Interviews

meka is Melissa Lingo, an American multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. She is our latest ‘Off the Shelf’ guest, a series where we ask artists to present objects from their homes and talk about them. Her latest album, The Rabbit (out tomorrow on Dumont Dumont), is profoundly shaped by her experience of living with chronic illness, transforming hardship into tender yet illuminating songs that balance grief and hope.

While she grew up in Yorkshire, Iona Lane’s new album, Swilkie, is a love song to Scotland’s islands and the people who live there, and an impassioned plea for the conservation of wild spaces and communities on the margins. A relative newcomer to the region, she spoke to KLOF about how she came to know and love her adopted homeland, and how it came to inform her music.

Guitarist Eli Winter’s ace new Trick of the Light album sees him in full band leader mode. Glenn Kimpton met up with Winter to discuss the project in finer detail.

Josienne Clarke is currently touring “Across The Evening Sky: The Songs Of Sandy Denny”. Danny Neill catches up with Josienne to chat about Sandy Denny and Josienne’s own solo journey.

Nashville guitar wizard William Tyler’s new album, Time Indefinite, is a pretty special effort; Glenn Kimpton met up with him to dig a little bit deeper…”It’s definitely the most personal record I’ve ever made”.

We caught-up with Marlon Williams to chat about his remarkable new record ‘Te Whare Tīwekaweka’, the first album sung in Māori by a solo artist to chart at number one in his native New Zealand.

Gigspanner Big Band talk about their new album, Turnstone, revealing an insight into an album that exists in a tradition of sprawling and inclusive experimentalism and where variation and difference are celebrated and encouraged.

A special Artists on Artist interview between multi-instrumentalist experimental alt-pop artists Shugo Tokumaru (Japan) and Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra (Australia/Taiwan) covering influences, childhood, creativity and more.

We chatted with American author, musician, and songwriter Willy Vlautin about The Delines’ new album, Mr Luck and Ms Doom. We also talk about his songwriting process, novel writing, and his fondness for Italian movie soundtracks from the 1960s and 1970s.

Stephen McAll (Constant Follower) is our latest Off the Shelf guest, a feature in which artists present objects from the shelves of their homes and talk about them. His new album, The Smile You Send Out Returns To You, is out next month.

We talk to New Mexico-based musical and linguistic polymath Jordan Wax about his Yiddish recording debut, ט​ײ​ַ​ט​ש [The Heart Deciphers]. Co-produced with Jeremy Barnes, the album melds deep klezmer instrumentation with larger indie rock arrangements.

We chat with 21st-century renaissance man Sam Amidon about his influences, his love of instrumental music, jazz and folk; and of course, the creation of his sublime new album ‘Salt River’.