PODCAST · music
A Deeper Listen
by KEXP
On A Deeper Listen, host Emily Fox and other storytellers from KEXP talk with artists about the stories behind their songs and the experiences that inform their work. Through each conversation, we uncover the humanity behind the music, allowing us to hear it in a whole new way.
Episodes
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Signing Off
This is the final episode of A Deeper Listen. After seven years on air as the Sound & Vision radio show and more than 500 episodes in this podcast feed, Emily Fox and contributors share their favorite moments from a story or interview they’ve done for this show. Support the show:...
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SHIMA: From J-pop Star to Indie DJ/Producer
Electronic artist SHIMA fuses dance beats with Japanese sounds on her debut album, Welcome to SHIMAJIMA. She talks with Emily Fox about how the history of Kamikaze pilots, and how a dancing hallucinogenic mushroom trip centuries ago inspired some tracks on her record. She also talks about…
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Beverly Glenn-Copeland and Elizabeth Copeland on the Hard Commitment of Love
For decades, Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s music went virtually unnoticed. Beginning in 1970, he released records that crossed folk, R&B, electronic music, and other genres, always seeking new territory. That changed in 2017, when his 1986 album Keyboard Fantasies was rediscovered, ushering in renewed...
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Kadhja Bonet Talks Battlewear and Breaking With Big Tech
Toronto-based artist Kadhja Bonet recently released a short but powerful EP called Battlewear. Written just after Trump's re-election, it's a politically charged project that takes aim at tech giants, corporate greed, and streaming culture. Isabel Khalili speaks with Bonet about the rage and...
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SELVE on new album and being the first Aboriginal-led band to record at Abbey Road Studios
Australian act, SELVE is the first Aboriginal-led band to record at Abbey Road Studios in London. The band recently released their second record, Breaking Into Heaven. KEXP Contributor, Celine Teo-Blockey spoke to frontman Loki Liddle about the strong Indigenous themes on the album and how...
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Fela Kuti’s Legacy Honored in New Podcast by Jad Abumrad
Fela Kuti: Fear No Man is a 12-part podcast honoring the life and legacy of the inventor of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti. The show spotlights stories and perspectives from people highly influenced by Fela Kuti’s art and politics, including David Byrne, Brian Eno, Santigold, Questlove, Paul McCartney, and…
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The Indigenous Influence in Jazz, Blues and Rock
KEXP DJ and Sounds of Survivance co-host Kevin Sur gives a history lesson on the Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders who influenced the genres of jazz, blues and rock. photo by Carlos Cruz Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...
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KEXP’s Top Played Albums of 2025
Emily Fox and KEXP DJs Larry Mizell Jr. and Evie Stokes share their personal favorite albums of the year and break down KEXP’s top played albums of 2025. KEXP’s top played albums were: Tunde Adebimpe - Thee Black Boltz Wet Leg- moisturizer Deep Sea Diver- Billboard Heart Say She She- Cut & Rewind...
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The Raincoats’ Gina Birch on Career and Solo Album, Trouble
Gina Birch is a founding member of the legendary UK punk band, the Raincoats. Martin Douglas spoke with Birch about the themes behind the songs on her solo album, Trouble, her career, longtime connection to the Pacific Northwest, and more. photo by Dean Chalkey Support the show:...
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Cut Copy Finds Magic in Moments
The Australian group Cut Copy released their first album in five years in September — it’s called Moments. KEXP’s Roddy Nikpour spoke with frontman Dan Whitford about Cut Copy’s ongoing journey to blend synthesizers with indie guitars — all in the spirit of creating something danceable. photo by...
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Smokey Brights on Grief, Roe v Wade and Northgate Way
The Seattle band Smokey Brights released a new album called Dashboard Heat this fall. The band is playing The Crocodile in Seattle on December 11. Emily Fox caught up with the band to hear about how the songs on the new album reflect the loss of a parent to cancer, the overturning of Roe v Wade…
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Say She She Shares Disco Demolition Night's Racist History
Say She She’s album, Cut & Rewind is one of the most played albums on KEXP in 2025. Emily Fox speaks with the trio about how they met sharing a wall in a New York apartment building, their reflections on women’s rights in their song She Who Dares and about the racist history of Chicago’s 1979…
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Ribbon Skirt Reconnects with Anishinaabe Roots Through Music
The Montreal based and Anishinaabe-led band, Ribbon Skirt talks about their album, Bite Down and new EP, PENSACOLA. Frontwoman Tashiina Buswa talks with Emily Fox about how indigeneity comes up in her music, especially the song “Off Rez” and shares stories about her life and family, including how...
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Portugal. The Man’s Love Letter To Alaska
Portugal. The Man is out with a new album called SHISH. Emily Fox caught up with the band’s singer, songwriter and founder, John Gourley at Seattle’s Showbox SoDo to hear how his off-the-grid childhood in Alaska as well as his daughter’s genetic conduction influenced the album. “My mom and dad…
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Brandi Carlile Returns to Herself
Seattle’s Brandi Carlile recently released her eighth studio album — it’s called “Returning to Myself.” Carlile stopped by KEXP recently to speak with DJ Kevin Cole about the themes of togetherness, confronting middle age, and watching her daughters slowly grow up and become more independent. She...
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Neko Case on Her New Album and the Myth of Being “Lucky to Be Here”
Neko Case is out with a new album called Neon Grey Midnight Green. In conversation with Emily Fox, Case breaks down what spiderwebs can teach us about self-importance, what female and non-binary folks in the music industry have taught her about confidence and not caring about the male gaze and…
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Kassa Overall Jazzes Up '90s Hip-Hop Classics
The Seattle-based jazz musician Kassa Overall released CREAM in September 2025, an album that showcases new, original takes on some of the most classic tracks in 90s rap — from Wu Tang to Biggie and beyond. Overall spoke with KEXP’s Dusty Henry about his work. "As we're recording these songs, I'm...
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Jay Som Finds Where She Belongs
Jay Som is the moniker of Melina Duterte, a songwriter and producer originally based out of the Bay Area now living in Los Angeles. After producing music for other artists for so many years, she’s back with her fourth studio album, Belong, named for her quest to figure out her place in the indie...
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Clarissa Connelly’s ‘World of Work’ Rings Bells of Ecstasy and Apocalypse
In 2024, the Scottish-Danish artist Clarissa Connelly put out an album called World of Work. It doesn’t exactly deal with “work” the way that you might imagine in a 21st-century context. On the contrary, Connelly’s opus dives deep into philosophical concepts regarding our relationship with our...
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Automatic Gets Live, Loose, and Political on 'Is It Now?’
Izzy Glaudini, Halle Saxon, and Lola Dompé make up the Los Angeles post-punk trio Automatic. They released their third album Is It Now? last month on Stones Throw Records. KEXP’s Martin Douglas spoke with all three members of the band about the new album, how touring influenced their new sound…
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Support A Deeper Listen During KEXP’s 2025 Fall Fund Drive!
KEXP’s Fall Fundraising Drive is happening right now. Our goal this week is to raise $1.1 million to help make up for the loss of funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This podcast — as well as all our programming on the air, online, and in our communities — relies primarily on...
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"Making It" Reveals Intimate Moments in 1990s and 2000s Seattle Music
The photographer Bootsy Holler is releasing a book next month called “Making It: an intimate documentary on the Seattle indie rock and punk scene, 1992 to 2008.” Those were the years when Bootsy was living in the city. She captures behind-the-scenes moments with artists who have defined Seattle’s...
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Algernon Cadwallader Says What They Mean in Emo Revival Comeback Album
Algernon Cadwallader is a midwest emo band originally from Pennsylvania. They took a hiatus back in 2012, and now they’re officially back with their first full-length album in more than a decade, Trying Not to Have a Thought. KEXP’s Meerah Powell spoke with some of the members about the band’s...
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Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer’s “Different Rooms” Captures Elusive Moments in Live Music
Two composers walk into a room (actually, they walk into different rooms) and record an album focused on the serendipity of live performance. Fittingly, it’s titled Different Rooms. The composers in question are Jeremiah Chiu, who plays the synth, and Marta Sofia Honer, a violist. KEXP…
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Ivy Revives Their Decades-Long Career Alongside Adam Schlesinger on “Traces of You”
Before this year, Ivy last released new music in 2011 with the album All Hours. Now, 14 years later, Ivy has reassembled to share Traces of You, which came out September 5 on Bar/None Records. What makes this album extra special is that it includes parts from one of the late members, Adam...
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Jesse Beaman Builds His Portfolio Without the Help of Spotify
Jesse Beaman, an ambient composer based in Mexico City, joins a growing number of artists who are no longer making their music available on Spotify. He cites the platform’s requirement for musicians to have 1,000 yearly streams to receive royalties, as well as CEO Daniel Ek’s investments in...
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Car Seat Headrest Delivers the Next Big Rock Opera
Will Toledo, vocalist for Seattle-based Car Seat Headrest, wanted the band’s latest release to be a concept album in the tradition of a rock opera. The Scholars delivers just that: strong storytelling within each of its nine tracks, inventing characters in a “fictional America,” attesting to the...
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Seiji Oda's "Lo-Fi Hyphy" Tribute to the Bay Area
Seiji Oda pays respect to his Oakland roots in his 2025 album HUMAN + NATURE. He not only samples Bay Area titans like Mac Dre and Trunk Boiz — the record also features numerous collaborations with local artists making waves in the scene today, like the producer ClayDough. KEXP’s Dusty Henry…
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Open Mike Eagle on Divorce, Sears Catalogues, and Black Surrealism
Open Mike Eagle’s tenth studio album, Neighborhood Gods Unlimited, continues the rap legacy that he started in the late 2000s when he cofounded the trio Thirsty Fish. From there, he made a bigger name for himself as a solo artist, starting with his 2010 debut, Unapologetic Art Rap. Along the way,...
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Den Tapes Celebrates 10 Years of Seattle Music with Den Fest
When Kay Redden moved to Seattle from Garland, Texas, she made it her mission to connect with her newly adopted home through music. So, in searching for meaning after mother’s death in April 2015, she launched Den Tapes, spending countless hours hand-dubbing cassettes. It wasn’t long before local...
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White Lotus Actor Michael Imperioli on Lou Reed, Buddhism, and Antiquity
Michael Imperioli, the actor known for his roles in The Sopranos and The White Lotus, is also the guitarist of a three-piece indie band called Zopa. Their latest album, Diamond Vehicle, came out in early 2025. KEXP’s Martin Douglas spoke with Imperioli about how he started playing music, the...
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Bonus: Wu-Tang’s Final Chamber
July 18, 2025 was the last day of Wu-Tang Clan’s farewell concert tour, The Final Chamber. One of their stops was at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, where KEXP’s Dusty Henry, Martin Douglas, and Larry Mizell, Jr. rapped alongside thousands of fans. We recap the concert and pay tribute to the...
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Marlon Williams Amplifies Te Reo Maori in Dynamic New Album
Marlon Williams, singer-songwriter from New Zealand, uses his deep vibrato on more than a dozen new original songs written entirely in the Indigenous language Te Reo Maori. It was a years-long endeavor, with songs featuring collaborators like KOMMI and Lorde. KEXP contributor Celine Teo-Blockey...
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Artificial Go Answers a Toddler’s Burning Questions
Cincinnati-based trio Artificial Go released their sophomore album, Musical Chairs, in May 2025. Their blend of post-punk riffs, danceable rhythms, and faux British accents has made them one of the most exciting groups on the scene. During their live shows, singer Angie Willcut wears a marching...
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Bonus: “Waiting for Britney Spears” and Jeff Weiss’ Surrealistic Account of Pop Stardom (Allegedly)
Music journalist Jeff Weiss recently wrote a book titled Waiting for Britney Spears, documenting the pop stars rise and fall from the public eye. But the book isn’t a historical account, it’s an “allegedly true” story that blurs fact and fiction, putting Weiss himself in the middle of the action....
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Sea Lemon’s Shoegaze Captivates Ben Gibbard, Seattle, and Beyond
Natalie Lew, also known as Sea Lemon, released her debut album Diving for a Prize in June 2025 on Luminelle Recordings. Across 12 songs, reverb-heavy guitars wash underneath vocals that allude to made-up stories and unhealthy obsessions. For example, “Stay” draws inspiration from the real-life...
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Meet Carl the Collector, the PBS Kids Show with “Synth and Soul"
Max Perla and Vincent John make up Eraserhood Sound, the duo that scores the animated PBS Kids series Carl the Collector. In the spirit of Vince Guaraldi’s signature sound in Peanuts cartoons, show creator Zach Ohora says that Eraserhood’s “synth and soul” formula provides the perfect soundscape...
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“Youth Revolution Now”: Sharp Pins on Chicago’s DIY Scene
Sharp Pins is the solo project of 20-year-old Kai Slater, who also runs a zine called Hallogallo. Based in Chicago, he started the zine during the height of the coronavirus pandemic as a teenager, overwhelmed and frustrated with a life dominated by screens. So, both his music and zine are analog,...
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Outer Spaceways Incorporated Honors Sun Ra’s Cosmic Legacy
The Kronos Quartet — founded in Seattle, now based in San Francisco — has shaped modern classical music for more than 50 years. Their 2024 album Outer Spaceways Incorporated reimagines the work of the trailblazing American jazz pianist, Sun Ra, featuring covers and collaborations with artists…
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The Revival of Panchiko, a '90s “Lostwave” Band
Owain Davies received a message from a stranger in 2020 asking if he might have been the singer of a band called Panchiko more than two decades ago. As it turns out, he was — but they never put their music online. They just had seven demo tracks on CDs, but Panchiko never really broke out of…
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Tune-Yards: “I don't need hope. I need wonder and a will to live.”
Merrill Garbus says the lyrics simply poured out of her mouth on several tracks for the new Tune-Yards album, Better Dreaming. This time, she and her partner Nate Brenner trusted their gut more in the writing process. The record is heavily inspired by current events domestically and abroad, the...
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Hiro Ama Creates Peace with a 1980s Japanese Synthesizer
Hiro Ama, born in Japan and based in London, plays drums in the indie pop band Teleman. In late 2024, he released his debut solo album, Music for Peace and Harmony, which leans heavily into the sounds of a 1980s Japanese synthesizer called Waraku, which literally means “peace and harmony” in...
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World Goth Day Cofounder: “Anyone Is Welcome”
In this bonus episode, we hear from Martin Oldgoth, cofounder of World Goth Day, in conversation with Sharlese, host of Mechanical Breakdown, about the holiday’s origin in 2009. What started as a sort of joke on BBC Radio 6 Music rapidly spread across the world as a celebration of goth culture,...
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Suzzallo’s Loud Grief on The Quiet Year
Seattle-based musician Rocky Votolato has formed a new band called Suzzallo, who put out their debut album The Quiet Year earlier this year on Thirty Something Records. Through loud guitars and cathartic screaming, Suzzallo offers an outlet to help him grieve the loss of his child, Kienan, who…
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Dead Pioneers Confront the American Dream
Denver-based punk group Dead Pioneers recently released their second album, PO$T AMERICAN, on Hassle Records. They’ve been opening for Pearl Jam on their U.S. tour this spring. KEXP’s Dusty Henry caught up with lead vocalist Gregg Deal to discuss the band’s rapid success, how their new album...
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Vegas Sober & 8 Months Pregnant for Pitbull
Emily Fox, host of A Deeper Listen and Sound & Vision, is taking maternity leave form now until the fall. Before she left, shared an essay about why she went to Las Vegas sober and 8 months pregnant to see Pitbull in concert and why she thinks Pitbull deserves “a deeper listen.” Best wishes to...
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SASAMI’s Left Turn Pop Album
SASAMI has just released a new pop album called Blood on the Silver Screen. While her first record fell in the indie rock realm and her second album had a lot of metal influence, this album represents another left turn. SASAMI talks with Emily Fox about what draws her to make music from so many...
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Ela Minus’ Journal of Freedom
On this week’s episode, songwriter Ela Minus talks with KEXP's Albina Cabrera about her new album, DÍA—a fully nomadic project with songs written and recorded between Mexico, Seattle, and her native Colombia. With DÍA, she steps away from her analog era and embraces everything at hand: broken...
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Perfume Genius Faces His Fears
Mike Hadreas of Perfume Genius talks with Emily Fox about how his inner fears, struggles with mental health, paranoid fantasies and reflections on gay lust and love show up on his latest album, Glory. “I think I was just really afraid and I felt really tender and mortal and the world felt really...
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Spotify and The Costs of the Perfect Playlist
Liz Pelly, author of Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist talks through the many practices at Spotify over the years that have impacted independent musicians-- from outsourcing stock music Spotify pays a lower royalty rate for and flooding Spotify's in-house...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
On A Deeper Listen, host Emily Fox and other storytellers from KEXP talk with artists about the stories behind their songs and the experiences that inform their work. Through each conversation, we uncover the humanity behind the music, allowing us to hear it in a whole new way.
HOSTED BY
KEXP
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does A Deeper Listen have?
A Deeper Listen currently has 587 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is A Deeper Listen about?
On A Deeper Listen, host Emily Fox and other storytellers from KEXP talk with artists about the stories behind their songs and the experiences that inform their work. Through each conversation, we uncover the humanity behind the music, allowing us to hear it in a whole new way.
How often does A Deeper Listen release new episodes?
A Deeper Listen releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 587 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
Where can I listen to A Deeper Listen?
You can listen to A Deeper Listen on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts A Deeper Listen?
A Deeper Listen is created and hosted by KEXP.
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