Interviews | No. 174
By Meredith Hobbs Coons and Sheva Kafai
Hrishikesh Hirway is a musician through and through, though that may not be the role that comes to mind when we first think of him. For over ten years, he has created and hosted multiple podcasts, most notably Song Exploder and its Netflix series, for which he has courted such iconic...
In issue #149 of Tape Op, I was lucky enough to interview Catherine Anne Davies about her musical career as The Anchoress. We've kept in touch a little bit since, and when her new album, As We Once Were, was announced she dropped a line and suggested another chat. I think we should...
People always ask me what’s behind a song. How I captured the instruments. Why I arranged it that way. For "Don’t Dude Me," the answer starts in my home studio here on the “Island of Magic,” Florianópolis, Brazil. I recorded the whole track from Nerthus at home. It...
Philadelphia’s Poison Ruïn emerged from the shadows in 2021, with two demo tapes of nervy and angular “dungeon punk” crudely recorded on budget gear. The brainchild of Mac Kennedy, the sole recording member of the band, they soon found a home at Relapse Records, and followed up with...
Drawing from a wide-ranging pool of influences – from punk and hardcore to authors like evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and ethicist Peter Singer – José González has forged a unique place for himself in the music scene. He has released records by his band Junip...
After posting my year-end 2025 favorite albums on <tapeop.com>, I ended up emailing with Kenny Blume who produced one of my favorites, Geese's Getting Killed. He mentioned that he had finished building a new studio, Putnam Hill, with both a digital and analog tape workflow...
Tod A. Maitland has worked as production sound mixer on over 100 films since 1978, with known directors such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, and Oliver Stone. His work has been nominated six times for an Academy Award for Best Sound (including Bob Dylan’s music...
A founding member of The Fab Faux, a highly regarded Beatles tribute band, Jack Petruzzelli has an even longer path as a session and touring musician. He has collaborated extensively with artists such as Joan Osborne, Patti Smith, Ian Hunter, Rufus Wainwright, Vanessa Paradis, Curt...
Boy from Ohio goes to Guinea to study djembe drumming, boy meets girl in Chicago who studied in Mali, couple moves to New York for boy to follow Sxip Shirey in the Bindlestiff Family Circus, and couple builds a beautiful, world-class studio in a Hasidic neighborhood next door to a shul....
As I mentioned when I interviewed Stella Mozgawa in Tape Op#169, I first met Cate Le Bon when she came into my Panoramic House Studio to work on her 2013 album, Mug Museum. Since then, I have enjoyed seeing Cate every few years when her orbit intersects with mine. She has a calm...
Steph Marziano has produced Sir Chloe’s Swallow the Knife, Jasmine 4t’s You Are The Morning, Vundabar’s Surgery and Pleasure, and Jenny on Holiday’s Quicksand Heart. Additionally, in her early days, she assistant engineered on albums for big names such as The Prodigy, Sam Smith, and...
Stu Epps is a British gem with an illustrious musical career as a recording engineer, producer, and manager. He has worked with some of our favorite British artists, like Led Zeppelin, Elton John, George Harrison, Jimmy Page, and The Firm. He began his career at 15 years old in London...
Lord Huron first caught our ear with their 2012 release, Lonesome Dreams. The album's lush presentation, harmonies, and tinges of surfy guitars made it both decidedly West Coast-sounding and, at the same time, otherworldly. In 2025, the band released its fifth...