SHEROES

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.

UK trans-femme artist jasmine.4.t sits down with Carmel Holt for a deeply moving and inspiring conversation ahead of her second night at Radio City Music Hall opening for Lucy Dacus, who co-produced her full length debut, You Are The Morning, with Lucy's boygenius bandmates Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker. Please note: if topics of suicide and gender-based violence are triggering for you, listen with care.

The 18x Latin Grammy and 4x Grammy Award winning Mexican singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer Natalia Lafourcade returns to SHEROES to talk about her newest chapter: her twelfth studio album called Cancionera.

Carlotta Casials and Ana Perrote are best friends and co-founders of the Spanish garage-punk-pop band Hinds, and they join Carmel Holt this week to share their story, which saw them rise to stardom, release three albums, and then suddenly find themselves without a label, or management, and the dissolution of their lineup as their drummer and bass player departed the band. Their latest album Viva Hinds! is the result of their recommitment to each other and to the spirit that originally inspired them to start the band over a decade ago.

This week producer, audio engineer, singer, songwriter and founder of nonprofit Gender Amplified, Ebonie Smith joins Carmel Holt to talk about the evolution of Gender Amplified, how she views the statistics of women and gender expansive individuals in the recording industry, and how Gender Amplified is approaching equalizing the space, as well as sampling Gender Amplified's newly released EP called In Bloom, born from their CTRL Room series of production camps.

Yukimi Nagano is best known as a founding member and lead vocalist of Grammy-nominated Swedish band Little Dragon, but after two decades and seven albums, she has stepped out on her own for a solo debut called For You. Yukimi sits down with Carmel Holt to discuss the new album, infusing her work with more feminine energy, and the newfound freedom of calling the shots.

In this not to miss episode, singer, songwriter, producer Caroline Rose returns to SHEROES to join Carmel Holt in conversation about their sixth album, Year of the Slug, which sees Caroline taking a "experimental year" to do things in a much simpler, more grassroots way. No fancy gear, no label, no streaming platforms, no big productions on tour. Just Caroline, a microphone, a guitar, and a desire to find a way to be a modern day musician that makes sense.

Jessica Dobson aka Deep Sea Diver returns to SHEROES to talk with Carmel Holt about her fantastic fourth full length album (and first for indie stalwart label, Sub Pop) Billboard Heart, and the hard-won journey it took to get here.

Today Polaris Prize and Juno Award nominated Canadian singer, songwriter, and producer Basia Bulat returns with her seventh studio album, Basia's Palace, and returns to SHEROES to sit down with Carmel Holt to discuss the new album, the importance of staying in touch with her inner child, and how becoming a mother herself brought Basia to some unexpected new sonic landscapes.

We love St. Vincent! To celebrate her recent three Grammy wins in one night for her first fully self-produced album All Born Screaming, it's an encore episode of SHEROES with Annie Clark recorded live in conversation at The Current in St. Paul, Minnesota in September 2024.

Spanish-American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Victoria Canal joins Carmel Holt to discuss her full length debut album, Slowly It Dawns, and they have a fascinating conversation about gender, identity, and being perceived, beauty as currency, and the many factors that may be playing into gender imbalances in the recording industry.

Just in time for the Grammy's, nine-time Grammy Award nominated mastering engineer Emily Lazar joins Carmel Holt to talk about her journey to becoming the ceiling breaking audio engineer she is today, what led to founding her nonprofit We Are Moving The Needle, who have recently launched their new microgrants supporting creators who have been affected by the L.A. wildfires, and what she believes is the solution to getting more cis and trans women and nonbinary folks hired as engineers and producers.

One of the year's most anticipated albums is out today - Humanhood, the seventh studio album by The Weather Station - and Carmel Holt helps celebrate its arrival by welcoming the brilliant singer, songwriter, producer and musician at its center, Tamara Lindemann for a fascinating conversation about the making of the new album, how learning about differing skull shapes between men and women changed her life, and revelations that have come from teaching songwriting to others.