Episodes

Julian distills 69 episodes into 10 lessons every independent musician needs to hear. After nearly two years of sitting across from independent artists, producers, and creatives, Julian steps behind the mic solo to share what the show has taught him. From why the music business and playing music for fun sit on opposite sides of the spectrum, to the real meaning behind "believe in yourself," to the Danny Beissel line that changed how he thinks about control, Julian gets into the practical and ph...

Seth Aaron has been writing songs since he was 13. He's only now giving himself permission to go all in. The Philly soul and blues singer-songwriter spent two decades fitting music into a life that was designed for something safer. His first two albums showed range. His next one shows honesty. Record of Wrongs is Seth Aaron's most focused project yet: a collection of songs he's calling "Soultry," blending the storytelling of country with the emotional weight of soul. He and Julian (who happens ...

Danny Beissel got signed to Warner Music Group at 34, watched his rock band Fosterchild burn bright and fizzle out, and rebuilt himself in Laguna Beach: sober, meditating every morning, and writing the most personal record of his life. The Philly-born rock vocalist behind Fosterchild, the American Vinyl All Star Band, and now Featherborn joins Julian for a long-overdue conversation about writing anthemic songs that stay intimate, why licensing music is the new radio, and the phrase that changed...

Cesar Rodriguez built an 11-year hip-hop podcast on one rule: never make a guest feel used. Cesar has hosted The Rodriguez Show out of Southern California for over a decade, starting as a hip-hop news show and evolving into a wide-ranging interview series with musicians, DJs, and creatives. He now freelances as a podcast producer through Rodriguez Podcasts. Cesar talks with Julian about the moment hip-hop hooked him for life, why marketing is still the hardest part of the job after 11 years, an...

Shoni recorded her entire EP alone in a closet, engineered it herself, and wrote the standout track in 15 min. The New York-based R&B and soul singer-songwriter walked away from music for a decade after becoming a mom, and when she came back, she came back different. Shoni talks about recording Shades of Blues entirely on her own after a collaborator fell through, the Whitney Houston performance that gave her goosebumps at age five, why she names emotional intelligence as the number one quality...

Kurt Sasso has 1,200 interviews and zero hiatuses, and he stopped chasing downloads years ago. The Ottawa-based host of Two Geeks Talking started his show a month before Joe Rogan and Marc Maron launched theirs, back when podcasting barely had a name. What began as a webcomic interview show evolved into one of the longest-running entertainment podcasts in the game, covering comics, TV, film, music, and video games. Kurt and Julian get into the real cost of building a massive body of work: the b...

Gabrielle Caruthers spent 20 years in the cultural arts before launching a podcast to ask the questions the creative community wasn't talking about. She's a Detroit-based dancer turned podcast host, educator, and creative entrepreneur, and the founder of the Starving Artist Development Podcast. Gabrielle and Julian dig into what it actually costs to call yourself an artist-as-business, how to be consistent without burning out, and the difference between being talented and having it. Plus: why s...

Jon writes entire albums in a month, has a Nigerian band covering his songs, and still calls himself an amateur. The Brighton-based singer-songwriter behind The Family Grave built a prolific catalog of indie folk and alt-rock records without ever learning barre chords. His "Happy Old Love Songs" trilogy (Happy Songs, Songs About Love, and Old Songs for Kids) came together across pandemic lockdowns, one-day-a-month studio sessions, and a songwriting process that treats creativity like a job you ...

V!ctoria wrote her first hit during COVID at 15, posted it on a whim, and watched it rack up over half a million streams. Now she can barely press play on it. The 20-year-old New York artist blends R&B, pop, rock, and hip-hop into something Julian straight up couldn't categorize; and that's exactly the point. V!ctoria produces everything herself on Logic, works exclusively in the dark, and refuses to be boxed into a single genre. She opens up about the comparison trap of outgrowing your own vir...

Ep.60: Pearl Fontaine dropped out of a lyric writing class in college because she wasn't ready to share herself. Years later, a bonfire in rural North Carolina changed everything. The lead singer of Post American Gothic grew up singing with her gospel-singing grandfather, chasing musical theater, and getting rejected from arts school… twice. After a stint at Berklee, a year in Brooklyn that ended with COVID, and a stretch of not making music at all, Pearl landed back in her small-town North Car...

KĪ picked up a ukulele during COVID with no music background, posted a few covers, and a Nashville management team came calling. Now she writes, produces, and releases everything herself. The Seattle-based pop artist started her music journey backwards: Nashville songwriting sessions and LA recording studios before she ever learned to produce on her own. But out of necessity came self-reliance, and out of self-reliance came the truest version of her art. KĪ talks about surviving domestic violen...

Kyle Blankenship drove past his childhood home one night and watched it burn to the ground. Ten minutes later, he'd written a song about it. The Nashville-area indie folk rock songwriter has been writing and playing music for over 25 years, but Flip the Mule is the project that finally feels like home. Alongside lifelong musical partner Tyler Bandy, Kyle is building a catalog rooted in rich storytelling, stacked harmonies, and a philosophy that success means finishing the art and putting it int...

Ep.57: Rob Tait wrote a song about someone he loves, and didn't know who it was until he started crying. The Philly-based Americana singer-songwriter returns to “loves music” with his sophomore album Dear Lightkeeper, a record built on collaboration, community, and the audacity to withhold it from streaming entirely. Where his debut At the End of the World was an inward journal, this one reads like a love letter to the people who kept him going. Rob breaks down what happened when 250K streams d...

Julian Martinez taught himself to produce, mix, and master music from his bedroom, and now he's finishing a debut album that sounds like it came out of a professional studio. The guitarist, songwriter, and producer behind Houston-born duo Midnight Spies has spent the better part of the last half decade writing, tracking, mixing, and learning how to do it all himself. He and bassist Matt Newton started the project during the pandemic, taught themselves production from scratch, and now they’re fi...

Dareen came back with a whole album and a completely different energy. She was Episode 2 — one of the very first guests on loves music — and back then she was just getting her feet wet again after a decade away from recording. Now she's returned with Goddess, a full-length debut that explores femininity, power, vulnerability, and self-doubt through dark, ethereal alternative pop. Julian and Dareen get into the making of the album, what it means to be a woman making music about womanhood without...

Ep.54: She was being looked at by Warner Brothers, playing sold-out shows in New York… and then she got pregnant and walked away from all of it. LauraLea Taraskus has been a full-time working musician since 1997: 26 consecutive summers at the Ocean Drive in Sea Isle City, six nights a week with her band Tripp Fabulous, and a catalog of original songs she's been playing live but hasn't recorded in over 20 years. Julian and LauraLea go way back — she sang on his album, performed at his wedding, a...

Ep.53: The producer of “loves music” finally takes the hot seat, and she has a story of her own. For the past 52 episodes, Angelina Gurrola has been the person behind every edit, every show note, and every Thursday release of loves music. She's a classically trained pianist turned music producer turned DJ turned podcast strategist from Chicago, and for the show's one-year anniversary, Julian flipped the script and interviewed the woman who's been running the operation from behind the scenes to ...

Ep.52: Kat Yvonne turned pandemic grief and pregnancy loss into one of the most emotionally raw albums you'll hear this year. She's an independent singer-songwriter from Toronto who built both of her projects by reaching out to strangers online and asking if anyone wanted to make something sad and beautiful together. Her debut Hiding in Leaves came from a place of survival. Her upcoming second album was that one surprised her, because she wrote it happy. In this conversation, we get into: How ...

Ep.51: Elliot Poston chose his wife over a music career… and years later, music found him anyway. Elliot is a country singer out of South Carolina who spent nearly two decades leading worship at church before stepping into the spotlight as an independent artist. What started as a side gig playing local restaurants turned into two-to-four shows a week, opening slots for Diamond Rio and Sammy Kershaw, and a viral parking garage set at Carolina Country Music Festival. This conversation is one of t...

For 50 episodes, Julian's been asking the questions. Now it's his turn to answer them. In this special milestone episode, Julian turns the tables on himself” answering the same questions he asks his guests, plus a few from the audience. He gets into his hip-hop-to-alt-rock musical journey, the shows he played around Philadelphia, the moment he realized how much work it actually takes to make it, and why he'd tell any young musician to count the cost of their dream before chasing it. It's honest...

Ep.49: Zegovia makes arena-level pop punk in a city that doesn't really have a pop punk scene. Seth Mireles and his brother Matt started the band as teenagers covering Nirvana in their parents' house. Now, after years of lineup changes, DIY touring, and grinding through a Houston scene dominated by hardcore and shoegaze, they've put out Observe, a debut album with hooks that sound like they belong in stadiums. Seth talks about what it's actually like to book your own tours blind, perform for em...

Ep.48: Mickey Shiloh has written songs for Britney Spears and Janet Jackson… and was doing a press interview from a psych ward. The multi-platinum songwriter, Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, and founder of HRDRV has lived every version of the music industry: from signing with Darkchild at 17, to watching her breakout single explode via Kylie Jenner and Drake, to being hospitalized during the peak of her momentum. Now she's channeling everything she's learned into building a subscription-based artist...

Ep.47: Elle Indigo writes songs for people who feel too hard, but she almost never started. The West Coast singer-songwriter spent years battling stage nerves so bad she could barely get through a karaoke song. It took a divorce, a pandemic, and a decision to stop waiting for permission to finally push her music forward. Now she's building a moody, operatic pop sound that turns negative self-talk into something you can sing along to, and she's working toward a debut album that's been a long time...

Ep.46: Honey Gold Jasmine never lost her inner child, even when people tried to beat it out of her. The Bay Area hip-hop soul artist grew up in a military family where creativity was something to tamp down, not celebrate. But a life-changing teacher in Richmond, a talent show she bombed in sixth grade, and the entrepreneurial energy of Vallejo kept her fire lit. Now she's building something that blends music, fairy festivals, and radical self-expression into a world that feels entirely her own. ...