Life of the Record

By: Life of the Record / Talkhouse
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  • Summary

  • Classic albums, told by the people who made them.
    Life of the Record / Talkhouse
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Music
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Episodes
  • The Making of I'M WIDE AWAKE, IT'S MORNING by Bright Eyes - featuring Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis

    The Making of I'M WIDE AWAKE, IT'S MORNING by Bright Eyes - featuring Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis
    Jan 27 2025
    For the 20th anniversary of the sixth Bright Eyes album, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, we take a detailed look at how it was made. Conor Oberst began Bright Eyes in 1995 in Omaha, Nebraska as an outlet for his solo material that he had been writing as a teenager. He formed a partnership with Saddle Creek Records, a label founded by his brother Justin Oberst and Mike Mogis and began releasing his albums in 1998, starting with A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995–1997. Later that year, he released Letting Off the Happiness, which marked his first collaboration with Mike Mogis. Fevers and Mirrors was released in 2000 and Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground followed in 2002. At this point, Conor moved to New York City and began writing the songs that would make up his next two albums. I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn were eventually released on the same day in 2005. In this episode, Conor Oberst describes how moving to a New York as a midwestern transplant gave him a fresh perspective and brought a sense of romanticism to the songs he was writing. He also talks about a political awakening that he experienced after George W. Bush was elected and 9/11 happened. Connecting with musicians in New York inspired him musically as he began incorporating jazz elements and decided to embrace a minimal 70s folk sound for this record. Longtime Bright Eyes producer and band member Mike Mogis describes how they ended up making the record back in Nebraska but invited some new people to the sessions, including musicians from New York like Jesse Harris and Tim Luntzel. He also talks about the stripped down approach they used for this record and how he felt insecure about not relying on the studio tricks they had used for past records. By recording live with a small group of people and making the record in a very short amount of time, he discusses how this change suited the material Conor was writing. From a turbulent plane ride on the way to make the record to a creative burst in Conor’s songwriting to working on two very different records simultaneously to sparse arrangements and musical jokes to the shot in the dark of asking Emmylou Harris to sing backup, we’ll hear the stories of how the album came together.
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    2 hrs and 9 mins
  • The Making of MEAN EVERYTHING TO NOTHING by Manchester Orchestra - featuring Andy Hull

    The Making of MEAN EVERYTHING TO NOTHING by Manchester Orchestra - featuring Andy Hull
    Jan 7 2025
    For the 15th anniversary of Manchester Orchestra’s second album, Mean Everything to Nothing, we take a detailed look at how it was made. The band started in 2004 as an outlet for Andy Hull’s songwriting that he was doing as a teenager growing up in Atlanta, Georgia. Hull connected with bassist Jonathan Corley and drummer Jeremiah Edmond and self-released their first EP in 2005. Keyboardist Chris Freeman joined the band and their debut album, I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child was released in 2006 on their own label. They got the attention of Canvasback Recordings, who signed them to a deal and re-released the album one year later. Guitarist Robert McDowell ended up joining the band and they began working on their second album, with Joe Chiccarelli producing. Mean Everything to Nothing was eventually released in 2009. In this episode, Andy Hull reflects on the pressure he felt suddenly being on a major label and working with a big name producer. Expectations for the band were high and he describes his ambition to rise above the sophomore slump and deliver a great record. Inspired by Weezer’s Pinkerton, he talks about wanting to make an emotionally raw sounding record that reflected his turbulent personal life at this time as he was getting married and wrestling with his faith and his Christian upbringing. The resulting album made for a cathartic experience that provided a deep and long lasting connection with their audience. From shredded vocal chords to writing autobiographically and not overthinking lyrics to panic attacks on tour to reinterpreting the hymn “Come Thou Fount” to a meltdown after losing a hundred dollar bill, we’ll hear the stories around how the record came together.
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    1 hr and 44 mins
  • The Making of AMERICAN FOOTBALL (S/T) - featuring Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes and Steve Lamos

    The Making of AMERICAN FOOTBALL (S/T) - featuring Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes and Steve Lamos
    Dec 4 2024
    For the 25th anniversary of American Football (Self-Titled), we take a detailed look at how it was made. The origins of American Football began with Mike Kinsella’s band Cap’n Jazz, who were hugely influential in the punk scene in the Chicago suburbs. Steve Holmes went to high school with Kinsella and was inspired to learn guitar after watching Cap’n Jazz perform. Kinsella and Holmes became close friends and ended up going to college together and were roommates at the University of Illinois in Champaign. During college, Kinsella briefly joined a band with Steve Lamos called The One Up Downstairs. When that band broke up, Holmes and Lamos began jamming together and when Kinsella heard their practice tapes, he asked if he could join. The three of them ended up forming American Football in 1997. Their friends, Matt Lunsford and Darcie Knight were just getting their label Polyvinyl going in nearby Danville and they offered to release a three song EP in 1998. By the time they were graduating, they had enough songs for a full-length album, but the band was breaking up as Holmes and Kinsella were moving back to Chicago. Polyvinyl offered to release an album anyway so they booked time at Private Studios with local engineer, Brendan Gamble. The American Football (Self-Titled) album was eventually released in 1999. In this episode, Steve Holmes describes the guitar style he developed with Kinsella that was based on alternate tunings and shifting time signatures, inspired by music they were listening to at the time like Steve Reich, Nick Drake, The Sea and Cake and Red House Painters. Mike Kinsella talks about switching from drums to guitar and writing lyrics inspired by the few romantic relationships he had up to that point. His lyrics came from a diary and were heavily influenced by the melodramatic lyricism of bands like The Cure, Depeche Mode and The Sundays. Steve Lamos discusses his musical upbringing and deep love of jazz, which found its way into the American Football sound with his trumpet playing and compositional approach to the drums. The three of them describe the unique sound they found together and the unlikely story about how even though the band broke up early on, the album still managed to reach people years after it was a released. From recording the week after graduation to constantly having to borrow guitars, amps and tuners to embracing repetitive patterns and avoiding traditional verse chorus structures to singing through paper towel rolls during recording to lyrics about relationships ending and the transition into adulthood to the album cover of the now iconic American Football house, we’ll hear the stories around how the record came together.
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    2 hrs and 1 min

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