Travels in Music Zachary Stockill

Hello fellow music lovers!

Man, it’s been a long time.

A whole lot has happened between the last episode in 2016, and today. And I wanted to speak to you today to fill you in on what happened to Travels in Music, and more importantly share something pretty exciting.

I just launched a brand new podcast.

It’s called Humans in Love, and it’s a venue for smart, relaxed conversations about culture, relationships, and personal development featuring unconventional perspectives. (You might think of it as “self-improvement that doesn’t take itself too seriously.”) Basically, if you liked Travels in Music, I think you’ll like Humans in Love–the format will be similar, my interview style will be similar, the only difference is the range of topics discussed–and, possibly, the level of frankness and honesty in the show.

My first guest will be familiar to TIM listeners: Mark Lewisohn is the world’s leading authority on the greatest rock n’ roll band of all-time, the Beatles. And for Episode 1 of Humans in Love, I sat down with Mark at the British Library in London where we discussed travel, productivity, the creative process, conflicts, working with George and Paul, and much, much more. It’s a two-part episode that I know you’ll love.



To find Humans in Love just search “Humans in Love” in iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, Google Play, or whatever podcast service you’re using. Or you can visit www.humansinlove.com. Episodes 0 and 1 are available right now!

Thanks for your support, thanks for listening, and I hope you join me for this exciting new project. I’m in it for the long haul, and I’d love to have your company along the way.

Visit the Humans in Love website right here.

And you can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @zfstockill.

Here’s to Humans in Love!

Live from Chiang Mai, northern Thailand!

Today’s episode features an update about the future of Travels in Music, my thoughts after recording twenty episodes, what it’s like producing a podcast, what I’ve learned, how I’m thinking about changing moving forward, and more.

Above all: thank-you, so much, for listening so far. Bigger and better things to come.

Also available via Stitcher Radio



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The past few years have been very good to fans of the late singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson.

We got to see an excellent feature-length documentary on Nilsson’s life and work, the remastering of his entire discography with several discs of bonus material, along with the release of what will surely go down as the definitive Nilsson biography by Alyn Shipton. What’s more, several high-profile online publications have published long overdue retrospectives celebrating his all-too-brief career.

For longtime fans of an artist who spent most of the past few decades toiling in obscurity, these are all welcome developments. I feel gratified that more and more music fans appear to be giving Harry his due, and recognizing his contribution to the development of American popular music.

However, many still fail to appreciate what I consider Nilsson’s finest hour.

In 2013, Grantland’s Sean Fennessey wrote a thoughtful and engaging article on Nilsson that serves as an effective “Nilsson primer” for new fans. As Fennessey surveyed the artist’s achievements—from “Everybody’s Talkin’,” to his Grammy-award winning opus Nilsson Schmilsson—I held my breath as he began to critique A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, Harry’s 1973 album comprising standards from the Great American Songbook.

I was disappointed, but not entirely surprised when Fennessey summed up A Little Touch of Schmilsson as “immaculately sung,” but ultimately a “dull and staid listen.”

I violently disagree—disagree seems too meek a word—with this last point. And I intend to prove Sean Fennessey wrong with this audio essay.

Hardly “dull and staid,” A Little Touch of Schmilsson In The Night is instead one of the most beautifully sung and arranged collections of pop music you’ve (probably) never heard; it’s an important and exciting listen, especially when you consider the pop landscape into which it emerged back in 1973. What’s more, decades after its release A Little Touch holds up; from the 1970’s to the present, there has not been a more impressive, and well-performed testament to the enduring appeal of the classic period of American popular song.

I hope you enjoy today’s episode of Travels in Music in defense of A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night.

Also available via Stitcher Radio

Mentioned in this episode:



* A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night by Harry Nilsson (Amazon / iTunes)

* Sean Fennessey’s feature on Nilsson (Grantland)

* Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter by Alyn Shipton (Amazon)

* Who Is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everyone Talking About Him?) documentary (Amazon)

* Nilsson Schmilsson by Harry Nilsson (a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00136RV0C/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=overcoretro09-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00136RV0C&...

The Canadian rock n’ roll band The Tragically Hip occupy a special place in my country’s musical culture. Although the Hip have dedicated American and European fans, they have, for the most part, concentrated their efforts on building and sustaining their ravenous Canadian fanbase.

Many of the band’s most loved songs address distinctly Canadian themes—hockey, the wilderness, unremarkable small towns—but they also address wider conflicts and inequalities in Canadian society. They are, in so many ways, Canada’s rock band, and among the most widely admired and celebrated artists in the country.

This is why it sent shockwaves through the country when it was announced in May of this year that Gord Downie, the lead singer of the Hip, has terminal brain cancer, and this summer’s tour will likely be the band’s last. On hearing this news, Canadians experienced an outpouring of emotion, and even casual Hip fans—people like me—were impacted by the news. The CBC, Canada’s national broadcaster, has decided to broadcast the band’s final concert on August 20 to a nationwide audience.

In short: the Tragically Hip mean a lot to my country. But the band might mean even more to my guest today.



Joshua Kloke is a music and sports writer, contributing to The Guardian, Vice, Sports Illustrated, and many other publications.

His book Escape Is At Hand: Tales of a Boy and a Band is a memoir detailing his passion for the music of Tragically Hip, and detail his travels around North America and Europe in the footsteps of his musical idols. In today’s episode of Travels in Music I wanted to speak to Joshua to better understand the place of the Tragically Hip in Canadian music history, hear more about his travels following the band, and discuss the recent news about Gord Downie.

I hope you enjoy sitting in on a very Canadian episode of Travels in Music, with my guest Joshua Kloke.

Also available via Stitcher Radio

Mentioned in this episode:



Escape Is At Hand: Tales of a Boy and a Band by Joshua Kloke (Amazon)

The Tragically Hip (official website)

Details on the August 20th CBC concert broadcast (CBC Music)

“Fifty Mission Cap” by the Tragically Hip (Amazon / iTunes)

An excerpt from Escape Is At Hand (Aux.Tv)

“It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken” by the Tragically Hip (Amazon / iTunes)

“Bobcaygeon” by the Tragically Hip (a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ASDF6S/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?

Even though the art of disc-jockeying is nearly one hundred years old, with modern DJs selling out stadiums and celebrated like rock stars the world over, there remain many misconceptions about DJs, and the art of djing.

Perhaps the most egregious of these misconceptions is that djing is easy, and anyone with half a sense of rhythm and the ability to push a button can do it—this is, to put it mildly, absolutely, patently, violently untrue.

For the most talented DJs know how to read and feel a room better than anyone on the planet, digging deep into their unique musical knowledge to spin records that will, above all else, create a vibe, get people moving, and feeling good. This is not easy, and I write to you today as a DJ who is learning this more and more.

I imagine that dancing at a club with a good DJ must feel something like how going to a religious festival feels for the religious. This life-affirming experience of spiritual renewal is possible, and only possible, with a DJ who possesses hard-won skill, sensitivity, rhythm, creativity, curiosity, and above all else, the ability to create a unique atmosphere, and play directly to the dance floor’s often unconscious yearnings. 

To help me understand all of this better, I wanted to speak to one of the foremost historians of djing.

A talented and widely-respected DJ himself, Bill Brewster is the co-author of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, the definitive history of the art form, while also contributing to The Guardian, The Independent, and many other publications. Bill also hosts a popular podcast called DJ History, and tours the world spinning the records he loves.

In today’s episode of Travels in Music, Bill and I talk about his personal history in dance music, the art and history of DJing, why disco is so important to modern dance music, the secrets of the world’s best DJs, and much more.

Regardless of whether or not you’ve attended a club in your life, I don’t think you’ll want to miss sitting in on this fascinating conversation with the author and world traveling DJ, Bill Brewster.

Also available via Stitcher Radio

Mentioned in this episode:



* Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton (Amazon)

* “The Love” by Linus Loves, from Bill Brewster’s Late Night Tales Presents After Dark (Amazon / iTunes)

* An oral history of the beginning of disco (Vanity Fair)

* “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor (Amazon / iTunes)

* A “60 Minutes” story on disco from 1978 (YouTube)

* An excellent DJ set by Bill courtesy of Boiler Room (YouTube)

The Canadian singer-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen has written some of the most eloquent, powerful, and important popular songs of the past half century.

Although many members of the younger generation are only familiar with his modern day hymn “Hallelujah,” that’s really just skimming the surface of Cohen’s brilliance. For the man who wrote “Hallelujah” has also given us “Suzanne,” “So Long, Marianne,” “Anthem,” “Closing Time,” “If It Be Your Will,” and several dozen other songs that musicians will still be covering in twenty, fifty, one hundred years time.

Leonard Cohen is, arguably, my country’s greatest living songwriter—and an artist deserving of a thoughtful, eloquent, and comprehensive biography. Thankfully, my guest today has provided music fans with just that.



Sylvie Simmons is a longtime rock critic and music writer whose 2012 biography of Cohen, I’m Your Man, was the rare hotly anticipated music biography that lived up to the hype.

Written over several years with the support, if not the official endorsement of its subject, I’m Your Man is an engrossing and moving read, inspiring to Cohen fans as well as anyone who does anything creative for a living. Leonard Cohen’s 80-plus years on this planet have been fascinating, occasionally tumultuous, and complex, and his biographer—herself a longtime fan—has honoured and celebrated Cohen’s life with her book.

In today’s episode of Travels in Music, Sylvie Simmons and I discuss her personal encounters with Cohen, what his music has meant to her and so many others, Cohen’s reputation as a ladies man, salacious Canadian journalism, and much more.

I was privileged for her to join me, and I hope you enjoy sitting in on my conversation with the author of I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen, Ms. Sylvie Simmons.

Also available via Stitcher Radio

Mentioned in this episode:



* I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons (Amazon)

* “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen (Amazon / iTunes)

* The Best of Leonard Cohen (Amazon / iTunes)

* Sylvie Simmons performing “Famous Blue Raincoat” (YouTube)

* Tom Waits interviewed by Sylvie Simmons

* “You Are In My Arms” by Sylvie Simmons (Amazon / a href="https://geo.