Sending Signals

In February 2025 at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia, something incredible happened. Jason Narducy, alongside actor Michael Shannon, were out touring their R.E.M. tribute project, where they perform early albums in full, alongside deep cuts from the back catalogue, when all 4 original members of R.E.M joined them to perform a version of “Pretty Persuasion”. Over the past couple of years various configurations of band members had performed with them, but having all 4 at once was clearly a historic moment. Jason’s life in music has been quite something. Jason had a musical epiphany when, aged 8, his dad took him to see The Who movie “The Kids Are Alright”. He got an electric guitar aged 9, and by aged 10 he was playing in a punk band named Verboten. Tracey, was the oldest member of the band, aged 13, and just happened to be cousin of future Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. Dave would later cite Verboten as a major inspiration for him in pursuing music, and Jason appeared in Dave’s “Sonic Highways” series. Jason has gone on to perform with so many artists, but he’s been a mainstay of Bob Mould’s band since 2005, playing bass on 6 albums and touring with him. Jason also plays with bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate and Superchunk. He has his own musical project entitled Split Single, and plays intimate living room shows for fans. A few years ago he had the surreal experience of writing songs for a musical about his childhood band Verboten. As well as upcoming gigs with Bob Mould, Jason is heading back out on tour with Michael Shannon to perform R.E.M’s brilliant 4th album, “Life’s Rich Pageant”. It’s no surprise we had a lot to talk about. Instagram: @sendingsignalspodcast 

Always a pleasure to have Steve Howe on the podcast. The Yes guitarist joins me this time to discuss a couple of reissues from his solo back catalogue; “Natural Timbre” and “Portraits of Bob Dylan”. The former being an all acoustic record, and the latter being, as you may have inferred, a Dylan covers album. It was a nice excuse to talk about Dylan, and solo albums in general. I, of course, also take the opportunity to catch up on the things in the Yes camp, including their forthcoming tour playing the classic album “Fragile” in full. Enjoy. Instagram: @sendingsignalspodcast

The past 3 decades have brought their share of ups and downs for Feeder. They’ve enjoyed 11 top ten albums, and various hit singles, but had to weather the tragic loss of drummer Jon Lee in January 2002. It was against this backdrop that frontman Grant Nicholas returned to studio alongside bassist Taka Hirose to produce Feeder’s most poignant and life-affirming album “Comfort In Sound”. The album is getting reissue this month, and they will be undertaking a UK tour, playing the album in full for the first time. It’s a rare look back for the band, who have released 4 new albums in the last decade including a double album “Black/Red” which came out last year. Grant was a guest on the podcast a few years back, and I’m really grateful he was willing to come back on. Instagram: @sendingsignalspodcast

Steve Rothery is a founding member of one of my all time favourite bands, Marillion. Despite various personnel changes in the early years of the band, Marillion have maintained a stable line-up for the past 36 years. One of the keys to their ongoing unity is surely their tolerance for band members to indulge in side-projects, and Rothery is about to release an album under the name Bioscope, in collaboration with current Tangerine Dream bandleader Thorsten Quaeschning. The album is called “Gento” and features Elbow drummer Alex Reeves behind the kit. I was pleased to welcome Steve back onto the podcast to discuss the new project, as well getting an update on the new Marillion album, and a chat about the 30th anniversary of one of their finest albums “Afraid Of Sunlight”. Instagram: @sendingsignalspodcast

This summer sees the release of an expanded edition of Richard Hawley’s breakthrough masterpiece “Coles Corner” with an accompanying tour. Richard joins me for an epic chat about the making the record, his family history, his prodigious session work, the closing of the beloved Sheffield Leadmill, and working (remotely) with Hank Marvin. Enjoy. Find me on Instagram @sendingsignalspodcastVisit richardhawley.co.uk for tour dates and reissue information. 

On February 27th 2023 Ben Kweller received the worst phone call imaginable. His 16 year old son Dorian had died in a car accident. An oncoming truck had veered into Dorian’s lane and a downed tree had gone through his windscreen as he swerved over. Dorian himself was a budding musician, releasing music under the name Zev, and had been due to tour with his father later that year. Ben has been incredibly open about the tragedy, and turned the tour into somewhat of a tribute to his son. Out of the devastation of the past two years has come a new album from Ben entitled “Cover The Mirrors”. It features guests appearances from the likes of Waxahatchee, The Flaming Lips, and MJ Lenderman. You’ll hear some clips from it during our conversation. Ben’s debut album 2002’s “Sha Sha” meant a lot to me, and I was keen to ask about the song “Falling” which I love dearly. That album also features the song “Lizzy”, a song about his girlfriend at the time. Lizzy married Ben in 2003, and it really made me smile that she was handling his PR when we set this up. I’m really grateful to Ben for talking to me at such a sensitive time, and for trusting me with this episode. He joins me from his home in Texas. He was such lovely company and I hope you find this conversation inspiring in some way. Please come and find me on Instagram at Sending Signals podcast and check out ever growing back catalogue of episodes where you can find my conversations with members of REM, The National, E Street Band, Genesis, The Police, Beach Boys and loads more. Finally, if you can leave a good star rating with your podcast provider I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much to Ben and Lizzy. Instagram: @sendingsignalspodcast Ben Kweller on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7bhMBjjQhgPX0q9S4Ajncn?si=iK7SVY8uSPCK-9sL19sHng Zev on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/66Nj7lUkbFw7ICIamxWvTY?si=KzM5jWW6RNKQdHBZa_of-g 

Tom Sheehan was born in Camberwell, South London. He was an in-house photographer for CBS Records in the 70s, and went on to be the chief photographer for Melody Maker. He enjoyed long-term working relationships with the likes of REM, The Cure, Manic Street Preachers, and Oasis, the subject of a new book of Tom’s work entitled “Roll With It: Oasis in Photographs 1994-2002”. I had a great time chatting with Tom about his life and work, and I hope you enjoy it too.

Nels Cline was born in California in January 1956. He started played guitar at the age of 12 and his early career is fairly jazz-based, before stretching into other directions. He has played guitar for Wilco, one of my favourite bands in the world, since 2004. He has a new solo album out on Blue Note Records entitled “Consentrik Quartet”, featuring Ingrid Laubrock on saxophone, Tom Rainey on drums, and Chris Lightcap on double bass. It’s a really excellent album and I was thrilled Nels agreed to come on the show. We take a dive into “Consentrik Quartet”, but of course we also discuss his life with Wilco and beyond. I had a great time on this, and I hope you enjoy.

Wolfgang Flür was born in Frankfurt in 1947 but moved to Düsseldorf in the early ‘50s, which has been home ever since. As a young man he played in the band The Sprits Of Sound, and studied to be an architect, hoping to get into interior design. Wolfgang joined Kraftwerk in 1973 and plays on one of the most remarkable album runs in pop music history; “Autobahn”, “Radioactivity”, “Trans Europe Express”, “The Man Machine”, and “Computer World”. He left the band in the mid-80’s and his relationship with his former bandleader Ralf Hütter has been somewhat acrimonious over the past few decades. Wolfgang has just released a new record entitled “Times”, which you’ll hear clips from during our conversation. The album features collaborations from Peter Hook (formally of Joy Division and New Order of course), and Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter. The day before the interview I was informed that Wolfgang’s musical partner Peter Duggal would be sitting in on the call too. Peter is a musician and producer based in Hebden Bridge, and is very amenable company. This was a fun chat. Wolfgang is really funny and interesting. It probably goes without saying that I absolutely love Kraftwerk, and although I sensed it would not be wise to focus on them too much, it’s still a thrill to have them represented on the podcast.   Instagram: @sendingsignalspodcast

Wendy James is tied up with some of my earlier memories of music. She fronted the band Transvision Vamp, who were hard to ignore in the late 80s. Songs like “I Want Your Love” and “Baby I Don’t Care” were pretty big hits over here. Transvision Vamp split in the early 90s and since then Wendy has persuaded various solo projects. Interestingly her first solo album “Now Ain’t The Time For Your Tears” was written by Elvis Costello, sometimes alongside Caitlin O’Riordan from the Pogues. These days Wendy is basically a cottage industry, self releasing albums and embracing direct engagement with her fanbase. She recently released an album entitled “The Shape Of History” and you’ll hear clips from that throughout our conversation.