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Bonny Light Horseman (Anais Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats, and Josh Kaufman) stopped by In Your Ear Studios to talk with WNRN’s Desiré Moses and play a few tracks. One of which was the studio premiere of their brand new track, “California,” off their new album Rolling Golden Holy, coming out this fall.

Location tends to play a recurring role in the sound of their music, whether it’s the folk of the British Isles or an Eastern German radio station in Berlin. And as its name suggests, “California” is no different.

“I think at the time that we were working on all these songs we had all just kind of left the place that had been our home for a long time,” Kaufman said. “And so there was just the feeling of leaving a place that felt like home with our loved ones and our families. Just kind of out there, wandering a little bit, untethered for the first time in a long time.”

Watch the full In Studio Session down below! Bonny Light Horseman’s new album Rolling Golden Holy is out on October 7 via 37d03d.

Lo Moon performs three songs from their new album, A Modern Life, including the latest single “Expectations,” and lead singer Matt Lowell talks with WNRN’s Desiré Moses about the making of the album in our latest session recorded live at In Your Ear Studio in Richmond.

Photos courtesy of Dave Parrish Photography 

During a recent stop in Charlottesville to perform for a packed house at the Jefferson Theater, Sharon Van Etten joined WNRN in studio to play guest DJ. She shared 4 songs that inspired the sound and style of new album We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong and chatted in depth with Amber about its making. Scroll down to read her thoughts on each song and stream the full interview to find out which cinematic classic inspired the new album’s name (hint: it involves Babe Ruth, a giant dog, and s’mores) and more about the album which gets its full release on Friday May 6th via Jagjaguwar.

         1. Cocteau Twins “Cherry-Coloured Funk”

“…this was a song that I referenced for the band when we were starting to go over influences of what I thought the instrumentation and vibe was going to be. I didn’t want to exactly rip from them, but I wanted to give permission for my bandmates, Charlie in particular, who was playing guitar on a certain song on the record, that this is how I want it to feel, so however you interpret that. And the ethereal vocals, she has such a beautiful range, and it’s like dark but uplifting, but even though it’s slow-pulsing you feel it escalating. It’s a beautiful song.”

         2. Scott Walker “Duchess”

“I chose “Duchess” by Scott Walker because his melodies are so beautiful and they’re very classic. And his voice can change from iteration with his other projects, but there’s something very timeless about his storytelling, and he kind of sings in this operatic way sometimes, that can walk a line. But I connect with it as a singer, I feel like he’s a singer’s artist in the way that I want to sing along with him and I find it very cathartic to find those melodies or harmonies depending on how I’m singing along with him. I just like those classic arrangements and the timeless feeling of his voice.”

         3. Joy Division “Atmosphere”

“I remember describing to my drummer Jorge Balbi, my Peruvian drummer Jorge, that I wanted a lot of space in the drums, that it didn’t have to be a constant beat, and that I wanted him to just feel free in the way he played and not feel confined by a beat. Because this one song is very intentional in its space before it develops into the driving part of the song. And he connected with it immediately, and a lot of the scapes on the record are drones, synth meets strings, and mallets and air, and allowing those moments to breathe before the other instrumentation comes in. So this song was an example of what I was trying to achieve.

         4. The Cure “Plainsong”

“This one is for my bass player, Devin Hoff, he’s probably the biggest Cure fan I know, and I chose this one because, similar to the Joy Division track, what I’m learning how to do is let my band create the atmosphere for me, to be able to form in. And I wrote a lot of these songs without them, before I asked them to lay down tracks and to help me flesh them out. And so finally being in a room with them again and working on these new songs, I feel like they’re giving me permission to step back for a minute and allow them to create the space for me to perform in, as opposed to them performing on top of me. It’s learning how to perform together again and lean into each other, and again own those spaces. I sing a lot, like the joke is that I have a lot of lyrics, I have a lot of words, and my friend Ben Goldberg from Bada Bing Records who put out some of my earlier work, always said ‘Well, you just have so much to say. That’s why your lyrics are so long.’ But I’m learning to try to say less and also to have moments of just music so that the listener can take a moment to reflect on all the things that I’ve said, but also to hear the layers of what’s actually happening.