Riyl Podcast

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

01/05/2025

What does “maturity” mean for a rock band? The answer is, perhaps, a bit easier to answer when you’ve been together since age 18. For Naked Giants, it means grown up things – getting jobs, starting families. It’s not necessarily fodder for a band’s young punk days, depth of subject is in an important part of growing up as a band – and having a fanbase that grows along with you.

12/19/2024

Mighty Vertebrate hits different. In a world of sound a likes and slow burns, Anna Butterss' latest solo record makes itself known from immediately out of the gate. The album is as eclectic as it is fresh -- unsurprising, given the musician varied career, performing as the bassist for Jason Isbell's group, performing along side Phoebe Bridgers and Jenny Lewis, and serving as one fifth of improvisational group, SML.

12/12/2024

During our conversation, FIDLAR frontman Zac Carper reminds me of band’s acronym, F**k It Dawg, Life's a Risk. Spontaneity has been a driving force throughout the band’s 15-year existence, but time comes experience and – hopefully – a bit of reflection. Surviving The Dream -- the band’s first record in five years – offers up that introspection, into work. Life and Carper’s recent bipolar diagnosis.

12/06/2024

Released in September, Dirt On My Diamonds Vol.2 finds Kenny Wayne Shepherd doing what he was put on Earth to do. With eight tracks spanning a collective hour, it's a tight set that packs a punch, while expanding the songwriting depth that has been a fixture at this stage of his career. Thirty-four years after signing to a major label at age 13, the guitarist has delivered staying power matched by few others in the industry.

11/30/2024

Few who have walked the Earth can write a pop song like John Davis. That prowess catapulted his group, Superdrag to massive success on the back of its 1996 single, "Sucked Out." The group's trajectory from there isn't wholly dissimilar from other groups who released a hit during the decade. The music business took an aggressive turn, culminating in the muddy horror show that was Woodstock 99, all while Superdrag was releasing its best and most mature work on indie labels. His latest record, Jinx recaptures the Superdrag magic, while taking things in a different, more stripped down direction, owing to the circumstances around its recording.

11/30/2024

Plenty of musicians talk about 'leaving it all on the stage,' but few have offered as demonstrable an example as Samuel Herring. His live performance is a conduit for unbridled emotion, capturing mainstream attention as the frontman for Future Islands. As Hemlock Ernst, Herring's lyrics offer insight into life experiences, no better exemplified than on the hip-hop group's latest, Studying Absence.

11/15/2024

Released in October, It's Only Rock n Roll is a celebration that has formed the backbone of Michael Des Barres' life. The album's one dozen tracks find the singer paying homage to the biggest names of the glam era, from T. Rex to Roxy Music. Des Barres' own musical career spans more than half a century, including an appearance at Live Aid as the head of The Power Station. As an actor, Des Barres has appeared in more than 100 TV shows, including a notable turn as MacGyver villain, Murdoc.

11/08/2024

Released at the end of August, Kantos is a “party album about the possible end of humanity as we know it.” A few months later, that possibility seems ever more probable. A one-time resident of both New York City and Athens, GA, Kaoru Dill-Ishibashi now spends his days in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Central California, heading over Highway 17 to surf when not making music. The singer and multi-instrumentalist is an industry veteran, fronting Brooklyn indie band Jupiter One and spending time as a member of Elephant 6 offshoot, Of Montreal. The Berklee grad has also performed with a wide range of fellow musicians, including Regina Spektor.

11/01/2024

When I Get Through follows Breymer's (Sarah Walk) journey up to the day of their top surgery. It's a candid account of the conversations and emotions that precede such a life alternating moment. The musician joins us to discuss the journey and the decision recount the events on their new LP.

10/27/2024

Halloween comes early this year, as Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones join us to discuss the final days of their Kickstarter campaign for Dracula Book II: The Brides. The comics veterans talk about their planned four volume series and the lasting legacy of Bram Stoker's monster.

10/13/2024

New Yorker cartoonist Shannon Wheeler returns to the show. The artist recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to release a new book collecting minicomics and other appearances by his best-known creation, Too Much Coffee Man.

10/10/2024

Band People is part music writing and part business book, rounded out by academic research and a host of footnotes. It's a pragmatic look at the life of road warriors in an increasingly untenable industry. More than anything, however, it's a labor of love from lifelong touring musician, Franz Nicolay.

10/04/2024

He's quick to laugh with a twang that betrays his Southern Missouri origin. Steve Cropper discusses his accomplishments with modesty, rarely offering a glimpse into a career that profoundly impacted the course of 20th century popular music. As a core, founding member of Booker T & the MGs, the guitars helped form the backbone of the Stax Record sound. Cropper cowrote some of the era's most iconic songs, including "Knock on Wood," "In the Midnight Hour" and "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay, the latter of which he almost mixed following Otis Redding's untimely passing. The MGs made their own mark with the massive success of "Green Onions," before Cropper transitioned into a successful producing career and served as the longstanding guitarist for comedy duo, The Blues Brothers.

09/27/2024

Episode 675: Graham Wright (Tokyo Police Club)

In November, Tokyo Police Club will play its final show. Saying goodbye is never easy, but the Ontario-based band's members seem surprisingly okay with the whole thing. At the end of the day, very few of us manage to eke out a 20-year career playing with high school friends. Graham Wright acknowledges that, perhaps, the reality of the situation hasn't entirely set in, but for now, the band is enjoying what's left of the ride.

09/22/2024

Comics and animation can both be grueling -- especially drawing a 400 page comic or animated a hand-drawn, feature length film. As such, one must be discriminating in choosing such projects. For Dash Shaw, the choice comes down to two principles: 1. It has to seem like he's the only one who can create it and 2. It needs to contain an element of "why would anyone do that." Both can be seen in his most recent, deeply idiosyncratic works in comics ("Blurry") and film ("Cryptozoo").

09/21/2024

While their music owes debts to the towering giants of rock, soul and the Mexican and Brazilian music before them, no one sounds like Chicano Batman. Formed in Los Angeles in 2008, the group released its self-titled debut two years later. But it was 2020's Invisible People and its infectious lead track, "Color My Life" that cemented the group's place in the indie universe. Released at the end of March, Notebook Fantasy sees the band continuing to grow, exploring new sounds while staying loyal to the elements that have helped the group stand out from the pack.

Address

New York, 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:

Videos

Episode 690: Grant Mullen (Naked Giants)
Episode 690: Grant Mullen (Naked Giants)

What does “maturity” mean for a rock band? The answer is, perhaps, a bit easier to answer when you’ve been together since age 18. For Naked Giants, it means grown up things – getting jobs, starting families. It’s not necessarily fodder for a band’s young punk days, depth of subject is in an important part of growing up as a band – and having a fanbase that grows along with you.

Episode 688: Anna Butterss
Episode 688: Anna Butterss

Mighty Vertebrate hits different. In a world of sound a likes and slow burns, Anna Butterss' latest solo record makes itself known from immediately out of the gate. The album is as eclectic as it is fresh -- unsurprising, given the musician varied career, performing as the bassist for Jason Isbell's group, performing along side Phoebe Bridgers and Jenny Lewis, and serving as one fifth of improvisational group, SML.

Episode 687: Zac Carper (Fidlar)
Episode 687: Zac Carper (Fidlar)

During our conversation, FIDLAR frontman Zac Carper reminds me of band’s acronym, F**k It Dawg, Life's a Risk. Spontaneity has been a driving force throughout the band’s 15-year existence, but time comes experience and – hopefully – a bit of reflection. Surviving The Dream -- the band’s first record in five years – offers up that introspection, into work. Life and Carper’s recent bipolar diagnosis.

Episode 686: Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Episode 686: Kenny Wayne Shepherd

Released in September, Dirt On My Diamonds Vol.2 finds Kenny Wayne Shepherd doing what he was put on Earth to do. With eight tracks spanning a collective hour, it's a tight set that packs a punch, while expanding the songwriting depth that has been a fixture at this stage of his career. Thirty-four years after signing to a major label at age 13, the guitarist has delivered staying power matched by few others in the industry.

Episode 685: John Davis (Superdrag)
Episode 685: John Davis (Superdrag)

Few who have walked the Earth can write a pop song like John Davis. That prowess catapulted his group, Superdrag to massive success on the back of its 1996 single, "Sucked Out." The group's trajectory from there isn't wholly dissimilar from other groups who released a hit during the decade. The music business took an aggressive turn, culminating in the muddy horror show that was Woodstock 99, all while Superdrag was releasing its best and most mature work on indie labels. His latest record, Jinx recaptures the Superdrag magic, while taking things in a different, more stripped down direction, owing to the circumstances around its recording.

Episode 684: Samuel Herring (Future Islands, Hemlock Ernst)
Episode 684: Samuel Herring (Future Islands, Hemlock Ernst)

Plenty of musicians talk about 'leaving it all on the stage,' but few have offered as demonstrable an example as Samuel Herring. His live performance is a conduit for unbridled emotion, capturing mainstream attention as the frontman for Future Islands. As Hemlock Ernst, Herring's lyrics offer insight into life experiences, no better exemplified than on the hip-hop group's latest, Studying Absence.

Shortcuts

Share

Category