Music Interviews

The Washington, D.C.-based band Oh He Dead entered its song "The Foreigner" into the 2021 Tiny Desk Contest.

Music & Culture

Tiny Desk Contest entrant Oh He Dead on newfound motherhood and love

7:57am October 31, 2021

Judges for NPR Music's Tiny Desk Contest watched thousands of videos, and here on Weekend Edition we're highlighting some of the standouts — this week: C.J. Johnson from Oh He Dead.

Helado Negro, performing at Coachella on April 20, 2018, in Indio, Calif.

Music & Culture

Helado Negro's meditative new album, 'Far In,' is one he's always wanted to hear

10:08am October 30, 2021

Roberto Carlos Lange, who performs under the moniker Helado Negro, shares his thoughts on his new album, astrology, and the beauty of nature.

Strand of Oaks performs at WXPN's 2021 XPoNential Music Festival

Music & Culture

Feel the music: A live festival performance from Strand of Oaks

5:35pm October 29, 2021

Timothy Showalter is one of those people who feels... and makes you feel, too, both in conversation, where he's earnest and generous and empathetic, and with his music.

"I'm always trying to talk to myself in all these songs," Starflyer 59's Jason Martin says. "I get a tad of the blues sometimes."

Music & Culture

Starflyer 59's plainspoken words are the window into Jason Martin's old soul

10:00am October 28, 2021

by Lars Gotrich

The artist revisits five songs across his extensive discography of heavy shoegaze and dreamy rock and roll, processing life, faith and purpose.

Music & Culture

Béla Fleck goes back to bluegrass, his first musical love

3:54pm October 26, 2021

For the first time in over two decades, Fleck has returned to the genre with My Bluegrass Heart, an ambitious double album.

Lenny Kravitz's memoir, 'Let Love Rule,' chronicles the making of a rock star

1:22pm October 22, 2021

by Sam Briger

Kravitz's memoir follows his childhood and early career. Still touring in his 50s, Kravitz says, "I'm going to continue doing this as long as I can." Originally broadcast Oct. 6, 2020.

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"The way I talk about and think about sound and music is to think about things being shapes and colors and textures," Helado Negro tells NPR. "That's, as much as it is musical, kind of like a language."

Music & Culture

Helado Negro creates his own world on the cosmic 'Far In'

11:07am October 22, 2021

by Reanna Cruz

The Ecuadorian-American producer talks his spiritual new album Far In and building an artistic vocabulary

Lara Downes, whose series Rising Sun Music re-centers compositions from historically marginalized composers.

Music & Culture

Pianist Lara Downes re-centers the music of the Great Migration

11:59am October 20, 2021

by A Martínez

Pianist Lara Downes' latest mini-album traces the story of the Great Migration of Black Americans from the south in the early to mid-20th century, with music by Florence Price and Harry T. Burleigh.

Music & Culture

Let's go deep on Yola's 'Stand For Yourself'

3:48pm October 18, 2021

In this session, Yola talks about what it means to "own thyself," shedding an inferior version of herself, working with Brandi Carlile and playing Sister Rosetta Tharpe for a new movie about Elvis.

'Genius' actor Cynthia Erivo opens up her voice on 'Ch. 1 Vs. 1'

1:20pm October 18, 2021

by Terry Gross

The British actor and singer played abolitionist Harriet Tubman in Harriet, and Aretha Franklin in Genius: Aretha. Now Erivo has a debut album. "I sing often with a bit of a smile," she says.

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