LSQ

Ben Kweller [benkweller.com]’s music first stole my heart back in the early oughts when he released his wonderful debut album Sha Sha, and I have been a huge admirer of his work ever since. I’ve also had the good fortune of his friendship for more than twenty years, so it was amazing to finally get together with him for the LSQ podcast. Episode 123 features a deep and poignant conversation with BK about his entire creative history, including his excellent latest album, Cover The Mirrors, which was written in the wake of the tragic death of his teenage son Dorian.  In addition to sharing how that tremendous loss ended up inspiring him to reconnect with making music in the innocent way he’d done as a kid, he details what those early creative years were like for him — writing Beatles-inspired love songs on the piano as a little kid, starting his band Radish after hearing Nirvana, hustling to get Radish their first shows at Chauncey’s Place, a local billiards hall in Greenville, Texas, eventually getting rides from his parents to Dallas to play shows there, recording Radish’s demos and the ensuing bidding war to sign them, and more. I was also fascinated to hear about his family connection to legendary guitarist Nils Lofgren of the E Street Band and Neil Young’s Crazy Horse (as well as being a brilliant artist in his own right), and how Lofgren provided key support at multiple points during Ben’s early days.  And then we get into his moves toward stepping out on his own as an artist, including how support from the Lemonheads’ Evan Dando helped catalyze his solo career. Ben also reminisces about the heyday of the New York City indie scene he was part of in the oughts, and how allyship with bands like the Strokes and Moldy Peaches and Kings of Leon (although not from NYC, the Kings regular touring companions of Ben’s and honorary NYC scenesters) created a vital support system. On more recent topics, Ben reveals that Radish’s lost sophomore album, Discount Fireworks, which includes early versions of songs like “Wasted & Ready” and “Harriet’s Got A Song,” will finally be coming out via his own label, The Noise Company [https://thenoisecompany.com/]. He also talks about the work he’s been doing recently to collaborate with Jason Schwartzman (who is among the guests on Cover The Mirrors) to record new music for Schwartzman’s long-dormant band Coconut Records.

For episode 122 of the LSQ podcast, I had the pleasure of connecting with the up-and-coming singer-songwriter Uwade [uwade.com], whose beautiful debut studio album, Florilegium, arrived this spring following, truly, YEARS of anticipation from those of us who were first captivated by her voice when we heard her sing on Fleet Foxes’ 2020 album Shore. As you’ll hear, Uwade’s musical influences since childhood span an array of genres including R&B, gospel, choir music, pop, hip-hop, indie rock and more, so it’s no wonder that her own songs are so refreshingly genre agnostic. Uwade is also currently studying for her PhD in Classics, and I was fascinated to hear her talk about how her academic and musical pursuits feed each other.

“There was always a way that music could speak to me,” says Youth Lagoon’s Trevor Powers [https://trevorpowe.rs/]. “I was really shy as a kid and I had a lot on my mind that I didn’t know how to get out. And music felt like one of those cheat codes where I felt like what I could say through one song was a lifetime worth of what was in my brain that I couldn’t say any other way.”  I was instantly captivated by Youth Lagoon’s music when I first heard it more than a decade ago: Trevor Powers’ plaintive, childlike voice, the dreaminess and heady sonic textures of his music, the candor in his storytelling. In the years since the Boise, Idaho artist’s 2011 debut album, he has continually deepened his ability to make music that soothes and haunts at the same time. His latest album, Rarely Do I Dream, is his best yet, and one of my favorite LPs of 2025 so far.  In the conversation in episode 121, Trevor talks about how discovering a trove of old home movies helped inspire the new album, and remind him of the importance of finding the true feeling at the center of a memory. He also discusses growing up hearing artists like Elvis and The Beach Boys and John Denver while being homeschooled, before finally being exposed to bands like Korn and the Offspring and Blink-182 when he eventually attended high school, and later discovering artists like My Bloody Valentine and Oingo Boingo thanks to his uncle introducing him to more cutting edge music. “There’s always something that’s coming in that’s changing not only my thought process, but there’s something internally that’s awakening my spirit in these new ways and pushing me in all these different directions,” he says. “There could be an endless amount of lifetimes and I can’t get it all out, what’s up here.” Trevor also shares why he decided to "kill off" the Youth Lagoon Project several years ago, and to instead record under his own name for awhile, and why he chose to resurrect the moniker back in 2022. Youth Lagoon is on tour in the U.S. until mid-May. Get more info here. [https://www.bandsintown.com/a/3505055-youth-lagoon]

When I learned that house and dance music legend Crystal Waters [https://linktr.ee/crystalwaters] has been finishing her first new album since 1997 and was getting ready to share singles and do interviews and therefore might be up for talking with me, I was so geeked.  I’ve been a fan since the early 90s when huge hits like "Gypsy Woman" and "100% Pure Love" were all over the radio, and it was an honor to get to connect with her for episode 120 and a conversation about her songwriting process, how she got her start in music, and why this current creative phase is one of the most exciting in her thirty-plus year career.  Crystal recently shared a great new single called "You & Me" -- a collaboration with the Swedish duo ManyFew [manyfew.komi.io] -- and she was also recently honored during Miami Music Week at the inaugural Femmy Awards with awards for The Voice of House and the Female Icon Award. And there will be a lot more new music coming from Crystal in the remainder of this year, and live shows, too!

In episode 119, I catch up with Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller, the noise pop duo better known as Sleigh Bells [tornclean.com]. I have been a massive Sleigh Bells fan since their first few singles back in 2009 — brash, genre-defying bangers like “Crown on the Ground” and “Infinity Guitars” that sounded unlike anything else, combining elements of pop, metal, hardcore, hip-hop and punk. They’ve continued to blow my mind with the leaps they’ve made since then.  The three of us are also old friends at this point, and though we’ve done shorter interviews in the past, it was great to finally get to ask them some of the classic LSQ podcast questions about all the shit they were into as kids. In this episode, Alexis talks about what she learned from her experience in a teen pop band, revelations she had at the punk and hardcore shows she frequented during her New Jersey youth, and learning to integrate the diverse parts of her musical voice. Derek describes falling in love with the soundtrack to La Bamba as a kid growing up in Florida, and then discovering 80s pop greats like Janet Jackson and Cyndi Lauper before venturing into alternative and hard rock (Nirvana, Silverchair) and then having his mind blown by ground-breaking artists such as Radiohead and Björk, and then eventually joining metal core band Poison The Well in his later teens. They also share the story of how they came together to form Sleigh Bells, and how their current approach builds on the foundational principles they established for the band more than fifteen years ago. Sleigh Bells’ new sixth studio album, Bunky Becky Birthday Boy, comes out this week and it’s stellar. Find out more (and get tickets for their upcoming tour) at: tornclean.com [tornclean.com]