations of songs from jazz greats, along with her original soul-infused music.

Faizal Mostrixx, Afrorack, Grove and Kaya Byinshii discuss pop music, musical cultures and the aftermath of live performance.Ugandan producer, dancer and choreographer Faizal Mostrixx was surrounded by music and dancing as a child and began his working life as a professional dancer, before deciding to focus on his other love, sound. After putting out EPs in 2019 and 2022, this year he released his debut full length album Mutations on the Glitterbeat label – an Afrofuturist manifesto from Uganda. Bristol-based producer and vocalist Grove draws on everything from dancehall and dub to hip hop and dance. Their latest album P*W*R PL*Y came out this year. Afrorack is a Ugandan musician who built Africa’s first DIY modular synthesizer. Learning electronics and constructing an instrument that would have been impossible to buy in Uganda, he released his debut album in 2022, bringing together the first recordings with his new machine – a wonderful sound melding acid, techno, and African musicality. Born and raised in Rwanda, Kaya Byinshii strongly believes in the spiritual power of music. She released her debut EP Nyabyinshi in 2020 and her first full length album, Ukwiyuburura, in 2022.

Siavash Amini, Sarrsew, mHz and Mariam Rezaei discuss Tehran’s experimental scene, and how geography and community can affect the creative process.Based in Tehran, Iranian musician and composer Siavash Amini has worked with the labels Room40, Hallow Ground, Opal Tapes and Umor Rex for the better part of the past 10 years. He’s also collaborated with a wide range of international artists including Rafael Anton Irisarri, 9T Antiope and Zenjungle, and remixed tracks for Carl Craig, Bernard Szajner and the duo Arigt. This year he’s released two albums, Eidolon and Eremos. Mariam Rezaei is a composer and genre-defying turntablist who’s been honing her own unique style since starting DJing at 15. She previously led experimental arts project TOPH, TUSK FRINGE and TUSK NORTH, and in November 2022 received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists in recognition of her contribution to music composition. She released her album BOWN earlier this year. Sara Bigdeli Shamloo, aka SarrSew, is a Tehran-born and Paris-based vocalist, lyricist and composer. She’s one half of duo 9T Antiope, and also one half of the aternative/electronic Farsi duo Taraamoon. On top of her collaborative projects and solo releases, she’s also produced creations for theatre and film and is an active performer and actor. Mo H. Zareei, aka mHz, is an electronic musician, sound artist, and researcher whose artistic practice covers a wide range from electronic compositions to kinetic sound-sculptures and audiovisual installations. After studying in Tehran and California, he now lives in Wellington, New Zealand, where he’s a senior lecturer in composition and sonic arts. He also released the album Proof of Identity earlier this year

Since starting out in the late 90’s, musician, DJ and label owner Adrian Younge's sound has borrowed from soul, funk, jazz and hip hop. His work includes scores for film and TV, including the Marvel series Luke Cage; a collaborative album with Ghostface Killah based on the comic book Twelve Reasons To Die; and productions for Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z. He founded the label Linear Labs, and is also co-founder of the Jazz Is Dead label with A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad. He’s produced for greats such as Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Wu Tang Clan, and in 2021, he released The American Negro, an album that provides an unapologetic critique on the evolution of racism in America. Jean Carne is an incredible soul singer boasting a five-octave vocal range. She started her career in the early 1970s, with her 1978 solo single Don’t Let It Go to Your Head becoming an R&B hit. She’s also worked with Motown Records, the Temptations and Michael Jackson, and in 2014, she was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National R&B Music Society. She's worked with host Adrian through the years, most notably on the 1990 song Star Flower. Brian Jackson is a keyboardist, flautist, singer, composer, and producer who had a decades-long writing and producing partnership with Gil Scott-Heron, including the albums Pieces of a Man, Free Will, and Winter in America. He went on to work with Earth, Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder, and also has an extensive solo career, looking to both the present and the past for inspiration in order to honour the ancient tradition of the griot – the African troubadour of truth. Legendary jazz pianist and bandleader Lonnie Liston Smith joined Pharaoh Sanders’s band in 1968, where he began to experiment with electric keyboards, and also had a stint in Miles Davis’ band before forming Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes in 1974. In April this year, he released his first record in 25 years, called JID017.

Carlos Niño, Liv.e, André 3000 and Luis Pérez Ixoneztli discuss how their music is inspired by spirit, the feeling of creating sounds that are meaningful to them, and how they stay open to learning during their lives in music.Carlos Niño is a prolific producer, percussionist, and composer based in California, known for his unique, highly developed, self-described “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” sound. In September of this year, he released (I’m just) Chillin’, on Fire, his most singular, intentional work ever, featuring the most vibrant and abundant gathering of Friends which included the likes of Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Laraaji, Kamasi Washington and André 3000 (and also produced André's latest album, New Blue Sun). André 3000 - is one of the most celebrated artists of the last three decades, an auteur whose work in music, film, fine arts, and fashion, continues to influence the cultural landscape on a global scale. As one half of Outkast, André established a brand new voice within rap that had never been experienced before when the pair emerged in the early ’90s. In November of this year, after a 17-year hiatus, André 3000 released his debut solo album, New Blue Sun - where he plays flutes - it's not a rap record and as André describes "represents a continuation of adventure and discovery for me."Hailing from Dallas, Texas, experimental R&B artist Liv.e is known for her hypnotic voice and eclectic musical influences. She was first introduced to music through the church ,but now draws inspiration from the likes of Lalah Hathaway and Wayne Shorter, as well as Dallas-based label Dolfin Records. In February of this year she released her critically acclaimed second album, Girl in the Half Pearl.Composer, ethnomusicologist and multi-instrumentalist Luis Pérez Ixoneztli is a hugely influential figure in Mexican music, who’s dedicated years of research to the pre-Columbian instrumentation of Mesoamerica, travelling around the country to study the musical traditions of Mexico’s native peoples. His music has been described as “perhaps the ultimate fusion of ethnic and modern music”; in 2013, his work was inducted into the Archive of Mexican Music, 32 years after it was first published.

Zach Condon, AKA Beirut, Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, and Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields discuss the myth of self-expression as an artist, the influence your location, and particularly New York, has on songwriting, and what unexpected genres we might get musical influences from.Zach Condon, AKA Beirut, grew up in the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and from a young age absorbed a vast array of musical influences. When he was 14 his older brother moved to New York and left behind a strict musical education of minimal German electronica, hip hop and mix tapes of Neutral Milk Hotel. From ther,e he began recording little tunes with a trumpet, a drum machine, a synthesizer and his father’s acoustic guitar. He was finally convinced to try playing a few concerts when he was around 17, and has since gone on to release eight studio albums and tour all over the world. His new album Hadsel came out this year and is named after a northern Norwegian island where he spent time in 2020. Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Stephin Merritt is best known for fronting The Magnetic Fields, one of the most important indie rock bands of the last 30 years. He is renowned for his beautiful melodies and rich lyrics, meticulously crafting soundscapes using a variety of acoustic, electronic and improvised instruments. Debbie Harry and Chris Stein are members of one of punk and pop’s most influential bands, Blondie. They formed in 1974 in New York and were pioneers of the city’s new wave scene, going on to top the charts around the world with hits such as Atomic, Heart of Glass and Hanging on the Telephone. They’ve gone through many line-up changes over the years, but been held together by the two amazing musicians we have with us today.

Charlotte Adigéry, Bolis Pupul, John Carroll Kirby and Marie Davidson discuss second albums, having kids as a musician and collaborations.Charlotte Adigéry is a Belgian musician of Martinican and Guadeloupean descent, born and raised in Ghent. She's worked extensively as a solo artist and also as her punk alter ego WWWater. Bolis Pupul is a Belgian musician of Chinese descent who debuted in 2016 with the single Moon Theme / Sun Theme. They started releasing music as a duo in 2019 with an EP called Zandoli on Soulwax’s record label DEEWEE. Last year, they released their debut album Topical Dancer, a multilingual 13-track project that explores themes of racism and misogyny. American pianist, record producer and composer John Carroll Kirby has a background steeped in jazz but with a signature sound that blends genres and styles. He’s an in-demand collaborator who has worked with the likes of Solange, Frank Ocean, Miley Cyrus, Norah Jones and many more, and earlier this year he released his ninth album Blowout. Canadian producer Marie Davidson's hypnotic style combines analogue synthesizers and drum machines with vocals, leading to a prolific career both as a solo artist and member of creative trio L’Œil Nu.

Bloom Twins, Dorofeeva and Jamala discuss the influence of their Ukrainian identity in their music, how their music has changed since the war, and the advice they have for aspiring Ukrainian musicians.Bloom Twins are a pop duo made up of sisters Anna and Sonia Kuprienko, who are currently based in London. They’re both classically trained multi-instrumentalists who use their platform to draw attention to issues such as mental health and freedom of expression, and whose brand of dark pop takes inspirations from the likes of Radiohead, Massive Attack and Ukrainian folk music.Singer and actor Dorofeeva first rose to fame in the duo Vremya i Steklo, alongside rapper Positiff. She is also a prominent fashion designer and blogger, and released her debut album сенси in 2022.Jamala is a singer and actor who is best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest for Ukraine in 2016 with her track 1944. She made her first record at nine years old with an album of songs for children, and has since released 10 albums that straddle soul, jazz, funk and folk.