BV Interviews: A Podcast About Music

This week we've got a true iconoclast: filmmaker, provocateur, author, hitchhiker, tastemaker, Sub Pop and Third Man Recording Artist, festival MC and all around legend John Waters. He's currently on tour with Going to Extremes: A John Waters 80th Birthday Celebration.

John and I talk about what he's doing on his birthday tour, and on his actual birthday which is April 22. We also talk about how Donald Trump has ruined bad taste for everyone, how John Waters has influenced punk and vice versa, his first punk show, casting The Dead Boys' Stiv Bators in Polyester, getting L7 to be in Serial Mom, his long-running job as host of Oakland's Mosswood Meltdown, rules of etiquette, and lots more.

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Credits:

Hosted & produced by Bill Pearis

Mixed and mastered by Nick Gray

Theme music by Michael Silverstein

Photo: Greg Gorman

We've got a great episode for you today as punk and alt-rock icon Bob Mould is here to talk all things Sugar. The trio, who originally existed from 1992 through early 1995, will play their first show in 31 years on May 2 in NYC which kick-starts reunion tour that runs through the fall.

Bob tells us how the Sugar reunion came to be, their very loud shows, the pros and cons of earplugs, being a Williamsburg, Brooklyn pioneer in the early '90s, being signed to Creation Records in the UK, the prospect of more music from Sugar, and more.

We also discuss music documentaries, that time Bob joined Militarie Gun on stage to play a Hüsker Dü song, the possibility of Hüsker Dü studio album reissues, his solo band's rhythm section's growing side hustle as an REM tribute act, his involvement with the Hedwig & The Angry Inch movie and more.

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Credits:

Hosted & produced by Bill Pearis

Mixed and mastered by Nick Gray

Theme music by Michael Silverstein

Photo: Beau Sorensen

This week we're talking to Carl Newman of Canadian indie rock institution The New Pornographers. The band's 10th album is titled The Former Site Of and it might be their most synth-forward record to date. Carl and I discuss that topic, among many others including how lyrically this album is different from their previous nine. We also talk mandolins, tiki bars, and payphones, plus memorable New York City shows, and we finally get to the bottom of whether The New Pornographers are indie sleaze or not. The answer may surprise you!

 

This is a fun one and keep an ear out for Carl's dog Banjo making an appearance in the background of this one.

 

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Credits:

Hosted & produced by Bill Pearis

Mixed and mastered by Nick Gray

Theme music by Michael Silverstein

This week we've got a living legend with us -- producer, dub stylist, remixer and On-U Sound label founder and all-around cool cat Adrian Sherwood. He's worked with just about everyone which if you didn't already know, you'll learn on this episode. 

Our wide-ranging conversation includes how he stumbled into record production, working with Lee Scratch Perry, The Fall, Nine Inch Nails, and more, forming influential group Tackhead in the '80s, remixing recent albums from Spoon and Sonic Boom & Panda Bear, his 2025 solo album The Collapse of Everything, the disappointment of having to postpone his 2026 North American tour, five records he thinks everyone should own, and more.

 

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Credits:

Hosted & produced by Bill Pearis

Mixed and mastered by Nick Gray

Theme music by Michael Silverstein

This week we're talking MEMORIALS, the duo of Verity Susman from Electrelane and Matthew Simms of It Hugs Back and Wire. Their excellent second album is titled All Clouds Bring Not Rain and is a technicolor psychedelic pop extravaganza that ranges from baroque folk to krautrock to Doors and Pink Floyd-style wig-outs and many points in between. 

 

Verity and Matthew discuss how this album differs from their debut, Memorial Waterslides, and why they went to remote Southwestern France to make part of it. We also talk about the duo's origins, the wide array of unusual instruments used on the album, translating their often complex studio arrangements to their duo live setup, touring with Stereolab, their upcoming spring tour, the value of playing loud, Simms' production work, what came of pandemic Electrelane "reunion," five records they think everyone should own and more.

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Credits:

Hosted & produced by Bill Pearis

Mixed and mastered by Nick Gray

Theme music by Michael Silverstein