ifitbeyourwill Podcast

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #206 • Julia Holter

Julia Holter has never been content to leave a song alone. Across a career spent blurring the boundaries between experimental composition and pop, she has built elaborate musical worlds, then found ways to unsettle them. On Materia, that impulse turns inward: old ideas are revisited, familiar structures loosen, and music becomes something fluid, open to revision. On this episode of If It Be Your Will, Holter traces the path from her early experiments and studies in composition to the increasingly expansive, emotionally intricate records that followed. We talk about orchestration as a way of thinking, the strange relationship between control and intuition, and what changes when you stop treating a composition as a finished thing. A companion to Something in the Room She Moves, Materia finds Holter continuing to question how music takes shape — and what might emerge when you return to it with fresh ears. Our conversation moves through creative uncertainty, the long life of an idea, and the possibilities that appear when you let a piece become something you didn't originally imagine. Sometimes the most revealing way forward is to take things apart. Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #205 • SHEAL

What if the things that scare you are also the things you need to move through? On this episode of If It Be Your Will, SHEAL — the musical project of Toronto-based songwriter Sheilagh McNab — talks about stage anxiety, trusting her instincts, and learning to make room for both solitude and connection. We trace the path from Courage Again to golden hours and the new home-going chapter, exploring how motherhood, memory, and the quieter moments of everyday life find their way into her songs. It’s a conversation about letting go of old expectations, finding your footing, and figuring out what it means to feel at home in your own life. https://www.instagram.com/sheal.music BMWjt9T0R8sHB1ai8IHK Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #204 • Reveal Party

On Prettiest Flower, Emily Nyhuus spent nearly eight years figuring out what Reveal Party was trying to say. The result is a record about becoming yourself, but also about the strange detours that get you there: an imaginary character who gradually turns out to be you, songs rewritten until they finally feel true, and a musical world that refuses to stay in one genre. We talk about Midwest emo, Neutral Milk Hotel, crushes, songwriting, burnout, perfectionism, and why some records need years before they're ready to leave your hands. https://revealpartyonline.bandcamp.com/album/prettiest-flower Reveal Party's sophomore album, “Prettiest Flower,” blends her Midwest emo and lo-fi pop influences with elements of stadium rock and eclectic instrumental folk, creating a cohesive, self-referential, and wistfully nostalgic tour de force. The record tells a coming-of-age story rooted in the trans experience, presenting a raw yet tender autobiography where truths are revealed between the lines and space is given to unspoken feelings. It explores the ache of transformation, the dreams simmering beneath the surface of a chrysalis, and the anxiety of being both larva and butterfly, marking an ambitious and emotionally resonant new chapter for this self-described professional yearner. - Livia Wendland Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #203 • Natalie Shay

London singer-songwriter Natalie Shay joins If It Be Your Will for a chat about guitars, Taylor Swift, stage fright, songwriting, and figuring out how to become comfortable taking up space. From picking up her first acoustic guitar to playing for thousands of people, Natalie’s story is full of unexpected turns, big pop instincts, and a very human dose of nerves. We talk about finding confidence, learning to talk between songs, writing from instinct, and why sometimes the best way through your fears is simply to throw yourself into the deep end. A fun, honest conversation with plenty of music, laughs, and North London energy. https://natalieshay.co.uk/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

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ifthisbeyourwill Podcast #202 • THAO

THAO returns with Show Me, her first album in six years, and it’s a record about what happens when you stop trying to keep parts of yourself at a safe distance. We talk about divorce, desire, queer identity, family, Vietnam, community, and the uncomfortable work of changing how you move through the world. We also get into collaboration, the many forms her storytelling has taken, and the difference between telling your story and actually letting someone see you. This is a thoughtful, funny, deeply human conversation with an artist still willing to question herself. https://thaothaothao.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #201 • The Male Pattern

Will Schwartz spent more than a decade writing fiction before The Male Pattern brought him back to music. On If It Be Your Will, we talk about I Was Shot in the Heart! — a darkly funny, deeply human concept album about a bitter suburban dad who sees himself as the hero of his own tragedy. Will talks about growing up with music and writing, fatherhood, rediscovering the joy of making things simply because you want to, and why hiding behind a fictional character can sometimes reveal more truth than writing about yourself. https://linktr.ee/themalepattern Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #200 • Stornoway

Stornoway make the kind of indie music that refuses to sit still: folk one minute, orchestral, wild and wonderfully odd the next. After splitting, regrouping and finding their way back to each other, the Oxford band return with *Beyonder* — a record packed with birds, oceans, memory and big questions. Oli Steadman and Brian Briggs talk beginnings, breakups, folk songs, conservation, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and why, after all these years, Stornoway still sound gloriously like Stornoway. https://www.stornowayband.com/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #199 • Jacob Brodovsky

Jacob Brodovsky joins If It Be Your Will to talk about Tell the Kids We Tried, the strange business of making art, and the increasingly ambitious project of keeping it together. We get into songwriting, fatherhood, community, climate dread, and why Canadian indie music seems uniquely qualified to make existential crises sound charming. There’s melancholy, wit, guitars, and just enough optimism to keep the whole thing from collapsing. A smart, funny conversation with one of Canada’s quietly great songwriters—and proof that “we tried” can be both a shrug and a pretty decent philosophy. http://www.jacobbrodovsky.com/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #198 • Gvth Dvddy

Two records in two years, and GVTH DVDDY are clearly not slowing down. Their latest self-titled album pushes the sound even further into the dark—massive guitars, strange textures, raw emotion, and songs that hit with the weight of lived experience. On this episode, we go back to Kevin Robinson’s years in Viva Voce, trace the path that led to GVTH DVDDY, and get into what happens when a band keeps pushing forward instead of looking backward. Heavy, hypnotic, epic, and completely human—this is GVTH DVDDY at full volume. http://gvthdvddy.com/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #197 • Johanna Samuels

Johanna Samuels makes songs that can turn a tiny memory into something that suddenly feels enormous. On this episode, we get into Sorry, Kid, revisiting old songs, getting older, the weirdness of memory, and how the places and people in our lives keep finding their way into our music. Johanna is thoughtful, funny, and refreshingly honest about the messy process of making sense of the past while still moving forward. A great conversation with a songwriter who knows how to make the personal feel universal—and a lot of fun along the way. https://www.johannasamuels.com/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #196 • Rae Spoon

What happens when a non-binary, trans artist comes back to country music and refuses to leave anything out? On Assigned Country Singer At Birth, Rae Spoon puts trans lives, disability, harm reduction, religious trauma, solidarity and colonialism alongside the trucks, beer and heartbreak traditionally associated with the genre. On *If It Be Your Will*, we get into why country still matters, what happens when you make music outside the boundaries of expectation, and what it means to claim a genre—and a country—that hasn’t always made room for you. https://raespoon.ca/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #195 • Darren Hayman

Darren Hayman's been at this for three decades, and he's still treating songwriting like a puzzle he hasn't solved. Best known for fronting Hefner — the band a record label basically forced into existence by asking "is this a band or just you?" — Hayman's gone on to release records governed by self-imposed rules: witch trials, place names, entire concept records where the research threatens to swallow the songs whole. On this episode, he talks getting jumped after a gig, turning a fractured skull into The Violence, and the mild indignity of people treating your trauma like content. Also: 10,000 unfinished voice memos, an "Archivist" untangling his back catalog, and a theory that bands should die young. Not a comeback story — a guy who never stopped. https://hefnet.com/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #194 • Kiwi Jr.

Four albums deep, Toronto's Kiwi Jr. arrive at Blowin' Up by doing something quietly radical: playing it live, together, in a room. Jeremy Gaudet traded the tight compression and Pro Tools tinkering of past records for the sound of four people breathing the same air—guitar solos left unswapped, drums left unmoved. The result opens up where earlier Kiwi Jr. records clenched, trading whimsical, pop-culture-soaked lyricism for something more spacious and unguarded. Gaudet talks candidly about writing from title first, riff last, and the Neil Young listening sessions that shaped the room-sound instinct. Out August 7th, it's the sound of a band trusting the take. Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #193 • Amelia Day

Amelia Day’s EGO TRIP is country music with the safety rails ripped off—part heartbreak, part self-interrogation, and part refusal to play by somebody else’s rules. Amelia isn’t interested in sanding down the messy edges: the songs move between country, indie rock, and pop while wrestling with identity, desire, ego, and what it means to be seen. On this episode of If It Be Your Will, we get into the emotional wreckage behind EGO TRIP, reclaiming country as a queer space, and the strange freedom that comes from making music on your own terms. It’s sharp, vulnerable, and unapologetically Amelia. https://www.ameliadaymusic.com/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #192 • Monster Rally

For more than a decade, Monster Rally has occupied a curious corner of contemporary music, where faded postcards, forgotten library records, and golden-age hip-hop production dissolve into richly imagined landscapes. On Echoes of the Emerald Sands, Ted Feighan opens that world to other voices for the first time, inviting collaborators including LEISURE, TV Girl, Sessa, Jordana, Mei Semones, and even the timeless presence of Henry Mancini into his meticulously assembled sonic atlas. The result is less a departure than an expansion—a record that blurs collage, memory, and fantasy while asking how place can be conjured from sound alone. We explore the art of sampling, world-building, and the strange beauty of music that seems to exist outside of time. http://monster-rally.com/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #191 • Mull Historical Society

Some artists write songs. Colin MacIntyre seems to collect entire lives. For more than 25 years, the man behind Mull Historical Society has turned grief, small-town stories, oddball observations, and big melodies into one of Scotland's most distinctive catalogues. Along the way he's become an award-winning novelist, playwright, and the kind of creative who somehow makes writing a musical seem like a perfectly reasonable side project. His latest album, In My Mind There's a Photograph, takes memories shared by some of the world's best writers and transforms them into songs that are funny, moving, and deeply human. We talk about memory, storytelling, growing up on Mull, and why the best songs often begin with someone else's story. http://mullhistoricalsociety.com/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #190 • Nina Winder-Lind

There are artists who make records, and then there are artists who seem to build entire worlds. On this episode of If It Be Your Will, Nina Winder-Lind joins us to discuss Wild Love, a debut solo album that feels both intimate and expansive. From growing up in Sweden and discovering music through Led Zeppelin and a teenage gang of misfits, to finding a creative home with The New Eves, Nina reflects on mythology, poetry, collaboration, and why the most personal songs often become the most universal. https://transgressiverecords.com/artist/nina-winder-lind/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #189 • General Chaos

Montreal has always known how to make great punk bands, and General Chaos are proving the tradition is in very good hands. Formed when they were just twelve years old, the trio has quickly evolved from local curiosity to one of Canada's most exciting young punk acts. On this episode of If It Be Your Will, Constantin Blondy joins me to talk about Can't Please 'Em All, growing up in Montreal's legendary punk scene, DIY culture, songwriting, Pouzza Fest, and why honesty—not nostalgia—is keeping punk alive for a new generation. https://stomprecords.com/bands/general-chaos/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #188 • Max Subar

Chicago singer-songwriter Max Subar joins If It Be Your Will to discuss his stunning debut album, Anything Could Be, released on Merge Records. We explore the quiet power of solitude, trusting instinct over perfection, and how a frozen lakeside retreat became the foundation for an intimate, expansive record. Max reflects on collaboration, vulnerability, and embracing uncertainty, revealing how the album became both a personal transformation and the beginning of an exciting new chapter in his career. linktr.ee/maxsubar Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #187 • Jaco Jaco

Jaco Jaco's music exists in that rare space where groove and introspection become inseparable. Formerly of the Oklahoma indie-rock band Sports, Jacob Theriot has steadily carved out a solo identity rooted in warm bass lines, psychedelic textures, and songs that wrestle with uncertainty without ever losing their sense of joy. On the heels of his new album, On the Levee, Jacob joins If It Be Your Will to talk about leaving behind the only band he'd ever known, rebuilding his life in Philadelphia, finding confidence as a vocalist, and why the meaning of his songs often reveals itself only after they're written. It's a conversation about creative reinvention, trusting instinct over certainty, and discovering that the best records aren't built on answers—they're built on curiosity. Send us Fan Mail Support the show linktr.ee/colleyc