Riyl Podcast

Riyl Podcast A weekly podcast featuring long-form cafe conversations with artists, musicians, comedians, authors and other creative types.

01/03/2026

It takes light 4.2 years from Proxima Centauri, the nearest non-sun star, to reach Earth. It took the songs of 2025’s Stargazer EP nearly five times that to see the light of day.

That’s nothing in cosmic terms, of course. But as musicians go, the 20+ years that have elapsed since the songs were written in preparation for KT Tunstall’s debut, Eye to the Telescope, amounts to several lifetimes. The Edinburgh-born singer-songwriter has showcased remarkable staying power, navigating the landmines of life, health, and the music business. At 50, Tunstall resides in the American Southwest and radiates the contentment and wit of a life lived to its fullest.

12/28/2025

It takes a unique talent to find one's work thumbtacked above desks at libraries across the world. But Tom Gauld wasn't content to simply rest on the literary laurels that come with his frequently shared Guardian strips. The Scottish cartoonist has carved out yet another uniquely wide niche for himself in the pages of New Scientist. Gauld's latest collection, Physics for Cats, showcases why is work is just as comfortably at home among the laboratory set as the literati.

12/14/2025

At 17, Michael Hampton blasted off from Earth in the Mothership. More than half a century later, the Funkadelic guitarist has never looked back.

He does, however, make the occasional pitstop home for interviews, chatting poolside in between shows during a Southern California stint.

Hampton’s latest EP, Into the Public Domain, does what it says on the box. The blistering guitar instrumentals now belong to the world.

They can be accessed by way of physical trading cards acquired at one of the guitarist’s live shows. Even royalty-free musicians need a way to feed their anime habits.

11/09/2025

On 2022's I Don’t Know My Words, Anand Wilder embraced DIY in a different way, performing each song entirely by himself. Three years after Yeasayer's non-amicable split, the musician clearly had something to prove. Three years later, however, collaboration is back on the table with Psychic Lessons, a celebration of music making, genre, and just about anything else that popped into Wilder's head.

11/02/2025

Nothing throughout the Descendents' long history can be taken for granted, started with I Don't Want to Grow Up. The band's second record, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this May, arrived after a two-year hiatus, which found singer Milo Aukerman at college (as the debut album helpfully noted) and drummer Bill Stevenson joining Black Flag. Certainly no one could anticipate, in spite of a few recent health scares, that the pioneering punk would be around to celebrate the album's reissue. Aukerman and Stevenson join us to to discuss the group's legacy and what keeps them running after all these years.

10/26/2025

Bursting with the vitality of NYC's outer-boroughs, Laveda returned in September with Love, Darla. The Brooklyn by way of Albany harkens back to the heyday of noisy indie, while forging its own playful path.

09/28/2025

Earlier songs were political, but never as overtly so. There isn’t much value left to wring from subtlety these days.

Battlewear is, fittingly, angry. It’s the product of navigating an unpredictable – and increasingly bleak – landscape. An hour before we hop on the call, a right wing reactionary is murdered in broad daylight.

Kadhja Bonet believes in the power of art and community. And while they’ve never been particularly fond of performing live, busking holds a certain appeal, in its immediate and unfiltered connection between artist and audience.

09/13/2025

SunYears felt like starting over, in a very real sense. Peter Bjorn and John were on the backburner, and Peter Morén earlier solo work was decidedly more self-selecting, with Swedish lyrics touching on more experimental soundscapes. There was also a global pandemic to contend with. The Song Forlorn finds Moren happily reembracing his love of pop rock songwriting, with help from stalwarts like Ron Sexsmith, Jess Williamson and Eric D. Johnson

09/06/2025

Celebrating its 40th birthday exactly one month ago, Rum So**my & the Lash requires no introduction. As epilogues go, however, one could do far worse than the alternately raucous and sublime tour pieced together by surviving members, Spider Stacy, Jem Finer, and James Fearnley. Stacy joins us to discuss the anniversary, the recent loss of frontman, Shane MacGowan, and his own fascinating musical history.

08/29/2025

He may have had something to prove early on, leaving the relative comfort of a rocket ship success like Nine Inch Nails, but it didn’t take Richard Patrick long. Filter’s first album went platinum on the strength of its first single, and the band was off to the proverbial races. Its follow up was slow to surface, courtesy of inner turmoil, but it eventually emerged five years later, with an even bigger hit, putting some of Patrick’s own personal demons on display. Thirty years after Filter’s debut, Patrick has mellowed considerably – partially out of necessity for a family man with a bad back. The result is some of his most thoughtful work to date.

08/19/2025

Jenni Rose announced herself in style, with a Rolling Stone interview, back in April. The article dropped a few months The Vandoliers’ fifth album, Life Behind Bars.

With a record full of deeply personal songs dealing with – among other topics – her transition – she chose the celebrated music magazine to help tell her story.

It’s a courageous move in an age when simply being yourself can be a defiant act, let alone the singer in a Dallas-based alt-country band.

It helps, of course, when long-time band members like trumpeter Cory Graves have your back along the way.

07/30/2025

What began as a poetry cycle quickly evolved into a dozen of Ketch Secor’s most personal songs. Story the Crow Told Me makes little effort to mask its autobiography, with stories of hitch hiking, busking, charting the earliest days of Old Crow Medicine Show. The singer joins us to reflect on the songs about the moments that made him.

Address

Queens, NY

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Riyl Podcast posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Riyl Podcast:

Shortcuts

Share

Category