What’s a lyric that resonates deeply with you and why?

Someday, perhaps, I’ll write about what this lyric means to me, but for now I’ll simply say that it has now spent 30 years slowly revealing itself to me, taking on layers and shedding its skin and being born again and taking me with it. I’m grateful.

I stood without clothes Danced in the sand I was aching with freedom Kissing the damned I said “Remember this as How it should be.”

If your life were a movie, what would its theme song be?

The film would be called A Pilgrim Ache and the tag line would be ‘Semper Veram Patriam Quaerens’.

What one of your favourite needle drops from television or cinema?

Created my own prompt today because:

1. I LOVE a good needle drop.
2. I finally got around to watching the (excellent) 5th and final season of Fargo. and
3. This moody cover of Britney Spear's "Toxic" was one of my favourite from the whole series. Lisa Hannigan does a lovely job of reimagining the vocal in a way that takes the song to a totally different place. It's great.

How do you discover new music, and what’s the latest gem you’ve found?

These days, my paths to music discovery run from the very intentional to the serendipitous. Most weeks, I’ll go to a site like Album of the Year to see what new releases are dropping on any given Friday, and choose what to listen to over the weekend. I usually pick up something gems along the way, but if I miss anything the crucial tracks community is generally quick to fill me in. And if I still miss something…music journalism, friends recommendations, and the randomly heard and Shazamed track fill in the gaps.

A recent discovery that has been getting a lot of play recently is Marissa Nadler’s most recent record New Radiations. This track is one of my favorites of theses eerie, slow-burn, torch songs that create a sonic world over the course of the album’s 46 beautiful minutes.

What is a song that feels like home to you?

One might think that for a song to feel like home, it would need to be one with which you have a long history. This song is not that. It found me eight years ago, when I was the tender young age of 37, on the Mercury Prize winning debut record by Sampha.

Home can mean many things, but one irreducible truth about it is you’ll know you’ve found it when you feel seen, known, understood and loved. That’s why music can “feel like home” at all. Because a song like this takes hold of you and says “You are not alone. We are here. All of us. And we are with you.”

What’s the first song you’d play at a party?

So much depends on the vibe one is going for, but—baring a very particular theme—it is exceedingly difficult to misstep in setting a party tone with a little Stevie. He’s one of those rare artists whose joy in music is both undeniable and utterly contagious. If you can resist a smile and the urge to MOVE to this song, something might be broken in you.

What song do you associate with the current season?

I never need an excuse to listen to Yo La Tengo, but this prompt is as good a reason as any.

What’s your favorite love song, and why?

Because Brian Wilson was a genius, it’s absolutely gorgeous, and it was our first dance at our wedding, this will always be a favorite.

What’s a guilty pleasure song?

I am absolutely without shame about my love for catchy pop songs, but I generally like to think of myself as someone who likes my pop music to be “intelligent”. I want a lyric that subverts expectations or production elements that push against whatever is trending in the current world of cookie-cutter tiktok fodder. Think Billie and Finneas over Sabrina Carpenter… Dijon over Doja Cat… you get the picture. I realize this probably makes me both an elitist snob and a hypocrite who wants to have my cake and eat it too. I’ve made my peace with it.

Occasionally, though, a song that is in no way intelligent, exciting, edgy, or subversive makes it’s way past my defenses; it’s just pure pop—the musical equivalent of sugar water—designed to get stuck in your head and addict you, maximizing attention and profits. More often than not over the past 15 years, the songs that do this to me have been written (or co-written) by one man in particular: Mr. Terius Nash, a.k.a. The-Dream. This is just one example of dozens I could have sighted, but it gets the nod mostly because of the number of times I have, alone in my car or while washing dishes, sung along to this one at the top of my lungs…complete with poor attempts at mimicking Beyoncé’s melisma. I’m sure it would be horrific to witness, but it feels great.

What's a song you associate with your hometown?

I moved a fair amount when I was growing up, so I don’t so much have a hometown as I have places which managed to acquire a certain gravity along the way, which continue to exert some invisible pull, as I continue on my pilgrim way. When I was in 2nd grade, my family moved to the little town of Hudson—a suburb of Minneapolis/St Paul right over the St Croix River marking the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin—and it has remained one of those places for me.

Justin Vernon grew up 45 minutes further down the Interstate 94 corridor from Hudson in Eau Claire. When 22, A Million came out, I was living in Colorado, and now I live in Scotland, but “715 - CRΣΣKS” (715 being the Area Code JV and I both grew up in) always speaks directly to the part of my heart and soul that still belongs to—and finds some sense of home in—the St Croix River Valley.

Love, a second glance, it is not something that we'll need Honey, understand that I have been left here in the reeds But all I'm trying to do is get my feet out from the crease And I'll see you...