LSQ

Jenny Eliscu
  • 4.8 (146)
  • MUSIC INTERVIEWS
  • UPDATED SEMIMONTHLY

Interviews focus on key moments of discovery, and the songs/artists that have soundtracked the guest's life. Hosted by journalist and radio presenter Jenny Eliscu (@jennylsq), these are laid-back but in-depth discussions about the journey to find their creative voice and process, and how it has evolved over their career. Episodes also occasionally feature clips from Eliscu's extensive archive, which includes 25 years' worth of interview audio.

  1. 11H AGO

    Kneecap

    “Kneecap was born out of this need to represent the identity of young people who speak Irish in the city, an identity a lot of people around the world wouldn’t know exists,” says Móglaí Bap of Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap. “When I was growing up, you wouldn’t have seen the language on mainstream radio or BBC1 or in the cinemas, so as a teenager it wouldn’t have been that cool to speak Irish. So Kneecap was part of pushing that boundary and seeing what we could do, and also having a bit of craic, as we say.”  In the lead up to their powerful new album, Fenian, Móglaí and bandmate Mo Chara joined me via Zoom for an in-depth discussion of their history. They talked about how the project evolved from being something they did initially for laughs and to get free tickets to festivals into a part of their larger fight against the marginalization of the Irish-language, of which they’re native speakers, and their desire to raise awareness of the harms caused by colonialism worldwide. We also discussed their childhood: Moglai’s memories of hearing his mother play traditional Irish music on her concertina, Mo Chara’s teenage experiences learning Oasis and Stone Roses songs on guitar at a Belfast youth club, how they found each other within the Irish-language community and started making music together, and how their approach to Kneecap has evolved since then. For the uninitiated, in addition to listening to Fenian and their previous album, Fine Art, I also highly recommend watching the biographical film Kneecap, which is funny and dramatic and poignant and a mix of fact and fiction, starring the band as themselves.  It’s awesome and it’s available on Netflix, Apple TV and beyond.

    38 min

  2. APR 10

    Arlo Parks

    “I just remember being fascinated by language, it felt like this treasure I was discovering,” says Arlo Parks, of her childhood affinity with words. “I remember being obsessed with the word ‘pebble,’ and the sense of different shapes. Maybe it’s because I learned French before English, so my approach to the English language was quite, like, seeking and grasping and understanding as I went along. But the dictionary, I remember being obsessed with it.” If you’ve been a fan of Arlo Parks’ music over the course of her three beautiful albums, I’m sure it comes as no surprise to learn that the British singer-songwriter has been obsessed with words since childhood. In episode 137, she shares more about her early life explorations of poetry and song craft, memories of hearing Otis Redding from the backseat of her father’s car, discovering Miles Davis and Prince in her uncle’s vinyl collection, downloading Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs onto her iPod, trying to play all of Elliott Smith’s XO on guitar, and eventually beginning to make her own music near the end of high school. We also discuss her approach to her wonderful new album, Ambiguous Desire, and how going out to dance clubs and DJ nights brought new inspiration. And I especially loved that Arlo came over to my little LA bungalow to do this interview in person! Get tickets for her upcoming shows here.

    37 min

  3. APR 1

    Snail Mail - Lindsey Jordan

    “When I started going to rock & roll camp once a summer, I definitely always felt like there was a lot to be proven of being like a girl, a small girl,” says Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan. “My whole brain was just this ‘Be better than the boys, I have to in order to be able to even just exist’ thing, and that took some of the enjoyment out of it. But now I do have a bloodlust for getting better, and I don’t know if I would have that if it weren’t for having so much of an inferiority complex for so long.” In episode 136, Jordan delves further into how the perfectionism she developed early on, as a preciously talented kid guitarist at rock camp, has been both a blessing and a curse — on the one hand it has inspired her to constantly strive to improve,  on the other it has contributed to intense anxiety that she still battles. We discuss the theme of anxiety and obsession in her life, and the role those things played in the excellent new Snail Mail album, Ricochet. Don’t worry, we also get into a lot of lighter fare, talking about the artists she obsessed over as a kid during one of indie music’s heydays, when she poured over Tumblr to discover bands like Beach House and Warpaint and Purity Ring and St. Vincent and Lana Del Rey.  Lindsay also shares some details about the first big  Snail Mail tour for Ricochet, and some new things she and the band are trying for these shows. Get tickets and details here.

    43 min

  4. MAR 12

    Iron & Wine - Sam Beam

    “I had never played a concert until I got a record deal with Sub Pop and they were like, ‘Well, you should consider going on tour,’" says Iron & Wine's Sam Beam. "I was like, ‘Oh shit.’ It’s a very atypical story, and it also made me suffer from a lot of imposter syndrome for a long time. I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there, that I had fooled someone along the way and they were gonna find out and the gig was gonna be up.” Some 24 years later, the gig is nowhere near up for Beam,  who’s been releasing beautiful music as Iron & Wine ever since his 2002 Sub Pop Records debut, The Creek Drank the Cradle, and his latest, his 8th studio album Hen’s Teeth is another wonderful collection of music. It came out in late February and we talk about the making of the album in episode 135, and we also delve into his earlier creative history, how he began in visual arts (drawing and filmmaking) before getting his first four-track, and the inspiration he got from artists including Sebadoh, Cowboy Junkies, R.E.M., Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, among others.  We also discuss a future project he’s excited to develop — a Broadway musical! You can hear more about that near the end of the interview. Iron & Wine will be playing shows in Hawaii later this month and then embarking on a full-scale North American tour in late April. Get tickets and further info here.

    30 min

  5. FEB 24

    Dry Cleaning

    “It is important to have faith when you’re making something,” says Florence Shaw, frontwoman for U.K. post-punk band Dry Cleaning, regarding the hyper-specificity of her lyrics and how they can still feel very relatable, even when she’s referencing something unfamiliar. (This, by the way, is one of my favorite things about Dry Cleaning’s music.) “You don’t have to dumb everything down and you don’t have to explain absolutely everything to the audience,” she continues. “I do feel like people will pick things up. I feel like people get it still, and that’s a satisfying thing. You have to believe in the perceptiveness of the audience.” As you’ll hear episode 134 of the LSQ podcast, the band — Flo, guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton and bassist Lewis Maynard — have more to say about the idea of faith in the audience and also faith in each each other as bandmates. We also talk more about Secret Love, their brilliant third LP (and I think their best to-date), and we zoom out to discuss their creative histories individually and how they came together as Dry Cleaning. Get tickets for their upcoming tour here.

    52 min

  6. FEB 10

    Sudan Archives

    In episode 133, Sudan Archives's Brittney Parks shares the story of her creative evolution, beginning with falling in love with violin when she was in fourth grade (thanks to a school visit by Canadian fiddle group Barrage), how playing in church led to learning songs from the MTV countdown to impress her friends, and eventually learning how to make beats and record her own songs using her iPad. She also talks about the influence of artists including Ibeyi, Santigold, Lykke Li and Corinne Bailey Rae, and how she began releasing her music (under the moniker Sudan Moon) more than a decade ago. And of course we also delve into the making of her excellent latest album, The BPM, and how "driveway beef" with her LA neighbors led her to finish the project with family in Detroit, where the city's rich history of pioneering dance music helped coalesce some of her sonic ideas for the LP. Sudan Archives is currently on tour in the U.S.; get tickets here.

    26 min

  7. JAN 28

    The Format

    To kick off season 9 of the LSQ podcast, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with my old friends The Format, who are back together with their first new album since 2006’s Dog Problems. Produced by the legendary Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, Bruce Springsteen), Boycott Heaven is a welcome return from the duo of Nate Ruess and Sam Means, who continue to expand into new terrain on this collection. In the interview, Ruess talks about how, leading up to this album, he learned to play guitar (with help from his friend Buckethead!) and demo songs on his own, for the very first time. We also delve into the history of the band, going back to when the pair first met in high school, bonded by their shared love of Weezer and other 90s bands, and the evolution of their writing process. The Format will start their U.S. tour for Boycott Heaven in late March, and you can get tickets here.

    32 min

  8. 11/25/2025

    Bon Iver - Justin Vernon

    An all-time favorite artist sits for an all-time favorite interview! Bon Iver's Justin Vernon is my guest in this episode of the LSQ podcast — the final episode of 2025 and season 8 of the show. We recorded this at his home studio back in June, shortly after the release of Bon Iver’s brilliant latest album, SABLE, fABLE, which recently earned him another couple well-deserved Grammy nominations. I loved this conversation so much, and I’m so grateful to Justin for his openness in a talk that explores his entire history as a creative person and music maker. Justin and I go back a ways and have done shorter interviews over the years. But this gave us a chance to go super in-depth, and I loved hearing stories about his early life and definitive creative experiences — about listening to John Prine’s “Hello in There,” on his Discman in the back of his my parents’ minivan and realizing music was his calling, about discovering music he loved by Fugazi, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, the Dave Matthews Band, and Baaba Maal, about his dad driving him and his friends from Eau Claire, Wisconsin to Minneapolis to see Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden, about the deep camaraderie of his high school band with friends he still collaborates with today, and the vital growth that came from moving the band to Raleigh, North Carolina when he was in his twenties. Oh, and you’ve also gotta hear the story about Prince coming to a Gayngs show at First Avenue, and nearly joining the band onstage.

    58 min
See All (138)

4.8
out of 5
146 Ratings

About

Interviews focus on key moments of discovery, and the songs/artists that have soundtracked the guest's life. Hosted by journalist and radio presenter Jenny Eliscu (@jennylsq), these are laid-back but in-depth discussions about the journey to find their creative voice and process, and how it has evolved over their career. Episodes also occasionally feature clips from Eliscu's extensive archive, which includes 25 years' worth of interview audio.

Information

  • Creator
    Jenny Eliscu
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    138
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jenny Eliscu
  • Show Website
    LSQ

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