LSQ – Details, episodes & analysis

Remi Wolf is my favorite kind of modern artist: a young music-maker who truly doesn't give a flying eff what genre names folks might use to try to neatly categorize her sound. Remi knows that, as she once said, "genres are pretty obsolete at this point." She continued (in this interview with Spin): "I think artists are their own genre, where every artist is creating such a world for themselves that they are becoming the sound and the thing." The world Remi has created over the course of the past several years and two full-length albums, including her awesome new sophomore LP Big Ideas, is kaleidoscopic and soulful and trippy and funky and full of humor. I had a blast talking to her about her childhood experiences with music and her own creativity, and how they overlapped with her experiences as a serious athlete who was involved in competitive skiing until music proved to be a stronger calling. We talked about the stuff she heard around the house -- Prince, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin -- and the artists she got into on her own when she was a little older, from My Chemical Romance to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Amy Winehouse to Snarky Puppy, and how they informed her own music. She also shares what she learned from her brief experience as a contestant on American Idol back when she was seventeen (you can see her audition here), and how she found began to find her own sound as a songwriter during her college years. Remi and her band just started a huge North American tour and you can get tickets here.

On the heels of Foster the People's first new album in seven years, their excellent, uplifting and highly danceable new album Paradise State of Mind, hear from the project's creative mastermind about key moments in his musical journey: how he learned to play piano by ear as a kid, and was later inspired to play guitar by hearing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on a kiosk at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; how he discovered the value of a local music community through his city's metalcore scene; how his dad talked him out of joining the Air Force and persuaded him to move to Los Angeles to pursue his music dream instead; what he learned from the rejection and adversity of his early years in LA; how he overcame the fear he felt after having a hit with "Pumped Up Kicks" that he might not be able to do it again; what it felt like to open for his heroes The Beach Boys; how his songwriting has evolved since then, and more. Paradise State of Mind is out now, and you can get tickets for Foster the People's upcoming shows here.

On the eve of her incredible sophomore solo album, What Now (out February 9th), hear Brittany Howard share the story of her creative journey as a singer, songwriter and performer, explaining how she first discovered her voice and where she still hopes to go with it, how bonding with her friends over music like Black Sabbath and Kings of Leon led into starting her own band, the Alabama Shakes, with some of those same friends, how seeing Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings in concert several years ago infused her with a whole new perspective on her career, and more, in episode 101.