Peeling The Onion

Hello good people and welcome to this very special episode of Peeling The Onion.I had the immense honour of sitting down with one of my favourite artist of all time, Blixa Bargeld. Blixa has been making cutting edge art for nearly 45 years (next April 1st will mark Neubauten’s first concert). He was a part of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds from the groups inception until 2003 and in recent years he has been teaming up with Italian artist Teho Teardo. The duo released their 3rd album, Christ...

Hello good peopleThis is a very special episode of Peeling The Onion given the fact that our guest is non other than Mr David Yow.There are few that have taken the art of singing and performing (as well as writing music and lyrics) to as glorious heights as David Yow has. He came up in the Austin Texas punk scene of the late 70's/early 80's, first fronting the band Scratch Acid (1982–1987) and then forming The Jesus Lizard in 1987 with bassist David Wm. Sims and guitarist Duane Denison ...

Break out your baritone ukuleles - our guest on Peeling The Onion is no other than Mr. Lou Barlow !Lou has been recording music since he was 12 years old and has been a part of seminal bands like Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr. and The Folk Implosion - who just released their first album in 25 years and are currently out on tour (tour dates at the bottom. Get your tickets here).Lou cut his teeth in the mid to late 80’s playing bass for Dinosaur Jr. His strumming bass style is one of the most distinctiv...

There was an unmeasurable loss suffered May 7th when Steve Albini died from a heart attack at his home in Chicago, on May 7, 2024, at the age of 61.It’s very hard to state Albini’s importance in music but also what a wide thinking individual he was - with ethos and values that he re-visited and which evolved along with him as a person.He was one of my all time favourite musicians but on top of that he was also probably my single favourite recording engineer, having recorded masterpieces like:...

Alright good people - let’s get our bass springs ready and fire up our jet turbines - our guest on Peeling The Onion is no other than the almighty Blixa Bargeld ! Yes, this is not a drill. I sat down with Blixa for a 90 minute talk about the new Einstürzende Neubauten album, Rampen (AMP: Alien Pop Music), which is to be released April 5th, as well as his extremely prolific career. He of course did 20 years with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and has done many collaborations, including his w...

Alright let's get in our little blue dune buggies and let’s get this party started - Chris Ballew is our guest on episode 5 of Peeling The Onion ! Chris is one of the most prolific artist out there - he’s played over 2000 shows throughout the years and released several dozen of albums of original material under multiple aliases. These days he’s releasing solo albums under his own name for the first time in his career, two a year - every January and July for the unforeseeable future. I’ve...

Turn off your heat and have a bowl of rice - we have an in depth conversation with one of the all time great bass players of our lifetime. Joe Lally is one of four key ingredients of Fugazi, one of the most influential bands of all time. After Fugazi went on indefinite hiatus some 20 years ago Joe has been prolific and beside releasing three solo albums has collaborated with artist like John Frusciante and Josh Klinghoffer as well as founding Coriky with Ian Mackaye (Fugazi) and his wife Amy ...

Henry Rollins taught me a new word: luddite. Ah ha ! Peeling The Onion is back with non other than the mighty Henry Rollins.Oh my what an absolute treat. I spoke to Henry on January 2nd and what a great way to start the calendar year. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a yearly thing because what is better than starting the year speaking to a man who is as hard working and successful but as modest and humble as Henry is.Henry cut his teeth with Black Flag in the 80's. He went on to found...

Originally recorded for Rás 2 - Icelandic public radio. They probably own the rights to this so if you want to use the recording in any way you better check with them.Parts of the interview were aired March 3rd 2024 and March 10th 2024.Greg Norton of Hüsker Dü and now Ultrabomb is of course a living legend.Hüsker Dü is one of the most hard working and prolific bands in the history of music and it was great to get Greg's perspective of their career. He took a 14 year break from the music busin...

There was an unmeasurable loss suffered May 7th when Steve Albini died from a heart attack at his home in Chicago, on May 7, 2024, at the age of 61.It’s very hard to state Albini’s importance in music as also as a wide thinking individual with ethos and values that he re-visited and which evolved along with him as a person.He was one of my all time favourite musicians but on top of that he was also probably my single favourite recording engineer, having recorded masterpieces like: 1000 Hurts (Shellac of North America)At Action Park (Shellac of North America)Atomizer (Big Black)In Utero (Nirvana)Goat (The Jesus Lizard)Rid Of Me (PJ Harvey)Song About Fucking (Big Black)Surfer Rosa (Pixies)Tweez (Slint)Two Nuns and a Pack Mule (Rapeman)Pod (The Breeders)Seamonsters (Wedding Present)I have listened to dozens and dozens of interview’s and talks that Steve gives because he was one of the most most insightful and articulated person that ever existed. He was very intelligent but also super humble. He was of course an loudmouth back in the day and and had come out a few years ago on Twitter and taken his responsibility for things said - nothing too horrible, but he did front a band called Rapeman, which was taken from a Japanese manga (and later 9 live-action films!).Point is Steve evolved with the times and was always outspoken how he felt about the current state of the country, political and sociologically but also the state of the music business, or lack thereof in recent years.I feel so I unbelievably lucky to have had that chat with Steve. I had been in email contact with him since mid January of 2024 where we were trying to sort out time (or where he was slightly ignoring me for about a month.) He did finally come back to me on February 16th and this interview was conducted on Monday February the 20th 2024 at 11am (CST). It’s probably one of the last talks he ever did and certainly the last in depth interview he did (please send me a link on elvarpeelingonion@gmail.com if I’m wrong and I’ll correct it.) Steve was a little standoffish at first but when he realised that I wasn’t just some dweeb asking about Nirvana he eased up and became very warm, funny and as always insightful.Point is Steve was irreplaceable both as a person and as an musical and recording artist. No words can do him justice and the void he leaves no one person can fill, not in a 1000 years.So go back and listen to Big Black and Shellac and all the other stuff he worked on. We are truly blessed to have been alive as the same time as Steve Albini.I love you guys. Take care of each other. Elvarhttps://www.instagram.com/peelingtheonionpod/