Talkhouse Podcast

On this week's Talkhouse episode we’ve got four guys who have tons in common—including lots of soundtrack work— but who, surprisingly, hadn’t met before. It’s Son Lux and Dan Deacon.

Son Lux started out as the solo electronic project of Ryan Lott back in 2008, but by 2015 he’d been joined by fellow travelers Ian Chang and Rafiq Bhatia, expanding the group’s sound into something reviewers loved to call both “dense” and “orchestral.” So it makes sense that the trio would find its way into writing and performing scores for film, and they got a huge, high-exposure job with the massive Everything Everywhere All At Once. The film’s score involved a hundred cues and some killer collaborators, including David Byrne, Mitski, and Andre 3000. Nominated for an Oscar, it naturally led to other film-world work, including the score to the superhero movie Thunderbolts. But that hasn’t stopped Lott, Chang, and Bhatia from itching to write original Son Lux music, and last month saw two big releases—one the score to a new movie called Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother and then a brand new Son Lux record called Out Into. Check out “Want You To Love” from that record right here.

The other half of today’s chat, Dan Deacon, has gotten so busy with scoring films and TV that he hasn’t released an artist album since 2020—as you’ll hear in this chat, he’s reasonably content with those circumstances, though he does plan on getting around to it. Deacon found audiences in the early 2000s with frantic live shows of his experimental electronic pop, and his entrance into the scoring world was incredibly strange, another story he recounts in this conversation. A blind email from Francis Ford Coppola led to his first job, but that movie—called Twixt—put him off soundtrack work for a while. He’s since become a staple in the scoring world, though, with a bunch of projects coming out right around now, including a new soundtrack for a documentary called Great Photo, Lovely Life.

In this lively conversation, the three members of Son Lux and Deacon talk a lot about creating music for other projects versus making their own records, including some interesting behind-the-scenes thoughts on how music gets used in movies versus, say, bus noises. Also, is every director the equivalent of Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings? Probably not. Enjoy.

0:00 Intro

02:52 Start of conversation & how often they put out albums

03:38 On work schedules, confidence, and momentum

05:46 On Dan’s solo and collaborative scores, music editors, and documentary scores

08:28 On how they got into scoring movies, how scores differ from other music, and working with Francis Ford Coppola

12:40 On improvisational and collaborative scores, and how scores influence their own projects

15:20 On the Venn diagram of creativity in film scoring, their record processes, and bad mixes in scores

19:37 On the dub stage of scoring and Everything Everywhere All At Once

23:08 On Dan’s future music plans, creative pressure, and exploring the ideas and skills Dan discovered through scoring

28:40 On writing songs, and why directors/composers are like Lord of the Rings characters

31:49 On Justin Vernon’s writing process and if records need stories about their process

33:03 On the pros and cons of touring

35:41 On Son Lux’s new album and upcoming score, and Dan’s crazy schedule for scoring Venom

38:20 On good manager relationships, and wanting people to find their new music

41:12 On future regrets, letting go of stress, types of fun, and making plans to check in again

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to the guys from Son Lux and Dan Deacon for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

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On the latest episode of Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That, Nick Dawson sits down with actress and writer Kathryn Grody, who previously appeared on the podcast with her husband, Mandy Patinkin. In a wide-ranging, funny and sometimes emotional conversation timed to a new run of Grody’s new one-woman show The Unexpected 3rd, Grody talks about: the joys of wandering, a very memorable biking vacation through Ireland (that Mandy all but forced to her go on!), how humor miraculously helped her father survive the Normandy D-Day landings, why she prefers Sherman Oaks to Paris, the huge impact losing her parents in her mid 20s had on her, and much more.

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That now has a Substack, so head there to check out all of our past episodes, plus subscribe to get access to exclusive audio and video content!

Bloomberg journalist Ashley Carman sits down with Jad Abumrad (Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, Dolly Parton's America, Radiolab) for a career-spanning conversation.

Find more illuminating podcasts on the ⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠.
Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ to read essays, reviews, and more.
Sign up for our newsletter.
Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Facebook, and Letterboxd.

On the latest episode of Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That, Nick Dawson sits down with popular comedian and actor Jaboukie Young-White, who is currently starring in the romantic comedy The Love Hypothesis. In a very funny and wide-ranging conversation, Young-White opens up about a diverse array of topics, including the French cultural quirk that he recently became addicted to, his wild dream about dung beetles (that may become the basis for a new kids movie), how he was “disrespectful” as an Inception-inspired lucid dreamer, his Jamaican grandmother’s amazing duppie story, the childhood sleepover prank that made people think he was a demon child, and much more.

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That now has a Substack, so head there to check out all of our past episodes, plus subscribe to get access to exclusive audio and video content!

This week’s Talkhouse episode is a special deep dive for me, as it features two bands whose records from the ‘90s I was super into, talking about a really important record label, their various successes and failures, the steamroller of a bigger band called Oasis, and much more. It’s Mark Gardener and Pete Fij.

Mark Gardener was—and is, in fact—one of the two singer-guitarists for the band Ride, whose legendary status was cemented in the early 1990s with the advent of shoegaze. Their first two albums, Nowhere and Going Blank Again, are rightfully considered masterpieces of the genre. Things got a bit messy for Ride for a while after those records, though, as Gardener and his musical partner Andy Bell drifted apart, making a pair of wildly different records before eventually splitting up in the mid-'90s. But the Ride story has a happy ending: The increased interest in shoegaze led to a reunion tour in 2014, which led to some great new Ride records. Oh and not for nothing, but Bell actually joined Oasis on bass in 1999, and he’s been on tour with them playing massive shows recently. Here's a Ride classic, in case you're not familiar.

The other half of today’s conversation, Pete Fij, was also the singer of a highly touted band that signed to the legendary Creation Records label in the ‘90s and looked ready to conquer the world… but then didn’t. But despite the fact that things didn’t work out commercially for Adorable, their records are absolutely amazing—some of my favorite of that entire era, like a poppier Jesus and Mary Chain. It just goes to show that sometimes the best songs can get left behind when circumstances aren’t right. After Adorable’s breakup, Fij went on to release more great music with the band Polak, then entered a musical partnership with another Creation Records alumnus, Terry Bickers of House of Love. Now, 30-ish years later, Fij has just released his first proper solo album, called Up’s The New Down. It comes after a lot of downcast music in various guises, and feels like a reaction to it: It’s much more guitar-centered, upbeat, and positive. Those sentiments are reflected in this song: Check out “Love’s Coming Back” right here, and the album is out now.

This conversation starts with some catnip for Creation Records fans: Gardener and Fij talk about their experiences signing with the legendary label, specifically about their interactions with the notoriously enigmatic label head Alan McGee. And of course both bands were making records right when Creation Records signed Oasis, so that juggernaut changed things for everybody. Beyond that, these two chat about what they’ve been up to since—and how they feel differently about those times, even if they wouldn’t necessarily change a thing. Enjoy.

0:00 Intro

3:00 Start of conversation

3:19 On meeting Alan McGee and Creation Records

07:55 On developing trust with Alan

10:37 On Creation’s unique office

12:57 On Oasis’s impact

15:18 On feeling competitive with Oasis, and seeking guidance

19:13 On success and falling out with bandmates

23:05 On solo work vs. collaborative work

26:04 On 80s and 90s bands, making new music, and the creative process

30:41 On Shazaam, listening to each other’s new music, and younger generations finding their music

33:22 On the first songs they learned, music that influenced them, and band roles

36:48 On seeing gigs and playing with their heroes

39:20 On songwriting and emotion

41:53 On Adorable reuniting

48:33 On Ride’s comeback and what comes next

51:35 On rediscovering chemistry, and reflecting on why they love music

54:11 On defining success

56:53 On bands being nice to audiences

58:00 On Pete’s first solo album, and the experience of solo tours

1:01:23 On vocals, feeling nostalgic in Oxford, and Pete’s Coventry days

1:04:23 On historic sites and DJing together

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Pete Fij and Mark Gardener for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and be sure to check out all the other great shows in our network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

Find more illuminating podcasts on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠⁠.
Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ to read essays, reviews, and more.
⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠.

Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠, and ⁠Letterboxd⁠.