144. Chris Hewitt (Empire) on REM 'New Aventures in Hi-Fi'

23 Joulu 201955min

This week, multi-multi-ARIA-winner Ben Lee welcomes me into his Laurel Canyon home to talk about Jonathan Richman and 'Modern Lovers Live'. We delve into the arc of Richman's career, how his music became more and more stripped back and seemingly innocent, the inherent joy that Ben has tried to carry into his own work and some weighty digressions about the artists responsibility to pose questions to their audience, our mutual distaste for unsolicited advice and knowing whether to continue a music career when your best days could lay behind you.

11 Joulu 201944min

John Leventhal is a master of tastefulness, over decades as a producer, guitarist and songwriter with everyone from Shawn Colvin to Marc Cohn to William Bell and his wife Rosanne Cash. Today he welcomes me to his home studio in New York to talk about Ry Cooder's 70s classic 'Paradise and Lunch'. We delve into Ry's genius as an arranger and reinterpreter of songs, his influence as a musician, how the album puts songs first over guitar flexing, how Ry has influenced John's playing and production and what it was like for John and his wife Rosanne to collaborate with Ry on new arrangements of Johnny Cash songs.

3 Joulu 201936min

23 Marras 201957s

Today Australia's queen of the dance floor bangers Kira Puru joins me for a long-awaited discussion of Amy Winehouse's classic neo-soul masterpiece 'Back to Black'. We dig into how this record sparked a soul revival and how the music that came in its wake measures up, how Winehouse's artistic sophistication was sometimes masked by her image, the definition of 'cool', what makes Winehouse's lyrics so effective and how producer Mark Ronson helped shaped the album, as well as reflecting on the untimely loss of Amy Winehouse and whether suffering is endemic to great art.

19 Marras 201937min

This week comedian and podcaster Tom Ballard joins me to chat about Midlake's concept album 'The Trials of Van Occupanther'. We talk about how the album manages to be timeless but not retro, the conceptual substance behind the lyrics, the 60s and 70s rock influences on the album and we dredge up Tom's 2013 list of the best songs of the past 20 years and hold him accountable for it. We discuss the changing dynamics of a band who has lost its lead singer, solo creative work vs collaboration and I challenge Tom to turn this album into a musical.

11 Marras 201936min

MFA Book Month concludes this week with journalist, author and Empire podcast geek queen Helen O'Hara joining me for a journey through the music of superhero cinema, from John Williams' magisterial score for SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE through to Kendrick Lamar's BLACK PANTHER soundtrack and much in between. We discuss the evolution from theme driven symphonic scores to the intense blare of Hans Zimmer, the use of pop music in superhero films from Prince's BATMAN music to the toe-tapping GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, how Marvel found its footing with the scores of the MCU after a slightly muddled beginning and we plug Helen's new book THE ULTIMATE SUPERHERO MOVIE GUIDE. We also get into it about JOKER (no spoilers), what almost drove Helen off Twitter, I offer some lightly controversial takes and it all ends on a very silly note.

6 Marras 20191h 14min

Book month continues as I chat to superstar film critic, double bassist and friend of the pod Dr. Mark Kermode about 'How Does It Feel', his memoir of his life and musical misadventures. We chat about Mark's 'how hard can it be?' approach to potentially intimidating musical challenges, the self belief that has sustained his music career and his lifelong desire to become a pop star. We talk about the nature of memory and the process of writing memoirs, details that had to be legally redacted, how skiffle music transformed his musical career, his short-lived stint as musical director for a prime time BBC chat show and that time he launched my career as a filmmaker.

29 Loka 201943min