Music interviews with room for detours.
Conversations With Dwyer follows artists into the less tidy parts of making records, building scenes, and staying creatively alive. The episodes move from album praise and release details into childhood TV, classical training, climate-benefit compilations, protest, and the stubborn pleasure of getting a song right.
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Conversations With Dwyer is a music interview show that prefers the long way into the point. Albums matter here. So do band names, labels, release dates, reissues, side projects, and the small chain of discovery that leads one artist to another. The show often begins with an enthusiastic setup for a song or record, then settles into conversations that feel less like a press cycle and more like a working musician being asked how the whole thing actually feels. The talk can be funny and blunt. It can also turn serious without putting on a heavier costume. Tim Rutili's episode moves from Califone and Red Red Meat to childhood television, local wrestling, friendship, and the hard, joyful slog of making something good. Michael Cormier-O'Leary's conversation reaches into concept albums, songwriting, films, labels, and the problem of turning smart ideas into songs that still breathe. Lia Kohl's episode is especially strong on artistic agency, classical training, improvisation, Chicago, and the moment a performer begins to feel like an author. Arthur Alligood's appearance brings together Phones with Chords, production confidence, political anger, and admiration for Justin Jones and the Tennessee three. Rob Crow's conversation touches PLOSIVS, Pinback, family memory, drinking, children, and the lifelong pull of guitar. Other recent episodes orbit Charlotte Cornfield, Núria Graham, Jessica Breanne, Sub Pop, Adam McKay, the Climate Emergency Fund, Perpetual Doom, and the habit of buying records instead of only streaming them. The show is not slick. That is part of its appeal. Its interviews have sponsor-style openings, side notes, corrections, and conversational static, but the best parts come from that looseness. Artists are treated as people with histories, doubts, jokes, politics, and private standards for when a piece of music finally stops bothering them. The show suits listeners who want music talk with texture: craft, fandom, personal history, scene memory, and the occasional sharp left turn. It is record-store conversation stretched into an interview format, with enough admiration to be generous and enough skepticism to stay alive.
Made for: For listeners who follow independent music, artist back catalogs, labels, and the human mess behind finished records. It especially suits people who enjoy conversational interviews that wander before they land.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by letting album promotion open into candid, associative talk about craft, memory, politics, drinking, confidence, and artistic identity. Its looseness becomes the method.
Conversations With Matt Dwyer is a music podcast that focuses on the lives and work of legendary, established and emerging new artists. The interviews are not your typical Q&A format but an unfolding organic conversation that shines a light on the lesser explored corners of an artist's work, life, triumphs and challenges. Some past guests included Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, Van Dyke Parks, Lou Barlow, Donita Sparks of L7, Boots Riley and Jenn Wassner of Wye Oak/Flock Of Dimes. Conversations With Dwyer was also the catalyst for John Lurie selling his series "Painting With John," to HBO. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Candid artist conversations connect songwriting and production choices to the lived experiences that give the music its shape.
Matt Dwyer treats musician interviews as conversations about how creative lives actually take shape. He begins with the guest's music, then follows questions of artistic identity, songwriting, improvisation, production, and the confidence required to claim control over one's…
Matt Dwyer takes your question about songwriting seriously enough to let Scorsese into the room.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Tim finds the joy in record-making through Califone talk, friendship, and Chicago childhood memories.
Tim's return to Conversations With Dwyer is less a neat album interview than a warm, unruly conversation between friends. Villagers is the reason for the visit, but childhood television and old Chicago wrestling keep pulling the pair sideways.
A loose, thoughtful songwriter conversation about concept albums, Scorsese, and the unfinished song sparked by a guest's music.
Michael Cormier-O'Leary's music gives Matt Dwyer a natural way into a conversation about songs that carry stories without becoming musicals. The episode moves through concept albums, slow and expansive films, Owen Ashworth's story songs, and the odd spark that can make one…
Leah Cole traces how prescribed classical performance gave way to the freedom of making her own work.
Leah Cole's conversation centers on the gap between performing inherited music and making work that can feel fully her own. She describes classical training as a place of prescribed bowings, swells, and volume changes, where even a different approach to Dvorak did not quite…
Arthur Alligood explains how trusting feel helped Phones with Chords sound more like him.
Conversations With Dwyer starts in a nicely offhand place: the host retraces how a liked tweet sent him to Arthur Alligood's Bandcamp page, then to Cut the Kid, then into a direct exchange that led to this interview.
Rob Crow connects family history, strange childhood listening, and the stubborn work of learning to write songs.
Rob Crow brings a long trail of bands and solo work into the room, from Plosives and Pinback to Goblin Cock and his own releases, but the episode is most compelling when it turns toward the family patterns he is trying not to repeat.
A loose music conversation about pauses, implication, and the drive to fix what still feels unfinished.
After Matt Dwyer's opening Patreon pitch and album-release notes, the episode settles into a conversation with Cedric about one of music's hardest tools to use well: the pause.
Joe Wong interviews drummers and musicians about craft, history, and the working musician's life.
Records, careers and arguments, weighed by people who listen closely.
Host Matt Dwyer interviews musician Rob Crow, known for bands like Pinback and Goblin Cock.
Host Matt Dwyer introduces an interview with musician Jessica Breanne, praising her album and discussing her career.
Matt Dwyer introduces a music podcast episode featuring a compilation album for climate justice, listing contributing artists and discussing the album's purpose.
Matt Dwyer introduces his music podcast and his guest, musician Nuria Graham, praising her album Cyclamen.
Host Matt Dwyer interviews musician Cedric Noel about his new album 'Hangtime' on Joyful Noise Recordings.
Matt Dwyer interviews Califone frontman Tim Rutili around the release of the album Villagers, his second appearance on Conversations with Dwyer.
Matt Dwyer interviews songwriter Michael Cormier-O'Leary of the band Friendship and the label Dear Life Records about his new solo album, Anything Can Be Left Behind.
Lia Kohl says improvising with dancers felt easier than classical performance because “I can interpret this however however I want.”
Matt Dwyer interviews musician Arthur Alligood about his project Phones with Chords and upcoming album.
Matt Dwyer talks with Lou Cristello, founder of the indie label Perpetual Doom, about how the label grew out of the 2014 documentary Space Happy: Phil Thomas Cat and the Uncharted Zone.
Conversations With Dwyer features Matt Dwyer's interview with Deerhoof drummer and singer Greg Saunier about Spotify, streaming, and musicians' economic dependence on platforms.