The Art of Longevity

The Song Sommelier
  • 5.0 (12)
  • Music Commentary
  • Updated Biweekly

Uniquely honest conversations with famous and renowned musicians. We talk about how these artists have navigated the mangle of the music industry to keep on making great music and winning new fans after decades of highs and lows. We dive into past, present and future and discuss business, fandom, creation and collaboration. What defines success in today's music business? From the artist's point of view. The Guardian: “Making a hit record is tough, but maintaining success is another skill entirely. Music industry executive Keith Jopling explores how bands have kept the creative flame alive in this incisive series”.

  1. The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 6: Kurt Vile

    6d ago

    The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 6: Kurt Vile

    I caught up with Kurt for the Art of Longevity at his home in the leafy, trail-threaded neighbourhood of Mount Airy ("there's like one coffee shop, one grocery store kind of thing"), where, if you're a local dad with a creative streak and a guilty conscience, you too might one day hand him something strange and wonderful.  Philadelphia's Been Good To Me is Kurt’s tenth album, and it arrives draped in the city's 250th anniversary of independence, although Kurt would like you to know that the Philly references preceded any civic occasion. "I've really been calling out Philly the whole time," he says, without particular urgency. "I called myself Philly's constant hitmaker, you know, early on, so all signs were pointing to this for natural reasons." The phrase natural reasons crops up around Kurt Vile the way it tends to around artists who have figured something out that they couldn't quite explain if you put them on the spot. His producer Rob Schnaff asked him early in the sessions: is this your Philly record? Kurt had already sung Philadelphia into three different songs by that point.  Sometimes an album tells you what it is before you know it.  The record was made in part, as increasingly his records are, at home. His home studio has become the full circle he didn't quite plan to draw but which now makes complete sense: back in his twenties he was recording DIY bedroom tapes; now he's in his forties doing essentially the same thing, except for a major label (Verve) and in high fidelity. The method hasn't changed but the context has - the proverbial “slacker” has become an all out star of considerable standing in the global indie rock scene.  The Art of Longevity Season 13 is powered by Bang & Olufsen.  The book of the podcast, Riding the Rollercoaster, is now available.  Support the show Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

    46 min
  2. The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 5: Broken Social Scene

    May 29

    The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 5: Broken Social Scene

    There’s a point in every long music career where survival becomes more interesting than success. Not survival in the purely commercial sense. Not chart positions, algorithmic reach or streaming milestones. But survival of identity. Survival of friendship. Survival of purpose. The good stuff that can easily get buried away in the cut & thrust of a fickle business like music.  That’s where Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene finds himself now, nearly 25 years after the collective first emerged from Toronto’s indie underground and quietly became one of the defining musical communities of the 2000s. Drew is thoughtful, funny, open & revealing; and utterly uninterested in rock mythology. There are no grand narratives about being an artist in the world of “rock & roll”. In fact, he actively rejects them. “I can’t handle any more Daisy Jones & The Six b******t. It’s all drugs, drugs, drugs. The road’s about constipation, man. It’s not about partying. It’s about how my metabolism works on the road but nobody wants to make that movie.” The refusal to romanticise the cliché is central to Broken Social Scene’s longevity. And that’s just what we love about The Art of Longevity. In fact I’m going to call it “getting beyond the cliches of being an artist in the modern music business”.  While many bands implode under the pressure of ego, success or repetition, Drew talks about music instead as community: messy, imperfect, emotional community. “Our success is not of an individual. It's a group of people. We’re in this together. We’re still going. Some of us have more success than others. Some people have swimming pools, some of us are renting. We have great lives, we have great kids, we have success, because success is honesty”.  That philosophy runs through Remember the Humans, the band’s first album in nine years. It’s a record shaped not by urgency or any loud “comeback” ambition, but by reflection. The album opens with a trio of mid-tempo songs, thereby breaking every rule there is in the modern biz. Except the three songs are just great, and set the listener up for a journey that ebbs & flows like all good albums do.  A collective is a very different beast from a band. For the various rotating members of Broken Social Scene (some 20 I could count), life and careers intersect in a spaghetti junction of a band dynamic. Parents have died. Relationships have changed. Careers have diverged. Some members of the collective found “mainstream” success through projects like Feist, Metric and Stars. Others remained closer to the margins.  “We’re not owed anything,” Drew says. “We already did the best we could. Our career peaked. We never made it into the mainstream. We never sold our catalog. We never signed the “big deal”. We never took the money, man. We stayed with the people.” As social scene indeed, and one very much not literally broken, but working just as it should.  The Art of Longevity Season 13 is powered by Bang & Olufsen.  The book of the podcast, Riding the Rollercoaster, is now available.  Support the show Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

    1 hr
  3. The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 4: The Twilight Sad

    May 16

    The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 4: The Twilight Sad

    After seven years between records, The Twilight Sad have returned with It’s the Long Goodbye, an album forged through grief, survival and renewal. Was it all worth it? Well, listen for yourselves. And do keep in mind that the album ranks 4th so far on the Album of the Year 2026 best-of league. Not that we advocate music as a competition. Just saying, some albums are clearly worth the work.  Speaking to David Freer on this episode of The Art of Longevity Podcast, vocalist James Graham and guitarist Andy MacFarlane reflect on the emotional weight behind the record, the realities of touring in modern music, and how the band have managed to stay creatively vital two decades into their career. And, not that they would ever mention it themselves, it’s a known fact that we are talking about Robert Smith’s favourite band. On the band’s Spotify profile is Robert’s testimony: “They are the best band playing the best songs – consistently brilliant, emotional, intense, inspiring, entertaining.”  The Scottish band’s sixth album arrived after what Graham describes as an intensely difficult period, shaped by personal loss and the long emotional aftermath of caring for his mother through Alzheimer’s disease. Yet despite the darkness surrounding its themes, there is a sense of optimism running through both the music and the band themselves. It transpires this is their most uplifting and dare we say, accessible record to date. And it may well be their best (not that we advocate a band should always compete with itself).  Now, who is going to argue with Robert Smith then, a? What a fantastic band on a creative roll. Jump on and get your fxxks back.  The Art of Longevity Season 13 is powered by Bang & Olufsen.  The book of the podcast, Riding the Rollercoaster, is now available.  Support the show Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

    55 min
  4. The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 3: Midge Ure

    Apr 18

    The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 3: Midge Ure

    From his early days with proto-punk pop band Slik, through his tenure with ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock’s Rich Kids, the creation of Visage, and touring with Thin Lizzy, to his major league success with Ultravox, and then his pivotal musical role in Band Aid and Live Aid, Midge Ure was a constant and significant force in the evolving music scene of the late seventies and eighties. 2026 sees his first release of new material in twelve years, a double album entitled A Man Of Two Worlds.  In this episode of The Art Of Longevity, Midge talks to Fenner Pearson about his long career in music, his bold decision to release an album of instrumental music as part of his new double-album, and his plans for taking it on tour with a full band. Along the way, they discuss changes to the music industry and technology over the last fifty years, and how his Mum made egg and chips for Phil Lynott the first time he and Midge met. There is little doubt about it, Midge is a British music legend and modest to a fault. A typically understated and delightful chat.  The Art of Longevity Season 13 is powered by Bang & Olufsen.  The book of the podcast, Riding the Rollercoaster, is now available.  Support the show Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

    49 min
  5. The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 2: Ladytron, with Daniel Hunt

    Apr 3

    The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 2: Ladytron, with Daniel Hunt

    Ladytron have never followed a conventional path to longevity. That’s good, because there isn’t one. This band has worked through cycles - creative surges, enforced pauses, patches of momentum, a hiatus, and reinvention. The unglamorous realities of sustaining a working band across decades. Daniel Hunt has been through these cycles a few times and knows how to press reset. “Every record has its own story,” he says, adding, with understatement, that “every record has to involve someone having a breakdown.”  Generally true, except not this time around.  The Art of Longevity Season 13 is powered by Bang & Olufsen.  The book of the podcast, Riding the Rollercoaster, is now available.  Support the show Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

    1h 6m
  6. The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 1: Ólafur Arnalds

    Mar 25

    The Art of Longevity Season 13, Episode 1: Ólafur Arnalds

    Ólafur Arnalds reflects on creativity, the changing music landscape, and the deeper emotional connection we risk losing in a hyper-digital world. This conversation unfolds less like a traditional interview and more like a meditation on what music is—and what it could still become. Arnalds speaks candidly about the role of streaming platforms in his career. Algorithms have elevated his genre (neo-classical) to global visibility, but they’ve also introduced fundamental creative pressures (he recalls feeling compelled to include more “streamable” tracks on his 2018 album re:member, particularly solo piano pieces, simply because of how they perform on playlists). Over time, Arnalds has became wary of how easily those expectations can seep into his own creative thinking.  More broadly, he gently critiques the culture of passive listening. Playlists designed for focus or relaxation often generate vast numbers of streams, yet little real connection between artist and audience. The result is a strange disconnect: access without identity - a sort of weirdly tuned-out form of listening.  So, with host Keith Jopling, this conversation looks to find ways to place music back where it needs to be: nourishing, useful, enabling artist to tell their stories, break down emotional barriers and build community. We discuss how Ólafur's new groundbreaking world tour "Falling Apart Together" aims to achieve just that! We also test some of the themes of longevity as written about in Keith's new book Riding The Rollercoaster: how artists survive the music business to become the legends we love.  Possibly the best episode yet.  The Art of Longevity Season 13 is powered by Bang & Olufsen.  Support the show Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

    1h 12m
  7. The Art of Longevity Episode 87: Karnivool

    Feb 7

    The Art of Longevity Episode 87: Karnivool

    In an era dominated by playlists, TikTok, Reels and Shorts, reduced attention spans and endless content, Karnivool doubled down on the album as a complete statement - the album as the antidote. As Drew Goddard says. “In the age of content, I thought it was even more important to release an album.” For Karnivool, the album remains more than a collection of tracks. It is a long-form quest (in this case, lasting 12 years), both for the band and the listener. “I struggle with focus,” Goddard explains, “so committing to a long-form thing was important. Something that could hold people captive for a little bit. Stop them in their tracks.” At this point, it hits hard just how much work goes into the making of an album, especially one as epic as In Verses. With each passing year, Karnivool fans' patience was tested and their expectations, inevitably, notched upwards.  I don’t think anyone will be disappointed, but perhaps it would help for the band to crack on towards the next album…soonish.  Despite the long wait, the band insists they weren’t consciously responding to external pressure. “We weren’t really thinking about the stakes,” Jon Stockman says. “We were so embroiled in the process itself.”  After 12 years, the achievement is not just the record itself. “We’re still friends,” Stockman notes. “We’re still enjoying it.”  In a career defined by patience and precision, simply arriving together for a new album and what many may see as a career-defining tour, may be Karnivool’s greatest artistic statement yet. And that may be an understatement.  The Art of Longevity is powered by Bang & Olufsen. [full article on website] Support the show Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

    46 min
  8. The Art of Longevity Episode 86: Guilty Pleasures, with Sean Rowley

    Jan 20

    The Art of Longevity Episode 86: Guilty Pleasures, with Sean Rowley

    I gave Sean Rowley a call after writing up an article on “Unguilty Pleasures” (see Chill Gonzales episode 64) - Gonzales' campaign against music snobbery and treatise on the pleasures of Enya's music. It became clear that the story of Rowley's own creation, Guilty Pleasures, was very much a candidate for the Art of Longevity.  Guilty Pleasures became that wonderful thing - a content brand (before we called them that) that grew octopus arms. The club nights quickly grew by word-of-mouth, expanding to multiple venues, festivals, and international events, and becoming a fixture of the UK nightlife scene. Then came a series of successful compilation CDs, at a time when compilations still did big business in music. It went on to radio, live tours, and special events (including opening for George Michael at the new Wembley Stadium), helping to popularise nostalgia-driven and feel-good music culture. In Rowley’s own words “nostalgia is a f*****g wonderful thing”. Well, he did make a career out of it, so he would understand.  For an idea to build the way it has, and to last so long, it needed to be something deeper. With Guilty Pleasures, Rowley challenged prevailing ideas of musical “taste” and helped normalise the celebration of mainstream pop, even in alternative spaces. He gave music snobbery a good clobbering and in doing so, established a legacy on DJ culture and the wider acceptance of joyful, communal music experiences.  The evidence is everywhere: the enormously popular Despacio Disco launched by James Murphy (of LCD Soundsystem) and the Dewaele brothers (of Soulwax and 2ManyDJs). And then James Gunn of course, with the Guardians of The Galaxy soundtrack, which mined similar territory. The pandemic brought us Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco. Tik Tok has of course done wonders for the “genre”- famous for making Matthew Wilder’s “Break My Stride” a sensation, now with 500m streams on Spotify.  And on it goes, the sprawling influence of a simple idea that is underpinned by the even simpler concept of the joy of music.  Support the show Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

    57 min
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5
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

Uniquely honest conversations with famous and renowned musicians. We talk about how these artists have navigated the mangle of the music industry to keep on making great music and winning new fans after decades of highs and lows. We dive into past, present and future and discuss business, fandom, creation and collaboration. What defines success in today's music business? From the artist's point of view. The Guardian: “Making a hit record is tough, but maintaining success is another skill entirely. Music industry executive Keith Jopling explores how bands have kept the creative flame alive in this incisive series”.

Information

  • Creator
    The Song Sommelier
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    96
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Art of Longevity
  • Show Website
    The Art of Longevity

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