Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Shannon & The Clams were long time regulars in the Bay Area music scene. The band’s two main songwriters—Shannon Shaw and Cody Blanchard met in college in Oakland, California. They remained there for about a decade until a number of events set them adrift physically and spiritually.

The band’s new album, The Moon Is In the Wrong Place, is taken from a phrase Shannon’s fiancé, Joe Haener uttered ...

Randy Bachman is the Canadian guitarist and songwriter behind a slew of hits with the bands The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive. Although he was based far from the '60s powerhouse music scenes of Laurel Canyon and Swinging London, Bachman first made a name for himself performing across the Great White North.

On today’s episode Bruce Headlam talks to Randy who dissects his hits including “American Woman” and “These Eyes.” He ...

Serj Tankian made his first foray into public life as the idiosyncratic lead singer of the late ‘90s metal band System Of A Down. After releasing five platinum-selling albums with the band, and establishing himself as one of modern-day music’s most outspoken human-rights activists, in 2007, Serj left System to pursue his own artistic pursuits. Since then he’s released solo albums, composed symphonies, scored documentaries, and most...

Camila Cabello is in the midst of a creative revival. Her brand new album, C,XOXO was recently dubbed “hyper-pop” by Rolling Stone in the wake of the frenetic first single, “I Luv It,” featuring Playboi Carti. The track is an entirely new direction for Camila who first rose to fame in 2012 as a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony.

On her new album Camila is racing into uncharted territory with he...

John Leventhal is a bit of a secret weapon in music. Though he started out as a session musician in the '80s, he quickly found writing and producing music for other artists was his true calling. That gift has led to six Grammy Award wins and songs like “Sunny Came Home” by Shawn Colvin, Marc Cohn’s “Walk Through the World” and “Crossing to Jerusalem” by his wife Rosanne Cash. John and Rosanne have been married for almost 30 years a...

"Genesis" the new work from RAYE discussed in this episode is out now: https://raye.orcd.co/genesis

RAYE is an English pop singer/songwriter whose debut album, My 21st Century Blues, snagged Album Of the Year at this year’s Brit Awards. One of a historic six wins that evening. For a 26 year old artist who's already survived a tumultuous ride through the music industr...

Michael McDonald’s husky baritone is one of the most instantly recognizable voices from the ‘70s and ‘80s. As a member of The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, and a hitmaking solo artist, Michael McDonald’s career is one for the books.

Enter Paul Reiser—the comedic actor and writer behind New York Times best-selling books, popular movies and TV shows. Before the start of the pandemic, Paul met Mike McDo...

Sarah Jarosz is a singer/songwriter who also happens to be a killer banjo, guitar, and mandolin player. The Wimberly, Texas-native's latest album, Polaroid Lovers, was produced by former Broken Record guest Daniel Tashian. It’s her seventh album and so far the best at highlighting the power of Sarah’s songwriting over her virtuosity.

In this episode you’ll hear Sarah Jarosz tell Bruce Headlam about the Friday night bluegrass jams t...

DJ Premier is one of the most celebrated producers in hip-hop history. Known as the architect of hip-hop’s venerated boom-bap sound, Preemo first caught people’s attention with Guru in Gang Starr in the late ‘80s. Guru’s lyrical precision over Premier's jazzy, sample-based beats made Gang Starr one of the most influential rap duos of the next decade.

Outside of Gang Starr, DJ Premier has produced classic records for a long list of ...

Corinne Bailey Rae independently released one of our favorite albums of 2023: Black Rainbows. Justin Richmond spoke to Corinne over Zoom at the end of the year about the place that inspired the album, the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago. And then when she came to Los Angeles around Grammy time they decided to meet up to discuss Reflections / Refractions At the Ston...

Ann Wilson is the powerhouse lead singer of the band Heart, whose celebrated classic debut album, Dreamboat Annie, came out nearly 50 years ago. Last week we featured an interview with her sister and longtime bandmate Nancy Wilson, so make sure to check that out if you haven’t already.

Today we’ll hear from Ann, who’s responsible for belting out and co-writing some of Heart’s most iconic early hits, like “Magic Man,” “Barracuda,” a...

Guitarist and songwriter Nancy Wilson is one half of the rock band Heart, along with her older sister Ann Wilson. Nancy and Ann have been the face of the band since the mid-70s. Heart’s first album, Dreamboat Annie, was released in 1976 right as the band was making traction opening for big acts like Rod Stewart and The Bee Gees. Soon their songs, like “Magic Man” and “Crazy On You,” started to take off in the States, and Heart quic...

Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament are two of the Seattle scene’s most foundational musicians from the 80’s and 90’s. Stone and Jeff started playing together in 1984 as members of Green River, which eventually dissolved, leading singer Mark Arm to form Mudhoney.

Later, Jeff played bass and Stone played guitar in Mother Love Bone until their lead singer Andrew Wood died of an overdose just days before their major label debut in March of 1...

16 years have passed since The Black Crowes released an album of new material. The world has changed a lot since then—and so have the Robinson brothers. Chris and Rich Robinson are, of course, the backbone of the band. They started playing together back in Georgia in 1984 as Mr. Crowe’s Garden before moving to NYC, signing to Def American, and changing their name to The Black Crowes.

The band’s debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, ...

Famed drummer for the Police and composer Stewart Copeland has one of the more fascinating bios in modern music. His father was a founding member of the CIA and his mom worked in British Intelligence.

After playing in the successful UK prog rock band Curved Air in the mid 70s, Stewart started a new band called the Police with bassist and lead singer, Sting—and eventually guitarist Andy Summers. Over the next decade the Police would...

Justin Timberlake is one of the most high achieving pop phenomenons of the past three decades. In 1993 he helped relaunch the Mickey Mouse Club where he sang and danced alongside Rylan Gosling and other now luminaries. Then he broke records and sold over 70 million albums worldwide with *NSYNC. And if that weren’t enough, he launched an incredibly successful solo career in the early aughts where he ...

Brandi Carlile’s knack for uplifting the musicians she loves is exemplary. After her own hard-earned ascent to fame over the course of seven studio albums, Brandi started to turn her sights to producing albums for artists she deeply admires, including Tanya Tucker who she’s been on Broken Record with in the past but also Brandy Clark. Then there’s Joni Mitchell—who, thanks to Brandi’s encouragement—has recently made a glorious retu...

Natalia Lafourcade is a force. As you’ll hear when she sings during our conversation today she has a gorgeous voice. But she’s also a deft songwriter who’s able to weave together traditions that feel both modern and old at once.

And she’s also a beautiful interpreter of song—take for instance the phenomenon that was the song “Remember Me” from Pixar’s film Coco. Or take the many instances where she’...

In recognition of this month's World Happiness Day, we are presenting one of our favorite episodes from last year with Janelle Monàe and her longtime collaborator, Nate Wonder. Janelle's latest album, The Age Of Pleasure, was created in part as a celebration of black love and community. And as Nate Wonder shares in this interview with Justin Richmond, one of his guiding principles when making the album was to make Janelle smile.

As...