Sunny Day Real Estate came out of the hardcore scene in Seattle in the 90s and eventually became a major influence on “emo” music.

KEXP’s Dusty Henry talks with guitarist Dan Hoerner and drummer William Goldsmith about the band’s history, their take on "emo," their recent reunion tour, and the re-release of their 1994 debut album, 'Diary.'

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The Canadian hardcore band, F*cked Up is out with a new record, called Another Day. The band’s last three records were all written and recorded in a total of 24 hours. Emily Fox speaks with F*cked Up’s frontman Damian Abraham about these 24-hour projects, how Toronto marijuana politics comes up on Another Day and how medical marijuana has helped his panic attacks.  

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Shabaka Hutchings is a celebrated saxophone player and a major figure in London’s contemporary jazz scene. He was the bandleader for Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors, and part of the electronic jazz group The Comet Is Coming. But on New Year's Day of 2023, he announced he'd be putting down the saxophone for good and focusing on a new instrument: the flute. Starting with the Japanese shakuhachi and expanding to a variety of traditional flutes, he's now out with his first full-length album under his solo moniker of Shabaka. The album is called 'Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace,' and features collaborations with Carlos Niño, Laraaji, Andre 3000, Floating Points, Esperanza Spalding, Moses Sumney, and more.

Shabaka talks with KEXP’s Isabel Khalili about his transition from saxophone to flute and how it’s helped him learn to release tension and relax into playing. He also discusses his thoughts on the term "Afrofuturism," how he’s embraced Octavia Butler's ideas on the inevitability of change, what it means to heal through music, and his search for meaning outside of a Western colonial paradigm.

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Roughly 2% of producers are women. Femme House is trying to change that number by providing free online workshops to teach women and gender expansive individuals how to produce and DJ. LP Giobbi is a producer and DJ behind the project. She talks about the training sessions, her process for getting more femmes booked on festival stages and the impact her first piano teacher had on her life and career.

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Danielle Ponder talks about leaving her job as a public defender to pursue music full time at 40. She talks about the clients she worked with as a public defender and how restorative justice and resources were needed instead of jail time. She also breaks down what it takes to make a living in music today. 

“I had a mother whose [four-year-old] daughter was in an apartment hallway. . .  running up and down. The mother went to the corner store. She thought her older daughter was watching her, she wasn’t. The mother was arrested for endangering the welfare of her child. The child wasn’t hurt, but it was the fact that she wasn’t home and the daughter was in the hallway. We all can have our opinions about what the mother should have done and shouldn’t have done, but the reality is she was a single mom trying to provide for her kids, trying to go grocery shopping for her kids and ended up in jail instead of looking at how she could have been supported with things like daycare and things of that nature,” Ponder said.

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Protomartyr released their sixth album, titled 'Formal Growth in the Desert,' in June. Prior to their performance at Treefort Music Festival in March, KEXP’s Martin Douglas caught up with vocalist Joe Casey to talk about the new album, Protomartyr’s musical evolution, and being so closely associated with their hometown of Detroit. 

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Nabihah Iqbal’s latest album, DREAMER, is a lush and atmospheric meditation on love and loss. It incorporates elements of shoegaze and dance music and weaves in instrumentation that nods to her Pakistani roots. 

Nabihah speaks with KEXP’s Isabel Khalili about how a studio burglary led her to a more stripped-down approach to songwriting for this album, the first poem that made her cry, and how her practices with karate, DJing, and poetry all relate to her music-making.

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Seattle’s summer music festival season is upon us. KEXP’s Emily Fox, Dusty Henry, Jasmine Albertson, Martin Douglas, and Leah Capindo give their recommendations for which artists and bands to see at Capitol Hill Block Party, Timber, Day In Day Out, THING, and Bumbershoot. They also discuss the different vibes and audiences you may find at each festival.

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Janelle Monáe dropped her latest album, 'The Age of Pleasure' on June 9th. Contributor Mia Imani has this review of Monáe’s journey of sensuality, queerness, and joy.

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Brandy Clark and Brandi Carlile are both gay Americana and Country artists from Washington State. The two have teamed up on Brandy Clark’s new solo album with Carlile on production credits. Emily Fox caught up with Brandy Clark to talk about the record, her Tony award winning musical, songwriting for other country stars and gay representation in country music.  

“What went along with being an artist, I just didn’t think I could ever really be. One of those things being that I was openly gay and I just didn’t see a lot of space for that in commercial country music. . . and right about the time I thought ‘that’ll never happen,’ boom, I got the opportunity to make a record,” Clark says.   

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The Icelandic band Sigur Rós made a surprise album release on June 16. It’s called 'ÁTTA,' which means “eight” in Icelandic. It’s their eighth studio album, and it features eight tracks heavy with strings. KEXP’s Roddy Nikpour immersed himself in the album and brings us this review.  

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The artist K.Flay lost hearing in one ear last fall and it hasn’t returned since. She’s planning to release a new album in September and is now on her first tour since the hearing loss. She’s performing at Showbox Sodo in Seattle on Friday June 23. Emily Fox caught up with her to talk about her experience and what it’s like performing and making music under her new condition.   

"Just kind of like you need two eyes for depth perception, you need two ears for echolocation. As a consequence, restaurants or concerts, places with lots of ambient noise coming from all directions feel very psychologically overwhelming,” K.Flay says.  

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Erykah Badu will perform at Seattle’s WAMU Theater on Friday June 23rd. Seattle native, writer and interdisciplinary artist Mia Imani reflects on how the high priestess of neo soul has influenced her own artistry, spirituality and Blackness. 

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Alice Randall was the first Black woman to co-write a number one country hit with her song “XXX’s and OOO’s,” sung by Trisha Yearwood in 1994. Now, 30 years later, Randall is out with a memoir and accompanying album both called 'My Black Country.' The album features Black women artists of today covering country songs Randall wrote – songs that were originally sung by white performers – including Adia Victoria, Valerie June, and Rhiannon Giddens of The Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Randall talks with Emily Fox about her music, life, career and about the other Black country artists that came before her.

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On this special Father’s Day episode of Apparently—Our series about music and parenthood. On this episode, rapper billy woods talks about fatherhood and his new chidren’s book with M. Musgrove – A Is For Anarchist. Dusty Henry chats with the prolific rapper about the lessons he learned from his academic and revolutionary parents, parenting while touring, and his latest album, ‘Maps,’ with Kenny Segal.  

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This is a special Father’s Day episode of Apparently—Our series featuring musicians who are also parents. This story is about two parents who made music when their daughter was in the womb. A few years ago, Iván Diaz Mathé attached biosonic midi devices to a then pregnant Elizabeth Hart. She and her very pregnant belly sat for hours while her body and fetus created the sounds you hear on the record called “Luca Yupanqui—Sounds of the Unborn”. Luca is the name of their child who was in utero at the time of this recording. Emily Fox caught up with Ivan and Elizabeth to learn more about the project and how biosonic midi technology works.  

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W.I.T.C.H. talks about the elements that came together to form Zamrock in the 60s. They discuss how Zambia’s economic struggles, forced curfews as well as disco caused the band to stop playing in the 80s. Then they talk about how reissues of their albums in recent years, a documentary out about them, and their new album has allowed them to be rediscovered on an international scale, decades later.  

“We belonged to a federation,” frontman Jagari Chanda explains “That was Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Because of the federation, we did similar things in terms of social amenities and get togethers and it was like a crisscross pollination. People from different countries brought their own cultures and their own traditions. They brought their own dances, and this is where we got the traditional aspect of music. But the international influence came from the western world, from our colonial masters. They brought in the guitar, the jukeboxes, especially the radio.”   

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Everything But The Girl is known for their hit “Missing” from the 90s (“like the deserts miss the rain. . . ”) The duo made up of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt is back with their first album in 24 years. They talk about making choices that were best for them instead of chasing fame or money, including taking a long hiatus shortly after turning down a stadium tour with U2 in the 90s. 

“We had a feeling that our status as a band got about as big as we were comfortable with it being. Even our own gigs had got bigger. And in some respects, we felt something was lost as well as gained,” Tracey Thorn explains.  

During Everything But The Girl’s long hiatus, Thorn and Watt got married, Thorn spent years being a stay at home Mom, she’s written multiple autobiographical books, published columns and put out some solo records. Watt has worked as a DJ, producer, club owner and runs his own record label. 

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A new documentary about Little Richard, titled 'Little Richard: I Am Everything,' was recently released to rave reviews. One of those reviews came in the form of an essay for the New Yorker written by Hanif Abdurraqib called “What Little Richard Deserved.”  KEXP's Martin Douglas speaks to Hanif about the film, and Little Richard's life. 

“Little Richard is as loud and joyfully brash and bold as they come and that did not stop his achievements from being whitewashed and then washed away,” Abdurraqib says.

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Sound & Vision’s mini series Day Job explores how artists and musicians juggle their craft and day jobs to make it all work. Rachel Stevens caught up with KEXP’s own DJ Yaddy about balancing DJing and being a teacher.  

Check out DJ Yaddy at Seattle’s Lazer Dome: https://pacificsciencecenter.org/events/pacsci-kexp-laser/

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Mix & Match is our miniseries where KEXP’s Jasmine Albertson combines her reporting skills with her bartending skills to craft a cocktail for an artist based on their sound and their story. This week she makes a drink for local band, Racoma. They released their sophomore record, 'Good a Place As Any,' last October. 

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Mike Park is the only person behind Asian Man records. The label has helped break ska and punk bands including Alkaline Trio and Less Than Jake. Park recently turned down an offer to have Asian Man Records be bought out by a larger label for $3 million. He’ll instead continue running it out of his mom’s garage, like he has been for nearly 30 years.

KEXP’s Dusty Henry spoke with Park to learn more about the label’s history, the ethos that’s kept it alive and the bands it’s worked with along the way.  

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The band Draag talks with Emily Fox about how their experiences being in a religious cult and dealing with substance abuse come up on their latest record, 'Dark Fire Heresy.' They also discuss representation in the music industry and their perspective as a POC-fronted band. 

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Karl Blau has been a staple in the Northwest Music scene. He started the Anacortes Music Channel, a live music venue and a 24/7 streaming station of exclusively Anacortes music. He launched a monthly music publication titled Show Chime, and founded the Anacortes Music Project, a non-profit with goals of preserving Anacortes history, and boosting local shows and local artist profiles. He was recently priced out of Anacortes. He now lives in Philadelphia with his family and has just released a debut EP featuring members of The War on Drugs. KEXP’s Janice Headley talks with Karl about the move and new musical project called Opal Eskar.  

Read the story here: https://www.kexp.org/read/2023/5/19/karl-blau-continues-to-shine-with-new-project-opal-eskar-featuring-members-of-the-war-on-drugs/ 

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Fabi Reyna is a Portland-based guitarist and songwriter and is also the founder of She Shreds Media, which is dedicated to empowering women and non-binary guitarists and bassists. Reyna is now out with a new album under her artist name, Reyna Tropical. The album is called 'Malegria.'

KEXP’s Albina Cabrera caught up with Reyna to learn more about the inspiration behind the album, how it explores the Latinx diaspora and identity, and about Reyna’s musical partner, Nectali "Sumohair" Díaz, who passed away during the making of the album.

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On her debut solo album, ‘Flowers At Your Feet,’ Rahill Jamalifard of Habibi continues to embrace the sounds and stories of her Iranian heritage, this time evoking memories of her loved ones through sonic artifacts like field recordings, audio from home movies, and references to Persian film and poetry.

Rahill joins KEXP’s Isabel Khalili to discuss the vulnerability of the new album and how it helped her arrive at the place of self-love she embodied as a child. They also discuss the origins of surf rock, the sampling of Middle Eastern music in hip-hop, the process of grief, and how Rahill’s childhood encouraged her to celebrate diversity and individuality.

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Seattle’s Kassa Overall is about to drop a new record later this month. Back in April DJ Miss Ashley sat down with Kassa to talk about his new album, the ending of Washington Middle School’s band program in Seattle, of which Kassa attended, and mental health. 

Listen to an interview with Kassa and his Washington Middle School band teacher: https://www.kexp.org/podcasts/sound-vision/2021/6/22/kassa-overall-and-his-middle-school-band-teacher-discuss-lasting-lessons/  

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Durand Jones of Durand Jones and the Indications talks about his debut solo album, 'Wait Til I Get Over.' It’s an homage to his hometown in the rural south and a love letter to his 17-year-old self. The album also features the first love song Jones has ever written for another man, a process he says was “freeing.” 

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Y La Bamba has just released their sixth studio album, 'Lucha.' The project is fronted by Luz Elena Mendoza, whose dreamy vocals weave between Spanish and English.

Mendoza speaks with KEXP’s Albina Cabrera about family, Mexican American identity, queerness, and mental health, and how these themes show up in their music. They also discuss Mendoza's recent move from Portland to Mexico and their production work on the new record.

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Blondshell reflects on the ways she's grown from toxic relationships, the different ways addiction manifests in her life, and how these themes come up on her self-titled debut album. She also shares her views on the importance of boundaries, both personal and within the music industry, and embracing the emotions of being a rising 25-year-old musician.

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More and more people are discovering the power of artificial intelligence through services like ChatGPT. So, tech companies are getting more and more into art spaces — including music discovery. KEXP’s Roddy Nikpour brings us this review of RadioGPT and Spotify DJ. 

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Lonnie Holley has lived a storied life. He was taken from his family by a burlesque dancer who performed in carnivals when he was a baby, suffered head injuries from getting hit by a car as a kid, then put in the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, also known as Mount Meigs. He went on to become a visual artist whose works have been on display at The White House and The Smithsonian.

Holley started releasing music about a decade ago when he was in his 60s. He’s now out with his seventh album. It’s called 'Oh Me Oh My' and features collaborations with Bon Iver, Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Sharon Van Etten, and more. Lonnie Holley shares his life story and how his experiences have informed his new record.

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Schoolhouse Rock turned 50 years old this year. KEXP’s Eva Walker caught up with one of the songwriters and performers of the program, Lynn Ahrens, to talk about the music of the show and the show’s legacy. 

“The original premise of Schoolhouse Rock, the president of that agency, a guy named David B. McCall had five kids and they could not remember their times tables but they could remember the lyrics to songs all the time and it was his brainchild to marry education with pop music and that’s how the whole series was born,” Ahrens says.  

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Adi Oasis is a French Caribbean singer and bass player. She spoke with Emily Fox about the themes of gun violence, black resilience, and female empowerment that come up in her new album, 'Lotus Glow.'

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For KEXP’s "Music Heals: Addiction & Recovery" programming, Macklemore shares his journey on the subject and how a robbery at his studio ultimately helped someone else’s path to recovery.

We also share a listener email that came in during Music Heals from Seattle’s Abbey Simmons whose story starts with Macklemore and ends with finding sobriety on tour.

If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs immediate help, call the toll-free, 24-hour hotline of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 9-8-8. 

More resources can be found here: kexp.org/musicheals/addiction/resources.

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Shana Cleveland of La Luz talks about her band’s new album, 'News of the Universe,' and how many of the songs reflect on the breast cancer diagnosis she got after weaning her then two-year-old son off breastfeeding in 2022. She has since received a good bill of health from her doctor.  

“I feel like I often think about cancer and pregnancy and birth in the same way. It was just something growing inside of me, something strange that I couldn’t control and then having it leave suddenly,” Cleveland says.

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The Garages is one of the top-selling Seattle bands on Bandcamp. It’s an 80-plus member collective with a massive following on Twitch that has put out more than 50 albums on Bandcamp since the group formed less than three years ago. Members June September and Yana Caoránach tell us more about the band and what makes the group so prolific.  

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Jónsi is the beautiful falsetto voice of the band Sigur Rós. He is also now the artist behind a multi-sensory installation called “Flood” at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle. KEXP’s Kevin Cole went to the museum to talk to Jónsi about the installation, about making perfumes with a product description that includes “a beached whale is about to explode” and Sigur Rós’ upcoming album.

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Miss Grit talks about how their debut LP, 'Follow the Cyborg' helped them explore being nonbinary.

“The cyborg being such a limitless entity was something that inspired me to kind of take my own identity into my own hands,” Miss Grit says. “There’s so much that people are born into when it comes to gender roles or racial stereotypes. There’s so much that our environment has an effect on how we see ourselves. I was really inspired to take my own identity into my own hands and figure out what it was that I felt about myself and how I wanted to be portrayed to the outside world.”

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Larry Mizell, Jr., Martin Douglas, and Jasmine Albertson talk about their musical highlights from Treefort Music Fest in Boise, ID.

Artists Discussed:  

• MIKE 
• Mauskovic Dance Band   
• Tropa Magica  
• Son Rompe Pera 
• Protomartyr 
• Plum Vision 
• NNAMDÏ 
• Sen Morimoto  
• runner 

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If you've ever listened to KEXP's broadcast, you've probably heard us say, "KEXP, where the music matters." But there’s at least one person at the station who isn’t sold on the idea of music itself. KEXP’s Dusty Henry shares his opinion on why music doesn’t matter. 

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As Women’s History Month comes to a close, KEXP’s Jasmine Albertson talks with three women in the touring industry (Stephanie Escoto, Alicia Blake, and Robin Taylor) about barriers to entry, gender inequities in the music industry, their general advice to bands that want to tour, and the wins they’ve had in their work.

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Grace Love talks with Larry Mizell Jr. about her new solo EP, “Work In Protest.”  

“This is a protest. I am standing up for myself that there are more curvy, big black women in the industry that can do all kinds of things,” Love says.

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Living Singles is the series where we talk to a KEXP staff member about three songs they’re really into right now. On this episode, Martin Douglas, writer behind KEXP’s local music column, Throwaway Style, and Eva Walker, host of our northwest music show, Audioasis, each share two songs from local artists.

Songs featured in this episode: 

• “Nightrider” by The Smokes  
• “Body Horror” by Lemon Boy  
• “Cognitive Whirlpool” by Debt Rag  
• “Starboard Hotel” by Sealife  

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Sound & Vision is bringing back Living Singles, where we talk with a KEXP staff member about three songs they are loving right now. Today we catch up with DJ Alex Ruder who hosts our downtempo, atmospheric and ambient music show, Pacific Notions (airing Sundays from 6-9am).  

Songs featured in this episode:

• “Sortie” by Thomas Almqvist 
• "Believe" by IKSRE & Party Store
• “Blue Hour (feat. Julianna Barwick)” by Nosaj Thing 

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This week is KEXP’s spring fundraising drive! We’re sharing listener stories about how music has helped them connect with friends and family. Please amplify listener-powered storytelling today at kexp.org/sound. 

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After a 12-year hiatus, the Olympia born-band Gossip is out with their 6th album, 'Real Power.' Beth Ditto of Gossip talks about growing up in Arkansas, moving to Olympia in 1999 after the rise of riot grrrl, and forming Gossip soon after arriving. She talks about those early days in Olympia, promoting body positivity, and being openly queer early on.

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KEXP DJ Sharlese Metcalf gets nostalgic about a previous era of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood with Adam Miller of Chromatics. They talk about what house parties meant to the Capitol Hill area and the trouble they got into that would never fly today. 

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Trans Musicales is a long-running music festival in Rennes, France that brings together a consistently incredible lineup of new and emerging artists from around the world. KEXP’s DJ Morgan Chosnyk shares some of the highlights from the 16 sessions KEXP filmed while at the festival. 

Artists discussed:  

• Seb Martel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A0OsX9pRK4 
• Nana Benz du Togo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uDs4X93MYo 
• 79ers Gang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTzoyzbuubs 

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Bobby McFerrin is the renowned vocalist and Grammy award-winning songwriter behind “Don’t Worry Be Happy.” He’s not the only notable McFerrin who has made waves in the music industry, though. KEXP’s Dusty Henry spoke with two of the McFerrins, Taylor and Madison, to learn more about their family history and how the siblings are continuing the McFerrin musical legacy.

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