Soul Sisters: Recent Episodes
Billboard
Inspiring women in music, from Grammy-winners to exciting up-and-comers to actors in music-centric projects, join Billboard to get real about what inspired THEM to follow their passions and become the powerhouses they are today. Soul Sisters is hosted by Billboard's writer/content creator Jessie Katz (@therealjkatz) and Darah Golub (@tnyls) of the indie-pop band Parlour Tricks.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Actor and performer Lola Kirke tells us how she's managed to star in a hit Amazon show (Mozart in the Jungle), several upcoming feature films AND record a new album which will be out later this year - plus she explains the power of putting together an all-female rock band.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Bettye LaVette joins Soul Sisters to tell us how, at 72 years old, the Motown-veteran soul singer (though she disputes the term) is really just getting started.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Broods singer Georgia Nott joins Soul Sisters to tell us about The Venus Project, her female-collaborative effort whose new album is a culmination of Nott's experiences as a woman in the industry and world at large.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Country singer Carly Pearce tells us how she parlayed years of hustling in the Nashville singer/songwriter scene into the breakthrough moment she's having now as one of country music's hottest rising stars.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Dessa - artist, writer, poet and boss lady of hip-hop collective Doomtree - joins Soul Sisters around the release of her latest album Chime to tell us how she became such a multi-hyphenate force to be reckoned with.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Fifth Harmony's Lauren Jauregui and school shooting survivor/gun control activist Delaney Tarr discuss what Generation Z can do to change the future, on this special bonus episode of Soul Sisters.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Klara and Johanna Söderberg of First Aid Kit join Billboard's Soul Sisters Podcast to address rumors of a rift between them and explain what fueled their new album Ruins.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Performer, composer and teaching artist Sarah Elizabeth Charles reunites with her old friend and Soul Sister co-host Darah to catch us up on her inspiring journey turning music into a powerful tool for social activism in New York City.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Hayley Kiyoko is proving not just to be one of the hottest rising stars in pop music today, but one whose rise as an unabashedly, nay celebratorily gay artist signals an important moment for our culture in general. She joins Soul Sisters to tell us how "growing up there was just no content that was hopeful" for people who wanted to see queer romance normalized onscreen in the way that she has with her self-directed, highly-viewed music videos.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Jane Birkin joins Soul Sisters to talk about her iconic work and life with Serge Gainsbourg - which she has resurrected with her latest album, Birkin/Gainsbourg Le symphonique - and how she feels about the word "iconic" (which is commonly ascribed to her) to begin with.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females talks early journal writing, her feelings on the term "shredding" and why people are so damn confused at her band's name.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Ute Lemper lends Soul Sisters her perspective on our current political moment as an international citizen and performer who has seen - and sang - it all.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Happy Valentine's Day from your Soul Sisters! On this episode genderqueer poet/performer Andrea Gibson joins the show to talk turning love, politics, gender and other elements of the human experience into powerful art on their new album 'Hey Galaxy' and book 'Take Me With You.'
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Grammy-winning Mexican artist Natalia Lafourcade joins the show just before attending the 60th Grammy Awards for her nominated album Musas to tell us about her next album and what awards really mean to her - including the Oscars, now that her song with Miguel in the animated film Coco has been nominated for one of those as well.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Prolific country songwriter, singer and all-around badass boss lady Brandy Clark joins the show to give us tips on crafting great songs, balancing the personal and political, and surviving the Grammys.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
MILCK joins the show on the day of her EP release and just before her headlining performance at the New York Women's March to tell us how she's become one of the leading voices of today's feminist movement.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Charlotte Gainsbourg, actor/musician and music royalty, joins Soul Sisters to talk about overcoming familial grief and her own discomfort to make her latest album, Rest.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Jazz artist Camila Meza joins Soul Sisters on the eve of New York's Winter Jazzfest to offer some real talk about the challenges facing women in that genre today - and what she suggests we can do about it.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Lizzy Plapinger kicks the new year off right for Soul Sisters as the co-founder of Neon Golden Records/front woman of MS MR/solo act known as LPX tells us how she became such a triple-threat talent - and what challenges still lie ahead.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Sarah McLachlan calls in from her home in Vancouver for a special holiday episode to discuss her recent Grammy nomination, the 20th anniversary of Lilith Fair and how she's battled double standards in the music industry to become one of the most cherished artists of her time.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Rising pop star VÉRITÉ joins Jessie and Darah to share her inspiring story of how she came to produce her own stand-out debut LP Somewhere In Between.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
As huge American Idol and Smash fanatics respectively, Darah and Jessie geek out with this week's guest Katharine McPhee, who has a new album of old standards out called I Fall In Love Too Easily.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Teresa Williams joins Soul Sisters to tell us the meet-cute story of her and husband Larry Campbell, who have a new album out together after each building prolific careers working with music giants like Bob Dylan, Levon Helm and The Grateful Dead.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The duo Gracie and Rachel join the show to talk about their unique take on misogyny in the music industry and how years of living AND working together has somehow not destroyed their friendship.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Edara "Baby G," lead singer of ubiquitous Brooklyn band Shinobi Ninja, joins Soul Sisters to tell us what it's like being the lone woman in a band with five dudes, and being mistaken for "the merch girl."
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Musician (and now comic book author) Lights joins Soul Sisters to talk about her new alter ego and to demand more inclusive marketing to young girls.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Grammy-nominated Brazilian singer Bebel Gilberto joins Soul Sisters to tell us about growing up with the complicated genius of her father - the founder of bossa nova Joao Gilberto - and her decision to cover Radiohead on her new live album.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Carla Bruni joins Soul Sisters to explain how she balanced a music career with being France's First Lady - and how she did NOT date Donald Trump, despite his claims to the contrary.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The country star explains how finding her authentic voice took her from "I Hope You Dance" stardom to her soul-satisfying new album The Lonely, The Lonesome & The Gone.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Tori Amos makes her second appearance on Soul Sisters to offer some perspective on the current sex abuse scandals rocking Hollywood, and to explain how the election of "the Master Showman" affected the writing of her new album Native Invader.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Tegan and Sara Quinn took some time right before their set at this year's Meadows Festival in Queens to catch up with Soul Sisters about how they're surviving these trying political times, why they had to become the queer icons they wanted to see in the world and how it feels to say good-bye to their Love You To Death tour in order to say hello to their upcoming The Con 10th anniversary tour and The Con X: Covers album out Oct. 20
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Happy National Coming Out Day! And happy Julia Weldon day, as the singer/songwriter joins Soul Sisters to tell us about her journey from child actor to musician while grappling with issues of gender, sexuality and near-fatal illness, all of which have culminated in the crafting of beautiful songs like those found on her new album, Comatose Hope.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The "Sunny Came Home" singer joins Soul Sisters to reflect on the 20th anniversary of both Lilith Fair and her album A Few Small Repairs, which Colvin has just re-released as a special anniversary edition.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"Don't Cry Out Loud" singer (and Blossom's mom!) Melissa Manchester stops by Soul Sisters to talk about her TWO new albums, performing at the Women's March in LA and how she got her start singing in the bathhouse with Bette Midler.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The B-52s' Cindy Wilson takes us through the "very psychedelic," "very David Lynch" early days of The B-52s through today as juggles touring with that band and launching her own solo endeavor - which she says isn't that dissimilar from how The B-52s started out.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
On this special comedy edition of Soul Sisters, actor/comedian Lauren Lapkus tells us about her new '90s nostalgia podcast and general obsession with the era, and comedian/musician Lane Moore discusses her band's new '90s-inspired performance series and her eternal love for the movie Empire Records.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Japanese Breakfast's Michelle Zauner joins Jessie and Darah to go deep on the inspiration behind her new album Soft Sounds From Another Planet, writing through grief, shutting down misogyny on tour, and the best way to get back at an ex - by besting their social media following.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Jessie and Darah rehash this year's crazy MTV Video Music Awards, including that shocking Fifth Harmony performance and the new Taylor Swift music video. Then Jessie is joined by her sister from another mister, Christina Cone from the band Frances Cone!
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Singer/songwriter Phoebe Ryan joins us to discuss her new single "Forgetting All About You" featuring Blackbear, her life motto "Destroy it to enjoy it," and her fresh approach to songwriting (be it for Usher or Britney Spears).
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
pronoun, aka Alyse Vellturo, joins Soul Sisters to tell us exactly how her EP was born out of two classic inspirations: a bad break-up...and Tinder.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Allison Pierce joins this episode of Soul Sisters to explain how initially her "heart was broken by the music business just countless times" when she and her sister Cat recorded together as The Pierces a decade ago. Now with her first solo album, Year of the Rabbit, she is ready to have another go at it.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Paula Cole joins Darah and Jessie to talk about the 20th anniversary of Lilith Fair and the album that propelled her to pop stardom with hits like "I Don't Want to Wait" and "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone," plus her new album Ballads out August 11.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Domino Kirke returns to music with her new album Beyond Waves after leaving the spotlight, which later found her sisters Jemima and Lola, but which she is now happily - if not hesitantly - ready to reclaim.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Lila Downs joined Soul Sisters to tell us why she felt compelled to make her new album, Salón, Lágrimas y Deseo, as a response to the election of Donald Trump.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The voice behind such hits as "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" and "As I Lay Me Down" joined Soul Sisters to tell us how those early hits led to a very unconventional career - and life.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Ani DiFranco joins this episode of Soul Sisters on release day for her new album Binary to look back at the culture-defining career that led to this, her 20th studio album. With special guest host Lane Moore (@hellolanemoore)!
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The iconic Lisa Loeb joins Soul Sisters to tell us how "Stay (I Miss You)" became one of the defining songs of the "slacker generation" and how she's managed to keep up with the evolving industry despite all the massive changes it's seen since then.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Though MisterWives is about as fun a live act as one can find these days, singer/songwriter Mandy Lee is quick to admit there's a lot of serious messaging behind the silliness.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Genre-bending violinist and YouTube star Lindsey Stirling joins Soul Sisters to tell us how her improbable stardom came about and to open up about her raw new documentary, Lindsey Stirling: Brave Enough.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"It’s really important that we always write from the perspective of a strong female character,” Samantha Gongol of electronic duo Marian Hill tells Soul Sisters, gratefully noting that band mate Jeremy Lloyd is "a champion of everything feminism."
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Kelly Rowland joins Soul Sisters to take us back to her early days hanging with the Knowles family, forming Destiny's Child, having too many No. 1's to remember, and writing her new book on the joys (ie pains) of motherhood, "Whoa, Baby!: A Guide for New Moms Who Feel Overwhelmed and Freaked Out (and Wonder What the #*$& Just Happened)."
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Sylvan Esso's new album What Now, out April 28, could hardly be better titled for this moment we find ourselves in, as we discuss with the band's Amelia Meath on this episode of Soul Sisters.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
On her very first trip to New York City, British soul singer Jo Harman joined the Soul Sisters podcast to talk about the themes that course through her latest album People We Become ("a lot of loss, a lot of heartbreak, fear, sadness...but hope, joy as well, empowerment") and to explain how a young girl who grew up dancing around the Maypole in her small Devon, England village became a vocal powerhouse sensation seemingly right out of the gate.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The Cranberries are back! And Soul Sisters was graced with a special guest to tell all about it: Dolores O'Riordan, the singing prodigy of Limerick, Ireland whose iconic voice and evocative songwriting led The Cranberries to international superstardom in the '90s with such hits as "Linger," "Zombie" and "Dreams."
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"I really hope it's weird," Arthur Moon, aka Lora-Faye Ashuvud, tells us about her new EP Our Head, an electro-rock experience that can feel as trippy as Ashuvud's bouts with migraine-induced aphasia.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Tennis' Alaina Moore explains why the title of the band's outstanding new album, Yours Conditionally, is as much about her relationship with husband and collaborator Patrick Riley as it is her feelings towards the music business overall.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"I’m not nostalgic, I’m not trying to keep people there," Vanessa Carlton says on this episode of Soul Sisters when explaining why she prefers to start her shows with the song many fans are there to hear - her massive 2001 hit "A Thousand Miles."
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Soul Sisters is officially anointed by the ULTIMATE soul sister - the best-selling female gospel singer of all time, CeCe Winans, who chats with us about her new album and looks back at her close friendship with the late Whitney Houston.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Suzanne Vega joined Soul Sisters one day before her Cafe Carlyle debut and two weeks before the 30th anniversary of her album Solitude Standing, which cemented Vega's place in the canon of singer-songwriter fame with hits like Luka and perhaps one of the most ubiquitous songs of all time, Tom's Diner.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
As she tells it in this episode of Soul Sisters, K.Flay was once complaining to a friend in college about the state of rap at the time when her friend offered this response that changed her life forever: "Why don't you write a song?" he said.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell of Overcoats spill about their meet-cute at Wesleyan College and how they transitioned from a cappella buddies to being on the verge of a huge break-through with their debut album Young, out April 21.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Singer Gavin Turek joined Soul Sisters just before dropping her new EP Good Look For You to explain how she's managed to make her disco-inflected pop sound as current as ever.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
One of Soul Sisters' personal choices for best new artist of the past year, Kelly Zutrau of Wet, joined us to dissect the Adele vs. Beyonce controversy, the challenges of being a high school drop out, and the cornerstone of so many of the songs that Zutrau (and Adele and Beyonce) writes: heartbreak.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Israeli icon Ninet Tayeb tells Soul Sisters about the long path she's traveled from being an "Israeli Idol" pop star to an L.A. rock n' roll queen.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Darah and Jessie reveal their New Year's resolutions and prepare to head to DC for the Women's March; Clementine Creevy of the rock band Cherry Glazerr (who also has a role on Amazon's "Transparent") joins the show to talk about peeing in cars, passing on makeup and the band's new LP, out on Inauguration day.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"What’s interesting about me is who I am, not how I look," says Rickie Lee Jones, aka "The Duchess of Coolsville," on this episode of Soul Sisters. "And if I can start from there, that in itself is a healthy and interesting way to see a woman in music."
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"It was like, 'What is going on in my little body right now?!'" Chrysta Bell remembers thinking the first time she heard the theme music to David Lynch's Twin Peaks. Little did she know back in the '80s that she would eventually become a major collaborator of Lynch's, both musically (he co-wrote and produced her latest EP Somewhere in the Nowhere) and, as fate would have it, as a cast member in his Twin Peaks reboot for Showtime, due to hit the small screen in 2017.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
On her 23rd birthday this past September, Kelsea Ballerini saw her latest single "Peter Pan" go to the top of Billboard's Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts simultaneously, making her the first solo female artist to top both in the same week. It's the third single Ballerini dropped from her debut album The First Time and also the third to go No. 1 on the charts - a fact she was still trying to make sense of when she joined Soul Sisters to take stock of this crazy moment she's having.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Christine Ebersole is not only a two-time Tony-winning actor, but also starred in some of our favorite movies of the '90s (Richie Rich anyone?) and even Saturday Night Live back in the Eddie Murphy heyday. She joined Soul Sisters at NYC's Chord Club in advance of her upcoming residency at the Café Carlyle to chat about her astounding body of work, which has only accelerated since an agent in L.A. once told her she was too old to get good roles anymore (this was before she won those two Tony's, by the way.)
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The Billboard office was awash in alt '90s nostalgia when Tori Amos stopped by last week to talk about her latest single "Flicker," which she wrote for the new Netflix documentary Audrie & Daisy. But that topic was just the tip of the iceberg.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Soul Sisters was lucky to steal some time with Grouplove frontwoman Hannah Hooper a day before the band's new album Big Mess was released earlier this month, just hours after their early morning performance on The Today Show, which itself came just hours after their appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Needless to say, Hooper was a bit tired - especially considering that she and bandmate Christian Zucconi also have a baby in tow.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"Yeah, it’s heavily skewed towards the penis-having side of the musical world," Jenn Wasner says of the tradition of naming a guitar after a (typically male) artist, an honor recently bestowed upon her when Reverend Guitars created the JW-1. Wasner, well-known as one half of the band Wye Oak and now the sole writer, instrumentalist and singer of the solo project Flock of Dimes, stopped by Soul Sisters to talk about her stellar new LP If You See Me, Say Yes.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Natalie Closner was a young musician trying to make it as a solo act, performing in bars and restaurants (whoever would take her) across the country, when a friend called her out for trying to sell music she herself didn't believe in. She almost immediately thought of her two twin sisters back home in Oregon, Meegan and Allie, whom she knew could sing, mostly from their occasional serenading of Rascal Flatts around the kitchen.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"Garbage was the first time I went to a concert, so that was the adorable back story," says Kristin Kontrol about her recent tour opening for the iconic '90s alternative rock band. But her history with that band, and its lead singer Shirley Manson, gets even more cosmic than that.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"Ain’t nobody putting out no good music," Chicago rapper Dreezy says flat out on this episode of Soul Sisters. "Everybody’s putting out bubblegum rap." The same cannot be said of Dreezy herself, who at only 22 years old is widely recognized as one of the most exciting new talents in the game.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
It's been ten years since El Perro del Mar unleashed their Phil Spector-esque '60s-inflected pop on the indie music scene with their self-titled debut album; with a new album, KoKoro, due out in September, frontwoman Sarah Assbring stopped by Soul Sisters during a brief stint in New York away from her native Sweden to look back at the crazy decade behind her.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Though the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Becca Stevens switches seamlessly between folk, pop and even the odd Usher cover (her deconstructed version of "You Make Me Wanna" from 2015's Perfect Animal is not easily forgettable), Stevens insists she's not intentionally trying to check off any boxes.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are synonymous with the kind of soul revival music that has helped make Brooklyn the new capital of cool and put vinyl back into rotation. Jones joined the Soul Sisters podcast at the Chord Club in New York to promote an upcoming documentary of which she is the subject, called Miss Sharon Jones! The film chronicles the roller coaster year of 2013 when Jones was preparing to release her new album Give The People What They Want but was hit with a cancer diagnosis that put her career - and her life - in serious peril.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The '80s teen icon, whose debut album ruled the charts with songs like "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Could've Been," has a new album out and tracks her long and historic career on this episode of Soul Sisters.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"It’s very Forrest Gump-y," Kendra Foster says about the ways in which all the pieces of her life have fit together, from her place in mentor George Clinton's legendary Parliament Funkadelic to her Grammy-winning collaboration with D'Angelo on his acclaimed Black Messiah album, and now her new self-titled LP of songs that embody and build upon everything that came before.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Lena Hall is about as straight-up rock-n-roll as we've ever had on Soul Sisters, which is perhaps surprising considering she's mostly known for being a Tony-winning Broadway musical actress. But just listen to her belt "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" at the end of this episode and there will be no room left for doubt that Hall is the type of performer who can do anything - anything - she sets her sights on.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
For this episode of Soul Sisters, we banished St. Lucia frontman Jean-Philip Grobler to the control booth so we could grill Patti Beranek on how their marriage both informs and challenges their musical partnership. "He is the main guy and I'm the sous chef, the support," Beranek says humbly, after admitting that "fights happen for sure. Don't ever ask Jean and myself about a cocktail shaker."
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Soul Sisters was graced with a true legend this episode, when prolific folk songstress Judy Collins stopped by the Chord Club to talk about her new album Silver Skies Blue, out June 3, and to share her vast perspective on a career that has spanned five decades and more hits than we could ever cover in an hour - not that it stopped us from trying.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
When Sarah Versprille met fellow musician Daniel Hindman during freshman orientation of college, she knew she wanted to be a singer but had been battling “horrible stage fright for so long.” The two became friends, bandmates and eventually romantic partners, a fact that isn’t widely publicized about their enchanting indie band Pure Bathing Culture (though anyone who registers the incredible artistic chemistry between the two shouldn’t be too surprised.) We got the full download from Versprille about how that all came about on this episode of Soul Sisters, recorded at NYC’s Chord Club, when the Portland-based band was in town for a show at Webster Hall.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Since their 2010 debut album Pickin' Up the Pieces, Fitz and the Tantrums has been steadily evolving away from the soul revival sound they overlapped with into one that is decidedly their own, which their hot new dance single "HandClap" can attest to. Noelle Scaggs, who serves as the powerhouse co-vocalist in the band to Michael "Fitz" Fitzpatrick, joined Soul Sisters to describe that evolution from the inside, as the band gears up to release their third, self-titled album.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"If you want to win the lottery you gotta buy a lottery ticket." This kind of sage advice flows easily out of Maggie Rose, who, though still in her 20's, has seen more than her share of ups and downs as a singer/songwriter who refuses to let the music industry package her as just another pretty voice.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"It took me a while before I didn't feel like I was doing live band karaoke to the San Fermin band," singer Charlene Kaye tells Soul Sisters about what it was like joining the beloved indie band after their self-titled first album was already making waves.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"It happens! You have a lot of big personalities!" Megan Hilty insists about some of the stranger-than-fiction plot lines in Smash, the NBC Broadway drama that made her a household name, even though she was already well established within the real-life world the show depicted.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
It's hard to predict what someone will recognize Rumer Willis for exactly: as the winner of last season's Dancing With the Stars, or her starring role in Chicago on Broadway; for acting on the CW reboot of Beverly Hills 90210, or her current performances in L.A.'s The Unauthorized Musical Parody of The Devil Wears Prada. (Or, yes, as the oft-photographed daughter of her fairly well-known parents, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.)
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Joss Stone remembers her exact words when Damian Marley told her, five years ago, that she should record a reggae album. "Everyone will be so mad with me if I do that!" she said - and sure enough, she was right.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Soul Sisters was thrilled to welcome Golden Globe-winner and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creator Rachel Bloom into the Chord Club for a brief respite from awards campaigning ("If you want an Emmy, you campaign. So we're doing that. Give us an Emmy," she deadpanned) to chat about this phenomenal first year she's had as musical showrunner and slyly feminist firebrand.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"I never really wrote songs until I got my heart broken, and then I sat by the piano and I started playing some chords," Jessica Maros tells us in this episode of Soul Sisters in which the singer/songwriter (and half of the desert rock duo Escondido) tells us how, as the daughter of Slovakian immigrants growing up in Vancouver, she came to hold such a formidable place in the Nashville music scene.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Legendary Broadway star Chita Rivera tells us what it was like starring in the original Broadway production of West Side Story and shares her secret to remaining such a vivacious performer almost sixty years later!
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Leyla McCalla was playing music on a street corner in New Orleans when the manager of the Carolina Chocolate Drops approached her about joining their band. "Within a few months I’m in Nashville at Buddy Miller’s studio recording on Leaving Eden, which was their second Grammy-nominated album," she recalls, still in disbelief, on this episode of Soul Sisters recorded at NYC's Chord Club.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Many would be shocked to learn that the red hot sax player in Stephen Colbert's house band is only 23 years old - though Grace Kelly's list of accomplishments is already enough to rival many a veteran.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"Maybe I just have had enough," says Bethany Cosentino, frontwoman of the California band Best Coast and all-around feminist badass to anyone who's been paying attention to women's issues in the music industry this past year.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
"One of my favorite things about music is that you can exist as a relatively introverted, quiet, reserved person and then you can hear music or play music and totally step outside of yourself, and all of your inhibitions fall to the wayside," Sleigh Bells singer Alexis Krauss tells us about her experience fronting a band that has defined the modern "noise pop" genre.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
We’ve long known that Ana Gasteyer is great at playing musicians – but many would be surprised to know that the former Saturday Night Live star is a pretty damn good one herself.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
When Joan Osborne became an overnight sensation with her ubiquitous hit “One of Us” in 1995, no one was less prepared than her. “On the one hand I was really excited to get that kind of recognition,” she says on this episode of Soul Sisters, while admitting that “it was also really difficult just personally” with strangers following her down the street after recognizing her from the song’s music video that played in heavy MTV rotation.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
In the Magic Hour is the name of bluegrass darling Aoife O'Donovan's new album, and also an apt description of what it felt like chatting with her on this episode of Soul Sisters. Well-known as leading vocalist in the band Crooked Still and her part in the Grammy-winning Goat Rodeo Sessions album, O'Donovan is now thriving in a solo career that finds her harnessing her immense musical talents that first revealed themselves when she knew, at the age of five, that she wanted to be a musician.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The daughter of a Bob Seger saxophonist and a Playboy bunny was bound to have an interesting life, one way or another. But singer-songwriter Victoria Reed carved out a path uniquely her own, a journey that she describes in revealing detail on this episode of Soul Sisters. With her stunning debut album Chariot just out and an international tour under her belt, Reed looks back on a childhood that included a famous father, a family psychic, a near-miss becoming a Disney star and a philosophy study that drove her into an existential breakdown that gave her all the material she would need as an artist.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Jazz phenom Cécile McLorin Salvant sat down with Soul Sisters a week before flying out to Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards, where she was nominated for - and would win - Best Jazz Vocal Album, for her latest LP For One to Love.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Early into this episode of Soul Sisters, Brandy remarks on the "hundred thousand butterflies" she feels when we remind her of how much success she's had, on the Billboard charts and beyond, in her 20-plus year career as an entertainer. From her lightning hot debut album that she put out when she was only 15, to her Grammy win for the best-selling female duet of all time "The Boy Is Mine," to her legendary work with Whitney Houston in Cinderella and her starring role on Moesha, Brandy has been an inspirational figure for as long as most people under 40 can remember.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Soul Sisters was thrilled to join Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of the iconic power duo Indigo Girls before their sold-out show at New Jersey's Wellmont Theater, where swarms of fans had come from across the east coast to hear the harmonious voices that defined many a '90s adolescence (and continue to do so with new generations, their sixteenth studio album out just last year). From "Closer to Fine" to "Galileo," "Power of Two" to "Ghost," Indigo Girls possess a certain symbolic place in our cultural minds - for better or worse, as Ray and Saliers are very quick to address.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Grammy-winning blues musician Susan Tedeschi shares her story of how a blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl from Massachusetts came to possess one of the most respected voices of anyone in her genre (B.B. King counts as but one of her many famous fans.) Throughout the episode Tedeschi returns again and again to what it means to be a successful woman in her business – from leading her own band as it grew from three people to twelve, to the strong camaraderie she found with fellow artists like the Indigo Girls and Sheryl Crow during Lilith Fair, to the motivation that naysayers unwittingly fueled her with to succeed. And to top it all off, Tedeschi closes the episode with a live performance of the title track “Let Me Get By” off the new album by the Tedeschi Trucks Band, which she founded with her husband, guitar prodigy and Allman Brothers alumnus Derek Trucks.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.