Newsletter #4: Joshua Burnside, Nilüfer Yanya and more
Hi,
Hope this latest edition of the newsletter finds you well. In this one, we have some clips and reflections on our recent episodes with Joshua Burnside and Nilüfer Yanya, some new releases from our season five guests, and a few more covers for you.
As always, feel free to share any feedback with me directly on rob@myfavouriteelliottsmithsong.com.
Thanks,
Rob
Episode 7: Joshua Burnside
I really liked listening back to this interview Elizabeth did with Belfast-based musician, Joshua Burnside. I think a good part of that is down to the fact it was recorded in person at Joshua’s studio. The nature of having jobs, relationships, kids (in Elizabeth’s case) and a mild addiction to the computer game Football Manager (again, in Elizabeth’s case*) means it can be hard to do interviews IRL but, when they are possible, they can reach a level of familiarity that it’s not possible to reach remotely.
*a joke, I was actually talking about me.
What also added to this sense of familiarity was that it was recorded at Joshua’s studio in Belfast. Elizabeth, who is an artist, was over in Northern Ireland for a project she’s working on and dropped by on a day off.
Recording in this location meant Joshua was able to pick up his guitar (I’m aware that isn’t a guitar in the photo btw) and use it to unpack how his favourite song pick is constructed - as you can hear in this clip:
And being at home (nearly for Joshua) gave it all a feeling of swapping stories with a friend on a Sunday afternoon. I particularly liked this one on the ‘thank you from the Irish’ he left at the Elliott Smith mural on a visit to Los Angeles:
Listen to more of this in the episode with Joshua Burnside - on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 8: Nilüfer Yanya
Nilüfer’s album Painless, which came out earlier on this year, is one of my favourites of 2022 so far. So, I was very excited when her manager said she was up for being a guest on the podcast.
I do get a little nervous before an interview, particularly if I’m already a fan of the person. And I have to say those nerves weren’t calmed down by a combination of a delay on the connection (another reason why in-person interviews are often better), and Nilüfer and I appearing to have two completely different takes on her song pick Angeles:
Although this disagreement did mean I had to discard approximately 50% of my interview questions, I think it actually made for a more interesting conversation. We could talk more about topics we might not have got to otherwise - like the importance of having your own interpretations of music and coping with fame:
This interview really reminded me how important it is to think for yourself when it comes to intepreting any kind of art, because it is subjective after all. It’s quite a basic point but I think it can easily be forgotten, especially now we can access so much background material.
It came to my mind because Nilüfer is an original thinker, who very much has courage in her convictions. It could be the reason why she was happy with her interpreration and didn’t feel the need to look up what Elliott Smith intended Angeles to mean. Whereas I read 5,000 words of Genius.com annotations and Reddit threads because I didn’t want to be ‘wrong’ about it.
Another interesting take Nilüfer had, which I’d never considered before, was this view on the parallels between the film Good Will Hunting and the life of Elliott Smith:
This whole broader point - that what you think and like matters more than anything - reminds me of an Elliott Smith songwriting video on YouTube. It was actually Beatie Wolfe, our guest in season one, who showed me it. Elliott says that: “If you like it, there must be something good about it because you like it.”
Listen to more of this in the episode with Nilüfer Yanya - on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Covers
This newsletter actually features not one but two Belfast-based singer-songwriters. The first cover I want to share is from Cathal Francis, playing Clementine:
If you like this great Clementine cover, you can find more from Cathal on Spotify and Instagram @cathalfrancismusic.
Our second cover for today comes from Andrew Geisler, who sent this excellent rendition of Kings Crossing. Hope you enjoy it.
If you like this and want to hear more from Andrew, check out his SoundCloud.
New releases from our season five guests
I didn’t want to go without sharing a few great new releases from some of our guests so far this season. All of these have come out in the last few weeks and I recommend checking them out if you haven’t already:
The debut album from Toledo - listen on Spotify
The new EP, Leap Day, from Remember Sports - listen on Spotify
Nilüfer Yanya covering Rid of Me by PJ Harvey - listen on Spotify
Thank you
Thanks for reading this and supporting the podcast! Please do remember to share with friends or enemies that may be interested.