A Conversation with Sarah McLachlan – HuffPost 6.4.14

Mike Ragogna: Sarah, how did you approach coming into Shine On versus your other albums? Sarah McLachlan: I approach all my records the same way, which is to try not to “eat the whole whale at once.” The approach to songwriting for me is slow and laborious and I just have to let things take their natural […]

Another Awesome Conversation with John Waite – HuffPost 6.4.14

Mike Ragogna: John, your latest is titled Best — not a “Greatest Hits” per se, but more of an overview of what you felt was your best material on your terms. A lot of the package is made up of live renditions and a couple of re-records. What motivated you to do a project like this? John […]

A Conversation with Steve Wynn – HuffPost 6.4.14

Mike Ragogna: The album Sketches In Spain collects a certain period of your music. What’s your perspective on that album’s material now?

Steve Wynn: Sketches In Spain is a compilation that Omnivore is putting together from two collaborations I made in Spain in the last decade. The first was a record with a band from Spain called Australian Blonde, we did a record called Momento in 2001. The second record is a collaboration called Smack Dab, which is me, my wife and drummer Linda Pitmon and also the leader of Australian Blonde, Paco Loco. That came out in 2005. So that’s the basic facts updated.

A Conversation with LP – HuffPost 6.3.14

Mike Ragogna: LP, you just released your first full length album, Forever For Now. This is technically your debut album, isn’t it?

LP: Yeah, it’s my major label debut for sure. While it’s great to have an EP and all the stuff that goes with it, as well as the [Citibank] commercial with the song got that me touring a bunch, it definitely set me back making that record. And it’s hard to explain to people; people see no record as non-movement, you know? But there was a lot of movement. You feel like you’re making excuses sometimes, and you’re not, it’s just a process you have to get through. We really spent a lot of time on this record.

A Conversation with Harry Dean Stanton – HuffPost 6.3.14

Mike Ragogna: How fictional is Partly Fiction? Harry Dean Stanton: It’s all fiction. It’s all a dream. Life is all a dream. MR: How did the project begin? HDS: It started with Sophie [Huber], we used to go out a long time ago. She was the whole thing. MR: She directed the documentary. HDS: Yeah. MR: […]

A Conversation with Echo & The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch – HuffPost 6.3.14

Mike Ragogna: Ian, you have a new album with Echo & The Bunnymen,Meteorites. How do you straddle the solo career and the band?

Ian McCulloch: Hopefully, quite well. I get asked this question a lot, it’s hard to give a definitive answer. Sometimes I feel I need… not so much a break from the Bunnymen, but I need to get certain songs out. The easiest way to explain it is sometimes I feel I write “I” songs and sometimes it feels like I’m writing “we” songs. They cross over slightly, for instance on this album there’s a lot of personal stuff. There’s something in it, maybe it’s the melody lines. There’s another way of describing that or explaining it which isn’t too flattering in one way, but with Bunnymen songs there’s less “woe is me,” or in fact, hopefully on this album no “woe is me,” which is kind of implies that I write my solo stuff “woe is me,” but I’m trying to eradicate that as well. I think that with solo stuff it’s more confessional and I’m kind of taking on blame for the way I am. But I think with the Bunnymen, whatever I say, even if it’s exposing my frailties, I do it in a more angst-ridding way.

A Conversation with Michael Franti – HuffPost 6.2.14

Mike Ragogna: What gave you the idea to merge music with yoga for your Soulshine tour?

Michael Franti: I started practicing yoga on tour about 13 years ago as a way to really just take care of myself as I was going in and out of airports and tour busses and doing shows and promotion and staying up late and eating bad restaurant food, et cetera. As I was touring I would practice at a different studio in every city that I went to in the world and I started inviting teachers and fans to come and practice with me before our shows, so we’d do it backstage or in a parking lot or in a park nearby. Last year, we played out at Red Rocks and we invited people to come in the afternoon before the show and practice yoga. We expected about two hundred people would be there and I believe two thousand showed up. We were really overwhelmed by this, so we thought, “This summer, let’s just do this at every one of our shows.” At every show on the Soulshine Tour, myself and some of the other artists will be playing acoustically in the afternoon and there will be a mass yoga class and then it will turn into a proper crazy rock concert after that.

A Conversation with Night Ranger’s Kelly Keagy – HuffPost 6.2.14

Mike Ragogna: So is it true? Is Night Ranger truly back with a new studio album called High Road.

Kelly Keagy: What about that!