ifitbeyourwill Podcast – Details, episodes &amp; analysis

https://www.johannasamuels.com/

Read moreCollapse

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #197 • Johanna Samuels

Episode 197

Tuesday, September 1, 2026 • Duration 37:55

Johanna Samuels makes songs that can turn a tiny memory into something that suddenly feels enormous. On this episode, we get into Sorry, Kid, revisiting old songs, getting older, the weirdness of memory, and how the places and people in our lives keep finding their way into our music. Johanna is thoughtful, funny, and refreshingly honest about the messy process of making sense of the past while still moving forward. A great conversation with a songwriter who knows how to make the personal feel universal—and a lot of fun along the way.

Read moreCollapse

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #196 • Rae Spoon

Episode 196

Tuesday, August 25, 2026 • Duration 32:49

What happens when a non-binary, trans artist comes back to country music and refuses to leave anything out? On Assigned Country Singer At Birth, Rae Spoon puts trans lives, disability, harm reduction, religious trauma, solidarity and colonialism alongside the trucks, beer and heartbreak traditionally associated with the genre. On *If It Be Your Will*, we get into why country still matters, what happens when you make music outside the boundaries of expectation, and what it means to claim a genre—and a country—that hasn’t always made room for you.

Read moreCollapse

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #195 • Darren Hayman

Episode 195

Friday, August 21, 2026 • Duration 34:19

Darren Hayman's been at this for three decades, and he's still treating songwriting like a puzzle he hasn't solved. Best known for fronting Hefner — the band a record label basically forced into existence by asking "is this a band or just you?" — Hayman's gone on to release records governed by self-imposed rules: witch trials, place names, entire concept records where the research threatens to swallow the songs whole. On this episode, he talks getting jumped after a gig, turning a fractured skull into The Violence, and the mild indignity of people treating your trauma like content. Also: 10,000 unfinished voice memos, an "Archivist" untangling his back catalog, and a theory that bands should die young. Not a comeback story — a guy who never stopped.

Read moreCollapse

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #194 • Kiwi Jr.

Episode 194

Monday, August 17, 2026 • Duration 29:25

Four albums deep, Toronto's Kiwi Jr. arrive at Blowin' Up by doing something quietly radical: playing it live, together, in a room. Jeremy Gaudet traded the tight compression and Pro Tools tinkering of past records for the sound of four people breathing the same air—guitar solos left unswapped, drums left unmoved. The result opens up where earlier Kiwi Jr. records clenched, trading whimsical, pop-culture-soaked lyricism for something more spacious and unguarded. Gaudet talks candidly about writing from title first, riff last, and the Neil Young listening sessions that shaped the room-sound instinct. Out August 7th, it's the sound of a band trusting the take.

https://www.ameliadaymusic.com/

Read moreCollapse

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #193 • Amelia Day

Episode 193

Monday, August 10, 2026 • Duration 37:13

Amelia Day’s EGO TRIP is country music with the safety rails ripped off—part heartbreak, part self-interrogation, and part refusal to play by somebody else’s rules. Amelia isn’t interested in sanding down the messy edges: the songs move between country, indie rock, and pop while wrestling with identity, desire, ego, and what it means to be seen. On this episode of If It Be Your Will, we get into the emotional wreckage behind EGO TRIP, reclaiming country as a queer space, and the strange freedom that comes from making music on your own terms. It’s sharp, vulnerable, and unapologetically Amelia.

http://monster-rally.com/

Read moreCollapse

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #192 • Monster Rally

Episode 192

Monday, August 3, 2026 • Duration 30:41

For more than a decade, Monster Rally has occupied a curious corner of contemporary music, where faded postcards, forgotten library records, and golden-age hip-hop production dissolve into richly imagined landscapes. On Echoes of the Emerald Sands, Ted Feighan opens that world to other voices for the first time, inviting collaborators including LEISURE, TV Girl, Sessa, Jordana, Mei Semones, and even the timeless presence of Henry Mancini into his meticulously assembled sonic atlas. The result is less a departure than an expansion—a record that blurs collage, memory, and fantasy while asking how place can be conjured from sound alone. We explore the art of sampling, world-building, and the strange beauty of music that seems to exist outside of time.

http://mullhistoricalsociety.com/

Read moreCollapse

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #191 • Mull Historical Society

Episode 191

Monday, July 27, 2026 • Duration 46:01

Some artists write songs. Colin MacIntyre seems to collect entire lives. For more than 25 years, the man behind Mull Historical Society has turned grief, small-town stories, oddball observations, and big melodies into one of Scotland's most distinctive catalogues. Along the way he's become an award-winning novelist, playwright, and the kind of creative who somehow makes writing a musical seem like a perfectly reasonable side project. His latest album, In My Mind There's a Photograph, takes memories shared by some of the world's best writers and transforms them into songs that are funny, moving, and deeply human. We talk about memory, storytelling, growing up on Mull, and why the best songs often begin with someone else's story.

https://transgressiverecords.com/artist/nina-winder-lind/

Read moreCollapse

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #190 • Nina Winder-Lind

Episode 190

Friday, July 24, 2026 • Duration 25:47

There are artists who make records, and then there are artists who seem to build entire worlds. On this episode of If It Be Your Will, Nina Winder-Lind joins us to discuss Wild Love, a debut solo album that feels both intimate and expansive. From growing up in Sweden and discovering music through Led Zeppelin and a teenage gang of misfits, to finding a creative home with The New Eves, Nina reflects on mythology, poetry, collaboration, and why the most personal songs often become the most universal.

https://stomprecords.com/bands/general-chaos/

Read moreCollapse

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #189 • General Chaos

Episode 189

Wednesday, July 22, 2026 • Duration 26:04

Montreal has always known how to make great punk bands, and General Chaos are proving the tradition is in very good hands. Formed when they were just twelve years old, the trio has quickly evolved from local curiosity to one of Canada's most exciting young punk acts. On this episode of If It Be Your Will, Constantin Blondy joins me to talk about Can't Please 'Em All, growing up in Montreal's legendary punk scene, DIY culture, songwriting, Pouzza Fest, and why honesty—not nostalgia—is keeping punk alive for a new generation.