Hello,
Firstly, sorry it’s been a bit of a while since I’ve sent out one of these. The good (or perhaps bad, depending on your point of view) news though is that this newsletter is a bit of a bumper edition. We’ve got clips and reflections from four episodes, as well as some more covers for you to enjoy over the festive period.
I’d also like to say a big thank you for supporting the podcast over the course of this fifth season. It’s always a joy receiving messages, photos, and covers, and getting the chance to chat with people. Not to get too deep in only paragraph two but the Elliott Smith community is a constant reminder of how good the internet can be - it’s supportive, welcoming and a great place to share stories with people from all around the world.
If you have any feedback, positive or negative (I can handle it, just about), then absolutely get in touch. You can contact me directly at rob@myfavouriteelliottsmithsong.com.
A very happy New Year to you, wherever you might be reading this,
Rob
Episode 9: Fog Lake (Aaron Powell)
To be honest, I can’t believe it took us 81 episodes to get there but we finally did: at last someone picked Coast to Coast. For around 15 years, it’s been my favourite song from From a Basement on the Hill (King’s Crossing is an extremely close second). And when I started out on this podcast journey in 2017, I didn’t think it would be five years, four prime ministers, one pandemic and 1,620 minutes of audio content before we covered it.
Anyway, I couldn’t think of a better guest to pick Coast to Coast after all this time. Aaron Powell’s music is known to be quite introspective and it was great to hear him applying his characteristic thoughtfulness to this analysis.
Coast to Coast has always struck me as an incredible way to open an album - arguably the best of a very good bunch when it comes to Elliott’s album openers. I was interested to hear Aaron’s take on this, as well as the difficulties he thought Rob Schnapf, Joanna Bolme and everyone else involved in the production must have had in delivering Elliott’s vision for the album after he died [press play below to hear the clip]:
You can listen to the full episode with Aaron Powell on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
Episode 10: Elise Okusami (Oceanator)
A few listeners have mentioned in the past that they’ve discovered new artists through listening to the podcast. That certainly happened for me with Oceanator: since recording this interview, I’ve become a huge fan. The song that hooked me in was Evening, which Elise Okusami says in this episode is heavily influenced by King’s Crossing and Coast to Coast.
As well her own work being influenced by Elliott Smith, Elise has also recorded her takes on two of Elliott’s tracks: The Biggest Lie and Wouldn’t Momma Be Proud.
I have a lot of time for anyone so committed to the Elliott Smith cause that they write a university paper on him. That’s what Elise did while studying - she wrote a thesis and gave a presentation on him as part of a music theory seminar. For the research, she spent her days watching interviews, live performances and ‘listened to his music constantly’. Sounds unerringly similar to my day-to-day life (and perhaps yours too if you’re reading this):
You can listen to the full episode with Elise Okusami on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
Episode 11: Julia Shapiro
While I discovered Oceanator through doing the podcast, I’ve been a fan of Julia Shapiro’s band, Chastity Belt, for a while. I always get fairly nervous when I’m doing an interview with someone whose work I admire. And, if you follow Julia on Instagram, you’ll know that she also has a reputation for being very funny, so this task was made even more intimidating: I had to act like I wasn’t starstruck and try to do some jokes at the same time. I’m not really sure I succeeded.
Julia describes Elliott Smith as her ‘favourite musician’ and talks about him as a major influence in lots of interviews. I couldn’t decide if this made my job for this harder or easier - on the one hand there’s a lot to delve into for research material but it also sort of feels boring to cover old ground again. Hopefully I was able to strike a balance somewhere in the middle.
One surprising new thing that I did find out about Julia though, is that she is unashamedly a huge Coldplay fan. Like Elliott’s music, she cited the band’s early work as music that she continues to go back to. This unexpected topic provided the opportunity for some lighthearted humour and the chance to try out some of my (sort of) ‘jokes’:
You can listen to the full episode with Julia Shapiro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
Episode 12: Lauren McCarthy
I know it may not seem like it at times but we do try, as much as we can, to get a variety of guests on the podcast and not only focus on musicians. I do think it’s great to get new perspectives on how Elliott Smith has inspired people beyond music. So, after a run of several songwriters, I was really pleased when Lauren McCarthy, a journalist and the Executive Editor of Nylon, said she was keen to take part.
Although covering new music is an essential part of her day-to-day job, Lauren says one of her ‘greatest flaws’ is that she still regularly listens to the music she first got into as a teenager (I think we can all empathise with you there, Lauren). This includes Elliott Smith, Bright Eyes and others.
She uses it to her advantage though. Many of the artists Lauren interviews for Nylon cite Elliott Smith (and other musicians from the same era) as key influences. And it was interesting to get Lauren’s take on why Elliott has such an enduring appeal to these younger artists - people like Phoebe Bridgers, Billie Eilish and Clairo - who are achieving a lot of mainstream success:
You can listen to the full episode with Lauren McCarthy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
Covers
Over the course of this season, we’ve received some great covers of Elliott Smith songs sent in by listeners. Here are some of our most recent favourites:
Jake Lamb-Fitzhugh
Can we call it a Christmas song? If so, then Angel in the Snow is my favourite - sorry The Pogues, Wham etc. Thanks to Jake for sending in his version.
Find more from Jake on his YouTube channel
Jacob Trueman - Memory Lane
You can find more from Jacob on Bandcamp
Terry Toland - Talking to Mary
We shared Terry’s version of Kings Crossing in a previous newsletter. Here’s his take on Talking to Mary.
You can find more from Terry on SoundCloud
Atmig - Elliott Smith
This isn’t a cover as such but a lovely Elliott Smith-inspired song from Michigan indie band ATMIG.
Listen on Spotify
Happy New Year!
Thank you very much for supporting the podcast in 2022.
As I said before, the internet can be a fairly dark place at times but the Elliott Smith community, in my experience, has been anything but dark. This year I was reminded of that more than ever, when I visited California for the first time. I stayed with Elizabeth (who I produce the podcast with) for a few days, we visited Greg Cortez at Elliott’s old studio New Monkey and saw what an amazing job he and the team are doing of continuing the legacy, and I also spent some time with Charlie Ramirez, who founded the website Sweet Adeline. These are all people I’ve met online since starting the podcast and I’m now fortunate enough to call real-life friends.
I very much hope you’re able to enjoy a restful break over the next week or so and look forward to catching up again in the New Year.
I went to a few ES places in Portland this week, including the Candlestick house, My Father’s Bar and Jackpot Studios