SHEROES

The day between her Carnegie Hall debut, and releasing her critically hailed second album, the color of rain, the poet, lyricist, and activist, aja monet sat down with Carmel Holt to discuss her journey from growing up in New York, becoming a Slam Poet Champion as a teenager, to becoming an award-winning published poet, and Grammy-nominated recording artist.

On the heels of releasing her seventh full length album, Fidelity, the prolific Queens-born songwriter, singer, poet, artist, producer, curator, educator, and activist Yaya Bey joins Carmel Holt this week for a not-to-miss conversation that takes an honest look at the trickle down effect that white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism has on every aspect of the music industry, media, and touring. And ultimately Yaya reminds us that just because these issues are important to talk about, they do not wholly define her, or her work, which offers plenty of moments to dance and laugh through the pain.

This week we welcome five-time Grammy nominated, Golden Globe nominated, Songwriters Hall of Famer, producer, and musician, Linda Perry to SHEROES. Linda's storied three decade career launched in 1992 with her band 4 Non Blondes, followed by two solo albums, and two-plus decades of writing and producing some of the biggest names in music including Dolly Parton, Gwen Stefani, P!nk, Adele, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, and many more. A new documentary film by Don Hardy called Let It Die Here was captured over a recent turbulent four year period, and inspired the songs that became Linda's first solo album in 27 years - also titled, Let It Die Here. In this in depth conversation, Linda tells us about the film, the album, parenthood, and her organization, EqualizeHer.

The iconic Tori Amos is back with her 18th studio album, and an upcoming tour. In honor of her return, this week we dip into the SHEROES archives and reboot this amazing 2022 episode from our Webby-nominated sister series SHEROES: Mixtape Memoir. Tori traces her musical journey from childhood to Little Earthquakes, the women who inspired her, and the songs that soundtracked those chapters.

Twice Grammy-nominated, Mercury Prize and BRIT Award-winning artist, Arlo Parks returns to SHEROES this week to discuss her recently released third album, Ambiguous Desire, which was born of time spent diving into the club scene and learning to DJ, creating space to get out of her head and connect with her body, and the rich histories of club spaces that became sanctuaries for so many.

This week we welcome back Abbey Carbonneau, the founder, creator, and now executive director of Book More Women - who you may know as the Instagram account and site that uses festival posters as a powerful visual aid to show the lack of gender diversity at music festivals, as well as the researched data to go with it. Abbey has been doing this work for eight years now as a passion project, and in the last year evolved the concept into a proper org, now with a board of directors, and on its way to becoming a full-fledged nonprofit.

Today (May 1st), Judy Collins is 87 years old, and after over six decades on the road, and 55 albums, she has just embarked on her final tour. We celebrate this legendary singer, songwriter, and author, with a career-spanning conversation set to her own handpicked soundtrack. (original air date 2022)

We celebrate a milestone birthday for one of our SHEROES, Jenn Wasner aka Flock of Dimes, by sharing an encore episode of her recent interview about her beautiful new album The Life You Save, and invite one of her dearest friends, Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso, to join the party with a birthday message and song pick.

Ambient composer, vocalist, and producer, Julianna Barwick and experimental harpist and composer Mary Lattimore, have been friends for over a decade, have toured together, and even guested on each other's albums, but their duo album Tragic Magic is their first full length collaboration and was brought about by a remarkable set of circumstances and an opportunity to record at the Museum of Musical Instruments in Paris. Julianna and Mary join Carmel Holt at Mophonics Studios in New York for a very special conversation recorded in front of a live audience.

Courtney Barnett returns to SHEROES this week to chat with Carmel about her newest album Creature of Habit, entering a new chapter of her life that includes moving to the U.S., shuttering her longtime label Milk Records, and fulfilling a lifelong wish to learn how to surf, while also entering a phase of learning new ways to ride the waves of life.

In this super special edition of SHEROES, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and bass legend, Gail Ann Dorsey sits down with Carmel Holt for a career-spanning conversation featuring the music that shaped her, and spotlighting some fellow SHEROES of the bass who Gail encountered along the way. For those unfamiliar with Gail Ann Dorsey’s resume, not only has she put out albums of her own starting with 1988’s The Corporate World, she also became a sought after session player, collaborator, and touring bassist, and became known as one of the world’s greatest bass players. Gail has worked with everyone from Tears for Fears, Gang of Four, Bryan Ferry, Gwen Stefani, Indigo Girls, and Lenny Kravitz. And perhaps most notably, she spent over a decade playing bass and singing in David Bowie’s touring band, and contributed to several of his studio albums. Currently Gail is readying her first solo work in 21 years, and the follow up to her 2004 album I Used To Be… and prepping for a 2026 solo tour.

On March 20th, Hurray For The Riff Raff will release Live Forever: a new live record on the exact two-year anniversary of their last studio effort, The Past Is Still Alive. To celebrate the new live album as well as the announcement of an upcoming tour in June followed by a limited run of dates with Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Mavis Staples - not to mention lighting some belated birthday candles for Alynda’s 40th on February 26th, we are revisiting this 2024 conversation with Alynda which details some of the stories that they share as memoir-style songs on The Past Is Still Alive and how the songs and recording of the album suddenly took on a whole new meaning following the unexpected passing of their father.

Margo Price returns to SHEROES to talk with Carmel Holt about her newest album, the Grammy-nominated Hard Headed Woman, which sees Margo reconnecting to her musical roots. This month also marks the 10th anniversary of her debut Midwest Farmer's Daughter, and Margo reflects on the "wild ride" of the last decade, aging as a woman in music, and the importance of being a hard headed woman in times like these.

The musician, producer, director, and performance artist Peaches is widely hailed as a queer and feminist icon, a trailblazer, and an unapologetically body positive, sex positive, boundary pushing writer and performer, and symbol of empowerment. Peaches recently returned with her sixth album and first in 10+ years called No Lube, So Rude, and joins Carmel Holt for a conversation about growing more and more into her work, how it feels to be called a legend and "Mother", and despite the grim realities of today's world, still finding signs of hope.

This week the iconic singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan joins us to talk in depth about her first new album of original material in eleven years, Better Broken, the new documentary about Lilith Fair, the 30th anniversary of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, and finding herself more fiercely committed than ever to using her platform to speak out.

Julia Steiner joins Carmel Holt this week on SHEROES to discuss the recently released sixth Ratboys album, Singin' To An Empty Chair, growing up a tomboy, and the sixteen year journey from hushed dorm room performances to a headlining international touring band, and critically hailed indie rock darlings.

This week in honor of Black History Month coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the iconic self-titled debut album by six time Grammy nominee Corinne Bailey Rae, we bring you an encore presentation of our December 2023 interview discussing her fourth album Black Rainbows, now the subject of a forthcoming feature-length 2026 documentary. Corinne is also set to release her first children's book this March titled, Put Your Records On - inspired by that twice Grammy nominated massive hit from her 2006 debut.

Alithea Tuttle is the frontwoman, bassist, and songwriter for L.A. band Rocket, and always thought that dance would be her focus, until a serious injury at sixteen. In this episode we'll hear how everything changed when a childhood friend convinced an at-first reluctant Alithea to try her hand at singing, and she found her musical path in her mother's closet during the pandemic. The journey to growing her songwriting confidence is documented in the full length debut, R is For Rocket. We hear what that sounds like, and how in a band with her childhood friends has provided the safety and support she wants and requires in her life as a touring musician.

Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, poet, and painter Courtney Marie Andrews returns to SHEROES this week to talk with Carmel Holt about her brand new, tenth studio album, Valentine. We learn that this album is a piece of a greater whole that includes Courtney's latest book of poetry, Love Is A Dog That Bites When It's Scared, and she reads one of those poems during this in-depth conversation.

Chicago musician Lili Trifilio started Beach Bunny as a solo project a decade ago, expanded to a four-piece in 2017 while she was in college, and has been steadily releasing EP's and albums annually from 2015 until 2022. During those seven prolific years, there were two songs that went viral on TikTok resulting in external and internal pressure to keep pace with their success, even when the world had slowed down to a halt during the pandemic. Lili sits down with Carmel Holt to share how the three years following their last album found the band adjusting to new norms, and a rapidly changing world. After making some much needed changes, Lili found her creative stride once again, and Beach Bunny has recently released their fantastic third full length album, Tunnel Vision.

The extraordinary singer, songwriter, guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist Madison Cunningham returns to SHEROES this week to discuss her third album, Ace, what she has learned about expressing anger, and stepping into a new era of creative liberation, as she is caring less than ever about industry recognition and more about writing music she adores.

A star of the bluegrass and Americana scene, award-winning guitar prodigy Molly Tuttle joins Carmel Holt to discuss her newest album, So Long Little Miss Sunshine, which sees Molly exploring some new sonic paths in her songwriting and production, with an all new band. Molly also shares her origin story, and not only witnessing but taking part in growing the visibility of women as instrumentalists and bandleaders in bluegrass.

Deerhoof's vocalist, songwriter, and bassist, Satomi Matsuzaki joins us this week to talk about Deerhoof's twentieth album, Noble and Godlike In Ruin, their three decades as a band, and carrying the message of what they believe in.

Singer, songwriter, and producer, Annahstasia Enuke joins us this week to share her inspiring decade-long journey from landing a major label record deal in her late teens, followed by a period of disillusionment and walking away from a music career, to returning to music on her own terms, rebuilding, and then recording and releasing her full length debut album, Tether.

This week singer-songwriter Hannah Cohen sits down with Carmel Holt to discuss her fourth album, Earthstar Mountain, the lessons that she learned from the slower pace of living surrounded by nature in the Catskill Mountains, and honoring the time it has taken to find her voice.

At just 23 years old, Hannah Jadagu is already five years into her music career and just released her second full length album on Sub Pop Records called Describe - an apt title for an indie alternative artist who has been drawing from a deep well of her musical knowledge and experience that includes singing in choirs as a kid, studying classical percussion, and picking up the guitar and starting to write, record, and self-produce her own songs as a teenager using only an iPhone and Garageband, which got her a record deal at 18. Hannah joins Carmel Holt to talk about her journey thus far, and pushing herself to grow on this new album.

The seven-time Juno Award nominated, two-time Polaris Prize Award-nominated Canadian singer and songwriter Kathleen Edwards returns to SHEROES this week to discuss her sixth album of original material and seventh overall called Billionaire. In this deep conversation, Kathleen shares her journey and wisdom gained over her nearly 25 year career, quitting music and then choosing to return, and overcoming clinical depression, and she shares one of the best pieces of advice that she has ever gotten.

The multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer, Jenn Wasner returns to SHEROES this week to talk about her new album The Life You Save, her self-produced third release under the moniker Flock of Dimes. Now newly settled in Los Angeles, Jenn reflects on the journey of making the album, choosing to lean into acoustic instrumentation for the first time, and what that represents.

Bay Area singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and mixing engineer Melina Duterte is back with her first album under her moniker Jay Som in six years called Belong and joins Carmel Holt to talk about the new album, her thoughts on why more women and queer folx are needed in studios, and imposter syndrome.

Los Angeles based and Florida-born singer, songwriter, and producer Gatlin joins Carmel Holt this week to talk about her full length debut The Eldest Daughter - a collection of songs that tell her coming-of-age story of being raised in a conservative religious environment, embracing her queer identity, and finding healing and self confidence in the process.

A self-described ferocious person, the ever-wild and perpetually awe-inspiring Grammy-nominated artist, producer, author, and visual artist Neko Case returns to SHEROES this week as we celebrate the release of her first album in seven years, Neon Grey Midnight Green, her ninth overall. Neko and Carmel catch up on the myriad projects that have kept her extremely busy during the years between records: writing and publishing her New York Times bestselling memoir, writing music for a musical adaptation of Thelma & Louise, writing, recording ,and touring with The New Pornographers, writing for her Substack, and writing songs that would become this new album - her first self-produced collection, and most ambitious, as she fulfilled her longtime dream of expanding her songs to new horizons with an orchestra.

Raquel Berrios of Buscabulla joins Carmel Holt this week to chat about the new Buscabulla album Se Amaba Así - the Puerto Rican duo's sophomore album. The culmination of five emotional years that included some career highs (a Bad Bunny collab), and personal lows (the death of Raquel's father), is centered around the romantic partnership of Raquel and bandmate Luis Alfredo “Luifre” Del Valle, and ruminations on modern love, with a sonic palette that nods to the Latin American songbook.

This week legendary, award winning singer songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter sits down with Carmel Holt for a heartfelt and moving conversation, while discussing her 17th studio album Personal History, which was produced by Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman).

Australian band Folk Bitch Trio join Carmel Holt this week to talk about the journey to making and releasing their full length debut Now Would Be A Good Time, their lifelong obsessions with music and singing, and how they have been navigating the sexism and misogyny they encounter along the way.

She is a classically trained multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and engineer, and has been called a savant of the modular synthesizer. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith sits down with Carmel Holt this week to talk about her brand new album GUSH and her journey to sharing the most unguarded version of herself to date in these songs.

Multi-hyphenate Artist with a capital "A" Lido Pimienta returns to SHEROES this week to talk with Carmel Holt about her latest album, La Belleza - an emotionally resonant and triumphant orchestral album that sees Lido going wide with her sonic palette while she continues to build the canon of music rooted in her Afro-Indigenous Caribbean background.

Say it with us: ICON. Shirley Manson returns to SHEROES this week to chat with host Carmel Holt about the new Garbage album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, their eighth studio release, and what she describes as the "good twin" to their last album No Gods No Masters. As always, Shirley comes with the wisdom, the wit, and the no-fucks-given feminist empowerment that we ALL need now, more than ever.

Get to know Uwade on this week's episode of SHEROES. The Nigerian American indie folk artist (and PhD student) joins Carmel Holt to share her story and what went into the crafting of her beautiful debut album, Florilegium.

Kim Deal Live in Greenwich Village is brought to you by 4AD and Beggars Group. You'll hear clips of live performances of songs from Kim's solo debut Nobody Loves You More, and Kim herself talking about the making of the album and stories behind the songs.

This week we celebrate the return of UK's Billie Marten with her brilliant fifth full length studio album, Dog Eared, and welcome Billie for an in depth conversation with Carmel Holt about avoiding making a "singer-songwriter" album, how following her instincts about bringing led to joyfully unexpected results in the studio, embodying both masculine and feminine stage personas, and her musical SHEROES.

This week it's a special edition of SHEROES with Meg Remy aka U.S. Girls in Nashville, the place that her newest album, Scratch It, was made. Our episode includes an interview with Meg Remy recorded from Nashville public radio station WNXP and a few songs recorded that same day at East Nashville event space Soft Junk, with thanks to label 4AD and Beggars Group.

Alex Sauser-Monnig who records and performs as Daughter of Swords recently released their second album, Alex, and they join Carmel Holt this week to talk about why acoustic music was initially a more comfortable sonic world to live in for them - both in their trio Mountain Man, and on their 2019 debut Dawnbreaker - and breaking free of those limits while simultaneously investigating and expanding the definition of how they live and support themself as an independent artist.

Los Angeles singer-songwriter Jensen McRae is an artist whose star is rising fast. At 27 she has already been releasing music for a decade, and the last two years saw her tour with MUNA, and Noah Kahan. Her impeccably crafted second album I Don't Know How But They Found Me! is her first for indie stalwart label Dead Oceans, and she joins Carmel Holt to talk about her nearly lifelong sense of self-confidence despite feeling the outsider in school, her love of working with - and listening to - other women songwriters, and learning to live in our appearance-obsessed culture.

As our annual Pride Month celebration continues on SHEROES, Carmel Holt welcomes musician Katie Gavin for a fantastic conversation about her recent debut solo outing What A Relief, as well as Katie's musical journey from her roots as a singer-songwriter growing up in Chicago, to forming the now massively successful pop band MUNA over a decade ago with two of her best friends in college.

Our annual Pride Month series continues with musician Ezra Furman in the SHEROES Spotlight. Carmel Holt talks with Ezra about her amazing tenth album Goodbye Small Head, the recognition that no feeling is final, and how being trans has made her life better despite the painful challenges that comes with it.

This year during Pride month, trans rights are especially top of mind, as trans-phobia, discrimination, and anti-trans violence is at an all time high, as well as a growing wave of anti-transgender legislation. So we wanted to kick off our celebration of Pride with an encore presentation of our recent conversation with UK trans-femme artist jasmine.4.t, who put out one of our very favorite albums of the year thus far, called You Are the Morning. The album was produced by all three members of boygenius - Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers, and Julien Baker, and released on Phoebe Bridgers’ label Saddest Factory Records. Carmel Holt sat down with Jasmine before she opened for Lucy Dacus at Radio City Music Hall back in April for a super moving and inspiring conversation, which, like her album, has also become one of our favorites of the year. Jasmine's story of trauma, bravery, and transformation thankfully, has an uplifting and heartwarming new chapter, brought about through support from community, PTSD therapy, and music. PLEASE NOTE: if topics of suicide and gender-based violence are triggering for you, please listen with care.

Carmel Holt sits down with all four members of Lucius - Jess Wolfe, Holly Laessig, Dan Molad, and Pete Lalish - at Public Records in Brooklyn, NY to discuss their brand new self-titled album, the love and loss that informed their new songs, and getting back to their roots as a band while simultaneously settling down with their growing families.

Merrill Garbus returns to SHEROES this week to chat with Carmel about the brand new Tune-Yards album Better Dreaming, motherhood, and stepping into her power as an artist with nearly two decades and six albums under her belt.

Maren Morris returns to SHEROES this week to discuss her amazing new album Dreamsicle, a new era of musical liberation, embracing her queerness, and discovering the calm that has found her after the storm of several big life changes over the last three years.

As The Head and The Heart returns today with their highly anticipated sixth album, Aperture, Charity Rose-Thielen joins Carmel Holt to talk about the band's return to their roots as a collective, communal project, the freedom of working without external industry pressure, becoming a mother, and so much more.